Hey friend! 新年快樂！Come on in and get settled in. I have some rooibos tea ready and some banana bread in the oven. It is good to see you again!

It is that time of year. As you may remember from last year, 新年快樂 (xīn nián kuài lè) means, “Happy New Year”.  New Year’s eve was last night with the first day of the holiday being today. People have been going to the temples, lighting incense, praying, singing, and banging gongs. There have been delicious smells wafting through the air and sounds of children’s delighted screams of laughter. Most of the shops and restaurants are closed – the celebration is in full swing!

This month started off with a fun class period of playing with the Scrabble Cheez-Its that my mother bought for the Cubby class. Now that they are well versed in the alphabet, we were able to play fun games while reinforcing the phonetical sounds of the letters. The Cubbies fully enjoyed the activity and were thrilled to try a snack from America. I had forgotten to warn them that the crackers were cheese flavored and there were many shocked (and confused) looks when they first popped the squares into their mouths. How I wish I had already had my camera out by then! However, the general consensus by the end of the period was that Cheez-Its are yummy. Thank you, mom!

The following weekend I attended the wedding of my friend (who happens to be my wonderful Cubby co-teacher!) It was a fun celebration of two people making vows before their friends and families to love and to cherish one another, to point each other back to God, and to use their marriage to better glorify God. Two of my co-workers got up and sang a song for them. ^_^

As the Chinese schools have been on Winter Break this month, most of our students came to J5 for a full day. The Cubbies came in the morning, watched a movie, played games, made a craft, had lunch, napped, and then had class. Every Wednesday we went on a field trip. One day was an all day field trip on which we went to Miaoli (north of Taichung). While there we took a hike and saw tunnels from WWII that had indentations from where fighter jets had fired down, made salty eggs, a DIY project, learned about pollution and how to care for the earth. Our city kids also got a chance to meet some animals including but not limited to chickens, goats, donkeys, and llamas. Several were terrified and preferred to hide behind Teacher and watch from a safe distance.

Last week we went to the local bookstore. While there we looked at different English books to find one we wanted to take home. The Cubbies’ love for books makes my heart so happy!

Unfortunately all these field trips and busy days have left a massive pile of corrections on my table.

Last weekend was my birthday. Some friends and I went to a local Indian restaurant and had a lovely dinner. I made some yellow cupcakes with a peanut butter “butter”cream frosting. One of my students gave me a gift – on the inside of her homemade envelope was an iron-on duck. She told me, “Teacher, you can just put on clothes.” 🙂 A Badger student went to Japan with her family for a week long vacation. Upon her return, she gifted me a key chain of the Tokyo Sky Tree and a folder with a scene from my favorite film, Howl’s Moving Castle. ^_^ A happy teacher.

These two Cubbies are thick as thieves and love to incite shenanigans outside of the classroom.

This past Saturday I went to the girl on the left’s home to have a dinner with her and her older sister who is in Badger class. The girl on the right came for dinner, too, as did her older sister (who is another J5 student). We had a good time playing card games, playing dolls, and watching t.v. The dinner was pretty great, too!

It has been a busy month! I am looking forward to this next week off from work. Could you please keep praying for J5, the Cubbies, the Badgers, and myself? God is doing great things in our school and we want to continually seek God’s guidance in all things. Please also keep my mother in your prayers; her heart is having issues again.
How may I be praying for you, friends?

May God bless you and keep you,
Tr. Ruth

Hey friend! It has been a while since I have chatted with you. I’ve got some green tea ice cream ready for you as we sit and catch up. =)

My first year teaching in Taiwan came to a close at the end of June. What an incredible experience it has been! The Lord grew me, changed me, and challenged me in ways I would never have expected. In some ways, He grew me in areas that I have been grown before, but this time it was almost as if He was fine tuning the things I had learned before. I learned to seek the Lord even during prolonged good times (something that I had never really had to do before as my life had been a fast roller coaster ride since I accepted Christ), to dedicate my work daily to Him and His care, and to seek out conversations and relationships that drew me closer to God. During the last month of teaching, I struggled with feelings of possessiveness and sadness as I prepared to let go of my Honey Badger class. A new teacher would be teaching them come August. While I worried about that, I was also excited that a new teacher would get to experience the love and joy that is the Honey class.

