This was written on the 28th of Dec.

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I think Anna is going to kill me if I don't update sometime soon. She's been bugging me for a long time and in fact her pleas have taken on kind of a fatalistic tone. "So...have you just given up on the whole blogger thing?" she asked me last night.

NO! It's not dead! It simply was flash frozen for the fall '07 semester...now that that semester is over, perhaps I'll be able to thaw it out.

So, here's an attempt at an update on what has been going on since Aug. of this year.

AUG: I start a new job and classes at a new school. NSU, for the most part, has been great. All classes meet only once a week...so if you take a three hour class, then you meet once a week...for three hours. That took a little while to get used to, but actually I like it a lot better now. I'm able to take 15 hours and go to school only three days a week. This past semester I took Advanced comp 1, grammar, world lit, pre-intern 1 and special ed. Advanced comp was a class that went from 7:20 to 10:00 pm...but it was actually one of my favorite classes, in spite of the late hours. Our instructor was very good and had enough energy to keep us awake when it got late. Grammar was horrible. I didn't have a very good foundation in basic grammar to start with, and the teacher didn't really teach...she simply talked about advanced topics in grammar with the ten students in the class who understood her. I would have failed the class were it not for Kelly and Michelle, two fellow students who met with me and another student once, sometimes twice a week to help us out. I managed to get a B in the class...which was very annoying, because now I've lost my 4.0 :( Next semester I'm taking another class from the same instructor (she's the only one who teaches it and I have to take it), but Michelle will be taking it as well...and she's agreed to tutoring for another semester. I owe her big time. World lit was fun, although we did read a fair amount of total junk and it was far too euro-centric. The instructor was pretty good and he liked me (which is always a plus). Pre-intern was one of the education classes required for all education majors. We met three hours every week, plus did an 8 visit internship at a school. It was interesting to visit an American high school, since I'd never been in one before. The teacher I worked with was a fellow Christian and martial artist, so I really enjoyed working with her. Special ed was a pathetic excuse for a class...the instructor was just plain lazy. One class she actually turned on the movie Happy Feet...I kid you not.

The students at the NSU Broken Arrow campus are very different from RSU. The average age is 28, most people work full time, many are married and have kids and almost all have gotten their two year degree already (because the BA campus only offers junior and senior level classes). Overall my classmates are about twenty billion times more mature and much easier to get along with. The only exceptions are those ever annoying elem. ed majors. It really is incredible how whiny and ditzy they can be.

The new job has been great. I'm working with two guys who are mentally disabled and live in a house of their own about twenty minutes from our house. Their house is "double-staffed", so there's always two people with them 24-7. I work a 32 hour shift, from 8 am on Friday to 4 pm on Saturday. The staff sleeps at the house, and other than getting up a few times to check on the guys, it's not hard to get a full 8 hours. The guys I work with, Donald and Corky, are great. They are both very easy to get along with and they always do something to make us laugh.

SEPT: Um....surely something happened in september. But I can't think of anything.

OCT: WanKan (the demo team from our karate dojo) did a demo for our church's fall festival. Although I am not offically part of the team (yet) I was asked to help out...so this was the first demo I was part of since the Phillippines. I think it was good for Mrs. Murry to see that I do know what I'm doing as far as performing goes...hopefully I'll be on the team for real sometime soon.

NOV: more karate news. This blog is not the only thing that was left unattended during that busy semester...I quit running in September and by extension, I quit stretching. It came back to bite me at the misssions tournaments on Nov. 11th. After taking first in the brown belt mem fighting and second in kata, I was allowed to fight in the light weight black belt men's division. I won my first fight (6 to 1) and then fought Luke, one of the black belts from our dojo. In the second to last clash of the fight I threw a high right kick...and heard a nasty "pop" in my left leg. I pulled my hamstring, and then lost the fight in the next clash. :( But I did take 3rd in the black belt division, which is pretty cool for a brown belt.

