The following was written some days ago and then lost due to a bad internet connection. At that time I didn't know that blogger automatically saves drafts for you...so I didn't lose the whole thing.
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Hey there folks. Thank you so much for the birthday greetings and also for the reminders that I need to update! Hey, at least it tells me that there are people reading! :)

Well, we're now in Kinmen. Wow. I realized before we came that there would be lots of people who wanted to hang out with us or take us out to eat or something but...wow, I didn't really expect to be this busy! Last night we had one dinner appointment and made two more...at this rate I don't know if we'll ever have to buy any food while we're here! lol

I think somebody must have been praying for us last night. God really opened some great chances to talk to several different people about him and there was no interference from the enemy at all. We had supper with the family that we will be staying with at the end of June. After supper we went for a walk with them and the oldest boy started asking me a whole bunch of questions about God and the difference between Christianity and other religions. In the meantime Anna got to talk to the mother about how Dad had changed so much since he was saved. It really was amazing. Keep praying for these people.

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Ok, now everything below has been written today.

I've been visiting some olds schools these past two weeks and have really enjoyed seeing my students again. Jing Who...well, it's still Jing Who! The school seems to have improved some because of having a new principle, but I'm still glad I don't work there anymore! But of course there are some really cool kids there and I've enjoyed going back. My Monday and Wednesday schools have been awesome! I've also spent some time at the school here in Jing Chun, helping with the after school English program. It's been fun helping, but I must say that I'm glad I left King Car when I did...there's no way I would want to teach the after school program!

It's been fun getting to know the new team members. We seem to fit in quite well and hang out in the living room with the team a lot. Of course it's been really great to see the old members of the team and I've REALLY enjoyed hanging out with Drew again. Drew is extremely hard to describe, but he is really an incredibly awesome guy.

I start working with Sandy tomorrow. Turns out I'm not actually going to be working at her cram school: instead she's going to have me teaching her and her little girl and some friends every night for about an hour and a half. Last night we talked about how much she is going to pay me...she offered quite a bit more than I had been expecting and it looks like I might be able to totally pay off my ticket over here! Yea!

Since I'm only working 1 and a half hours each day (not counting going to school with the team) I've been able to start looking for some other odd jobs as well. BJ and I are teaching a three week class at the high school. We've had two classes so far and they have been really fun. Then today I learned about a high school student who might want to do some tutoring and then Lucy said she wants me to tutor her two kids. So I've got two, or possibly three students already!

I've also restarted my Wednesday night class for some of my old 9th grade students. It's really great to hang out with them again...I've really missed those kids. Keep praying for them: I've explained the Gospel to them before and now I'm just praying that the Holy Spirit will work in their hearts.

Tomorrow I will be starting to have Chinese class with Pastor Samuel. We're going to focus particularly on learning how to present the Gospel in Chinese. I'm really, really excited about it and hope to learn stuff that will help me next summer on the ABKA China mission trip.

Friday we had supper with a friend from church and it turned out to be a really great encouragement for us. Vick has only been a Christian for about three years but he is very on fire for God and very firm in his faith. After supper we had a mini-Chinese lesson on how to explain the concept of free will in Chinese and then we had a culture lesson about the Chinese view of sin. To a Chinese person, sinning or not sinning really has nothing to do with loving God. We talked about several different ways that you might explain the concept of "If you love me you will keep my commandments" and I feel like I have a better understanding the way some of these people think.

Last Monday was the town's god's birthday and there was a huge parade to go along with it. Before the parade I walked around town and prayed over the town and then stood on a street corner with BJ and Anna and prayed over the people. The demonic presence didn't seem all that strong at first (although I do think that a lot of the people in parade were drugged) but then three men walked up and you could just feel that they were possessed. I'm not sure what their official tittle is, but they basically are the guys who self mutilate as an act of worship. In Kinmen they typically don't go very far (some places in Taiwan it's not uncommon to see them totally covered in blood, whereas in Kinmen your more likely to see them with just a few cuts or needles stuck through their face) but these guys where very much under demonic control. They stood there shaking their heads, but even though their eyes were closed they were always in time with each other.

Everybody over here says that I've lost weight...they say my face is thinner. But I think it's probably just having a goatee that makes me look that way. Don't freak out Dad, I am eating fine and I'm working out regularly as well.

Ok, it's midnight and I've got an extremely busy day tomorrow, so I had better get a shower and get into bed. Love y'all! Thanks for your prayers!

Hey there! Time for an update from Taiwan! Wow, it's so wonderful to be back...I'm LOVING it. I feel like somebody who's been swimming for a long time and then I've finally come up for a breath of air...no, that's not quite the way I feel...more like somebody who didn't realize how tired their were until they sat down. Hearing Chinese, smelling and eating the food, going to a drink stand, talking to students, speaking Chinese...it all feels so natural. I'm very happy.

The flight wasn't really eventful...it was long and boring and I'm not looking forward to doing it again in about two months.

We got to Taipei and were met by Ginger. It was so awesome to see her...but like she said, there wasn't much of a "wow, we're together again!" feeling...it just felt so natural to be hanging out again that it was hard to imagine it'd actually been a whole year since I'd seen her (or two years, in BJ's case). We got to the Chen's and were met by Karen and Tim. The next day we went to church, then met up with James and Claudia and Norman for lunch. James was our translator in Kinmen when the team first got there, and Claudia was a teacher I worked with last year (really good one too) and Norman is her boyfriend (who was also my bus driver on Mondays).



That night we went to the night market behind the Chen's house and just happened to bump into Piau, a friend from Small Kinmen. I had actually tried to get ahold of her several times so we could meet up, but hadn't been able to. So it was really cool to see her! The next night we went out to dinner with her and a friend (and James, of course. James basically hung out with us whenever he wasn't at work.)

Tuesday we met up with Ann (a girl who used to live at the dorm in Kinmen) and then went to Show Szteye (sp?). Wow...it was so awesome and heartbreaking to go there again. It's a Jr. High for kids who come from problem families...mostly single parent, poor families. Most of the kids have been abused in some way or another and they are all desperate for love and attention. We visited each class on Tuesday night, spent the night at their teachers dorm and the Wednesday morning we taught three 7th grade classes. It was a hoot...I haven't taught an English class in so long I was slightly rusty, but it was still a lot of fun and I can feel my old skills coming back. Plus I can still do a lot of the translating for myself, so I'm happy about that! In the afternoon we did pottery class with some of the kids...wow, that was really fun! It makes me want to take pottery lessons or something back in the states...it took me several tries but I finally made a really cool clay pot.


Just before we left (like literally two minutes before we were about to drive away) Rita pulled up on a moped! Rita is one of the girls who graduated from there last year...she and I were pretty good friends. For some reason God has really laid her on my heart to pray for and try to show his love and it was so cool that he brought her there before we left! Jamie (one of the administrators at the school) told me that her brother died last year and she's been hanging out at a temple a lot lately. She looked about the same as last time I saw her...her eyes show such a desperate cry for love and for a reason for life, it breaks my heart every time I see her. Her left arm was covered with cuts on both sides...much worse than last time I saw her. Please, please pray for this girl.

Wednesday night we went to the night market with Larua and King Car Sandy (who doesn't work for king car anymore). We were very supprised to meet Rebekah and her sister there...turns out her sister had been in Kinmen the past two weeks and was leaving the next day, so Rebekah had brought her to Taipei.

Now we are in Nantou hanging out with the team here and having a total blast. It's great to see these people again and I've really enjoyed hanging out with Daniel and Joel.

Ok, I'm going to close now. Please pray for:

--James. Anna put it really well when she said "he's just stone walling God." He knows his life is empty and meaningless and he knows that he can find purpose in God...he's just too prideful to accept that.

--Rita and the kids at Show Stzeye.

--The Nantou team. This past year some wonderful ministry opportunities have opened up for them and they are doing a lot of good work...but Satan is busy trying to stop them too.

I love y'all! Next update will probably be from Kinmen!

Haha! I got all A's! 4.0 once again! I'm happy!

I'm also totally numb. I just had two fillings done...and it took 7 shots of painkiller! Grr! I kinda wish that the nerves in my mouth weren't quite so strong!

Ethan and I have a show tonight for a VBS thing. Then tomorrow BJ and I are going into Tulsa to take CLEP tests and do some shopping. And then I need to get packed tomorrow night sometime...it will probably be a late night! And then Friday morning (early!) we leave! It really is amazing that things are moving so fast!

Tonight will be my last time to teach the TAG team. :( I'm really going to miss those girls...our team this year has been awesome.

I have to get off of here now and study for my CLEP test tomorrow. Bye! My next post will probably be from Taiwan!

Ok everybody, *big* bragging warning.

MY LEVEL TWO'S ROCK! THEY ARE TOTALLY AWESOME AND BLEW EVERYBODY OUT OF THE WATER AT THE STATE MEET!

