Did I mention that I cut my hair? I've been growing it out for a little over a year and it was almost long enough that I could pull it back into a pony tail. I actually liked it quite a bit, but I had to cut it for two reasons. Firstly, I'm doing an internship at a local school, and it struck me that I might be applying for a job at that school in less than 8 months. So I need to look professional. Second, I can't deal with my hair in my face for twenty minutes of fighting as I test for my black belt and it wasn't going to be long enough to pull back and keep back.

So now my hair is short again. It feels strange.

I'm sitting in my creative writing class trying not to let my mind turn off. Many people complain that a teacher has a "monotone" voice and puts you to sleep. I've never met one of those teachers and have actually found that most of them do have something interesting to say. But I think I've finally found that guy they keep talking about...he's the most boring teaching I've ever had.

I'm probably going to post my short story on here sometime soon...there's a couple more things I want to tweak before I put it up though.

Let's see...black belt pre-test. Overall it went well. Mr. H seemed happy with my empty hand kata. My bo kata needs work on a couple technical areas but they said I was doing it with good power. I got lost on my sword kata...don't know how that happened. I know that kata quite well. So I need to work on it more and fix a couple technical things as well. But Mr. Murry said I made him proud, which is cool! Test is in three weeks.

We've got a lot of new teachers at gym, plus a ton of new students with the new term starting just a few weeks ago. I'm working mostly with the team these days but I keep finding myself running over to the classes for a few minutes at a time to fix things. I'm going to be doing a training session for the new teachers on Thursday after class, because there's just so many things they don't realize they're doing wrong.

Now the teacher is telling a story he's already told last week...I'm hungry.

wow...last week I wrote that Ethan's ankle is getting "bettery". That sounds like the annoying rhyme-talk that stupid cheer leader types think is cute. I think I'm going to puke now.

I wrote my first piece for my creative writing class and turned it in last week. We had to write a five page personal account of some sort. The idea is to eventually mutate it into a fictional piece. I wrote about practicing kata with Jason for a year and then winning first at Octoberfist as a blue belt. I'm not sure where I'm going to take it from there...ten pages really is a short amount of space to tell much of a story.

I'm ready to kill Ethan and Naomi. These kids have got to get serious about finishing school sometime this century or I think their cold, limp bodies will be found on a deserted road in the very near future.

Tomorrow I start my internship at a local middle school. I'll be in a 7th grade classroom for ten days this semester and I'll be teaching several lessons while I'm there...that should be fun. On top of that I'm trying to get a bunch of stuff ready to submit for my portfolio that the state of Oklahoma requires all teaching majors to complete. The whole thing is really a pain in the neck but it's one of those unavoidable pain in the necks that it doesn't really help to complain about, because everybody else is stuck doing (and hating) it as well.

Regular classes at gymnastics started again last week. We had our first homeschool class this morning, which went very well. That class is always one of the best. A large number of students from last year are back this year, which is great to see.

Oh, something interesting happened at gym on Thursday. I was teaching a class for girls over 12 and couldn't help but think that this one girl looked really familiar...then it hit me. I had taught her in the very first gymnastics class I ever taught...when she was six!

Sunday was the first of four weeks that I'm taking the older kids for Children's Church and doing lesson that are a little deeper than we typically do with them. I was really happy with how things went: we talked about the Bible using Ps. 19 7 and 8 and 2 Tim 3:16. There was a kid there who had never been to church before and she was full of really good questions. She said she didn't have a Bible, so I loaned her mine until next week when I'll have one for her...which is pretty derned cool, if you ask me.

Ok, I ought to get off of here. Bye!

Lol..judging from the number of comments I'm getting on my latest posts, it would seem that I've lost a good number of my readers. :( Oh well...I guess that's to be expected considering how good I've been about updating this thing. I'm trying to do better. I'm not going to make any promises about at least one post per two weeks or something like that, because I know I'll break it, but at least I will say that I'm trying to update more often.

Ethan's ankle is slowly but surely getting bettery. I'm really, really hoping he can still test for his blackbelt...the pre-test is coming up in just a few weeks and then the actual test is Oct. 4th. He's finally to the point that he can run again, so things are looking hopeful.

