Aud and New Online

It started as just a leisurely ride around the neighborhood this afternoon, but somehow the weather charmed me onto a mountain trail.  Who knew 30 minutes could get me somewhere  quiet enough to notice for the first time what a bamboo grove sounds like, with its odd percussive crackling?

While I had a day of rest, others were working hard.  Saw this on the way home…

…and worried a motorist while trying to teach myself how to take motion photos.

Thanks to those of you who prayed that our Field Conference would not be thwarted by the typhoon that was coming our way.  The storm turned around just as we were headed for the conference.

Was encouraged and challenged by the conference sessions, particularly by the daily studies on 2 Corinthians, as well as a session on ancestor worship given by a local Taiwanese pastor.  I’m praying about thoughtful ways to honor my ancestors in a way that will be meaningful in this culture and honoring to Jesus.  I’m excited about the prospect of learning more about my grandparents and other relatives who have passed away.

I saw this cool tree at the campsite, which I hope is emblematic of these early days of my life here in Taiwan.  May I grow deep roots!

My friend, SJ, sent info about mailing stuff to Taiwan and suggested that I post it.  Good idea!  So here you go:

Letters and postcards are $0.98*

All other info can be found at:  http://pe.usps.com/text/Imm/tz_001.htm#ep1133477

* This price is for letters 1 oz. or less, and postcards at least 3.5” x 5.5” but no more than 4.5” x 6”

Tonight is Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival.  It’ s a big-deal here. This holiday and Chinese New Year are the two big holidays where everyone travels to be together with family.  The vibe is a bit like a cross between Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. Throughout the streets and courtyards, you see family and friends out lighting fireworks and barbecuing.

The legends vary but one popular version is explained in this short video: Moon Festival Legend Video

Here’s what my neighbors were up to tonight:

This boy was really into fire tonight.

His family invited me to sit and eat with them.  He grilled the shrimp.

“It’s smoky here, Papa!”

“Pretend we’re looking at the full moon!”

I think this family was grilling huge squid.

Last Monday was Teacher’s Day, a holiday that the Taiwanese celebrate to commemorate Confucius’ birthday.  Here’s the video of the spoof karaoke song that we did to thank our teachers.  It’s only really going to be funny for Taiwanese speakers, I think:

Hak-Hau (學校)

If you don’t know the song that we’re spoofing, “家後,” then here’s the original karaoke video:

Ke-Au (家後)

Alas, I never did get to post more about orientation in Singapore and now, a flight and a typhoon later, I’ve been in Taiwan for a month.

Things were crazy in the weeks after Typhoon Morakot hit, so I don’t have any photos from that time.  But aside from this major omission, here are a few snapshots that tell the month’s news:

Arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan Int’l Airport on Aug 1st!

OMF found us an apartment and our teammates very kindly cleaned it for us before we arrived.  We had no phones, internet, or any of our boxes at first, but my roommate, Angie, and I plunged straight into set-up mode.

Our first meals were very simple.  We only had random borrowed kitchenware and were still learning where the markets were, how to get there, what stuff is called in Chinese, etc.  We’re still learning, and some stuff is hard to come by.  I still haven’t been able to get a decent set of flatware.

We’re on the 9th floor! Angie caught this from our window on an unusually clear morning.  Most days, the sky is only blue for a little while in the morning, and we can’t see the far mountain range seen here.

Then language classes started.  Here are Ju Laoshi and Tong Laoshi, who teach me for most of my class hours.

August 20th was the start of Ghost Month.  The Taiwanese believe that the gates of the underworld open and the spirits, euphemistically called the “Good Brothers,” wander freely throughout the month.  People are careful to offer these hungry ghosts gifts of food, spirit money and incense, particularly on the 15th day (Sept 3).  That day, the streets were especially thick with smoke and lined with offering tables like this one, near our apartment.

I just arrived in Singapore on Tuesday for orientation.  My cohort and I will be here until departure for Taiwan on Aug 1.

I’ll write more on the great stuff happening but for now, enjoy these Singaporean orchids (we’re within walking distance of the Singapore Botanical Gardens).

Six weeks left until the big move!  I’ve been feeling the stresses of transition pretty keenly over the last few weeks.

Last fall, when my next door neighbor moved away, she left me a little plant with heart-shaped leaves, which I happily placed on my window sill. I was surprised when a few weeks later, it started putting up buds on stems that bent gracefully like swans, then opened up like silk handkerchiefs.  And it made me think of a poem that brings wisdom and comfort to me these days, when I’m feeling my limitations so deeply!

I wrote in July about my church’s partnership with Your Place Youth Center, a prayer-nurtured program that combats youth violence in our city.  What was then just a pilot program has now grown into a full-fledged deal.

Registration for the teens began this week.  There’s an article about Your Place in the New Haven Independent, a local paper.

I’m looking forward to getting to know the teens, and it’s been fun seeing so many volunteers come from Elm City Vineyard.  Folks in the church really take to heart Jeremiah 29:7, to seek the good of our city because our welfare is linked to the welfare of our city.

May God bring His peace to our streets!

My friend and colleague, Rachael, did a beautiful thing for me recently. Rachael is a scientist who’s also a gifted photographer, among other things. She insists that taking pictures is just a hobby, but her work is totally pro and Cambridge University Press recently purchased a collection of her photos as illustrations for a forthcoming textbook. Then she used the proceeds to buy herself a better camera. She’s really an amateur in the true, original sense of the word – doing something for the love of it rather than for financial reasons (the word derives from the Latin amare, meaning “to love”).

Even before she got her new camera, she and her husband invited me over for dinner one evening. She’s Jewish and I was already feeling very blessed and welcomed because it was Passover and she was having a seder. Then as we shared stories in the kitchen, she told me that she’d talked it over with her husband and decided that she’d like to support my upcoming work in Taiwan by giving me her old camera – a very nice SLR.

I can’t tell you how humbled and touched I am by her generosity. She knew that I love photography, and it was such a thoughtful gift to empower me to better show (as well as tell) my dear ones at home what I’m experiencing when I’m living 8000 miles away. And now I find myself looking at things a little more attentively.

So here’s to another way of learning to see! Rachael gave me the camera about a week ago, and I took the photo above the next day – morning sun and my more usual communication implements.