Easter

Easter came early this year. We wanted to do something for the students to help them celebrate Easter. What better way than coloring eggs? This also gave many of the teachers opportunities to share the Gospel. There were about 20 students that came to the White's house (a MTW missionary couple) to color eggs. Most of these students are extremely creative and so the eggs that they decorated were colorful and artistic. Most of the students had never done this before so it was fun to watch them get into coloring Easter eggs. Here are some pictures...

Easter felt very different this year. It is not celebrated like it is in other countries. I did attend a Good Friday service which helped me to prepare for Easter. I was reminded about how Christ triumphed over death even on the cross.

I hope your Easter was a sweet celebration with our Savior.

Until next time...

At Christ's College each room is supposed to have a evening devotion during each night of the week. Many rooms ask me to give a devotion. So Tuesday nights have become "Amanda gives room devotion night." The picture above is of room 711 - I have gotten to know some of these girls over the past few months. Some of these girls have opened up to me and allowed me to become friends with them. I also started a bible study last week about making Jesus at Home in Your Heart and six girls attended. The study is a short one because I want to keep the students interested. The first day went well.
Spring Break starts on Wednesday which will give everyone here a few days to relax. I ask that you all would continue to pray that I can continue to get to know students. Sometimes it can get lonely here but I know that this is part of the Christian life. God uses the lonely times to draw me to himself - and I want him to do that now.
Until next time...

An Adventure to the Mountains

There is a beautiful mountain in Taipei called Yangmingshan. I had the opportunity to spend time on the mountain top. I rode on a motorscooter up to the top with Becky White - another MTW missionary and teacher at Christ's College. We spent the afternoon riding up the windy roads I had not ridden on the back of a motorscooter for that long at one time and so I was a bit sore afterwards. But the ride was so much fun. I like motorscooters!!

When we reached the mountain we enjoyed picnicing and watching the water buffalo. During the early part of the 20th century the Japanese brought water buffalo up to the mountain. Why? Not sure but it's pretty cool to see huge buffalo on a mountainside and they are used to people so it's a good relationship!

The landscape was beautiful and we were able to hike around the mountain. Even though the city was 30 minutes away I felt that we were in a different country. It was a great time to relax, read, hike, and get away for an afternoon. Here is a picture of the water buffalo...

So this is a real water buffalo and I was about 5 feet from it. He was very focused on eating as you can see. But it did make me want to break out into one of my favorite Veggie Tales songs... "Oh, everyone has a water buffalo, mine is fast but yours is slow. Oh where'd we get them I don't know but everyone has a water buffalo ooooooooh."

Well, as the warmer weather and spring time sweeps into Taipei I know more water buffalo will be out among the mountainsides looking for good snacking spots.

Until next time...

Long Overdue...

Where do I begin? The past month and a half has flown by and every time something fun and interesting happens I find myself writing a post on my blog in my mind. They are brilliant and well written yet they never seem to get from my mind onto the computer! I have no excuses but I am going to try catch everyone up over the next few days.

During the first few weeks of classes I was Ms. Lewis. I taught (all by myself) a literature class full of budding freshmen. I had a lot of fun teaching. Half of the time I felt like I was back at home with my sisters playing school but this was "for real." I am also a teaching assistant for a couple of teachers and so I am not only the coordinator for the Writing Center but also teaching. So life is busy but I am really enjoying it. I am also having the opportunity to give some history lectures on British History in a British Literature class for senior English majors. I feel that I am in my "prime" when I am lecturing. Being in the classroom gives me a way to interact in the students lives more. I am meeting more students and trying to use the classroom as a doorway for ministry.

I have also had some opportunities to hang out with students. During the first week of the semester some of the freshmen that I was teaching invited me to go to an amusement park in Tapei. I rode a fairis wheel for the first time - that was a bit crazy! We also rode bumper cars which I had not done in years. The freshmen are so full of energy and young compared to the juniors and seniors. I had a blast spending the day with them and trying to communicate with them as they used their electronic dictionaries!!! Below are some pictures of our adventure to the fair.

I will publish more posts soon about more of my adventures and outings during the past few weeks. I ask that you all will pray that I will have more opportunities to get to know students and the energy, desire, and boldness to initiate conversations with students that God puts in my life. I need guidance!

Until next time (which will be soon!)

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

I celebrated my first official Chinese New Year last week. On New Year's Eve night I was invited to the Head of the English Department's home (one floor below my apartment) for hotpot and other traditional Chinese foods. I really like hotpot - which for you all that do not know it is just a pot of chicken broth and you can put all sorts of things in it. Usually a person puts cabbage, spinach, mollusks, shrimp, thin cuts of lamb or beef, tofu and other vegetables in the pot and let it come to a boil. It is so good over sticky rice. We also had turnip cakes, sweet and sour fish, and some dishes that tasted great but I have no idea what they are called. The fellowship was great and I enjoyed the family-like atmosphere of the celebration. After we watched a movie my good friend, Becky White, and I hopped back up to the 5th floor and waited until midnight. We had a great view of the fireworks exploding over the Danshui River. Let me tell you the fireworks have not stopped since. It is now Sunday and since Tuesday night they have been booming every single night until the early hours of the morning. It's pretty wild - these people take their fireworks extremely serious.

