BEHOLD: The week in review

To update you all on the last 2 weeks...

* The call I had in the park two weeks ago... (refer to the post entitled "A little taste of the field") We weren't able to meet up last weekend due to bad weather, but she texted me this week to make sure I would be there to bring her the book 'My Book of Bible Stories'. So Melissa and I got up at 6 am, did early morning witnessing in a nearby park, then commuted to the other side of the city to find my RV. We only had about an hour to locate her in this huge park, and when she didn't return my text message and we couldn't find her anywhere- I started to get discouraged. We had come a very long way and missed meeting up with the service group two weeks in a row just to find her. An hour had passed, and after praying to Jehovah to help me find her we decided to sit on a bench for just 5 more minutes and then we'd have to leave to make it back to the other side of town and meet the group.

Four minutes and 30 seconds later I heard... "Miss Katy!! Miss Katy!!! I found you!!"

She had run out of time on her phone so she couldn't text me, but her employer let her come to the park and find us. She was so happy to see us and to receive her new book. I also gave her an invitation to the meeting to which she said she would really love to come. And when I asked if she had gotten a chance to read any of the Bible Teach book yet she said "I've already read the whole thing! I read it before bed and when I wake up in the morning." Needless to say it was well worth the effort to get there, and we're hoping to bring her to the meeting next Sunday. I will keep you all posted.

*The laundry day fiasco- I'm beginning to think that our landlady (or Fángdōng as we've been calling her) is one of those all-knowing... all-seeing old ladies. She is so sweet, she continues to drop by unannounced to make sure we're okay, or to do little random favors. (For instance we heard rattling on our front door the other day and opened it to find her tying an old shoe-lace to our screen door handle so we would be able to open it more easily) But it seems like she knows exactly what things Melissa and I screw up and is there the next day to ask about that very subject... coincidence? I think not. So of course the day after we had to ditch our soggy blanket in the alley (several blocks from our house mind you) we hear a knock on the door and in walks the Fangdong. The purpose of her visit? To see how our blankets were working out. In our usual game of Chinese charades we tried to tell her that we were having it washed. To which she replied (in Chinese) "Well aren't you going to go get it?! You can't leave it in the laundromat or the dump trucks might take it!" So Melissa tried to explain that we had it under control. And the next thing out of her mouth was something along the lines of "Make sure you take the cover off and don't try to wash the whole thing, it will be very heavy! I will come back tomorrow and make sure it's okay" At this point I was having a very difficult time keeping a straight face. And I think Melissa was desperately trying to figure out how this woman knew so much.

So of course a midnight-ops run was going to be necessary so that we wouldn't hurt her feelings after all the trouble she went to forcing the brothers to give us the blankets and all. So we went back to the alley, and it still hadn't been picked up thankfully. Melissa took the cover off and we went home. She will be stuffing it with other blankets just in case the Fangdong comes over to check up again. *sheesh* (Oh! but in good news- we received our water bill yesterday, which was a little sticky note with some Chinese scribbles left on our door, we owe a whopping NT$15 for the month's water- which is equivalent to about 49 cents in the US. And that's even with a severely leaky toilet! I love this country)

*Work- The sister who actually introduced me to this job just quit, so I get to pick up two more days of work. Thankfully, they will let me leave early on Thursdays so that I can make it on time to meeting. Also, an interesting situation occurred yesterday when my boss left the days lesson on the table for me to teach to my small class (mostly advanced 15 year olds who speak and comprehend quite a lot of English). The assignment was 5 pages of Christmas vocabulary and the entire Christmas story of the baby Jesus, the manger, and the whole distorted inaccurate fable. I thought... 'Oh. Great.' And of course I didn't have any alternative material available. The story sounded very religious and of course was painted exactly how Christendom tells it, which is all new to these kids anyway because none of them actually celebrate Christmas. So I figured- alright if this is what they want me to teach, then I'm going to drop some knowledge on these kids. (One of the beauties of teaching in Taiwan is that there are very few rules and regulations as to what's considered 'politically correct teaching methods', which is why they can even teach such a religious piece of material in the first place) So for the next hour I helped the students to dissect the story, correcting any wrong grammar in the text (which only lent to the story's incredulity), and corrected any wrong facts as well as added the true facts in. Then I asked the class questions like "So what does Santa Claus and the tree have to do with Jesus' birth?", "Was the bright star actually a good sign or a bad one?", "Do you think it's good that parents lie to their kids about Santa? And why?", "Does it make sense that shepherds would be out at night during the dead of winter?", "Why do you think Dec.25th was chosen as the date?", etc. These kids are sharp, and caught on right away that these were all logical reasons why the holiday is not based on the Biblical records. I definitely saw some lights go on, and by the end of the hour they had been taught the REAL story of Jesus' infancy, King Herod's true intentions, what astrologers are, and what December 25th is really tied to. So all in all, it turned out to be a pretty good class.

That's the updates for now. I know I said I would post a blog about my trip to the Philippines, and I will! Just waiting for pictures from the brother we went with. Stay tuned.

Pictured below: Another unique service territory we got to work this afternoon- Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

Early morning witnessing with the Wanhua Chinese Cong.