Haha...we had the TAG gymnastics meet for one's and two's yesturday. The Gym City level two's have been doing REALLY good in practice and I was expecting good things from them. When I showed up at the gym I walked around telling different parents, "Watch the level two's today...they're going to blow everybody out of the water!" And then they did...even more so than I was expecting! EVERY last single of them got blue on EVERY last single event! I was about to explode with pride!

Tomorrow the level three's will be having their meet...I'm excited about it but not quite so sure they will do great. We have some level three's who will rock the house...but we've got a couple who probably won't do so great.

The semester is over and I think I've got a 4.0 again. Cool, no?

Ok, now on to the tournament today...here's the quick run down since I'm really tired and don't have time to write much...

Isaac: third in sparring.

Joshua: 2nd in kata, third in sparring. He probably would have taken 1st but he got disqualified in his second fight for face contact...he made the other guy's nose bleed. Rats. But he fought really good.

Anna: 3rd in kata. Very nice kata too. She didn't fight though.

BJ: didn't place in kata, third place in sparring. She fought the best fight I've ever seen her do in tournament...really good reverse punches.

Ethan: 3rd in empty hand kata 3rd in weapons kata and second in sparring. His fighting was amazing: he was on fire. And he beat Blake Dressler (who is a REALLY good fighter). He lost his fight for first place by one point. Because he was fighting for first place in the advanced boys division (which is the hardest division other than black belt...we're talking about some SERIOUS competition) he fought his last fight in the "big ring" at the end of the tournament. It was an awesome fight.

And finally, Samuel: 2nd in kata, and a "good job" from Mr. H...which is worth about twenty first place trophies to me. Fighting....drum roll...1st place! And I beat ISAIAH for it! I honestly did not think I could beat Isaiah. But I did.

Oh and the cool part is, Isaiah is the guy who hit me the back of the head on Monday. Haha...so I guess I got my revenge.

Here is my board breaking for my second degree brown belt test.

Ouch. I hurt. It hurts to chew because my jaw got hit so many times last night. It hurts to move because I had to do my drop kicks without a mat (read: on the concrete!) My fingers hurt from messing up on a punch and skinning my second knuckle (bad punch...I should have known better than that...) My eye hurts from a backfist that landed right on the eyeball. But mostly my head hurts from a punch that landed on the very base of my skull and gave me a mild concussion.

Like I said, ouch.

The good news is that I passed my test. And my board breaking went really good. I had troulbe doing my supsended ridge hand, but I did a suspened punch and a suspended backfist without any problems. For my power break I tried doing a three-board punch, but I rushed into it and didn't have enough power to go through (hence the skinned knuckles). I could have tried punching again, but I didn't want to injure my knuckles, so I did a hammerfist and went through them with no problems. Then for my power foot break I did a 2x12x18 monster board. That's a REALLY big board. We got it on video and I want to post it on youtube sometime son so you guys can see it.

I did ok during my fighting. Isaiah landed a couple nice ones on me (as usual) and Mr. Hargis planted two very solid punches in my midsection, but I got them back for it. :) Oh my last fight I made Luke's nose bleed (not on purpose!) and he got me back for that...lol. I didn't do so great on my first plural fight...2-on-1 I lost 2 points to five. On my 3-on-1 fight I was tied 4-4 when Isaiah landed a hard punch on the base of my skull. It didn't really hurt very bad (in fact it hardly hurt at all) but I started crying. I didn't even know why I was crying and it didn't help to try and stop. Mr. Murry came running over and checked my eyes with a flashlight. He said my right eye wasn't responding to the light at all for a few minutes and he didn't want me to fight any more (I still had a 4-on-1 fight left). I told him I could still manage, but he said no, that wasn't a good idea.

So, the bottom line is that I passed, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to fight at the tournament on Saturday. I know I'll do kata, but if I still feel like I do now then I won't be able to fight.

The other problem is that I don't think I'll be doing much spotting at gym. I'm just not so sure that my reaction speed will be good enough to keep somebody from breaking their neck. I told my boss that I'll come in tonight and help to teach but that I won't be spotting. She said she doubted I'd be coming in at all tonight and to call her later and let her know how I feel.

Hey, check this out. Josiah put together a slide show of pictures from our trip to the Philippines. It's really well done.

Well, this week is finals. I've already taken two tests. I have two more tomorrow and then two essays due on Thursday and then the semester will be over! I still need to study some for my nutrition test, but I'm thinking I've got a pretty good shoot at 4.0 for this semester. Pretty cool, huh?

Speaking of studying, that's exactly what I should be doing right now. Talk to y'all later!

Another interesting conversation that I over-heard today:

Guy: "You really shouldn't jump into this too fast. You just met him: you should get to know him before you start dating him. Give it three months."

Girl: "Three months! *laughs* I've never even been in a relationship that long!"

And you wonder why that is...

Ok, here's the scoop on the pictures below. I didn't have time to write anything last time.

First picture: Me holding Julieanna (how do you spell that name?) a little girl I fell in love with at an orphanage we visited.

next to that: Ryan doing con ku die with a sucker in his mouth. That struck me as very funny.

Erin and her fan club. She always had a huge number of kids who followed her around. She gave this particular group some bandanas.

A really cool fruit they have over there. It's slimy and tastes kinda like mild banana yogurt.

Josiah with a bunch of kids.

Me breaking a board.

I'm sitting in the library and the two guys next to me are a study in pathetic college dating habits.

"Dude, there's this girl I've been talking to on Facebook...her name's like Susan or something...she's cool."

"Hey, I think you got a gift from somebody..."

"No, I don't think so..."

"I'm almost certain you got a gift from a girl...you should check."

"Check this girl out (now their looking at myspace)..."

Can it get any worse than that? Don't ask...it probably can.

I will try to write a Phillipines update later this week (if I can with all this insane amount of school work to do...) but in the meantime...

I had lots of strange dreams while I was over there. Maybe because I was really tired the whole time...or maybe it was something in the food or something, I don't know. But here's an interesting one.

I had this girlfriend who I decided it would be best to break up with. So I planned a trip for the two of us to someplace in Tennesse (sp?). My plan was to make the whole trip very romantic and then have her get out of the car at out distination, tell her that I was dumping her and then leave her there.

After I'd made my plans I started to wonder if perhaps it might not be the very best of ideas. But BJ was adament: this was not just the best, it was the only way to do this. Besides, she reminded me, didn't my girlfriend have an aunt near TN? So I would actually be doing the girl a favor by taking her near her aunts house! So I decided to do it. Then I woke up.

Can you think of a more horrible way to dump a girl? Wow...I didn't know that was even in me to think of.

No time for a real update, so here's an email I just sent home. I'll try and post pictures sometime later.

Keep praying for us!

Hey guys, things are going great over here! Yesterday we went to a
remote village in the middle of nowhere...David kept telling us "these
people are VERY sensative...be very careful about anything that you
do!:" Once we got there (with our military escort...apparently
there's some tribal warfare going on) we had to sit in the truck for a
long time while they talked to the King about if we would be allowed
to even get out. Finally they did let us. The King was an amazing
looking man...dressed in rags that had at one time been nice clothes.
His right eye looked like a glass ball. I really wish we could have
taken pictures, but they didn't let us. We did a short, very tense
demo (we didn't know if they would be offended or put on edge by us
acting tough...ever tried doing kata on a hilly slope and only half
power?) and then handed out some food. The people were
starving...they get only about one meal a day is what we were told. A
nurse from the church came with us and was weighing the little kids to
see which ones were in the most desperate need of nutrition. We
didn't get to present the Gospel to them, but they knew that we were
from the church down the hill and David told us that we made an
amazing amount of progress with them and opened a lot of doors. He
said that they usually don't even let visitors off the trucks.

Sunday was great too. I went with Josiah and Tommy to a church in the
middle of nowhere and I gave the sermon. I had written myself a
salvation message sermon, but then found out it would all be
Christian's there, so I had to come up with something real quick the
night before. I talked about God's power and went through various
examples from the Bible...talking about God's power of nature, and his
power over the plans of men. It went real well. The church people
were wonderful very welcoming. I felt just like I was back in
Taiwan....we were only the second pale-faces to ever visit there and
they made a very big deal out of it. After lunch we hiked to a
different location for a Bible club with some village kids. We got
there about an hour early and I was really glad of all the various
ways I've learned to interact with kids without actually speaking to
them....we did lots of thumb wars and slapping games.

Sunday night was our first demo. It went amazingly well. Many people
were saved. :)

Monday night (after visiting the village I wrote about earlier) we did
another demo. Once again I felt like I was in Taiwan...the pale faces
always draw a crowd. The floor we were on was very dirty. Nobody
responded to the alter call, but when I talked to them afterwards and
asked what was the best part of the demo, they all said the Sacrafice
was the best...so seeds were planted.

Today we have another demo for a Muslim group. Pray for that. This
morning we went shopping...I got stuff for y'all and the kids at gym.

Ok, got to go now. I want to send a couple more emails.

Love y'all!

JJF

No real time for an update here (I'm actually supposed to be doing my math homework or writing an essay for history class...) but I'll just do something short.