In July I went back to the States for two weeks to visit my parents and friends. It was a busy two weeks full of laughter, love, friendship, hugs and cuddles, and yummy food. Being surrounded by so many people that I love was fulfilling and replenished my “I am loved” meter. Saying ‘goodbye’ was harder this time for a myriad of reasons, primary of which was I didn’t know when I would see them again. I am looking forward to having teleportation technology available to us to ease the loneliness. The loneliness is something that I have also learned to give to God.

Three weeks ago I began teaching a new year one class called the Polar Bear class. I have affectionately nicknamed them the “Cubbies”. ^_^ A year one class is comprised of grade 1 students, typically six or seven years old. I witnessed a friend struggle with teaching a year one class last year and had been warned, “They don’t know how to sit.” Although I logically knew that, after my first day of teaching a squirming, jumping-out-of-their-seats-whenever-they-get-interested/excited, always chatting in Chinese, don’t know how/when to be quiet, don’t know their own name class, I was exhausted and questioned my abilities as a teacher. I went home, cried, and asked God, “What am I doing here?!” The following week was just as exhausting. The second week, I asked God to open my eyes, to see my students as He does, to love them through their misbehavior, and for God to use me to shine Christ to them, no matter how awful I felt or discouraged I felt. That week was loads better than the first. Each week is getting progressively better. My prayer is always that God will displace Tr. Ruth’s personality, weakness, and frustrations in the classroom and that God would take over. Would you please be praying this, too?

Some of the Honeys still come up to me, hug me, tell me about their days, or give me random gifts. I still play with them after class and try to include the Cubbies as much as possible, too. Many of the Cubbies now stop by my desk in the teacher’s area to “talk” or to ‘play’ with me by poking me and then running away laughing. The cubbies have so much they want to say but don’t know how to say it in English so usually our “talk” goes like this:

Student 1: Tr. Ruth!

Tr. Ruth: Hello Student 1!

Student 1: ……. (smile) ……. (open mouth) ……. (close mouth and look sheepish)

Tr. Ruth: How are you?

Student 1: ………

Tr. Ruth: Are you good?

Student 1: (nods head)

Tr. Ruth: Great! Are you go backyard play?

Student 1: (eyes get big) ………… (stare at Tr. Ruth)

Student 2: Tr. Ruth!!!!

Tr. Ruth: Hi Student 2!

Student 1 and 2: ……(smile)…..

Tr. Ruth: Are you go backyard play?

Student 2: Yes! (runs away)

Student 1: (nods head)…. (runs away)

Teaching a year one class comes with lots of repetition, singing songs you only ever dreamed of singing to your own children, frustrating moments, and so many smiles, laughter, little hugs and high fives, and sweet moments with little children. I am learning that students whose behavior seems disrespectful often comes from totally unrelated triggers and they respond to a hug, smile, touch, or kind word just as much as a student who is always focused on the teacher.

Would you please pray for these things?

• Patience. Although I am normally a very patient person, I have found that my patience gets used up quickly in year one classes. Please pray that I am equally patient to each child, that I can look past my own frustrations and prejudices and see the student as the person God created.
• Kind words. Please pray that I would automatically have kind words to say to each child, no matter how frustrated I am with them. I do not want to accidentally tear a child down from my own thoughtless words.

There are so many more things I could ask you to pray for, but it all comes down to this: that I would be obedient to God and listen to His direction. Please, would you keep me and the Cubbies in your prayers?

How may I be praying for you? I would love to pray for you!
May the Lord bless you and keep you,
Tr. Ruth

Hi friends! The weather is beginning to feel summer-ish, so here is an iced pomelo green tea. Pomelo is a Korean fruit that is quite refreshing in hot weather. Some don’t like it, so if you don’t care for it, I also have an iced black tea on hand. =)

Time is flying by so quickly! At this point, I have been in Taiwan for about 10 months. This life here is my life now. In every aspect, I no longer feel the uncertainty, the feelings of intrusion and being out of place. For me, moving to a new country and essentially walking into someone else’s life (their job, their class, their apartment/room, their scooter, their random odds and ends, other’s expectations for the person leaving) was quite difficult. The things that I thought would be helpful and bring comfort distanced myself from settling in to what would be my life. Due to this, it has only been within the past month or so that I have truly felt ‘settled’. This feeling is incredible, though. I belong here. God called me to this place at this time! Wow! What an amazing God we serve!