Ethan took second in his division in both fighting and kata...both times he lost to Josiah, a black belt from our dojo. Poor guy...he's never taken 1st in fighting yet, but he's got a whole bunch of seconds.

DEC: The semester ends! The Sunday before finals a huge ice storm hits and we lose power. They also lost power at school, so the first two days of finals are cancled. Once finals are over and I get out of work on Saturday (we're still out of power) I head down to Texas to visit the Brown family, who went with us on the Phillippines trip. I had a blast and learned some neat stuff...Scott is a really incredible martial artist. We got power back on Tuesday and I returned home on Thursday. Christmas was quiet but very fun.

Right now I'm at work, typing this blogger entry. How am doing that at work? *grins* I'm doing it on my brand new laptop! I bought it on Monday, but because of many difficulties (which have caused me to swear never to shop at Circut City again) I did not get it until today (Friday). It's an Acer 5520, with Windows Vista, a 160 g hard drive, 1 gig of ram and a 1.7 ghz processor. So far I'm pretty happy with it. With having three full time students in the house, and only one computer, we had a lot of tough juggling to do so we all got our assignments typed in on time. I decided it really would be worth it for me to get something I could just do my own work on, and I could take to a coffee shop and use wi-fi instead of messing with the slow dial up at home.

Next month I plan on testing for first degree brown belt, which means I'll probably be testing for black belt next fall. Ethan plans on testing with me. The new testing requirements also include a sword kata, two bo katas and a "three minute heavy bad demonstration" (whatever that is). So we have a fair amount to learn. But I'm excited about doing it.

Ok, happy new year to all of y'all. Love y'all and God bless.

Hello. I have no time to update, but here's just some really short info.

School is going well. I started my new job two days ago: I like it. God is good and provides for us. The response to the Origins class that I was going to be starting next week at church has been huge...we're going to have to limit the number of people who can sign up and do it several times in order to meet the demand.

I've got to get some homework done for tomorrow. Love y'all.

Jaron Holliday, a brave defender of our freedom, a young man committed to serving the Lord and doing everything to the fullest that he could has gone home to be with the Lord. Saturday the car he was in ran over a mine, killing him and two fellow soldiers. Please pray for his family...he leaves behind 7 younger siblings and a mother just now starting chemo for breast cancer.

In lots of ways this summer has been extremely depressing. It just seems that death has looked me in the face at every turn. First we recieved news that Ada May, a wonderful woman at church and wife to one of the most active guys in our church, passed away very, very suddenly. Then Jon-Eric died. Then we just found out earlier this week about Jaron. This afternoon I drove by the spot where Tamera died a few years ago and was struck by a sudden, horrible fear for the students in my Wednesday night class in Kinmen. In my somewhat short life I have only lost friends who I know I will see again...and it's been very, very tough. What about my unsaved friends? I honestly don't know if I could handle that.

On to less depressing topics...

I have a job! I will be working with disabled and retarded people as a personal living assistant. What they told me is I'll basically be living with the person for aobut 32 hours a week (8 am Friday to 4 pm Saturday) and doing everything from getting them to bed to making breakfast to cleaning the house to taking people to the movies. I'm looking forward to starting. I'm also very glad that I'll be able to work so many hours (32 a week), which will pay for my school and help a lot in saving up for the China trip.

I start school next Wednesday. I am a little apprahensive...I hope that I don't hate all my lit classes. I've never taken a lit class in my life and here I am majoring in English Education...God's ways are not only higher than ours ways, they are also very different!

Tomorrow BJ, Anna, Ethan and I will be driving up to Kansas to visit with Daniel, a friend from Taiwan. He only lives a few hours from us, but the only times I've seen him before have been in Taiwan! lol. I'm looking forward to paintball....watch out!

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

Ok, here's the poem I was telling y'all about. I had given Andy a short writing assignment and I was bored while waiting for him to finish it, so I wrote this. It was written about two weeks ago.

