Our local Chinese church has a very good Sunday-school program which all of our kids enjoy. This past quarter, I (Amy) agreed to try out being a Sunday-school assistant once a month. Well, that was the original agreement, anyway. It turned into me being the actual teacher instead of just the assistant. I wasn't too sure about it at the beginning:
"Eee... I've never taught in Chinese before..." "That's ok, you can teach in English -- a lot of the parents want their kids to learn English anyway."
So, my first Sunday, I started off in English... and that lasted about 5 seconds (as I knew it would) with blank stares from all the 3-4 year-olds (except the two blondies, who were actually understanding everything in Sunday School for the first time! :-P). So, I tried to go back and forth, saying everything twice in both languages. (i.e. scrambling in my head for super-simple English, then scrambling for how in the world to translate it all!) It did take a bit of extra effort, but it was a good challenge, and it gave me some good Chinese practice in front of a fairly non-threatening audience. :-P
Why do we do what we do? We thought some of you would be interested in hearing the story behind Titus Project and how it all got started. This interview takes us back to 1996, when Amy was in her 2nd year of SBS staff and tells how the vision for Titus Project came about:
Little did I know back then where we would be today! God is so amazing and continues to give us so much vision! Currently, Titus is operating in 4 locations, with 2-3 more coming this next year. We have trained over 300 new Bible teachers, and have sent out 110 teams to 42 different countries. We give God all the glory and feel humbled & privileged to serve Him by equipping and sending more Bible teachers to the nations!
A better title would probably read, "I'll be at home for Christmas" -- and this would be referring to our kids. Christmas is not a nationally-celebrated holiday in Taiwan, and as such, if it falls on a normal weekday, it is also a normal school day. Can you imagine going to school on Christmas day? Well, we can't really either, so for the past several years, have requested our kids to be able to skip school on Christmas day. :-)
We are looking forward to some family fun & hanging out with friends. Merry Christmas everyone!
Apparently our kids think we should be on a first-name basis with the ER staff at the hospital...
Anaya has just been in for her 3rd set of stitches on her face this year. Kenna was in for stitches above her eye just weeks previous. The only one of the kids to not have stitches so far is Nathan!
Several nights ago, as I was putting the kids to bed, they wanted to hear a story -- so I told them about winter time growing up: building snow forts, playing outside for so long we'd get frostbite, and Grandpa hooking an inner-tube up behind the 3-wheeler and taking us for rides! What fun times and fun memories!
The girls were so jealous. Three of our kids have never experienced snow, Elise was too young to remember. "No fair!" "Ni hao hao oh!" "Mom, can we go back in the winter some time so we can play in the snow?"
This evening, as I was looking at our blog, wondering how/what to update, I noticed Seth & Joy had a new video post. So, I watched it:
It almost made me cry. These are the kinds of things that when you watch them, it makes you realize the sacrifice of being away from family. The brother, sisters, nieces, nephews you haven't seen for nearly 4 years. A niece and two nephews you've never met. I think of the whole Christmas season and the excitement of hanging out with family, eating food, playing games together, the Christmas grab bag, sardines at Walmart (a game)... and know we'll miss that ...again.
Being so far away from family and friends in the States & Australia is definitely hard at times. We do feel the cost of overseas missions. However, we also feel such a burden and a passion and a calling to be doing what we're doing -- we feel humbled and honored to be in Asia, training up more teachers of God's Word and sending them out to the nations! What an incredible privilege!
We are really looking forward to our furlough in the States coming up this summer. We probably won't get to go sledding and inner-tubing behind the 4-wheeler in the snow (unless there's a blizzard in July!), but I'm sure we'll have lots of fun! :-)
Here is the Titus Project video that Kerry Neve (leads Titus Montana) put together for us as an overview of Titus Project. We have watched it several times and I get re-inspired every time. Michael & I are both filled with so much vision and excitement for Titus. The journey of leading Titus is often challenging -- stretching our faith, requiring lots of time and hard work, but what a privilege and honor to be training up and sending out more teachers of God's Word!
The video is only 3 minutes and is a good visual of what Titus Project is all about! :-)
There is something I've found myself wishing for over & over, but haven't gotten that miracle-I've-been-praying-for yet: 48 hour days! :-P
After returning from Australia, Michael dove back into SBS staff, the kids all went to school, and I dove deep into Titus logistics, -- and we've barely come up for air since!
The past few months, lots has happened!!! We've both been teaching, and we have 24 people applying to come do Titus in January! I have sent out hundreds of e-mails to numerous countries, contacts, Titus applicants -- trying to get everything organized for the training time and outreach. We'd love prayer for God's strength & grace as we're in a very busy season, with things only to get busier come Titus (January)! Even though busy seasons can get a bit overwhelming at times, we're still doing great & looking forward with excitement and expectation to all that God continues to do! Thanks for praying! :-)
Our local Chinese church has a very good Sunday-school program which all of our kids enjoy. This past quarter, I (Amy) agreed to try out being a Sunday-school assistant once a month. Well, that was the original agreement, anyway. It turned into me being the actual teacher instead of just the assistant. I wasn't too sure about it at the beginning: 
So, my first Sunday, I started off in English... and that lasted about 5 seconds (as I knew it would) with blank stares from all the 3-4 year-olds (except the two blondies, who were actually understanding everything in Sunday School for the first time! :-P). So, I tried to go back and forth, saying everything twice in both languages. (i.e. scrambling in my head for super-simple English, then scrambling for how in the world to translate it all!) It did take a bit of extra effort, but it was a good challenge, and it gave me some good Chinese practice in front of a fairly non-threatening audience. :-P