I got a raise at work yesturday! Now I'm making $8/hour...not going to get rich, but it's better than the $7/hour I was making before yesturday. I love my job. There are a few students I would like to strangle but on the whole I really do enjoy it. I'll have to have Anna come to class sometime and take some pictures so I can post them on here.

I'm leaving Wednesday for the Phillipines! Ahhh! And I've got a million things to do before then. In fact...here's the list

Today:
--finish math chapter 5 homework and take the quiz.
--Post on the disccusion thread (math)
--Post on the disccusion thread (geography)
--Write an essay for history class
--Call Scott Brown
--Call Jason
--Study for nutrition exam

Tomorrow
--whatever I don't do today

Monday
--Math exam 2
--Study for nutrtion exam

Tuesday
--study for nutrition exam
--pack
--study for Cinima exam

Wednesday
--take nutrition exam
--take Cinima exam
--leave for the Browns

Thursday
--Leave for the Philipines!

And of coruse I've got to get packed and ready to go sometime during all this....ok, I've convinced myself I have no time for this post...I'm outa here! Bye!

Happy Birthday Isaac! You are now ten years old...wow! That's really hard to believe!

I'm at TCC right now, chillin' in the library. I just took two CLEP tests and I have about a three hour wait until it's time for Wankan practice...not long enough to go home, but I should have thought to bring a book with me.

At any rate, I just CLEPed out of another 6 hours! Yea baby! Intro to Educational Psychology and Information Systems & Computer App. I had actually planned on taking the challenge exam at RSU for the computer class, but I failed it! Ahh! That was annoying. It had a lot of stuff with Microsoft Access and Excel, which I haven't used very much. But I just got a 57 on the CLEP (needed a 50) so everything is good! The Educational Psychology CLEP was a little harder and I only made a 53 on it...but who cares! It counts! I'm happy!

If I had the money I would send Peggy Dugan flowers, because I learned enough in her Intro. to Psych class that I was able to pass this CLEP today. But I don't have enough money. I'll just send her a big thank you note instead.

We had Wankan come out to the BCM this week and do a demo for us. They were awesome, as usual. Only Jason, Josiah and Luke were able to come, but they did some great breaks and kata and self defense...not to mention a great Gospel presentation.

Chera, you need to leave Michigan. It's a bad state for you...you were made for much warmer climates. But I'm afraid I can't really recommend Oklahoma to you...it's not a very good state either. Try Texas.

I talked to Dr. Ford last week about my plans for my college future. I told him that I'll be at NSU next semester and he didn't scream at me or anything, so it went well, I guess. He also let me drop Sociology, which frees up my Tuesday and Thursday mornings completely. Which is a very good thing: I need to start working on my term paper for history class. He wants a 12-15 page paper! ouch!

The clock is ticking down to leaving for the Philippines! I'm so excited!

But not nearly as excited as I am about going to Taiwan. I can' t wait for that.

Ok, I'm going to go find a quick trip and get something to eat. Bye!

新年快樂!!!!!

Hope you all have a great year of the pig!

The RSU Honors Program is so frustrating. I'm going to be glad to be leaving it after this semster, although I am REALLY going to be missing my scholarship!

I'm going to be talking to Dr. Ford (the director of the program) on Friday. I'm going to have to convince him to let me drop a class and tell him that I'm leaving the program. Pray it goes well.

Hello folks. It's time for movie reviews with Samuel!

Serenity: Very interesting movie. The plot wasn't all that great, but it had a couple good characters. Of course for me the most interesting part was the Chinese aspect of it. I wish they had put in a little more Chinese than they had, but it was still really cool as it was. Probably the funniest part in the movie was the rough, tough spaceport bar that had the little Japanese-inspired animated panda bears dancing on TV. That was really funny. But what is it with movies that seem to be obsessed with corpses? They were all over this movie and it got annoying.

Hitch: You need to see this movie. It's extremely funny. Will Smith is awesome.

Mr. Deeds: dumb, dumb, dumb. Don't waste your time. I watched this because I felt like watching a comedy and it was one that Jamey had brought along...what a total waste of time. jamey, why did you bring it?

Oh, that reminds me...I forgot to tell y'all that I went to New Orleans over the weekend! It was a hoot. I went with our BCM director and another fellow doing pre-routing for our mission trip (which I'm not actually going on, because I"ll be in the Philipines!) The food was really good in the French Quarter. The drive was REALLY long.

If you live in Oklahoma you need to do what you can to stop Senate Bill 375. Go to HSLDA's website for more info.

Got to go now. Talk to y'all later!

If you haven't bought the CD "The Light of Things Hoped For" by Brave Saint Saturn, you need to do it soon. Here's the lyrics to one of their songs.

The girl in the alley kneels with exhaustion
She's guarded by the skinny guy who limps from some infection
Behind a veil of bleached thin hair her eyes tell a story
Like a photo of Berlin, December 1944
She's looking for a handout, she's been high for several weeks now
She's too far gone for whoring and the money just gave out

And her heart still beats inside
And the blood runs in her veins
A remnant of life remains
Her heart still beats inside

The man finally comes to the door, I've seen him several times
He always looks pissed off and his sunglasses stay on
I think he got his biceps and tattoos while in prison
And it doesnt seem to bother him when he says "go to hell"

And his heart still beats inside
The blood runs in his veins
A remnant of life remains
His heart still beats inside

The thought it comes to my mind, to somehow intervene
But it could bring me trouble, and what can I do anyway?
It's hard to be effective when it happens so often
To see a life unraveling, through drawn venetian blinds
I'm sickened by compassion, I'm stifled by my limitations
Anesthetic apathy, come take the pain away

And my heart still beats inside
The blood runs in my veins
A remnant of life remains
And my heart still beats inside

Oh God, we need you here
We're sinking fast and we don't care
The evidence is all around me, on both sides of my door
Our hearts beat

BIG BRAGGING ALERT! YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ A POST IN WHICH SAMUEL WILL BRAG TO NO END.

Haha...one morning, $120 and 7 hours of college credit! Can you say "Samuel is ripping through college like a NASCAR driver?" (I hate NASCAR...why did I use that word picture?) I just passed the natural sciences CLEP (4 hours) and the Analyzing and Interpreting Literature CLEP (3 hours) and passed both with flying colors. And I didn't do any study for them. At all. None. Zip. I'm amazing.

To all those folks who told me that "Finishing college in four years is really difficult, and I highly doubt you can do it in under four years" I say: haha! I rub your face in my victory!

I'm going to do a Thomas Sowell on everybody and write "Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene." My thoughts probably won't be nearly as good as his, but hopefully they will be interesting.

Running on a treadmill is a horrible experience. With all the ice on the roads I had not been able to run since last friday, so Thursday I broke down and went into the rec center at school and got on a treadmill for the first time in my life. Ugg. Running, by definition, is supposed to be going somewhere. Not standing still. I ran 3 miles and it was really, really tough. Today I ran 3.4 miles outside and it was a piece of cake.

TV really, really, really needs some new ideas for sit coms. While running I was forced to watch a really stupid one. Ugg.

I called Andrew (in Kinmen) a few days ago and had a really great chat with him. I miss hanging out with Andrew.

Finishing college debt free is going to be a huge load that I will not have to worry about once I graduate. But until then it's going to be tight. Good news is that I found out today that NSU accepts a very large number of CLEP tests and I can CLEP out of 15 hours of my upper level courses.

Car radios are a wonderful thing.

Chuck Colson made a very good point recently about the war in Iraq. We can argue back and forth all day about if we should have gone in or not, but the fact is that we're in. We've made promises to the Iraq people which we are morally bound to keep, even if it is difficult.

And at the risk of sounding hard hearted, I'm going to say that, from a historical perspective, Iraq has not been a blood bath nor a quagemire. Several thousand deaths in four years is horrible, yes. But it's war folks! Did you think people weren't going to die?

I hate the cold. Hate, hate, hate it.

I wonder if the testing of the brown belts won't end up being in Feb. because of all this bad weather.

Monsters Inc. is the best Pixar movie to date. Hands down. I love the rest of them, but nothing can beat Monsters Inc. The characters and the story are just awesome.

I'll leave you with a question: what is the best animated movie of all time?

Happy New Year folks!

Well, 2006 was a great year filled with all sorts of amazing happenings. It's strange to think it's over, but exciting to think of what 2007 will bring.

The first big event of 2006 was winter camp at Zhong Zhun (中正). That was a hoot. Andrew was our camp leader (as always) and I got the most advanced team. They were the most amazingly well behaved kids I'd ever had in camp up to that point. One day we had 80 (I repeat, 80) kids in the gym and I was supposed to teach some basic juggling stuff. So before we passed out beanbags I told them that they couldn't juggle until I said "Go!" and had to stop when I yelled "Stop!" And they did! I was totally amazed! All I had to do was yell "Stop!" real loud one time and they all ran back to the front of the gym and stood waiting for instructions! Wow!