We sit at a table made of glass
Not far from where the Catholics hold their Mass

Andy sits across from me holding his drink
While teh waitresses listen to our English and blink

While Chinese pop blares through the air
And all the girls carry unbrellas, wanting to stay fair

My drink is lemon juice and though 有一點貴 (it's a little expensive)
I think it's worth it, for in the A/C we can stay

Hey! Some students from 小金門 just walked past
When I was their teacher we had a blast

In two short weeks I will leave this play
And return to living at a more normal pace

I will sit in class and 發 lots of 呆 (zone out)
But (hopefully soon!) 我一定要回來! (I will certainly be back!)

Ok, if I have time I'm going to try and do this thing that Anna wants me to. But my time at the cafe here is almost up.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4 and write what it says.

"...and God heard the voice of the lad..."

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch?

The Taiwanese guy next to me playing magang on the computer.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?

The Taiwanese version of American Idol. I don't know how it compares because I've never seen the American version!

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.

1:40

5. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?

1:35

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

Guys up stairs yelling in Taiwanese and Chinese, Chinese pop music, different computer games...

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

Walking away from Lucy's store after saying good bye to her. *sniff*

About 52 minutes ago. I biked here from Lucy's.

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?

Conquer

9. Did you dream last night?

Don't think so.

10. When did you last laugh?

Reading Dave Barry not long ago.

11. What is on the walls of the room you are in?

Lots of dog posters (it used to be Sarah's room and she seems to be into dogs a lot).

12. Seen anything weird lately?

Shouldn't you ask "Seen anythin normal lately?"

13. What do you think of this quiz?

Ok

14. What is the last film you saw?

Mission Impossible.

15. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?

Pay for lots of mission trips and my college. The same for everybody in my family too.

16. Tell me something about you that I don't know?

I need to go to the bathroom.

17. If you could change one thing about the world, what would you do?

I'd get rid of liberals.

18. Comment to President Bush

You can't make them happy. You should have learned that from your dad.

19. Would you ever consider living abroad?

What do you think?

20. What do you want God to say to you when you get to heaven?

"Well done, good and faithful servant."

21. Name 4 people who must also do this quiz on their blog.

I don't approve of this type of guilt trip.

Hey there. Can I complain, just a little bit? Thank you.

I POST THE COOLEST NEWS THIS BLOG HAS SEEN IN THE LAST TWO YEARS (since Douglas was saved) AND THERE'S ONLY TWO COMMENTS! I POST TOTALLY RANDOM PICTURES THAT DON'T EVEN HAVE CAPTION AND I GET 9 COMMENTS! THIS IS NOT THE WAY IT SHOULD BE! ALL OF YOU GO COMMENT ON MY PREVIOUS POST, NOW!

THAT MEANS YOU!!!

Ok, now I feel better. It's good to see you here at my blog...even though I haven't updated all that much of late. Things are going very well over here, but I can't believe I'm actually about to go back to the States on Thursday. It seems way too fast, and not totally real.

Friday night Sandy's family took us out to supper. I had thought that it would just be Sandy, Joyce (their daughter) and David (Sandy's husband). But when we walked into the resturanet (don't laugh at my spelling) there was Purity and her kids, and Tim and Joyce 1 and Milly and Tom Cruise 2 and his family (wife and two rather crazy but fun kids)...almost all the kids and parents I've taught over the past two months. We had a really good meal (when David treats it's always something good). It was Anna's first time to have a multiple course traditional Chinese meal...wow...good food. Then we got out the Dutch Blizt cards and I taught the kids how to play...they loved it. I was really supprised at how fast they learned it: most kids that age (1st to 5th grade) don't understand the rules when I try to explain them in Chinese. I guess since we've spent so much time together over the past two months they've gotten used to speaking to me and understanding what I say. After a while we went back to Sandy's house, played Blizt for about another half hour and then sat and visited with the adults 'til almost midnight. I really enjoy hanging out with those folks...they have a real sense of what a family really is...people who love each other and spend time together, instead of people who just share a house.

