The night was crisp and clear. Between two very cloudy days, the Lord blessed us with a cool and beautiful Christmas Day–and night. I stood in an apartment complex looking up at the night sky. Between two towering apartment buildings against the velvet of deep purple sky, hung a full moon, radiating its calm, bright […]
Last night I witnessed Taiwanese hospitality once again. Mr. and Mrs. Liu invited Lucas and I to their home for a visit/Christmas party/birthday party all at once. It was wonderful. Even though I didn’t get the chance to wash dishes I still felt right at home. Lucas and I first helped make a fresh garden […]
Makes a man healthy This year the ability to turn in early and rise early have been part of the fulfillment of Dad’s blessing for physical strength and endurance last April. Since then I can remember having only one sick day. It was here in Taoyuan during one of our days off and didn’t interfere […]
During a particularly busy season, Jesus encouraged His disciples to come aside and rest a while (Mark 6:31). Last week was a busy week and after our Monday meeting I could tell that the rest of our time here was going to fly! At this point the Lord was a very present help, reminding me […]
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: […]
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 […]
“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, […]
“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 […]
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 […]
Take a section of the Rocky Mountains, cover it in subtropical foliage and set it on an island one hundred miles off the coast of China and you have: eastern Taiwan. During the widely-celebrated Moon Festival (September 22-25) we had the chance to visit Hualien, Taiwan’s country vacationland. We returned on the 24th, just before […]