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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
I hear you're not truly part of the Chinese congregation until you try stinky tofu.
ReplyDeleteCongrats, you're been hazed and made it :-)