Tom Cruise 2 is a really neat guy. He looks a lot like a 台客 (not sure how to translate that...maybe a Taiwanese bum) but he's actually a police officer at the airport. He reminds me of Dad a little bit: when he's not a work, he's with his family. Because his work hours are constantly changing he's actually free during the day quite often, and he would always come to English class with his daughters when he was free. His wife Coco is a really neat lady too: she's given up her career to make sure she has time for her kids. She's really smart too: her English isn't all that great, but she can figure out things that I'm trying to get across very quickly.

Her girls are a hoot. Paige is going into 1st grade in September. She's always happy and full of energy and has a crazy and active imagination. She is smart...sharp as a tack. She'll remember vocabullary long before anybody else in the class has got it down...and she'll remember it two weeks later, as well. Her sister Blossom is going into 2nd grade. She's a lot quieter and not as loud, but she's still lots of fun. She loves to walk up to me and grab for my chest, then pull her hand away and pretend that she just grabbed my heart.

Tim is another kid in my class. He's Sandy's older sister's boy and is spending his summer in Kinmen with his aunt. He's going into 6th grade. At first he was really quiet and I wasn't really sure what to think of him...but once he warmed up we had a lot of fun together. He really got into learning how to do a back handspring and he was really good following my directions...I think if we'd had a couple more weeks he would have gotten a back handspring by himself. Whenever we went to the pool I'd have him stand on my hands and hold on to my shoulder, then throw him up in the air...eventually we got to the point that he could turn an entire backflip in the air and land in the water feet first!

Joyce 1 and Milly are sisters and are related (I'm not exactly certain how) to David. Joyce 1 (her cousin, Sandy's daughter, is also Joyce: so it's Joyce 1 and Joyce 2) is going into 5th grade. She's quiet but very intense: she has a long attention span and was always very well behaved in class. She's also very cautious: she didn't even want to try a backbend when I taught the kids some gymnastics and when we went to the beach she didn't want to go into the water much higher than her thighs even when I held on to her. She reminds me a lot of Isaac. Her sister Milly is going into 2nd grade and is a total and absolute hoot. She's always happy and ready to smile, laugh, play a game or just talk about whatever is on her mind. She's not at all cautious and loved to go as deep into the water as Sandy would allow her, and she loved the waves. And let me tell you...this little girl is force to be reckoned with in Dutch Blitz! I've never seen anybody that young play so well!

Wow...I could write a lot more about the other kids, but maybe I'll do that next time...I've still got several more things to write about and I don't want this to get too long!

*warning: most of you will find this next paragraph extremely boring* My archer has become a pretty powerful character. I bought a new socketed peice of armer and put a super dragon gem in it...I now have 4 super dragon gems, raising my attack by a total of 60%. And I just recently made another socket...a refined ring, which I can sell for at least 80 million. Once I sell it I'm going to spend all that money on meteors and unique items and make a bunch of sockets...soon I'll have enough money to buy some double socket items! Yea! *boring part over*

Pray for a college student named Claire. She keeps swinging back and forth between wanting to trust God and wanting to follow her mother's gods. I had a long talk with her the other night and I don't really know if I said what I needed to or not, but I'm really praying that God will get through to her. Just pray that God will make his presence known to her.

Today Anna and I went had lunch with my Wednesday night class kids. Wow, we had a blast. They really enjoy Dutch Blitz, so we played that for almost two hours!

Ok, I need to go now. I write a poem the other while I was bored and meant to post it on here...but I forgot to bring it. I'll try to post it next time.

Love y'all! Can't wait to see you all!