I'm having writers block, so I was scanning other people's blogs and I found this on JC's blog...so I'm stealing it.

Three things.

Three things that scare me:
1. Fiddleback spiders. Ugg.
2. Loosing any of my unsaved students.
3. Keith M. as my tenth fight at my black belt test. Normally, I think I could handle fighting him but the man has absolutly no control and after 18 minutes of fighting I don't want to have to fight him. Hopefully it will be Mr. Murry.

Three people who make me laugh:
1: Daniel
2: Joy
3: Naomi

Three Things I love:
1: Dr. Pepper
2: Back hand spring classes
3: Being fit

Three Things I hate:
1: Gretchen Wilson
2: Auto repair
3: Big Government

Three things I don't understand:
1: People who do drugs. I mean, I can understand why people would have a lot of vices, even if I wouldn't do them myself. I can understand the desire to rob a bank, even though I haven't ever done it. But I just can't think of why somebody would take drugs.
2: People who hate Wal-Mart
3: If we're running somebody like John McCain, is there even a point to having a Republican Party?

Three things on my table next to me:
1: My laptop (I'm sitting at a computer in the library, but carrying my laptop with me)
2: My bag of books
3: Another student

Three things I'm doing right now:
1: Downloading a large file and hoping the computer lets me install it.
2: Feeling a little cold...why do American's keep the A/C so low all the time?
3: Wishing QT was still doing their sale on 32 oz fountain drinks.

Three things I want to do before I die:
1: Travel Asia
2: Become fluent in Chinese and Taiwanese
3: Do Mr. Murry proud.

Three things I can do:
1: Juggle
2: Teach
3: Leather tool

Three ways to describe my personality:
1: Out going
2: Talkative
3: Confident (is that the same as number one?)

Three things I can't do:
1: A layout
2: Math
3: Eat bambo.

Good times, good people, good ice cream. (Visiting with Daniel up in Kansas)

School start on Monday. I'm only taking 12 hours, which seems very odd because I've never taken that light of a load. Of course you never know how a semester will be until you've finished the first week, but I'm seriously hoping to have a semester at least a little bit less crazy than last one.

You know how you'll do something, and then it's only later that you'll look back on it and say to yourself "wow, that was totally nuts." That's what last semester was like. I took a rather heavy load (ok, a VERY heavy load!), did tutoring for several classmates, tested for first brown and worked full time and then four days after the semester was over I left the country! The whole thing was extremely stressful and I'm surprised I didn't just explode. But when it was actually going on I was too caught up in keeping my head above water that I didn't even realize how stressed I was.

Next month I'm going to be taking the older half of the kids in Children's Church (9 to 12 years old) and doing a separate lesson with them. I'm really looking forward to it. We're going to be covering the basics of Christian living and my hope is to get a little deeper and more serious than the Sunday school lessons which come from the Baptist convention (which are amazingly shallow).

Last Sunday we drove down to Dallas early in the morning. We stopped by Uncle Rod's house and then went with them to Medieval Times, where we also met up with Daniel and his family. Medieval Times is a diner theater place...after sorts. You are served a medieval style meal (sans spoon and fork, of course) and while eating it you watch a show. There were some really good horse men and very well trained horses there. Plus it was fun cheering on our knight as he went on to win the tournament and defeat the evil Green Knight (boo, boo). Then Monday we went to six flags, which of course was a blast. It's hard to beat the Titan (255 foot drop!) but Mr Freeze, with it's 0 to 70 mph in 3 seconds came very close. But Titan is still my favorite.

I have to go now...got to go pick up Anna from school and then go home and finish putting my car back together (don't even ask). bye!

I love this Cannon Digital Rebel we've bought. It makes it look like I actually know what I'm doing with the camera. These are pictures from the balloon toss at VBS.

Ok, short update here...I'm back in the States after a fairly short trip of only 27 hours from Taipei to Claremore. Andrea and Young are here with me and seem to be enjoying themselves.

Camp was great. God really put his blessing on it and many seeds were planted and several students saved. There were no huge disasters (which was a huge relief to me, since this was my first time be totally responsible for a camp!) and everybody had a very good time. Large group time was awesome. On the first day (God is powerful) Daniel told the creation story, focusing on how God divided things. I'll have to post pictures of that later. It was very funny. Then day two (God is just) I told the story of the fall. Day three (God is personal) three of our teachers gave testimonies...one in English and two in Chinese. Then on day four (God is love) Joy presented the Gospel.

