Titus Taiwan 2008

As I reflect back on Titus Taiwan, 2008, it has been a full year. Exciting. Rewarding. Fruitful. A year in which we have much to give thanks for!

We had a team teaching Himalayan pastors that came down from the mountains for 3 months of their winter to study the Bible, a team out in the jungle villages of Borneo, a team fighting the cold wind in Mongolia as they traveled out to teach in the ghers, Mandarin-speaking teams on 'the other side', teams equipping church leaders with tools for inductive Bible Study, teams discipling new believers, etc.

January: Ran first Training Time. Sent teams out to: Indonesia, Nepal, C*, Taiwan.
February: Ran second Training Time. Sent team to Mongolia.
March: (the day after the above school left for outreach) Michael started full-time SBS staff.
April: Welcomed first set of Titus students back from outreach, debriefed, graduated them.
May: Welcomed first set of Titus students back from outreach, debriefed, graduated them.
June: Staff training & preparations for July school.
July: Ran third Training Time. Sent teams to: K*, C* (x2), Mongolia.
Aug/Sept: Office logistics. :)
Sept/Oct: Welcomed July school back from outreach, debriefed.
Nov/Dec: Office logistics & prep for 2009!

"Titus has been the most challenging but also most rewarding 3 months of my life. I was able to conquer my biggest fear of teaching & come out knowing that God was pleased with me. It was awesome to see the people that I taught begin to really understand how to study the Bible inductively." S.N. (July student)

With SBS, Titus, 4 kids, etc., 2008 was definitely a full year for us -- but we feel so privileged to be equipping students with a solid foundation in the Word, then training them up as teachers and sending them out! All the glory goes to God!

Get me outta here!

It was Sunday afternoon, we had just finished up with lunch and were looking forward to putting some of the kids down for naps, having a cup of tea, and relaxing for a bit on our 'rest day'...

... until Anaya climbed on top of the dehumidifier and fell off -- landing face down. She cried a bit, then settled down on my lap. A few minutes later Elise noticed, "Anaya's bleeding!". Sure enough, she had split her chin open, so off to the ER she went with Michael & Kenna (to help :)).

Anaya, being our more stubborn, I-don't-do-anything-I-don't-want-to-do child, had lots of fun being strapped down to the stretcher. To the doctor's amazement, she managed to wriggle her hands out, smiling & waving them around, "Look at me!" They re-strapped her in and she was still doing ok, until they covered up her face to shield her eyes from the bright light, leaving a hole for the chin to stitch her up. At that point she yelled as loud as she possibly could, "Get me outta here!" and then started screaming.

When Michael dropped her back home and went to park the van, I asked her about her visit to the hospital: "How was it?" Good. "Did you cry?" No. "Did it hurt when the doctor stitched you up?" Not really. "Can I see your owie? (Juts chin out) Mom! Look at my candy the doctor gave me!

When Michael came in the door, I asked, "How was it?" Well, she was a bit of a handful. "Did she cry?" Ohhh -- she screamed! Did they strap her down? They sure did! And she didn't like it one bit, you should've heard her...

Well, so much for our quiet Sunday afternoon, guess we'll try again next week. :-)

Michael's last book for the year: Daniel

SBS has less than a month to go! The students are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (a very GOOD tunnel, being immersed in studying the Bible! But, a very intense time too with lots of long hours and hard work!)

Here is Michael teaching the book of Daniel, his last book for this year. After this, it's catching up on grading, end-of-school stuff, catching up a bit at home :P, and then Titus starts just 2 weeks later!

Anchovies & Octopus

After-school comments from Elise & Kenna this past month:
(aka: An update on school lunches)

Kenna: Mom, can I have a special treat? I ate the baby fish (complete with skin, heads & tails) all gone today...

Elise: Guess what mom! We had pig's blood again for lunch today, but the teacher didn't make me eat it! (big smiles)

Kenna: I'm so so sorry, I really couldn't eat the octopus we had for lunch today... I tried, but I just couldn't do it...

Elise is quite used to most things by now and overall does pretty good... Kenna is slowly getting more accustomed, though her teachers still frequently comment on her slowness in gettin' it down... takes after someone I know, when they were at school... ;)

(Btw, did you know that the octopus pizza at Pizza Hut here is one of the most popular flavors among our Taiwanese friends?)

Michael's Week in Mongolia

(written by Michael)

I was very grateful for the opportunity to spend a week in Mongolia, my first time in that country. The weather in Mongolia was unseasonably warm according to the locals, with the daytime temperatures being slightly above freezing. It actually was a nice change from the long summer in Taiwan.

I spent the week teaching the book of Romans, also a first for me to teach this book. It was a wonderful opportunity to be able to share the message of this book with the SBS students there.

I was also able to try some of the local foods, some horse meat which was very tender and tasted like beef -- I would not have known any different unless they had told me. I also was able to taste the local favourite beverage of choice: fermented mares' milk -- keeps you warm on a cold winter's day!

The best thing about any trip is being able to be with the local believers and seing the growth of the church (the church in Mongolia is only about 18 years old). Many thanks to Amy for holding down the fort at home, no easy task with our busy household.

Why Moms Don't Always E-mail...

The other day I decided to sit down at the computer for just 5 minutes to quick check e-mails. While in the process, I got distracted and began replying to one... but then began to realize things were a little too quiet in the living room... . Going to investigate, all thoughts of replying to e-mails were quickly abandoned when I found the following:




















If you don't hear back from us right away, sometimes we're just busy with other things :-P Ahhh... we try! :-)

On Top of Guanyinshan

First of all, confession: we skipped church today. But, what a great way to spend a Sunday! and it was so nice to truly relax as a family.

We rented bikes and went for a 2-hour ride by the ocean, stopping for a picnic lunch.

Then, the kids still didn't want to go home, so we decided to check out the mountain across the river from where we live. We drove up as far as we could go, then got out to hike the rest of the 1.4 km to the top -- and... 2000 steps later (carrying Anaya & Nathan almost the whole way up) we made it! Definitely worth it!

Above we are overlooking Danshui, the suburb where we live (pop ~130,000+).

Left is proof that we made it to the top (photo courtesy of Kenna) :-).

Leapin' Lizards!

Well, not really leaping. Scrambling is more like it. The girls saw it first, "Mom, Dad, come quick! It's a lizard! Not a gecko, a big lizard!" Yes, it definitely was a nice-sized lizard and it was scrambling to get out of the kitchen sink.

The girls started having flashbacks of "Parent Trap" and kept warning us to be careful, "Back up! He's going to get in your mouth!"

I wonder how long he's been around the place... probably ate a few roaches for us...

Oh well, cute or not (he was pretty cute), he had to go. I made Michael do the honors and out the door he went...

We've had other things besides lizards and geckos crawling around recently... Check out this creepy crawly I discovered last week -- a nice good 4-inches in diameter. This one wasn't as fortunate as the lizard though -- he got the Raid can instead...

So -- who wants to come over for a sleep-over this weekend?!? :-)