After that it was winter camp at Yong Lu (永樂) in Nantou. This was a camp for kids with really good English and we were not allowed to speak Chinese at all. I had the highest team, which meant they understood almost anything I said. I also had the dumbest boys on my team. No, I'm not being mean...they honestly were dumb. At one point they were supposed to be cleaning the boys shower...so they hooked the hose to the nozzle (which was in the shower room), took the hose outside, around the building and in the other door! Of course by then it wasn't long enough to actually spray down the shower. I didn't offer any help...instead I called Daniel over and we both stood there and laughed at them.

All in all, Yong Lu was great. It was kinda a strange "coming full cirle" for me. I had been at Yong Lu exactly one year before when I first arrived in Taiwan. So it was really neat to see the same things again, but with a years experiance to inform it. I also got to see Cindy, who was my very first friend in Taiwan!

After that we went back to Kinmen and started another semester. That was about when I declared war on a couple of my classes at Ging Who (金湖). I was tired of them acting up in class and the teacher would never do anything about it...so I took over classroom control. For some classes I just stood in the back of the classroom and threatened to kill anybody who misbehaved. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but it sure was a lot better than the way things had been before!

It was also during that semester that I began doing extra Chinese classes. Those were a hoot. Friday I met with Jean (a friend who's two kids were my students) and we worked on reading and vocabulary. And on Monday I met with Sandy (a wonderful lady who runs a cram school) and worked on writing and vocabulary.

Of course the biggest event of that semester was MOM COMING TO VISIT ME! She stayed for a full month! I can't even say how wonderful it was. She went to school with me and helped me teach (actually she did a lot of teaching...she's real good at it, so why not?) The weekend before she left we went to Taipie and visited friends and saw the sites.

At the end of the semester I made what was supposed to be a quick trip to Taiwan to see the 9th graders at Show Zsteye (秀才) graduate. I had a great time with them...but then everything fogged over and I was stuck in Taipie for 2 extra days because nobody was flying to Kinmen! Boy was that annoying! I ended up missing the 城中 graduation, which was very sad. :(

The end of the semester was also very sad...leaving Kinmen was tough. I would walk down the street and students would run out of shops and say they heard I was leaving and say goodbye.

Then came ABC camps. Oh my Lord...how to describe ABC camps? King Car does a summer program in which American Born Chinese (ABC's) college students come over for six weeks in the summer and teach English camps. Ginger and I were in charge of training them for the camps and then helping them to run them. We had 18 ABC's...many of which were great folks...but many of which were not! We had several guys who wouldn't quit drinking in spite of the fact that King Car had made it clear from day one that was not allowed. Then King Car refused to crack down on those who did. So next we had drunken parties going on in the dorm rooms after camp...I got really ticked off when they spilled beer all over Andrews bed. Eventually it got to the point that King Car wanted Ginger and I to be in charge of enforcing the rules, but they pointedly refused to support us in anyway. So we finally decided it would be best to tell King Car we weren't going to do the ABC camps any more. God worked things out wonderfully (amazingly, actually) and both Ginger and I ended up going home sooner than expected!

Once I got home I had about 2 weeks to get ready for starting school. I promptly got sick. But once I got over that I was able to jump right into things...karate, school, gymnastics, church...it's great to be back home. But I miss Kinmen a ton.

Since then I have signed up for a mission trip to the Philipines during spring break, joined the leadership coucil for the Baptist College Ministries at RSU, decided to transfer to NSU and study English Education, made a 4.0 on the first semester, found out that there is a very good chance of skipping my 2 year of college if I work hard this semester...

And I guess that's pretty much my year! If you've read this far, give yourself a gold star.

Howdy folks. This is going to be a real update for once...not just a couple sentances pounded out on a campus computer in between running around like a chicken with my head cut off. :)

Life, as I find myself saying real often of late, is crazy. I've been keeping very busy but still managing to stay alive. I've also discovered that mid-afternoon naps are one of the greatest things ever.

Ok, let's start off talking about some interesting events at college in relation to the Honors Program and my scholarship. You see, I'm part of the Honors Program at RSU. But the degree I'm working on is Elem. education, which is actually a program done in cooperation with Cameron U. Just a few months ago, the word came down from RSU administration that all RSU scholarship do not cover the elem. ed degree because it's not techincally a degree from RSU. Because of that, I was told that my 4 year honors scholarship will go bye-bye after two years, when I start taking classes from Cameron. Yikes.

This was a really big shock to me, to say the least. But after telling myself to calm down several times, praying a lot and talking to Mom, I began to see that perhaps this is in fact a good thing. Elem. ed isn't really what I'm interested in (I didn't really like teaching in Elem. school) and I was only doing that degree because my scholarship was at RSU and it was the closest I could get to an English Education degree. Now that I'm looking at the fact that I don't have a scholarship, I've decided I might as well finish up my gen. ed requirements at RSU and then transfer over to NSU (another college about 30 minutes from our house) and do their English education degree. I'm also looking into the possiblility of transfering into the NSU honors program...hopefully I can still have a good scholarship too!

In other (school related) news: I have a 4.0 for the fall semester! This is very wonderful news, because I wasn't sure if I would get an A in Honors Seminar. It was extremely difficult to figure out what the teacher wanted in that class, among many other issue that I had with the class. But I did get an A! Yea! Right now I'm taking an intersession class (Intro to Psychology). Interestingly enough, Chera, I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit. The teacher is really good. THe first day of class she told us that Freud was a cocaine addict who's theories contradicted each other. Cool, huh? We had a test on Friday that was pretty difficult, but I'm still (just barely!) holding an A in the class.

Thursday I took the biology CLEP test and passed it. Next I'll be taking the chemistry CLEP and then the Social Sciences CLEP. If I am able to pass those two CLEP tests...I will have cut an entire year off of my college education. Cool, no? (BTW, Chera, that is why I am working so hard to mass up credits. I'd like to go over to NSU as a junior.)

Ok, enough about school. In other news, I am now vice president of the BCM (Baptist College Ministries) leadership council. The world really is run by those who show up. I'll be in charge of orginizing some type of original, creative devotional for our Wednesday lunch ministry. I'm really excited about it...and if any of you have ideas on creative ways to present Biblical truths to college students, let me know!

In addition to that, Ethan and I are working on putting together some promotional material for our juggling show, hoping to get more gigs lined up. My hope is to use that to help pay for my trip to the Philipines with WanKan.

Have I posted about that on here? I can't remember. I'm going with WanKan (which is the demo team from our karate dojo) and some folks from a sister dojo down in Texas to the Philipines over spring break. We'll be in one of the larger cities (I can't remember the name) doing demos and preaching. I'm very excited about it!

Last Monday was belt promotions for all the under brown belts who had tested in the last month or so. BJ got her blue belt (you should have seen her board breaking, it was awesome!), Isaac got his green belt (he's been waiting a long time for this and is really excited to have gotten it!) and Naomi got her brown belt (her fighting was really tough, but she stuck with it and came out in one peice)! Beside those in our own family, we have got some really impressive looking lower belt at our dojo. There's several (newly) orange and green belts who I'm really excited about. Next month Ethan, Joshua, Anna and I will all be testing. Ethan wants to be testing for his black belt this next fall: I hope he gets to, because that way I can watch him test instead of testing at the same time as him. As fun as it is to say "We'll test together!" it can actually be kinda frustrating at times, because you don't get to see the other fellow do much of their test!

BJ, Anna and I are getting really excited about going to Taiwan next summer. We'll get to spend about a week in Taiwan visiting friends (in Taipie and Nantoe) and then we'll fly out to Kinmen and spend the rest of our time there. I can barely wait!

We watched The Terminal the other day. I really like that movie, which is rather supprising, because I totally hate any other Steven Speilburg (sp?) movie. Mom and Dad don't really like it because of the stewardess character, but I think she's exactly what the movie needs. Her job is to stand as a contrast to Victor as somebody who values commitment. So while she isn't a good character, she is necessary to the plot.

Ok, I've got to get off now. Mom just came home with pizza!

Merry Christmas everybody! God bless y'all!

4.0

And I'm too busy to write anything else. I've got to do a project for psychology class tonight (taking an intersession course) and study for the CLEP test I'm taking tomorrow afternoon...life is fast paced!

Literally moments ago I just finished my first semester of college. I now have 22 credits to my name.

Honors Seminar: at least a B, hopefully an A.
Cell Biology: A
Chinese: A
Music: A
Speech: A (top student in class)
Government: A
Comp 1: CLEPed, no grade.

Cool beans, huh?

I'M DONE WITH THE FREAKING HONORS SEMINAR!!!!!!!! THANK GOD!!!!!!!

Short little thought here about the use of language which is considered to be not so polite. It would seem to me that there are times when such language is appropriate.

This is sparked by just seeing a friends title on Google talk...it said "Frankly my dear I don't care." Now please. While "I don't give a damn" is not the polite way to say it, it never was meant to be a polite sentance! Words have meaning, even the rude ones. To replace "I don't give a damn" with "I don't care" is to totally remove the entire meaning of the sentance.