We also did a few activities that were really fun. We did a treasure hunt where they kids were given a list of things to do, with each task being worth a certain number of points. The team with the most points won. We also did water games, which are always fun. I taught them how to dance the Virginia Reel, which was actually a huge success, even though I was expecting it to totally crash and burn.

The trip back from Taiwan was really fast...I'd never made it in under 32 hours before. But this time we did it in 27 hours. One of our layovers was only 30 minutes! And on top of that Andrea was throwing up in between flights, which made things rather difficult...I mean, you don't want to hurry somebody is is feeling horrible, but you REALLY don't want to miss your flight...so what do you do? But now that we're here we've been having a really good time.

Yesterday I visited the gym and taught for a little bit and today I worked all morning...it's fun being back there. Tomorrow I'll be going back to work at Donald and Corky's...I'm looking forward to seeing those guys again. Tonight I'm going to go visit a karate class started by one of Mr. Murry's students...I've actually been wanting to visit for a long time, so now I'll finally get a chance.

I'm going to sign out now. 再見!

Vic speaking to the youth group. Vic is a wonderful leader.



The youth group...these folks rock.



Sunday afternoon mountain climbing.



Ben started a push-up compitition and this guy won with 60 push-ups. I got 58.



Then Samuel, Ben and I tried doing chain push-ups (or whatever their called).



So I come to Kinmen wearing a do-rag and now the window god is wearing one...strange.



Ray-ray!



Harry, a kid from my Wednesday school...he's a real blast.



This, if I may say so myself, is a very good picture.



The cool thing about these tanks is that you can get inside them and pretend to drive...(Nathan, a guy from the English Village who visited us this weekend)



Taken just a few hours ago...Megan, Rachal, Kiwi, Mr. Yo, his wife and daughter and her classmate. We had a good time.



Samuel, signing out.

Well howdy folks. Yes, I know it's been forever. I now that most of you have probably stopped looking at my blog at all. But this time I am not going to say I'm sorry...haha! No, I'm just going to pretend it's just a normal thing for me to leave my blog without any new posts for an entire semester while I take 19 hours and get a 4.0 and not apologize to anybody!

I am in Kinmen now. And having an awesome time. It's wonderful to be back here with old (and new) friends and hearing Chinese and eating lots of good food...ahhh...yes, it's awesome. I'm not working as much this time, which is good since I'm keeping fairly busy preparing things for the church camp, which will be July 7-10 and for junior high students (no more pre-K students, yea!) I'm also doing some tutoring and teaching a class for high school teachers. Monday and Thursday nights we are having karate class at the church, which has been very fun.

Andrea and Young, Pastor Samuel's two kids, are coming back with me to the States and will be spending a month at our house. We're all really excited about that. Andrea has been working on her English a lot the past two years and has learned quite a bit. Young speaks almost no English, so BJ and I will be kept busy translating for him. Andrea has been doing very good in the karate class and I'm hoping she'll be able to test for yellow belt while in the States.

This past semester was very, very full. I took 19 hours and worked two days a week as well. All told I spent about 36 hours a week at work (although part of that was at night, when I'm able to sleep) and probably close to 35 hours at school. Fortunately I am able to do school work while on the job...otherwise I don't think it would have worked. The cool news is that I made a 4.0 for the spring semester and next semester I am only taking 12 hours. I also took and passed the Oklahoma Subject Area Test (OSAT) for English, so now I've only got one more test left to become a certified teacher (and I still have to graduate, of course). I'm planning on taking that test in September and then taking a couple more OSATs over the next two semesters, so eventually I will be certified to teach English, ESL, Special Ed and History.

