Taiwan Bethel

the twenty-eighth of november, two thousand and twelve.

  

  Tuesday we went to the Taiwan branch office in Taoyuan County.  A brother that just flew into Taiwan on Monday, originally from Brooklyn Chinese, came with us.  He is friends with Josh and is staying with him for two weeks.  
  


   We met at the train station and after about an hour train ride we arrived and stopped a couple of taxis until one knew where Boteli was.  We joined a tour with a few brothers and sisters from the local area and Japan.  The branch is really small with only thirty-six members but they record all of the Mandarin publications we get (DVDs, district convention dramas, magazine readings, and Taiwanese sign language publications).  Taiwan still has many missionaries in the country and there are just over eight thousand Witnesses in the country.  

  


   Every four years the district conventions combine for a countrywide convention, sort of a mini international except its 'intra'national.  Next year they will have another like that.  Many are hoping to have outside delegates invited as well.

 




  We met Poul Anderson, one of the members of the Taiwan Branch Committee.  He is from Denmark and has been in the country for thirty-seven years even having raised a son in the country.  He was a very pleasant, personable brother who encouraged us to move to Taiwan if we could.  I don't think we need much of a push since we love it so much here! :)  After the tour we headed home and rested up a bit before going to Ting Ting's house for dinner and some games.  With only one full day left, I'm feeling a bit bummed :(

  Oh, and notice my hair did you...sigh...long story.
 

Teacher Keith

the twenty-fifth of november, two thousand and twelve.

the older class

  Last Wednesday I had the awesome opportunity to go to work with Alex.  He is a teacher at an English school in Kaohsiung.  His boss said that I could go in and help him teach the kids.  They have a curriculum to follow, but there is alot of room for games and activities to help the kids remember and have fun learning.  But during English classes they are forbidden to speak Chinese.  The first two parts of the day were with the seven/eight year olds.  At the start of the class Teacher Alex introduced me as Teacher Keith and they had the opportunity to ask me any questions about America or California or if I was dating!  They were really fun to play with.  Their reading in unison was the cutest, funniest thing I have seen.  

The Dinosaur Game

 We divided the class and played The Monster Game and The Dinosaur Game.  I got to draw each of the Monsters at the bottom of the stairs!  And the kids love volunteering to be the team mascot.  They settle all ties with Rock, Paper, Scissors.  

The Monster Game with the younger class

Then we broke into groups for some factual writing.  Each group had to choose an animal to write about.  I was put with Brady who has a hard time focusing and sitting still and then Brian wanted to work with me too.  We wrote about turtles and drew pictures afterward.

  Next the eleven/twelve year olds came in.  They were a bit 'cooler' and so it made it a bit more difficult to get 'in' with them, but after a few jokes and questions, they were just as fun. I really want to return and teach.  It was very enjoyable.

A Few More Thoughts From Grant

Hello again friends. I know it has been a while since I have posted anything but you know me. Also Keith keeps hogging the computer :).... just kidding.

First of all I would like to respond to the request about those spiders. Personally I would like to dispose of all of them for the rest of time. However, as that is not a decision that I as a mere human get to make, I will simply say..... AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! How would you like to be taking a picture of Taipei 101 in the distance trying to get a good perspective through the trees, only to have the flash go off and see what appears to be a spider the size of a small mini-van about 6 inches from your face? Perhaps you too would need a shot of adrenaline straight to your heart, in order to bring you back from the bright light at the end of the tunnel. For those of you that do not know me very well, I .... despise... no ... detest.... no no.... hate spiders with the passion of a thousand suns. That thing was literally as big as my hand. I'm 6'1" so.... you get the idea. If it had been a snake, that would have been awesome, no big deal... It was not a snake. So call me a pansy, call me what you like, but I still hate them.


I will say that, after having observed it as one of Jehovah's beautiful creations, it was pretty cool looking and had pretty colors. That was as close as I got to liking it.

Now, moving on. Things have been going great. Keith has kept you up to date once again so I only have a few things to add.

I am really happy that the girls got to come from Korea and meet up with us. We all had a blast, even though I was a little crabby when we first met up due to the whole train station waiting game. But it worked out in the end. Driving the bikes with up the gorge was awesome and I got a lot of really cool pictures.

When we camped out in Kending we went to the place Keith mentioned called sail rock. I got to jump off the rock into the ocean. It was so awesome!! You can see the ledge in this picture.