Hey there. I'm pumped. I'm majorly, seriously pumped. Of course we are supposed to do what God tells us to, even when we don't see the result, but it sure it wonderful when God does let us see the results. The picture you see above is me and Grace, a girl who I met probably about two years ago. I was up at the high school watching an English speech compitition when she sat next to me and we started talking. Once I realized her English was somewhat decent I invited her to English Bible Study, as I would always do when I met somebody who I thought might be interested. Even throughout her senior year (which is totally nuts of students over here) she was a regular attender and we would often visit during lunch.

Well, she graduated last May and I hadn't really heard anything from here since then, until she showed up at church today. I said hi, how are you, what have you been up to, etc. and then, thinking that she had come for English Bible study, told her that we weren't having Bible study while Mr. Gernigin was in the States.

"Oh, I know." She said. "I came for church service. I trusted Christ last semester."

!!!!!

Dude, you can't beat that feeling. There really is nothing like it.

She told me about how she had been talking with Andrew after Bible study one week and that he taken a leaf from a tree and told her to look at it. "Do you think this really is something that was made by mistake? Something this amazing was surely made by a great God." When she went to Taiwan for college she got involved with some friend who were part of a campus ministry (I think it was Campus Crusade for Christ, but I'm not sure...she told me about it in Chinese, so I'm just guessing). One day one of them picked up a leaf and said the same thing to her as Andrew had. Later that day she accepted Christ.

Ok, I've only got nine minutes left here...here's a couple more pictures.



This is from yesturday, when we went to Small Kinmen and had a party with some of my former ninth graders. These are the kids that I had class with at the high school every week as well...some of my very best friends in all of Kinmen. Oh, Mom, finally did give Linda her gift...she was very thrilled with it and told me to tell you thank you.

We had a great time...I also talked to them a little bit about Jon Eric and how the only thing in life that is certain in life is death...I told them I knew I would see Jon Eric again, but I didn't know if I would see them again, and I really wished they would trust Christ. They took it seriously, but still no response other than that...I just have to keep praying for them.



This is from this morning...it's me, George and Tina. George and Tina are very active in the youth group and their parents are active church members. We went out to their house last Wednesday night and had super with them...then we played a somewhat modified version of spoons....it was really, really fun.

Ok, I'm out of time. Love y'all! Bye!

Hey there. I'm very tired. This week has been really busy (hmm...it seems like i've said that every time I've written something on here this whole year...you'd think I'd get used to it!) Monday we started the church camp and tomorrow is the last day... can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Or maybe that's just the train.

Thursday BJ and I took a plane to 高雄 and stayed the night there. We stayed at the same hotel that I stayed at last year when we went to Kenting. We got a nice clean room with a/c for 700NT...about $20. Not bad, huh? Then in the morning we took a train up to 花蓮 for Jon Eric's funeral service. His family was all there and his Dad explained the Gospel, with Dr. Chen translating (who did a great job). Please remember to pray for the family of the pilot...they were there and heard the Gospel. Afterwards we hung out with the team for about 8 hours. I spent a lot of time visiting with Jon Eric's sister and brother. I think it was good for them to just visit with some folks who didn't insist on talking about nothing but Jon Eric.

My team this week for camp has been really good. I've got two trouble making boys, but they haven't been that much of a problem really. Today one of them threw a baby fit and refused to come in for lunch...he sat in the sun for 40 minutes and refused to move. lol. I told him that if he wanted to sit out there and starve and sunburn that was his choice and left him. Eventually he decided to come back inside. But all the other kids are really good and I'm having a hoot with them.

time for me to go. Man, time flies!

Joh Eric Hope died this morning in a hospital in Taiwan after an airlight crash that happened about 9 o'clock. The pilot also died. We don't know much beyond that at this point.

I first met Joh Eric in Memphis, when we worked together for 5 weeks doing CharacterFirst! and Bible clubs in the inner-city. Two years ago when we needed more teachers for King Car I emailed him and asked if he wanted to come teach out here. He did come and served two years. This past year he has been the Hwalian team leader. He was going to be returning to the States in Aug. after English camps. The last time I saw him was in Shing Zhu, during the middle of ABC camps. He hugged me and said "Thanks for that email!"

