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posted by Donald on 11/15/07

Of course it depends on what the hobby is. All the same, I am grateful for Matthew 6:26 where Christ calls for us all to be at least casual birdwatchers. Regardless of how busy I am, I happily find that I am always able to see the local birds and call to mind His admonition: “Behold the fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”

This is a command that every person can follow because birds live virtually everywhere in the world, inhabiting areas cold and warm, urban and rural. And Taiwan’s subtropical climate affords a greater number of species than anywhere I’ve been before, except maybe North America as a continent. Because of the friendliness and kind efforts of those on staff with the Wild Bird Society of Taipei and the advice of a reporter friend, I had the privilege of being a part of Taipei’s annual bird fair this year at Guandu Nature Park in the northern part of the island. It was great to be in the field again.

What I enjoyed most was that it was not a solo trip. Nathan and Eric accompanied me for the day out and we had a great time together browsing bookstores in Taipei and having lunch at a Korean restaurant on the way. Once at the park I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Dr. Tim Appleton, co-organizer of the British birdfair. I also met my first Little Grebe, a dark black and red version of our Pied-billed Grebe!

They had some excellent books for sale as well and with the help of the outstanding illustrations in a Chinese guide, I’ve been able to verify a few identifications of common birds including the Barn Swallow, Brown Shrike (a brown version of the Loggerhead Shrike in the Character Sketches), the Chinese or Light-vented Bulbul and Black Drongo.

Without the relationships being built on the team and elsewhere, not a single one of these identifications could have been made. This Thanksgiving I am grateful to each of you who have invested in my appreciation of wildlife in general and now the rich birdlife there is to see in Taiwan! Thank you so much.

8 Comments » | posted in Family News

posted by Donald on 11/8/07

Fun is one word with as many definitions as there are people you ask.

And in Chinese it has yet another definition: rice.

One Chinese character for rice bears the likeness of a sheaf of grain and is pronounced as “me” in English.

The second character, 飯, often following the first, is pronounced very similarly to the English word “fun”. During lunch with the staff at She-Zih Elementary School, when I first learned this second word, it struck me that in two very real ways we were “having fun”. Since then I haven’t had a hard time remembering either word for rice.

Sometimes the written characters include phonetic hints but not always. Thus written and spoken Chinese seem to us like two languages instead of one and with about 3000 common characters, the undertaking is a good test of our determination but I remain convinced that it will be best to learn them simultaneously. While, for me, the glory of the written language particularly is barely beginning its colorful sunrise, it is very rewarding to be able to recognize a character or two on paper and understand their background. Here are some examples.

* “Also” or “both” pictures a hand holding two grain stalks

* “Order” is derived from grain stalks lined up in a row

* “Morning” is represented by a sun coming up over some “grass”

* “Japan” is known in literature as the land of the rising sun

Week by week our appreciation builds and we look forward to each Wednesday lesson. As we are reminded in I Corinthians 8, knowledge puffs up but charity builds up, so pray for us, that our acquisition of some language skills would not be in actuality a self-centered pursuit, merely another skill. The potential of communication and service to others through the language is enormous. The enormity of the language will be manageable (even fun I would say) if we keep comparing it with that.

4 Comments » | posted in Politics, Tidbits

posted by Donald on 10/31/07

“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10).

This verse, the first part of it, is the second passage I’ve memorized in Mandarin. During a week when many in the world choose to celebrate death, Jesus’ words have been a powerful reminder and a refreshment to think over. I’ve noticed that when Jesus as God could have rebuked Satan with His own word, He relied, nonetheless on the words of God which had already been written, and the enemy was forced to flee.

Rather than ask for protection only, several of us prayed together that this week would be a time of seeing God’s kingdom prevail. The following day (October 30th) as I went out to teach at public school as I normally do every Tuesday, the Lord answered our prayer. Halloween was never mentioned, either by the students or the teachers. In it’s place was a hardy sense of God’s presence, love and light. I felt an enthusiasm for teaching and enjoyed each class. One of my highlights was seeing the 2nd-graders singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm, A-E-I-O-U”. They loved the animal parts and they crowed with particular volume each time we got to A-E-I-O-U. You should have seen them. They are really doing well.

In the midst of a fading generation, may we, as children, rely all the more upon the written words of our Heavenly Father and Teacher. “But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us” (Zechariah 1:6).

3 Comments » | posted in Ministry Reports

posted by Donald on 10/25/07

“There’s a first time for everything.”

October 2 This marked another first day of school: public school teaching in Taiwan. It has been almost three and a half years since I taught public school in Russia but once again the same basic principles worked: patience, getting to know the students and assessing where they are in their English; foresight, visualizing where they can be; and more patience and thoroughness, walking them through the steps between. I have some excellent students from 6th-grade, 4th-grade and 2nd grade. Pray that I can be of special encouragement to the oldest class.

October 3 Wes worked out a time for the men on the team to spend an evening bowling and eating out. For me it was my first time bowling but I had a great first game. The score wasn’t the most important thing though as we had time to talk and get to know each other more.

October 10 On this day a few of us took a trip to the mountaintop overlooking Taoyuan. It was a good walk as well as a chance to see the city from a new perspective.

October 13 This marked the day of our first Saturday Classes. The students coming to these classes will enjoy a slower rotation through the village, spending one day focusing on each class. We took time for introductions last week and in future weeks we look forward to teaching at a new level since they are both more advanced and will be grouped in smaller numbers. Also, the evening before I accompanied seven others on a night ride to Taipei and went to Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building, for the first time. We enjoyed sandwiches from a Subway, took a look at the different stores and ended up spending most of our time at a huge bookstore.

October 14 First day at the small chuch which I will probably attend for the remainder of the time. It was truly a refreshment. I was also honored to meet two outstanding families there, one of which had lived in Canada for a while. Their little girl came through our two-day classes not long ago and remembered Lucas when he joined me at church last Sunday.

October 17 Our Chinese lessons were underway with this first pilot session. The curriculum is good for converstaional Chinese and NTUT provided a language teacher.

There is a lot to thank the Lord for and I can attest to the fact that it is worth the time and effort it takes to seek Him and work through the details of establishing a new work. Not only is the work prepared for future fruitfulness, but in the process the team is strengthened and matured.

7 Comments » | posted in Family News, Ministry Reports

posted by Donald on 10/11/07

Teaching English is life work.

Last month we received a reminder of this that has really stayed with us. After the day of touring in Hualien we went our separate ways for supper in the city. Thanks to our tour guide, Jonathan and I found the dumpling restaurant that was a particular favorite of Chiang Kai-Shek when he was living. It was definitely worth a wait in line.

Meanwhile Mr. and Mrs. Martin took supper at a nice Chinese restaurant. As they made their way back, a middle-aged man, recognizing that they were foreigners, stopped them and started a conversation in English. In the course of the conversation, they told him that they were teachers and were volunteering their time here for a short while. He was surprised to hear this and began to thank them for their willingness to come and teach their native language in a far-off country. Tears of gratefulness welled up in his eyes to complete the message of the gratefulness he was trying to convey. It was a moving scene and the Martins were more than ready to pass the story of his gratefulness on to us when we met again.

During the trip home I reflected on the incident. A little goes a long way here. How much impact a few willing teachers can have!

The Martins will be returning home sooner than the rest of us and will leave their now-well-known Science Class in our hands. Their whole-hearted involvement and passion for seeing young minds grasp the treasures of science have been contagious! Thank you Marlin and Kathy for your example to us. May you continue to reap the rewards of heart-to-heart teaching.

6 Comments » | posted in Ministry Reports