Getting to the spot where you jumped off was not easy. First you had to walk over tide pools that were made of sharp volcanic rock leading you out into the ocean a little bit. From there we had to jump in the water and swim out to the rock. The waves made it pretty difficult to climb up onto the sharp rocks but eventually, with a cut or two, we made it up. Then there was climbing the rock itself to get to the drop off. That was fun in bare feet let me tell ya. When all was said and done I got to the top and it was just me and the ocean below. It was a little freaky because some part of me felt like earlier I had been chumming the water with the cut on my leg but I was already there so...... I jumped, sharks or no sharks. I would say it was a good 30 feet. It looked much shorter from the shore but it was a long fall. It was so fun. The water was so clear and warm. Nothing like the ocean in Oregon.

 

I think the best parts of this trip have been the people we have met and the new friends that we have made.

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The people here are so welcoming and you can really feel the love of the brothers here. I can't wait to come back and get immersed in the ministry here and continue to make more friends and have more great experiences.

By the way, I have a few return visits already! And the study that we had with Pilimon was amazing. You can really see the appreciation that a lot of people here have for the truth.

To all of my family and friends back home I miss you and look forward to seeing you soon. Also, if any of you want to come visit me when I move here, please do! You may get hooked and not wa
nt to leave. :)
 

Port Witnessing

the twentieth of november, two thousand and twelve

  To start off, Dave wanted a better picture of himself on the website:

  Monday morning Al, Jared and I went to scout out a new area for foreign factory workers.  We spoke with the police station and they pointed us to a plastics factory a few miles away.  There were about forty or fifty Vietnamese workers that lived in dorms next to the factory.  Their English is limited so using the Good News booklet and a few tracts we tried to give a brief witness.  There is a small Vietnamese group nearby that we will pass this along to.  

  Later that day I was able to catch up on my blogging a little as you all can now tell.  

  After Al returned from work that evening, Grant, Jazz, Al and I went to the port about forty-five minutes away.  The ships might have a week dock or so, others are dry docked until December.  Meanwhile the workers finish work around five or six and are able to talk.  Sometimes we can ask the captain for permission to board and have studies on the ship.  There were many Indonesians which we placed tracts with but the majority were Filipinos who are very appreciative and love to talk about the Bible.  

  Let me tell you about Andrew.  While the guys were talking to a few other individuals, I approached Andrew and asked him about his life.  He is from the Philippines and has a wife and a one year old daughter.  He has been on ship for six months so has not seen his newborn daughter as she changes each day.  He is waiting to be paid so his agent can get him home to his wife.  There is some problem back home that he must return to and although he is excited to get home, he seemed really anxious about not being able to continue on the ship.

  Andrew said that he was a Born Again Christian but would still like to talk about the Bible.  I explained the Bible study arrangement with the Bible Teach book and he wanted to discuss the chapter about family happiness.  He was soon to go out with his buds for the night but when I offered a fifteen minute study he readily agreed and made his friends wait for him.  We sat down, portside, on a plank of wood and began to read paragraph one as the cochroaches ran around our feet.  It didn't matter. He wanted to study.  His pals were pestering him so they could leave but he was firm in studying first.  We took our time on the first three paragraphs, looking up scriptures and making sure he understood the English. He was unsure when we could meet again, so I tried the next day, but the ship had moved. You can only hope that something he heared touched his heart and sets a good ground for the next time he contacts the brothers.

  Like I mentioned, the next night, Tuesday, we returned to the port, and although we didn't find the same people from the previous night we did re encounter several guys that had studied with Al before.  Philemon, a Filipino man, sat down for a study and we also ran into a few Tanzanians who were back in port.
 

 

Kaohsiung & the Aussies

the twentieth of november, two thousand and twelve

  Arriving in Kaohsiung, the taxi dropped off the girls at Bara's house and us at Alex's.  Bara is a sister from Czechoslovakia who moved here just over a year ago, I think.  Alexander Butchart is from Perth, Australia and he came to visit for a month last year and moved back about seven months ago soon followed by many others from Perth.  These include Dave Brewer and Jared Moftah, two of his flatmates.  Might I add, Aussies are awesome!  They are some of the funnest people I have ever met!  

   So Dave's parents also moved here shortly after him, knowing no Chinese, because the need was so great in English and both of their kids had moved.  Since then, their daughter has already moved on to help even greater needs, and they are all loving their expanded ministry.  

Grant, Jordan, Dave, Al, K-man, Bara, and Sung Ah

  Excluding Jared, the seven of us met up for dinner at Foster's (not named for the beer and no, the Aussies don't know what 'Foster's, Australian for great beer' is). All of these guys are in the English congregation here in Kaohsiung, some in the hall are in the English while they work on their Chinese, while many in the hall have no prior experience with Chinese at all.  The English need here in Taiwan is huge!  I am going to encourage anyone who wants to expand their ministry to move here, especially if you like scooters ;) (nudge, nudge J & K).  A large portion of this "English" need, is from foreigners working in factories and on boats to send money back home to their families.  They are from the Philippines, Indonesia, Tanzania, Vietnam and others.  Most of the Filippinos and Africans can speak okay English and since there is not enough publishers who speak their language here, they become the 'English' territory.  