In Feb. Ethan and I passed our test for first degree black belt, which means we are preparing for the black belt test on September 20th. We're both extremely excited and nervous about it. Luke and Josiah, the last two guys from our dojo to test for black belt, set the bar really high. We'll have to work very hard to meet that standard. On top of that, I would really like to raise the bar somewhat in the area of breaking. I plan on being the first (as far as I know) black belt candidate to break monster boards and I'd like to include some shin breaks as well. I've got my eyes set on breaking a baseball bat at my second degree black belt test (yea, I'm already thinking about that...I'm nuts). Ethan and I have been keeping each other accountable for running these past few months...Ethan's running 5 miles now! I'm running about 3 and a half with 10 minutes of jump rope before running.

But enough about karate. Dad made it home from Iraq safely just a couple days ago! YEA! We're all very, very happy that he's back at home and all in one peice. I called home and talked to him the day after he got home...it was good to hear his voice. I haven't been able to talk to him the whole time I've been here in Taiwan. For a while we had the family in three different parts of the world...that was interesting.

Ok, I'm going to close for now...talk to y'all later!

I am pumped. Majorly, seriously, totally pumped. Today I wore one of my favorite Christmas gifts (a shirt that says CLEPtomaniac on the front) when Anna and I went into Tulsa to take some CLEP tests (Anna passed hers, btw). I took the American lit. CLEP (the one I failed by three points last May) and scored a 60 (an improvement of 13 poitns)! Meaning that I automatically gained 6 hours of credit! I then took the English Lit. CLEP and scored a 55 (with no prepretory studying), gaining another 6 hours of credit! In one afternoon, for the price of $130, I got 12 hours of credit! That is HUGE!!!!!!!

I'm literally sitting here bouncing up and down thinking about it.

School start tomorrow. Linguistics. Oh boy. I'm not looking forward to that class...Dr Bently is not a good teacher.

Here's something I wrote last week...on the fourth, I think.


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

Howdy. I’m actually updating within a month of my last update. Do I get a gold star Chera?

I’m loving my new laptop. I’m sitting in the living room at Donald’s and Corky’s typing this…is that cool or is that cool? And I’ve been spending time at a coffee shop enjoying the wireless, where I’ve been studying for my next CLEP test.

Yup, time for another CLEP…it’s actually been about 7 months since I took one. This one will be American Lit…the same one that I failed by three points last time. Once I pass it then I’ll have an automatic 6 hours added to my transcript….you’ve got to love CLEPs. Mom got me a shirt for Christmas that says CLEPtomaniac. I love it.

Ethan and I plan to test for first degree brown belt at the end of this month. (There are three levels of brown….third, second and first. Oddly enough, it goes in reverse order…third is lower than first, which is right before black. But once you get on to black belt…then a third degree is higher than a first degree. Yes, I know it doesn’t make any sense.) We’ve got a bow kata that we learned only a few weeks ago…so that will be a challenge. I’m excited about breaking at this test…I’ve been working on some cool power breaks. I’ll be posting it on YouTube afterwards…assuming I actually break the boards. My leg was mostly healed…until I threw a jump spin crescent and hurt it again.  At least I’m still kicking (haha…I’m so funny)…just not kicking very high.

Circuit City is horrible. I went to buy it on Monday…but they didn’t actually have it in stock (in spite of the fact that they had advertised that they had it). So they offered me an open box one…I looked it over and there was a problem…it was a return and the previous owner had put a password on it. So they said they would get it fixed…three times I drove down to that stupid store only to hear them say how sorry they were that it wasn’t ready in spite of calling me and saying it was. Finally they told me, “Ok, we can’t get the password off. So you can take the laptop and buy the restore disc…and we’ll refund you the price.” I told him that I had come to buy a working laptop, not pay for a working laptop so that I could get a broken one instead and then fix it myself. Eventually I ended up with the display model…and they were total jerks when I finally picked it up.

Assuming ticket prices don’t go up between now and my next two paychecks, then I’ll be going to Taiwan over the summer. China was the original plan, but it would only be about ten days and would cost about $3000…while I could do Taiwan for two months for about $1500. Plus I’ll be bringing Andrea and Young (Pastor Samuel’s kids) back with me, so they’ll spend about a month at our house. Right now I’m working on getting some basic plans in place for summer English camp at the church…I’m also trying to find some other American’s who can help with camp. I’m trying to get Andrew and some people from the Nantou team to sign up. Anybody here in the states interested?

This was written on the 28th of Dec.

=========================================================

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.