Now he's with the Lord.

Ok, I fear I have incurred the wrath of the fearsome Mrs. Z., so I guess it would probably be wisest for me to update, before she decideds to sick her son on me. (Don't fear the black belt...fear the lady who cooks for the black belt! *note: this has now offically been reserved by the Bavido clan as a fund raising idea for the mission trip...t-shirt that say "Don't fear the black belt, fear the one who cooks for the black belt!"*)

Wow, I've been so tired the last couple days I haven't been able to think all that much. I teach every night from 8:00 to 9:30 and then generally hang around at Sandy's visiting until 10 or so, so I get back here at around 10:40, then I take a shower (but there's only one, so I normally have to wait a while) then I read my Bible and visit with various folks and it's past midnight...then I get up at 7 or so and go back into town and go to school....and the processes has been repeating itself this whole week. On top of that you add trying to do homework for Chinese class, lesson planning, spending time with Lucy, emailing family and friends, working out, spending time with the team before they have to go to Taiwan for summer camps...ahhh! This morning I had planned on going to school with Lauren and I set my watch for 7:30...then I woke up at 9:30. Probably that was a good thing. I jumped on my bike and rode out there as soon as I could...only to find out the students were having tests all day and so there wasn't any English class. Sign.

Monday morning the family we're staying with wanted to go on a bike ride, so we went with them. At first they said there were going to go to a beach where they had some special birds of some sort...then when we got there they decided to go somewhere else....then someplace else for lunch....then why not to San why? The long short of it was that we ended up going on an almost 19 mile bike trip. With no sunscreen. Anna looked like a lobster. I got burned on my arms and neck, but I'm mostly fine now. Boy, my legs were tired on Tuesday...

Wednesday we got to see Susan. Wow. Susan lived at the dorm the whole time that BJ and I did...she's a very smart and amazingly mature girl who is a real hoot to hang out with. She was going from Shia Mun (China) to Taiwan for surgery on her knee and she stopped in Kinmen for about a day. We didn't really get to spend all that much time with her, but it was lots of fun to just sit in the living room and just talk. We told her we woudld pray for her surgery, which should be done by now...I texted her but haven't heard back yet.

Taiwanese people don't hug. Seeing Susan kinda brought this to my attention...when I first saw her she ran over and gave me a big hug. I hadn't realized until that point how much I really missed hugging people. Perhaps it sounds strange, but for the past month I've been seeing people that I love and haven't seen for a year or more and it really seems like a hug is the correct greeting. But people don't hug here. There's lots of people that i just want to wrap my arms around and say "I've really missed you!" but that's just not something you do over here...and if you try then it's like trying to hug a post. Sign. Oh well.

Here's something else I've been thinking about lately. Actually I first started to think about this when we went to the Phillippines. When I tell people that I'm a missionary they get this expression on their face of "Wow, you've decided to sacrifice a lot." Or if I tell people that I'm going on a mission trip over my spring or summer break they act like "Wow, this guy is giving up his break to work." I really find this kinda odd. I don't really feel like I've made some big sacrafice, or that I'm going to be missing on something by deciding to do these things. Sure, there's times I'm tired or feel kinda overwhelmed. But I think I've really gotten the better end of the deal. Nothing is better than being with the people that you love...and when you are ministering to people, God gives you a wonderful love for them. Nothing is more exciting than being where God wants you to be and seeing what he is doing.

Ok, here's some pictures...Anna and Lee and Daniel (in Nantou, from sevearl weeks ago.)


Me and Jane

This is one of the best pictures of BJ ever taken. The other "best picture of BJ" is the one that Shawn took at the tenth floor. Hmm...all the best pictures of BJ have been taken in Taiwan. This was taken by Anna.

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!