  On Sunday we went to the English meeting in the morning and saw the girls one last time.  Then off they went to the train, back to the airport, back to Korea.  I had a great time with them and I am very happy they were able to arrange their plans to come travel with us a bit.

  Sunday evening, after a four hour nap, we met Tien Tien's mama and a few other sisters from the San Ming huizhong including Ruth 庭梅.  We went to the night market and guess what?! I ate stinky tofu.  Although I almost threw up twice, maybe I did a little in my mouth, I got down an entire piece and I have NO reason to ever try it again.  It smells like food garbage, and for those of you that have dealt with a massive stinky pile of food garbage, imagine taking a bite...gulp :/  Ruth was unhappy that I didn't like it, but come on, it's gross!
  
  Tien Tien's mama is so sweet though. She is going to make us dinner on Thursday night.  

  We were supposed to stay with Ruth's parents but since our stuff was already at the Aussie's house and their place has so much space and would not be a burden for them, we decided to remain there.  A very generous sister who came into the truth about five years ago owns this unused resort apartment.  Her husband used to be a 'good' politician and was killed by the mafia.  Since learning the truth, she wanted to help out the brothers and invited Al and his buds to move in paying whatever rent they were already paying for the last place.  This is by far the nicest place I have seen in Taiwan thus far! Jehovah surely provides for his people!  In California I would expect to pay around $3000 or more a month for a place like this in this kind of community.  Probably more.  Either way, these self-sacrificing brothers are being cared for.



  


Oh and Dave (pronounced Davf by all the Chinese people) gave a tour of the apartment. 

 

Rainy Day

the nineteenth of november, two thousand and twelve

  So after arriving back in Kending town on Friday night we had to find a place to eat that would let us bring little Beako in with us.  We found this hipster French place called Chez Papa! The music was from some French web radio and it was super eclectic and had good food.  The water was even served in vodka bottles. 

  We hung out there for quite a few hours and went to the girls' hotel room where we all played some games.

  Around early o'clock, it started raining.  Not just raining, pouring! And not just there but all over Taiwan.  It was super rare for this time of year since winter is the dry season.  We had a short break from the rain to pack up the tents and get the girls and get into town.  The original plan was to spend the rest of the day on the beach and half the people had to head up north that night.  Well we decided there was no point in trying to force a good beach time in miserable weather so we decided to head to Kaohsiung that night where the girls could easily catch the gaotie to the airport Sunday morning.  

  Meanwhile, we wanted to make the best of our time in Kending so we returned to Chez Papa and hung out the rest of the day there playing games!

Nick making Sung Ah uncomfortable!

  All in all, it was an awesome, spiritually uplifting time because of the people we were with and their encouragement and experiences.  Brian and Michelle are special pioneers who were assigned the English congregation in Taoyuan. They have lived here eight years and are both from Pennsylvania, being Charlie's family and all.  Nick Kiminski is from Youngstown, Ohio and knew John Norwood and Alex Fredrickson! Small world I tell ya.  He is in Taipei's English congregation.  Most weekends he travels alone to Su'ao to witness and conduct his studies at the ports with Filipinos, Indonesians, and whoever else is interested that works on the boats or docks.  He takes his tent and sleeps wherever he can find.  He says it is a hard life which is why he goes alone most of the time but it is incredibly rewarding.  Once when he was preaching in bad weather and was feeling a little depressed, he prayed that he could just have some chicken noodle soup, kinda like a comfort food.  The next ship invited him on board and he conducted a group study while they brought him chicken soup! It was just the chicken in the broth without the noodles but it was enough to remind him that Jehovah was with him.  I think he left out the noodle part in his prayer although he might have been thinking about it with noodles ;)

  Many of these ship workers are treated very poorly.  They may work for a year, year and a half or more without being paid! Then when they are paid they may only receive half of what they are owed.  They only make about a thousand USD per year and half of what they make goes to their families.  On top of that they nearly never get a day off work.  Still they appreciate the truth and are yearning to learn.  One man had only ever had three days off of work in many years.  He spent the latest day going to the meeting!  It made me think whether I take spiritual occasions for granted.

  So Charlie and Nick called their friends in Kaohsiung, since we were to arrive a day earlier than planned, and we headed back up the coast to start our next adventure.