Christmas in Taiwan!

So I have officially experienced my first Christmas away from home, pretty cool! Taiwan somewhat celebrates Christmas. They do some decorations and maybe some cards or gifts, possibly a tree, but nothing like America. A lot of that has to do with the culture, and Christmas (even though many do not celebrate it this way) is a Christian holiday. Most regular schools do not get off for Christmas, typically it is just another work day for most Taiwanese, unless you are American or go to an American or Christian school. And of course the Churches have Christmas programs and celebrations!

Sunday, the 23rd, there was a group of kids from an orphange that came to the church that I have been attending. The kids had prepared some Christmas songs to sing for us, and after it the service was over, the church suprised the kids with presents!! They quite enjoyed it!

Christmas Eve morning I got to see the fam on the webcam and open a few things, then spent the afternoon relaxing in Starbucks! Amanda and I had a nice Christmas dinner with at the Lyles and opened up some gifts. We went with the Lyle's to their church's Christmas Eve service. It was up on Yan Mi Shang Mountain and was held inside as stone church. It was a candle light service with a lot of scripture reading and Christmas songs!

On Christmas morning a group of 8 or so teachers (including Amanda and I) left at 8am for a visit to Hualien. We are staying in Toroko gorge, surrounded by huge mountains, a river, hikes to beautiful waterfalls, etc. It has been amazing! Today, a few of us took a day trip up to Hohuan Mt. It is over 3000 meters high (around 9000 ft.). It was amazing!! We even got to see a monkey on the way back! Being up here has shown me so much more of God's beauty and splendor. He continues to show me how amazing, how huge, how wonderful, how beautiful He is. Surrounded by these amazing mountains and rocks has helped me to really grasp what it means for God to be our rock, our stronghold, our place of safety and security. Our refuge. It has been a wonderful opportunity, and amazing to think that the Creator of all this, all this splendor and majesty, could come to earth, could live amidst all the dirt, filth, and hate of the world, and take that, our sin, upon Himself to save us, so that we live forever with Him. What an amazing God we serve!!!

(view from a trail we walked)

(waterfalls)

(on the way up to Hohuan Mt., almost there!)

(on the top of Hohuan Mt. , beautiful mtns and the white is clouds!)

Christmas Party!

Sunday night was our English Dorm Christmas Party! We had a blast with around 30 girls coming in and out, decorating the lobby of the English Dorm, decorating Christmas cookies, making Christmas cards and having fun! God definitely blessed it as we all just had a great time hanging out and having fun with each other! It was a much needed time of relaxation and fun!

(decorating the lobby)


(making cards and cookies)


(decorating cookies!)


(the group!)

Christmas Caroling!

On Wednesday I got to help Judy (a teacher) take her students Christmas caroling around the campus. There was quite a large group and they had 3 songs they had practiced in English during class (God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen, What Child is This?, and Silent Night). After singing Silent Night in English they got to sing it in Chinese. It was a lot of fun to be with all the students and to be reminded of why we celebrate Christmas! Here are some pictures and a video of the caroling!









(When they sang What Child is This, the girls sang the first part, and the boys sang the second part)
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This past weekend, the singing group that I have been participating in, performed for the first time. Our group is a mix of about 12 students, teachers, and faculty from the college. One of the teachers wrote a cantata, had it translated into Chinese and has been working with us for the past couple months on this. The place that we first did it at was a sort of fair/festival thing. It was groups from different Churches and Christian organizations and schools. There were many booths and a stage where groups were performing. I had a great time watching the groups that performed, most were music groups and some were dancing and there was even a team from YWAM that did a drama. Some of the groups were even getting into the Christmas spirit and some did Christmas songs!

(A groups of kids that sang some Christmas songs!)


(Kids dressed up for the Christmas story)


(Chris and I before we sang)


(A group that performed. They are saying "Jesus loves you, Jesus loves me")

Times to Remember

Wow...so much has happened lately that I cannot relate it all, but I will do my best to share highlights from the last couple weeks. Right now it is actually 12:10 on a Sunday night. I just finished making 2 batches of brownies for a movie night tomorrow. I went to 3 rooms to see if anyone wanted to help make brownies and ended up with 10 girls!! A huge improvement from past occasions!
The past few weeks have just flown by and now here we are, almost into December. Perhaps the biggest news of late would be my unexpected trip to Hong Kong! What seemed to be a somewhat crazy (and it was) situation turned out to be such a treat! My visa is a visitors visa and allows me to stay in the country for 60 days. This was to expire on the 19th of November. Before I came to Taiwan I was told that it would be no problem to renew my visa here in Taiwan (the lady working with me from Christ's College had called some office here to find out). So before the 19th we went to that office to get it renewed. Well, we found out that she had been told wrong, I could not renew it there, I needed to leave the country. One of the closest places is Honk Kong. So we were able to find cheap tickets and a cheap (but nice) hotel and Amanda (the other intern) and I went to Hong Kong for two days! We had about a day and half in which we toured as much of Hong Kong as we could. We saw many places, did shopping, and found our way around and across the water of the huge city. It truly was an amazing experience and we both had so much fun! We were praying quite a bit about the return, that they would allow me back into Taiwan and give me another 60 days, they did! The only down point (perhaps high point for some!) to this was that it causes me to have to come home a week earlier than I had anticipated. This means that I will be leaving around or on the very last day of exams. This may be a bit crazy and would not really allow me to leave in a more settled state or have a few last times with some of the students after classes are out. But God has His hand all over this and I know He has it worked just as He desires!
Here are a few pictures from Hong Kong!


(View of Hong Kong Island)

(Jackie Chan and I have the same size hands!)

(Tsing Ma Bridge - Worlds longest road-and-rail suspension bridge)

(Amanda and I overlooking Hong Kong from The Peak)

Thanksgiving this year will be one I always remember, particularly because it was like no other Thanksgiving I have ever had. Naturally, no one really does anything for Thanksgiving here. Students were having midterms, but the staff of Christ's College always has a big Thanksgiving dinner together. So during the day on Thanksgiving we began painting the English Dorm hallway. All the walls are white and plain, the halls look like a hospital. We wanted to bring some color, make it look a little more 'homey' (this was a bit difficult at first for some of the students to understand I think, they just didn't really get it!). So a few of us began painting and continued to get others to help out as they came by! It was a fun Thanksgiving day activity and a great time with the students!


(Walls before paint)

(Girls painting the walls)

(Walls after painting!)