I'M GOING TO KINMEN NEXT SUMMER!!!!!!!!!! MAY 11th TO AUG. 2nd!!!!!

我剛才把我們的機票買好了!

BJ *AND* Anna are going to be going as well!

This will probably be something of a ramble today. Things are both going well and not going so well...no, I shouldn't go so far as to say that...things are going well and I'm wondering what God is trying to show me in a couple situations.

Saturday was the annual Missions Tournament and it was (as usual) a hoot. Last Monday Mr. Murry had us brown belts each perform a kata for the white belt class, and since I knew that Ethan was going to do Wan Si Sho, I decided to do Teno, just so things didn't get boring. Well, I did Teno and Mr. Murry comes up to me afterwards and says "Hey, you should do that kata for the tournament." AHH!! Never mind the fact that I hadn't practiced Teno seriously for over a year and that Wan Si Sho has been my compitition kata for three years now! And I'd been practicing it for the tournament! So with 5 days to go I started work on Teno instead, hoping that I didn't fall flat on my face while doing it.

So at any rate, Saturday comes and it turns out that Anna and I will be in the same division...over 18 brown belts (not "more than 18 brown belts" but "brown belts over 18 years of age"). So Anna does her kata (did a pretty good job of it too! Got a 9 from Mr. Logston!) And then I go out to do mine...at that point the black belts were doing their weapons forms but Mr. Holzbaugher sits right next to the judges and stares directly at me during the entire kata! But I got really good scores...8, 9 and 9! And when they called up the winners, Anna took third place and I had first! WEEE!!! Mr. Holzbaugher even told me I did a good kata afterwards!

For fighting they put adult brown belts with adult black belts...and I made the really silly mistake of standing next to Jeff Logston when they were writing down our names for the fighting. Duh. He's a third degree black belt who is REALLY fast.

Just as we stepped into the ring to fight Anna grabbed my arm and whispered "Mr Miller is standing behind you." Oh, music to my ears! I ran over to him. "Don't get set. He's fast...you have to move. Don't be there when he tries to hit you." I bowed in, touched gloves and dropped into my fighting stance...an annoyed voice behind me calls out "Your already set!" So from that point on I was, as BJ described it, the Spastic Fighter. Say whatever you may about my fighting, I was on my toes for that fight! And it actually worked! I was supprised to discover that fighting him was a lot like fighting Brittany...He was very fast and if I let him get into me then it was all over...but he didn't have a particularly good defense and if I came in quick with my hands I had him. In the end he beat me 4 to 3...which is not bad at all, if you ask me. Mr. Miller was pretty pleased with it as well. (oh, and Jeff Logston went on to win first in fighting, as well as the overall excellent competitor award.)

In other news...Naomi took 3rd in kata and 1st in sparring. Ethan took 2nd in kata and did not place in sparring...whole nother story there! Isaac placed in kata, but he didn't remember what place he got! LOL! Joshua took first in kata and wasn't able to fight because there wasn't any other male brown belts his age to fight against! Poor fellow was pretty bumed about that. BJ placed 5th in kata (in a very large division) and got good scores as well. She lost her first fight...she would jump in with one strike and then didn't know what to do after that...have to work with her on some combos.

Ok, enough about the tournament...I'm sure I've bored all of you to death. If you are still reading...then you probably have no life. lol

Got some very bad news today. I'm in the honors program here at RSU, which covers tuition, books and fees...very sweet deal. RSU does a program with Cameron U. which allows students to do their first two years at RSU, and then take classes from Cameron at the RSU campus to get a degree in elem. ed. So I'm doing that. Well, I just found out that once I finish my second year and start taking classes from Cameron, my scholarship will go bye bye! AHHHH!!!!!!!! This is very scary news for me. I'm trying to think of what i might be able to do to pay for my last 2 years and I'm trying to think how God might be leading me through this. Please pray for me...pray I can figure out what God wants me to do without too much beating my head against a wall.

Ok, I've got to go now...this keyboard is not ergonomic (sp?) and my hands feel like they are about to fall off. I hate flat keyboards. talk to y'all later.

Howdy again folks...I'm going to be posting more of those "big moments" hopefully soon...but for now a little bit of a rant. For those of you who don't understand it...just know that I'm frustrated with what I'm doing right now and really, majorly miss Kinmen.

我不想上大學. 我只想回家! 我的家人和一些超好的朋友在這裡, 但是我的心還在金門.

跟我上課的同學大部分都很無聊, 而且很幼稚喔! 我的老師六分之五教的不太好. 大部分得時候我們在學的東西沒什麼好用. 問題不是我不喜歡學東西. 問題是我現在不要學這些東西, 反我很想繼續學國語! 我在金門的時候我的腦筋一直在忙, 一直學好許多東西. 對我來說, 我正在學的東西不多. grr....

And even that doesn't really fully express what I'm feeling or why I'm frustrated. And part of it is that I'm just feeling pretty depressed right now. Please pray that I do manage to get back to Kinmen over the summer...having that to look forward to would give me a big boost right now.

Howdy folks. This is a post I've thought about making for some time (several years actually) but never really did. I think it will probably turn into several installments, because as soon as I push the "publish" button then I'll think of something else that I want to add.

At any rate, I've been thinking some about those moments in your life that stand out really, really clear to you. Perhaps they were big turning points for you or maybe you don't even know why you remember them so vividly. But here is an incomplete list of some of those moments in my life, in no real order.

Stacy Lewis' baby. I was probably about 10 or 11 years old when I went with my Mom to visis our friend Stacy Lewis, who had just delivered her 4th (5th?) child. At that time they were living in a small trailer house a little ways outside of Amarillo. I spent most of the time there playing with Jake (Stacy's oldest boy) but not long before we left I got a chance to hold the new baby.

Now of course this was not my first time to hold a new born (far from it!) but for some reason when I held that particular baby I was suddenly struck with just how amazingly precious human life is. I would imagine that holding your own baby for the first time must be something like what I felt then.

Mr. Burnett's kata. About three years ago Mr. Burnett (one of Mr. Murry's first black belts and an amazing martial artist) tested for his third degree black belt. Because of some health problems he did not have to do the fighting portion of his test (he is actually blind in one eye now because he lost vision in one eye in one of his brown belt tests...somehow the stress of the test caused his eye to just give out totally) so he had spent an amazing amount of time preparing his kata. The day of the test he was sick as a dog. As all the testing candidates went through their lower forms it was to the sound of his coughing.

When he got up to do his promotion kata you could tell he was feeling really bad. He threw his first strike and then started coughing again and had to start the kata over.

But after that fit of coughing he did what was truly the most amazing, powerful and real kata I have ever seen (and I've seen some pretty good ones). As long as I live I don't know if I'll ever be able to forget that kata.

Two days into Kinmen. Or perhaps I should say the first two days in Kinmen. From the moment I landed God gave me a love for the island and it's people. On my second day there I told BonnieJean that I was considering staying on for more than the six months I had signed up for.

Easter Sunday Funeral. Two easters ago I was in Kinmen. We had a sunrise easter service in Shun Why and then came back to Jing Chun for normal service. As I walked home from church that day I felt awesome. Christ was alive and I was rejoicing in the wonderful hope we have of salvation. As I came out of an ally way I was stopped by a large group of people walking down the street. Loud drums were playing and fire crackers were going off to keep evil spirits away. A large casket was being moved down the road and the mourners follewed it, their faces covered. The utter hopelesness of the whole scene cut right to my heart. They don't have that hope that I do.

Hmm...Kinda a sad note to leave y'all on....but I need to get back to studying. I'll try and write some more at a later time. In the meantime....somebody comment! please?

Here's an essay I wrote for Honors Seminar. I thought it turned out pretty well. (Wouldn't it be great if Dr. Ford found this online and then said that I must have stolen the essay from this JJF fellow?)

------------------------------------------------

Compare and contrast two books: one that Adler would regard as “light reading” and one that he would regard as worthy of marking up. Indicate the primary differences between these books in terms of their diction, level of discourse, insight, purpose and scholarship.

In this essay I will be looking at two of my favorite books. For light reading I will examine All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot and for heavy I will examine Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. I will contend that although they are somewhat similar and both of great value, they differ primarily in the areas of presentation and attention to objections.

The first and most striking thing about these two authors is their similarity. Both are British men of some education. Both men lived through and were dramatically affected by the Second World War. Both present a way life, or a way of looking at life: Lewis the Christian view of life and Herriot the rural farmer of 1930’s-40’s England. And both of them present their view with great enthusiasm, being themselves convinced that it is indeed a good way to live life.

