饮食 A Healthy Diet

Thank goodness...

垃圾车 Garbage Trucks

Day 3.

Today we talked about culture shock.
There are 4 stages.
1) Fun- The excitement and adventure of experiencing new people, things and opportunities.
2) Flight- Disorientation brings the urge to avoid everything and everyone that is different.
3) Fight- The temptation to judge people and things that are different as bad or foolish.
4) Fit- Creative interaction with the new culture that includes a willingness to understand and embrace.

Keeping that in mind, yesterday, a few of us were at lunch and as we were chatting I heard an ice cream truck passing by.  It was playing a recognizable, upbeat tune in high-pitched bell tones and had a colorful picture of children holding hands (seen above).  When I said that I didn't know they had ice cream trucks in Taiwan, the girl next to me spat in my face as she burst out laughing. It was a dump truck.  Apparently that's what all their garbage trucks are like.

Their ice cream cones (which I went off in search for after being wildly misled by the happy music) are all at least this big.

They keep their shoes outside the apartment so everyone wears slippers inside all the time.  I haven't paid more than $2 for a meal yet, and everywhere I go people wave at me because they love foreigners.

Maybe I'm just being naive, but I don't see how I could have culture shock when so many of the differences are just so awesome.  Or maybe I'll just be stuck in stage 1 for a while. :)

One of the things we did learn about, however, was the traditional religion in Taiwan.  It's a mix of Taoism, Buddhism, and ancestor and ghost worship.  There is lots of idol worship that oftentimes involves self-inflicting pain.

Please pray that the small amount of Christians who are in Taiwan will desire to share their faith and the truth in Gods word with the people they love who are surrounding them in Taiwan.  Pray for the Holy Spirit's  guidance, wisdom and strength in this place.

慢慢吃 Slow Slow Eat

Day 1.

After arriving at the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) base at 1:00am this morning and getting a solid 5 hours of sleep, I thought the best way to introduce myself to my fellow Discipleship Training School (DTS) mates would be by falling down the stairs on the way to morning worship.  I was right.

It gets better. A couple of hours later I told the story to all who weren't there, and immediately proceeded to trip over a guy's leg and subsequently stub my toe on an unexpected step up into the kitchen, which I fell into.

Safe to say that my dignity has been severely damaged today.  But no matter, because I ate stinky tofu.  And although the smell is something akin to 10 people pooping in a bucket and sticking it under your nose (I realize that this does not paint a pretty picture, but the Taiwanese people don't deny it), it only tastes half as bad as it smells and I potentially regained the respect I had lost earlier in the day by having some for lunch.

Taiwan is only 5% Christian, but I live in a house full of people who are passionate about sharing Christ.  There are currently 13 students in the DTS and we come from all around the world: Australia, Florida, Japan...  I think the coolest thing that God has been teaching me lately is how He has people EvErYwhEre.  Not only in the places I mentioned, but last week I met hundreds of Christians during my visits to Georgia and California and on the flights in between.  Just in my time here I've met some from Canada, other parts of the US, England, South Africa, Korea, Holland.  I guess I always knew He had people working around the world, but it's cool to be united with them and see their passion for God.

Prayer Request: Please pray for Christians around the world to be accepting of non-Christians and not to come of as judgmental so that no one, regardless of where they are at and the choices they are making, would feel uncomfortable approaching Christians to ask questions or even for friendship.