Typhoons, Travels and Prayer

Tuesday was an amazing day. I went and did the whole school thing for the morning. It is kinda weird, because I am the new person at the school and most of the people there don’t speak my native language fluently. Not to mention the fact that most of the teachers are still on vacation. 

But here’s the fun part. After lunch, I went into the city on my scooter to find the church I want to visit. After about an hour of searching up and down the wrong street, I found it! I spoke with a very nice woman named Susan who told me all about how God is moving in their church and all throughout Taiwan! This church is so in tune with what I was looking for! They are all about spreading the Gospel and discipleship!  

Susan took me and introduced me to young woman, Evangelina, whose parents run a mission training center out of the church. It is so incredible how God answers the prayers of his children! While talking to Susan, I was so happy that I almost cried several times. I had prayed for a church and for godly women to keep me accountable and to be able to fellowship, but I never expected to meet so many and to find them so quickly! There is an English Bible Study on Thursday nights, an English service on Saturday night and English translation on Sunday. So I am very very excited!  

I was supposed to go to Kenting Beach on Thursday with a bunch of the teachers, but Wednesday I wasn’t feeling great. I was feeling kind of nauseous and had an awful headache. Plus I really wanted to go to this Bible study so I decided not to go to the beach on Thursday. Plus, so far very few of the teachers have talked to me and being with a bunch of people who don’t speak to you is very tiring.  

So Thursday I got up and took myself sightseeing! I went and walked on the beach for a while. It was pretty fun! I went to the historical district of Anping. One of the tourist spots is Anping Fort. It was pretty cool. I took lots of pictures. I also went to the Anping Tree House, which is basically a house that has been taken over by trees… roots, branches, everything… It was cool.  

Thursday night I went to Bible Study! It was so much fun and so encouraging! There were only 4 of us there, Kevin, the leader, Lydia, Jerry and I. We studied the Great Commission, really focusing on discipleship and what it means. It was so amazing to get to discuss the Lord with fellow believers, especially such an intense group. 

Friday was the first time all of the teachers were on campus. I had come up with a introduction video in the morning. At 11, we had a group faculty meeting. It was long… and entirely in Chinese. At the end, they had some kind of health presentation where they talked about health issues. Of course I had no idea what they were saying, but the pictures were disgusting. I spent some time after the meeting with one of my co-teachers, Amanda. I still don’t have a schedule because they still haven’t hired some of the teachers for the 7^th grade.

I am very frustrated and anxious about school. Not knowing who I’m going to be with or what I’ll be doing. I have the first week down, but after that I have no clue. It scares me. I had a mini breakdown after I got home from school. That night I went to a prayer service at Living Water. Susan prayed with me and it was so powerful. God totally revealed to her how I was feeling: my fears and frustrations. She prayed for things I hadn’t even said out loud to people yet. One of the things that is getting to me is just being completely alone and not having a physical person here that I can depend on for help.

Saturday I got up and took the High Speed Rail to Taichung to see some of the other teachers that I met at Orientation. It was fun. We walked around the city, ate at a burger joint that James found, and went to the mall. I rode the slow train back to the city which was different. It definitely took longer than the High Speed Rail.

Sunday I got up and it was raining (yay). I drove myself to church in the rain, which was interesting (see end of e-mail). Church was great! They take prayer and worship seriously! I can honestly say I have never been a part of a church that worships this hard, but I love it! And guess what! There's a guy at one of the universities in Tainan that is from near Dothan. And he's a Bama fan... I go across the world and still can't get away from the rivalry! After church, a bunch of us ate at the church sponsored coffee shop, Bus 7.  

I took myself to Carrefour (version of Walmart) and prepared for the typhoon. Got bread, water, fruit and all that jazz… I’m ready

No school on Monday because of the typhoon… and yet… the worst has only been some rain. No wind, nothing. I have spent today working on my video and chilling. Ironing, cleaning, all of that. I would have rather gone to school today because I still don’t have a schedule and I still haven’t met all my co-teachers. SO please please pray for tomorrow. I’m scared to death. It is one thing to go into a new classroom in America. It’s an entirely different game to go into a classroom when no one speaks your language fluently…