Where, then, do they differ? The primary difference can be seen in the way that the author goes about presenting his view of the world. Lewis rushes his topic head-on: his purpose is clear from the beginning, his points are easily outlined and discussed, and he very much takes the format of a theology teacher in a college classroom: he has important, heavy material to cover and he needs to do it by ten o’clock. There is a logical progression to his arguments that could very easily be put into a power point presentation. In contrast, Herriot is in no hurry at all. He lights a pipe and begins to weave stories which are not even in chronological order and would be a nightmare to power point. No purpose is ever stated and at first it seems there never was one to begin with: you are simply listening to an old man talk about what he has seen over the years. Yet Herriot is saying something, and as you read further you begin to pick it out piece by piece, like piecing a shredded bit of newspaper back together. Slow down he tells us. Life is not about one-upping the Jones’, it’s about hot Yorkshire pudding and satisfying work

So while Lewis pounds his desk and presses forward, using only a short illustration here and there, Herriot is nothing but illustration: a huge painting which you are watching him draw. This is why Herriot takes a lot more pages to say not nearly as much as Lewis does (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

Perhaps we can think of Lewis as a mathematician: he is describing something in as hard a way as he can. He measures angles and writes his proofs on the chalkboard, and when a student has a question or disagreement, he stops all and addresses that issue. All the while Herriot is standing before an easel drawing his vision of the world and we are merely watching him, with little or no influence on what he does, for ultimately he is not doing it for us and does not particularly care if we agree with him.

This can be seen in Lewis’ almost continual attention to objections. In fact chapter 2 of his work is titled “Some Objections”. He regularly stops and tells us what his opponents have to say about his points and shows us where or how their reasoning is wrong. His main purpose in writing is to convince us. From his perspective these objections are very much worth noting, for they have the potential to render his efforts fruitless.

Herriot, meanwhile, is not in the business of convincing anyone. Objections to his view of life are almost never mentioned and very rarely addressed. When he does answer them it is not in the format of How this objection is based on a misunderstanding of the following principles but the same format he uses throughout: story. He takes us with him to a small part of the painting that shows people living according to a different vision, walks us down a street or two and then returns us to his vision without so much as a comment on what we just saw.

So who has written the better book? Both are vitally important. The painting gives us a vision of what the math has proven. Neither is much use without the other. The math gives us faith in what we are doing, but who can pursue a mathematical formula as a way of life? What does it really look like? A painting is needed to show us. Yet a painting without the math is against our nature to pursue, for how can we know that this vision can be made into reality? We must have both.

This, then, is the critical difference: that of the mathematician and the painter. Heavy reading is written to prove something, while lighter has been written because it is something the painter has thought beautiful or useful and he simply hopes that we find it so as well.

All quotes of Fred Allen (no idea who he is, but they're funny!)

---I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

---I learned law so well, the day I graduated I sued the college, won the
case, and got my tuition back.

---I have just returned from Boston. It is the only thing to do if you
find yourself up there.

---I can't understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when
he can easily buy one for a few dollars.

---Some movie stars wear their sunglasses even in church. They're afraid
God might recognize them and ask for autographs.

---Television is a medium because anything well done is rare.

---The last time I saw him he was walking down lover's lane holding his own hand.

---What's on your mind, if you will allow the overstatement?

So the Croc Hunter is dead. At the risk of sounding totally cold hearted and callous, I must say that I do not really feel sorry for the man. It's kinda like the guys who walk high wires without nets...when they fall (and they all eventually do) you just shake your head at their stupidity and move on. I do feel very sorry for his children, but as for his wife and friends who all supported his stupid behaviour...well, that's simply what happens when you have habits like that.

School is still going well. I have my first real exam tomorrow...chapters 1-4 in General Cell Biology. I'm going to be doing some more study once I get off the computer, but I'm feeling pretty prepared for it. I've actually come to like the proffessor a little more once he started talking about more concrete things. His thinking is rather circular when it comes to the big things, but he is good at explaining the technical stuff.

Music Appriciation is somewhat odd. Still, I guess it's good to have an easy class. Honors Seminar is fun at times and odd at times. I'll be giving my first speech for speech class on the 25th...I'm looking forward to that. It will be a 5-6 minute informative speech...I think I'll probably talk about some of the different types of Chinese characters. If I can fit that topic into 5-6 minutes, of course...I might have to try something a little smaller.

Being back at karate is really awesome. I wish I had time to go out to visit some of the other dojos more often, but I don't. :(

Thursday we started classes again at Gym City. It was totally insane for a few minutes but still fun. I taught a little kids class (6 years old and up...haven't worked with kids that small for some time!), then a boys class (I wasn't actually supposed to be teaching that class but the real teacher couldn't make it that night: we had fun anyway) and then the final half of a girls 12 and up class.

我正在很想家!!! Man oh man do I miss Kinmen! And it doesn't help that my team mates just arrived back in Taiwan only a few days ago. :( We watched "Around the world in 80 days" the other day (funny but stupid movie) and I felt like crying just to hear people speaking Chinese again.

Yesturday Ethan and I went into Tulsa with a group called "Mission Tulsa" to a government housing complex and did a "back door Bible club" thing. It was really fun. We juggled and got a really good response from that. It was nice to have the chance to warm up my Christian juggling routines in a very relaxed situation after not doing them for so long.

Ok, I've got to write a couple emails and then do some more studying. Talk to y'all later!

Ok, no time for a real update, so instead I will post what I wrote in response to the question "What is Wisdom?" for honors class. If it seems disjointed I'm sorry.

What is Wisdom?

Wisdom is the ability to discern what is right and proper. It is related to but very different from knowledge. Knowledge is merely a collection of lifeless facts and findings: something that even a computer can have. Wisdom, on the other hand, is the ability to take knowledge and make judgments which do not themselves come from that knowledge.

So, while knowledge is needed for wisdom (or at least for wisdom to be shown), wisdom is something that does not itself reside in knowledge. Even with all the knowledge in the world about stem cell research available to a person, he could not from that information alone, discover whether it is right or not to use embryos for the research.

Wisdom comes in two forms, although one is in fact a derivative or shadow of the other. The first is what Socrates refers to as “some wisdom greater than human” (Apology 20b), or which I will call Divine wisdom. This is the highest of all wisdom, as it is that of the Creator and is the perspective of the One who created and understands every detail of the universe.

The second form of wisdom is human wisdom. This wisdom is the inferior of the two, yet finds its ultimate source in Divine wisdom. Contrary to the beliefs of the Calvinists, who hold that humans are completely fallen and without any good at all separate from God, I believe that by looking at the world we can see that everybody has what has been called “The spark of the Divine”: an innate ability to understand and do good. Contained in this Spark of the Divine is our capacity for human wisdom. So, while incomplete, human wisdom can, in fact, divine right from wrong. Differences between Divine wisdom and human wisdom come from either the fallen nature of human beings or the incomplete perspective that we have on the world.

If wisdom is something that we all naturally have, foolishness is not the lack of wisdom, but rather it is the despising of that wisdom which we already have and the Divine wisdom from which it comes.

Our computer got a virus, so there is no computer (and therefore no internet) at home. So I'm writing this from college. Which is why it will be a very short update.

College is going well so far. Honors Seminar is strange in that it's such an undefined topic. Honors Government is frustrating because of my raving liberal nut proffessor, but at the same time I don't mind too much because he's got a well organized class, and has laid out the pathway to an "A" pretty clearly. Honors Music Apprication is fun (the professor is cool) and doesn't seem like it will take much work. General Cell Bio. is fun to read (the textbook) but the professor isn't all that great. "Read the first couple or three chapters" he tells us for the weekend. Or "Science is what scientist do." Huh? Is it two or three chapters? And you can't use the word your defining in the definition (duh!)

Still, I'm having a good time and understanding stuff...course it's only the first week, so we'll see what I have to say about 8 weeks down the line.

For now that's all. Love y'all, bye.

Baseball is REALLY boring.

Mind numbingly boring.

Like, I mean, BORING.

Howdy there again folks. I've been home for three two weeks now! It's amazing really...feels like I've been home longer than that...and Taiwan really seems another life away. I am enjoying being with my family more than can be said. Being at the dojo is wonderful...my kata and fighting need a lot of work, but it's just great to be there. Drinking Swan's milk is of course awesome. And I've started working at Gym City again, which is really fun...I'd kinda forgotten how much I missed working there.

At the same time, I REALLY, SUPER miss Taiwan! I miss Chinese (a LOT!) And I miss how I had everything back in Taiwan figured out! I'm having to go through setting everything back up for life in the states...bank, phone, college, car insurance...even where I hang my clothes! Not to mention the team...esp hanging out with Drew. And of course all my friends in 金門.

Chera has been visiting us for the past week. We've been having a hoot with her. A few days ago we went to see Over the Hedge...I liked it. Nothing really original in the plot or anything, but it had fun and interesting characters, so it was still an enjoyable watch.

I took a CLEP test on Friday so I can get out of taking Freshmen Comp. Since it's with an essay I won't be getting my score back for a few weeks. If I did good on the multiple choice answer part of the test then I'll get 3 credit hours for Comp I. If I also get a good score on my essey then I'll get 6 credit hours for Comp I and Comp II. Tuesday I went to TCC and took the Chinese test, which I passed with 100 points. So I'll be going into the intermediate class during the second half of the semester.