On New Year's Day one of the Christ's College alumni who I met the first week I was in Taipei, Maple, came to visit. Becky, Maple, and I went to Taipei 101 and shopped in the mall area - they have the biggest and best English bookstore in the city. Then we went to Chili's and met another graduate. It was fun but so cold and rainy. It has rained almost every day for the past 3 weeks. I am ready for some sunshine.

On the day after New Year's the tradition is that the married women visit their mother's homes. One of the Chinese professors invited us to have the meal at her mother's home in Taoyuen. It was truly a traditional Chinese meal. There was a whole fish platter, a whole chicken cooked in a pot with broth - he was good I just had to get past looking at the head part! , and there was jellyfish (which by the way was pretty good). After we ate and visited, we went to a pottery museum that is close to their home. The little town is called Inga and the museum looked like a huge loft apartment. All in all I had a great time getting out of Taipei and going to the country. I really enjoyed being a part of a traditional family celebration at New Year's.

Winter break continues for another two weeks. Many of the stores and restaurants are closed until Tuesday for the New Year. I am hunkered down in my apartment, watching good movies with friends, and using this time to reflect and commune with God. I am getting ready for the spring semester to begin and to bring with it some warmer weather. The campus is quite silent and lonely without the students - I miss them.

Well, Happy New Year and until next time...

Teaching in Tainan

For the past week I have been teaching crazy middle schoolers in the south of Taiwan, called Tainan, how to learn English. During my time in Taiwan I have been able to rule out many jobs that I would not like to pursue as a career. First, I do not have any ambition to be an actress on television (or on any medium.) And now I have learned that I really do not have any desire to be a middle school teacher especially teaching English as a Second Language. Oh my goodness - you know being able to communicate to the students in their language is an important asset to teaching - I learned that this week!

My students are mostly boys, around 7th grade (12-13 years old). They like to run around, yell, hit, and do everything but what I tell them! When I was a teenager and would misbehave my mom would always tell me, "wait until you have children and they act like you are." Well mom, I didn't have to wait until my own children - I have experienced 60 times the chaos I caused you and dad this week! I truly appreciate the patience and perseverance of parents more.

I am trying to teach my students English vocabulary and I am using many different activities to do this. They are working on a drama to perform at the end of the camp. Each group will also perform a tv commercial that I wrote for them. Heaven help us all if the groups that perform on stage actually get through their little performances and don't fall apart in stage fright. I don't think they actually realize what they are going to have to do although I have tried to enforce the fact that they will be performing. Also I am teaching all levels of students about eating at a restaurant and playing jeopardy with them. I have played jeopardy seven times already and will play it 5 more times before the camp is through. I have had my fill of "Sports for 200...." for years now.

All in all the experience has been good. I have learned a lot about teaching and more importantly about controlling a classroom of crazy students. A little controlled chaos is okay. However, I am ready to go back to Taipei, sleep in my own bed and start my Chinese New Year vacation.

Chinese New Year starts February 6th and I will let you all know how it goes. I am just ready to not be around over 300 talkative, energetic, rambunctuous preteens!!!

Until next time,

Saying Goodbyes...

Friday morning I said goodbye to my dear friend and fellow intern Lori. Lori came to Taipei just a few weeks after I did. We have travelled, laughed, cried, shared, and prayed together during our time in Taiwan. To say that I will miss her dearly is putting it lightly. It is amazing how God puts the right people in my life at the perfect time and He did this with Lori. I saw God use her in many of the lives of the students and impact my own life as well. Even though I have only known her for a mere four months we have experienced a lot of unique moments together. I will miss her laugh, her deep thoughts, and her silliness. However, I know that the Lord is leading both of us toward His perfect plan in the future. Right now for me that is staying in Taipei and for her that is going back home to Charleston, S.C. Well, I just want to shout out to Lori. Thank you for being a loyal and loving friend - for reflecting the love of Jesus to me and to the students of Christ College. God has used you to "till the soil" and "plant seeds" in the hearts of many here. I miss you already.
One amazing answer to prayer happened as we dropped Lori off at the airport. She was flying standby and there was no room for her on the plane. We were about to leave and take her back to the college and come back the next day when one of the airport service women told us that there was an extra seat - she had only twenty minutes to make it to the plane. She did and got to fly first-class! Man, God is so good.
I ask that you would pray for me as I adjust to the change of not having Lori here. It will be different. God has provided many other friends and spiritual guides for me here but I will miss Lori. I also need guidance on now being in charge of the English Dorm and other activities that Lori was helping with. Pray for Christ's College and the faculty and staff as we labor to share the Gospel with a student body who really needs Jesus. Only 2% of the population (of 23 million) in Taiwan say they are Christians. I can feel the spiritual warfare here. Please pray that I will not try to fight in self-sufficiency but in utter dependency on Jesus.
- Until next time