Good heaven's. I hate these strait keyboards!

Hello there. I'm in Nantou right now and we just got back from teaching at Ingpan. Today was my first day of teaching...it was...interesting. The first small group started out very poorly. I was supposed to tell the Christmas story. Everybody had told me that it was best to use some of the kids and act it out. Ha! Not when you get a Mary who refuses to move or even look at you, a Joseph who freaks out when he learns he's Mary's husband or a sheppard that turns into a sheep and starts "baa-ing" at the top of this voice! I fought my way through the shepards telling the good news and then cut it short there. So much for the wisemen, because by now half of the class wasn't even looking at me and I couldn't get their attention.

So then I came up with a game on the spot. We split the class into two teams. I was the leader for one and my translator for the other. I would pull out an Uno card and then the first team to think of that many English words would win (like if I pulled a 7, the first team with 7 english words won). that was a huge hit. A couple of the kids woulnd't join in, but otherwise everybody loved it.

Then in the second small group time I talked about my family and then about family Christmas tradition. It went pretty good.

Goodness, there is so much to tell, I don't know where to start and my wrists are starting to hurt from this keyboard. I'll write one more thing. We were outside playing a game when I yellow truck drove by, playing music loudly. I couldn't tell why, so I asked my TA (teacher assistant) what it was. I was expecting it to be something deeply important, a big part of Taiwanese culture. Maybe it's Budist monks on a pilgramage. Or maybe an offering to the dead. So what huge thing of importance did I learn?

It was a trash truck. And the music was to tell people to put their trash out. lol

Oh my goodness.

wow.

My stars.

And the strange thing is, I don't even know exactly what it is that I'm so "wowed" about. I just know that within five hours I will be driving away from the house, on my way to Taiwan.

The last few days have been awesome. Monday morning I went with Anna to her World view class. Those are some really neat people. We all remembered that exactly two years ago we had been standing outside the RSU campus holding signs and protesting. What a hoot!

Monday night Mr. Murry had the karate class lay hands on me (a scary thing when it's at karate!) and pray for me. That was so neat. Then I got to spar a little bit with him...but it was cut short by a very hard meeting of knee and shin. I haven't done that in a LONG time and now I remember why I hated it so much! My leg hurt for several days!

Tuesday night I went to Mr. Burnett's. I got to teach four white belts, two of them brand new. That was a hoot. It was also interesting, because everybody else I've taught in karate has some sort of foundation that I'm building on. Here I was having to lay that foundation: they didn't know anything. Very interesting. But they were good students, so it was great.

Wednesday was (you guessed it!) more karate. Jason performed the Heian kata's and Maza Kazi for me and I got them on film, so I can have a refference while away. We also filmed me doing Heian Godan and Maza Kazi. I was actually pleasently supprised at how well I did them.

Thursday was (drum roll): Karate! Said goodbye to everybody at Bolen's dojo. What a cool group. They laid hands on me and prayed over me too.

Friday I got everything together that I needed to pack. Then that night Anna, Ethan and I went to the Murry's for Twilight Prayer and Praise. What an awesome night. God was there and moving. Keep a young lady named Kim in your prayers: she is really close to coming to the Lord.

We stayed at the Murry's until 3 in the morning. Mr. Murry got out an old video from about 15 years ago of some fighting and kata he had done. It was interesting to see how his fighting has improved over the years. We also saw a film of him doing a kata that was totally unreal. There was just an amazing amount of power in every single strike and block: you have to see it to beleive it. He also watched the film from Wednesday and gave me some advice. Cool.

Saturday we went and played paintball with Josiah for his birthday. There was a large group and we had a blast. I was on red team the first two games and Anna was on white. I got her out both times! Then they changed me to white and we worked together, which was also fun.

Today our church prayed over me and I told everybody a little bit about what I'm going to be doing in Kinmen. Then we came home and packed. Beleive it or not, but we actually had enough room: the only thing I'm having to mail is the sparring gear!

Before evening Bible reading we broke boards. Anna did a round house break and broke it very cleanly on her second try. Very good. Ethan broke with a punch and really put some power in it. Isaac broke for the first time and only had to hit each board once! He was SOOOO thrilled! Caleb tried it too, but I had to help him a bit to break it. Naomi had a really tough board and had some trouble, but broke it anyway.

After Bible reading everybody laid hands on me and prayed. Wow. Then Anna and I went to QuickTrip and made coppies of my passport and then I got on here and wrote this!

Bye now! Don't know when I'll be updating, but hopefully it will be soon!

Hi, this is a short, totally meaningless post. I hope to get on later today and post something a little more informative. Bye!