Ok, I've got to go to bed now. It's almost 11 o'clock. To Samuel living in 金門 that would mean almost nothing, but to the Samuel at home with Dad wanting everybody in bed at a decent hour, that means it's night-night time.

I’m back home! YEA! It’s really awesome being back home…and really strange. Everything is in English! Everybody is fat! (really fat) All the kids speak perfect English…and none of them stare at me as I walk past.

I’m having a hoot being with the family again. Yesterday I went with BJ and Anna to Eggberts and had lunch and then we went to the theater, met up with Ethan and watched Pirates 2: Dead Man’s Chest. Wow…that was really cool. I can’t wait for the next one. Then we went to karate class, which was really cool. It was awesome to see all the folks I haven’t seen in so long. And man, I’ve got a lot of work to do in karate to get my kata and fighting back up to the level is used to be at. Today and tomorrow we don’t have many big plans…then Thursday I’m hoping to go into Tulsa and take my Chinese test….(pray for that!)

Getting home was interesting. I got in on a flight from Taiwan to LAX on stand by. I asked them about my flights on to Tulsa and they said “no time! Just go to the Delta desk at LAX and they will get it worked out for you!” So I ran (literally) to catch the plane and when I landed in LAX there was no flight for me. Delta didn’t want to mess with my ticket because it was from China Airlines. China Airlines didn’t want to mess with it because it was for a Delta flight. I had to run back and forth between their counters about eighty million times. But finally I got a flight for the next morning. They wouldn’t pay for my hotel that night (drat) but really, paying a total of $85 in order to get home two weeks early isn’t a bad trade off.

Ok, I’ve got to go now. Bye y’all!

About this time last week I was getting really frustrated with the ABC's and King Car...I went running and was listening to my "running" mix on my ipod...this song started playing. It discribed my situation so well that I listened to it like three more times.

So here it is. Parts that apply to me are in bold.

By Myself---Linkin Park


What do I do to ignore them behind me?
Do I follow my instincts blindly?
Do I hide my pride / from these bad dreams
And give in to sad thoughts that are maddening?
Do I / sit here and try to stand it?
Or do I / try to catch them red - handed?
Do I trust some and get fooled by phoniness,
Or do I trust nobody and live in loneliness?
Because I can’t hold on / when I’m stretched so thin
I make the right moves but I’m lost within
I put on my daily façade but then
I just end up getting hurt again

by myself [myself]
I ask why, but in my mind
I find I can’t rely on myself

[myself]
I ask why, but in my mind
I find I can’t rely on myself

I can’t hold on
To what I want when I’m stretched so thin
It’s all too much to take in
I can’t hold on
To anything watching everything spin
With thoughts of failure sinking in

If I
Turn my back I’m defenseless
And to go blindly seems senseless
If I hide my pride and let it all go on / then they’ll
Take from me ‘till everything is gone
If I let them go I’ll be outdone
But if I try to catch them I’ll be outrun
If I’m killed by the questions like a cancer
Then I’ll be buried in the silence of the answer

[by myself]
[myself]
I ask why, but in my mind
I find I can’t rely on myself
[myself]
I ask why, but in my mind
I find I can’t rely on myself

I can’t hold on
To what I want when I’m stretched so thin
It’s all too much to take in
I can’t hold on
To anything watching everything spin
With thoughts of failure sinking in

How do you think / I’ve lost so much
I’m so afraid / I’m out of touch
How do you expect / I will know what to do
When all I know / Is what you tell me to
Don’t you (know)
I can’t tell you how to make it (go)
No matter what I do, how hard I (try)
I can’t seem to convince myself (why)
I’m stuck on the outside

How do you think / I’ve lost so much
I’m so afraid / I’m out of touch
How do you expect / I will know what to do
When all I know / Is what you tell me to
Don’t you (know)
I can’t tell you how to make it (go)
No matter what I do, how hard I (try)
I can’t seem to convince myself (why)
I’m stuck on the outside

I can’t hold on
To what I want when I’m stretched so thin
It’s all too much to take in
I can’t hold on
To anything watching everything spin
With thoughts of failure sinking in

I can’t hold on
To what I want when I’m stretched so thin
It’s all too much to take in
I can’t hold on
To anything watching everything spin
With thoughts of failure sinking...




*grins* But that's all ok now...'cause God pulled me out of that situation. :) Now I should probably go talk to Fuga and see what he's done about my ticket...

Wow. God is truly amazing. Sometimes I get a little bit annoyed with the statement "God did something I could never have even imagined." 'cause I'm like "oh come on, surely you could have at least imagined it!"

But God has done something that I truly never could have imagined. Perhaps those of you who have not worked with King Car will not totally understand this next part, but those of you who have most certainly will.

God has worked things out so that left the ABC camps before the scheduled time and if things work out as far as re-scheduling my ticket, I will even be going home early. And yet I still have a good relationship with King Car. I am leaving with their consent and even support.

This is truly impossible. This simply doesn't happen. Perhpas sometime I'll write out the story of what happened in ABC camps and why it was that Ginger and I needed to leave and how God worked everything out for us...but not now. Now I'm going to go have lunch.

And tonight I can sleep without worrying which ABC is out getting drunk...

I'm leaving.

This place I love, these people I love...tomorrow I'm leaving it all. Today has been rather strange...I'll be walking down the street and suddenly it will hit me...this is probably the last time I'll walk down this street for a long time. A friend will wave at me and I'll wave back, wondering if I'll ever see that person again. I went to the candy store today to get some prizes for camp and there was Banana, one of my students from Sunday school. I bought him some candy too...who knows when I'll have the chance to do that again?

I went to church after camp today and said goodbye to Joy and Samuel and Lin and Kuyu. That was tough...really tough. Then I just went into the church and sat there for a while. I know it's just a building, but that place means a lot to me. Then I had to go say good bye to Lucy. I stayed at her place for about and hour and then had to leave. As I walked away she yelled after me "Samuel! The fog is big!" (long story...BJ will probably get it though)

I stopped by my favorite fruit stand and bought an apple on the way home and said good bye to the owner. There's so many small friendship like that that I have here that make it so hard to leave. I got to thinking about it the other day...I literally know several thousand people here on this island.

The closer I get to leaving, the greater my longing for my home back in the States becomes. I can't wait to get to the Tulsa airport and see my family. I can't wait to drink Swan's Dairy milk. I can't wait to bow into the dojo at BattleCreek.

Tired.

Hating King Car.

Missing Andrew, Lucas, Megan and Rebekah.

Wishing Andrew was leading this camp and I was just a follower, like we usually do.

Not wanting to leave Kinmen this Saturday.

Wanting to go home as soon as I do leave Kinmen.

Pray for me please. Pray that I keep my focus on serving the people I'm leading.

Random thoughts of a guy who should be in bed:

--One of the coolest compliments you can get is when somebody who has good English chooses to speak Chinese to you. Recently Kiwi (who lived in the States for many years and has almost perfect English) had several conversations with me in Chinese. *grins* Then tonight Annie, a math teacher who lived in England for many years, held a very long conversation with me in Chenglish. *big grin again*

--Aboriganals really got all the good looks. Seriously.

--There's some kids who lived near the Jr. high that love to say "hello!" to any of us that walk by. It can make your day to have 4 or 5 three year olds running in your direction yelling "hello!" and giving you a high five.

--A little further down the same road is a group of kids who love to arrest me. One time they asked me where I was going and I told them I was going to steal a pizza. Ever since then they all come running when they see me and shoot me and yell at me and yell for the police. Last week they tied me up with a rope they had near hand and tried to drag me into their house (I didn't really want to go into their house, so I slipped out of the rope...it wasn't exactly tied tightly).

--BJ, did I tell you that they've torn down the termite building at church? And started construction on the new one? :)

--Gossip may not be right, but it certainly is interesting at times.

--I had super with Claudia and Normal on Friday night. It's really fun to hang out with people who are obviously in love but they can be in the same room without being totally wrapped up in each other to the point that nobody else can talk to them. Norman and Claudia are a really cool couple and I'm going to miss hanging out with them.

--Some jokes only make sense in Chinese. Picture this: smelly fish vender falls on top of flower expert. She says "Wow, you smell so beatiful!" He replies "You are so...so...hello." In Chinese that's halarious. In English it doesn't make any sense.

--I want to fight. I haven't been fighting enough lately. I can't wait to get home and get back into karate!

--Mr. 張, the coolest teacher I've ever worked with, says he's going to retire in a year or two. Drat. I was hoping he might still be teaching when I got back from college. 'Course he's been teaching for something like 40 years, so I guess if he wants to retire he can.

--I just had a good talk to Joh E about plans for large group during camps. He had some really good ideas and it was good to just talk my plans over with somebody as well. I feel like I've got a better grasp on what it is I'm going to be doing now.

--I'm experiancing more fear over going back to the States than I ever had about coming to Taiwan. I think culture shock is going to be really big this time...after only six months I had a lot of culture shock last year. Oh boy.

--Reviewed our summer sceduale with Ginger last night. Looks like we'll have at least one day a week (or most of a day) for resting. Thank you God!

--Last Wednesday I had to say good-bye to my Wednesday night high school class. That was really, really hard. Lots of crying.

--It looks like I might actually be able to fit all my stuff into my suitcases. Wow.

--Nothing feels better than going to Lucy's and getting a mesage. Nothing.

--For the week I'm doing camps in Kinmen I really, really hope we can get our boxed lunches from Monkey's. I'm going to miss that place a lot when I leave.

--Susan is going to be at the High School dorm next year. It's really strange to think of the dorm without her.

--I'm excited about Chera being in Oklahoma when I get home. But I hope I'm actually alive enough at that point to get to visit with her.

--Tomorrow is my last day at 金湖...is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure. I'm certainly not going to miss teaching there, but there's some really, really cool kids at that school. I'm going to miss classes 501 and 504. I'm not going to miss 502.

--I'm going to bed now. Good night!

Deep Conversations with a 5th grader

5th grade girl: "Oh my, Samuel has chest hair!" (for your information, I was wearing a polo shirt and the top two buttons were undone...I was not walking around school without a shirt on) "Chest hair is disgusting."

Me: "No, it's really handsome!"

5th grade girl: "I think it's disgusting. But lots of girls think it's really manly."

Another 5th grade girl: "Why do foreigners have so much chest hair anyway?"

5th grade girl: "It's 'cause they're more closely related to monkeys."

Me: "We didn't come from monkeys!"

5th grade girl: "Yes we do!"

Me: "You really think we came from monkeys?"

5th grade girl: "If not, then where did we come from? What, did God create it all?"

Me: "Of course!"

5th grade girl: "Well, if God created it all, then what about hobbits?"

EasyWay girls are STUPID. Apparently God spent so much time giving them good looks that he forgot to insert their brains.

Last week during Chinese class Joy decided to buy drinks for us. So she used Rebekah's phone to call and order. About HALF AN HOUR later they call and ask "where are you guys again?" Now this is rather strange, considering that their drink stands is with TEN FEET of the Jr. High.

"You don't know where the Jr. high is?" Rebekah asked in amazment.

"Oh, I know that. But how do I get in?"

" You don't know where the entrance is?"

"No."

Now this is also supprising, considering that she could follow the big sign that says "Jing Chun Jr. High school, this way" with an arrow pointing in the right direction. Apparently this was too hard for her to understand.

So Rebekah gives her very detailed instructions, THREE TIMES, on how to get to the entrance. She then has to give detailed instructions several times on how to find the dorm (it would seem that "next to the gym" was stretching her mental abilities and it took awhile to sink in).

HALF AN HOUR later, she finally shows up. And of cousre, she has no change. The total was NT$215, and we were having a little trouble coming up with exact change, so I offered her $220. And the idoit had the nerve to refuse!

Or perhaps she couldn't do that math to figure out I was giving her five NT. Yea, that's probably it.

Ok Mom, remember that song "Fairy Tale" that you like? Here's what happens if you plug it into an online translator...lol.

Fairy tale - Wang Kuangliang
How long forgot to have has not heard to you to me to say again you most loved the story I had thought very was long I to start to fluster is I is mistakenly any
---------------------------
you to cry to me to say perhaps in the fairy tale all was I which deceived people is impossible is your prince you can understand from you said will like me later my sky star all shining
---------------------------
me to be willing that angel which turned in the fairy tale you to love to open both hands to turn the wing to protect your you to have believed we could like in the fairy tale story happiness and are joyful are result
--------------------------
I must turn that angel which in the fairy tale you loved to open both hands Turns the wing to protect your you to have believed we can like in the fairy tale story happiness and joyful are result
--------------------------
I can turn that angel which in the fairy tale you loves to open both hands to turn the wing to protect your you to have believed we can like in the fairy tale story happiness and are joyful are the result write our result together

ROFLOL! That's just too funny for words. Below I've written my own translation, which makes a little more sense. :)

I've forgotten how long it's been since you told your favorite story to me.
I thought about this for a long time, and began to panic. Is it that I've done something wrong again?
You were crying when you told me that the fairly tale was all a lie, and that I couldn't possibly be your prince.
Perhaps you don't understand that from the day you told me you loved me, the stars in my sky have been shining brightly.

Chorus: I wish* I could change into the angel from the story that you love, and open my arms as wings to be your gaurdian.
You should believe that we can be like the fairy tale, and have a "happy ever after" ending.

*second time "want" third time "can".

And finally, here it is in Chinese.

忘了有多久 再沒聽到你 對我說你最愛的故事
我想了很久 我開始慌了 是不是我又做錯了甚麼
# 你哭著對我說 童話裡都是騙人的 我不可能是你的王子
也許你不會懂 從你說愛我以後 我的天空星星都亮了

我願變成童話裡 你愛的那個天使 張開雙手 變成翅膀守護你
你要相信 相信我們會像童話故事裡 幸福和快樂是結局

Repeat #我要變成童話裡 你愛的那個天使 張開雙手 變成翅膀守護你
你要相信 相信我們會像童話故事裡 幸福和快樂是結局

我會變成童話裡 你愛的那個天使 張開雙手 變成翅膀守護你
你要相信 相信我們會像童話故事裡 幸福和快樂是結局 一起寫我們的結局

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!

Girl, I really miss you. Often when we're all together as a family it seems like somebody is missing...there will always be an empty spot in our home. But I'm sure you're doing a lot better up there. I love you and happy birthday!

PS Had you lived I suspect that my birthday card to you would have been late. So I thought it fitting that this message also be late. ;-)

from http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/09/molester.execution.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Oklahoma is 5th state to OK death for repeat molesters
Legal scholars doubt law is constitutional

Friday, June 9, 2006; Posted: 11:36 p.m. EDT (03:36 GMT)

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) -- Oklahoma on Friday became the fifth state to allow the death penalty for certain sex crimes, although legal scholars questioned the constitutionality of the new state law.

Under the measure signed by Gov. Brad Henry, anyone convicted twice for rape, sodomy or lewd molestation involving children under 14 can face the death penalty.

South Carolina's governor signed a similar law on Thursday allowing the death penalty for offenders convicted twice of raping children younger than 11. Louisiana, Florida and Montana also have laws allowing the death penalty for certain sex crimes.

Defense attorneys and death penalty experts said the laws defy recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have scaled back the death penalty's application.

Barbara Bergman, president of the Washington-based National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said Supreme Court decisions have made it clear that the death penalty is reserved for someone who has taken another life.

"I'm not saying that raping a child is not a horrible crime, but no one has died," said Bergman, who was part of the defense team that avoided the death penalty for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols following his 2004 conviction on 161 murder counts.

David Brook, a law professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, said the measure might actually put a child rape victim's life at risk.

"The last message you want to give an offender who has the life of a child in his hands is you might as well kill the child because he's already got the death penalty," said Brook, who runs the Virginia Capital Case Clearing House, which assists lawyers in death penalty cases. "This is a very stupid message."

No one convicted of a sex offense has been executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment 30 years ago, though one inmate is on death row in Louisiana following his 2003 conviction for raping an 8-year-old girl.

South Carolina's new law is named for 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, a Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped and suffocated last year by a registered sex offender.

"Jessie's Law is about sending a very clear message that there are some lines you do not cross, and that if those lines are crossed the penalties will be severe," said South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

---------------------------------

This brings up several issues about which I feel rather strong.

1 The phrase "repeat child molester" should be something of a joke. After the first time they ought to throw out the key. Same goes for rape.

2 Rape or molestation is a horrible, aweful crime, yes. But I'm afraid I have taken a different side on this issue. I am opposed to death penalty for anything other than murder. While rape is horrible, no life was taken. Some might argue that emotionally it can be compared to murder, but I would hold otherwise. A rape person can still laugh, can still feel the wind, and still enjoy life. It's certainly difficult, but it is possible to move on. There isn't any "moving on" after you die. There's no counciling that's going to bring you back to your loved ones once you are dead. So I hold that rape is not on a level with murder.

In addition to that, I don't see that we have the right to use capital punishment for rapist. As my understanding of the covenent with Noah goes, God said that "whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."

3 "I'm not saying that raping a child is not a horrible crime, but no one has died," said Bergman, who was part of the defense team that avoided the death penalty for Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols following his 2004 conviction on 161 murder counts."

Remember how important it is to maintain a good reputation. This lady just made a totally true statement that I in fact agree with. But her assosiation with a murderer renders even her TRUE statement to actually give support to the opposite side.

Ok, I'm going to bed now. Night.

Pastor Samuel and his kids (this picture about a year old).




Places, people and situations I miss summed up very well in this picture. I hate teaching elemterary. I miss Jr. high.

No time to post (I'm leaving for school in 15 minutes) but I thought I'd share this picture really quick with y'all. If you ever get the chance to go to Kenting, go! It's awesome.