The end of the school year is fast approaching and the time with my students seems to go by faster and faster. The Honeys are doing well. We just completed a theme on endangered animals in which we learned about tigers, Galapagos Tortoises, Komodo Dragons, and pandas. The kids love learning about animals and always know such interesting (read: random) facts about them. This time we managed to surprise them as they had never heard of Komodo Dragons. They were impressed that they might be related to dinosaurs. 😉 This theme they learned five big words: endangered, extinct, education, entertainment, and preservation. I love their enthusiasm for learning and never get tired of listening to their stories.

Recently, during Bible story time, I have been reading Jesus’ parables. I found a fun book at the library called, “2-Minute Parables” in which Jesus’ parables are formatted into easily understandable children’s stories. Not only do the kids enjoy these stories and want to read them on their own, they have also sparked some good conversations in my class. One such conversation was based upon a student’s question, “Teacher, can bad people have friendship with God?” I cannot express to you how much I love watching these children grow in all aspects, but especially in their love and understanding of the Lord. So much so that when asked this week by a close friend via Skype, “What has the Lord been teaching you this week?” I had to reply, “To delight in watching God grow people.”

In my Progress and Redemption course at CIU (which goes through the Bible and shows how each story is a piece of the greater meta-story of God’s plan of redemption), we learned that, “God is not in a hurry. He grows things.” Although humans are naturally impatient creatures, God has His own timing and reasons that we cannot see. He plants seeds, and it may take months…years…or even decades for the seed to have the proper conditions to sprout. God uses people to help water and tend the seed, although we are often unaware of this process. In this year, God has given me a small and beautiful snapshot of what it is like to deeply love and care for people and to grow them in the way of the Lord. Students who did not know the difference between praying to God and praying to idols now regularly come to church, read the Bible of their own volition, and pray earnestly and fervently for others. Students who were afraid to speak in front of others now routinely ask to pray aloud in front of their classmates. Students who didn’t know anything about God now read 2 Minute Parables, pray aloud, pray often, and ask great questions about God. Truly, friends, I am in awe of our great, powerful, patient, and loving Gardener. If we have just a fraction of His love for others and it affects us this deeply, just how much does He truly love and care for us? How must it affect Him?

The beauty inside people is God’s beauty. It is often covered in coats of grimy pride, sin, and self, yet His beauty shines through.

In other news, my Nemos are beginning to speak in English a lot more. After the last PTA meeting a couple of months ago, we began instructing students to use no Chinese. In those 2.5 hours the Nemos are in the building, “No Chinese, please,” and “English, please,” can be heard countless times. In the past week, I have heard Nemo students beginning to remind their classmates to use English. Others are coming up to tell me, “(name) say Chinese!” We are now working on having students say, “Please don’t do that” if a student does say Chinese and for the Chinese-speaker to say, “I’m sorry”. One of my students was so excited in class this past Thursday that she accidentally said Chinese words. Her face when her classmates called her on it was precious. She was still quite excited but also quite embarrassed at her mistake. I had her apologize to the Nemos and had the Nemos forgive her. We then moved on with the exciting activity.

Something I have been struggling with a bit in the evening class is the jam-packed schedule. There are only 2 hours of class time and the pace is breakneck. By the end of the day I feel a little like a time tornado ripped through and placed me on the latter part of the day without my knowledge. As a result, I have no time to talk with the Nemos about God aside from our daily closing prayer. As the Nemos’ English improves, I would like to be able to do more with prayer/talking about God. Please pray that God would open opportunities and time for discussion and instruction that relates to the Lord. I love these students with all my heart, and it hurts that I cannot spend as much time with them and share our Lord’s love for them as often as I do with the Honeys. That being said, I will continue to be the Nemos teacher for another year, while the Honeys will most likely gain a new teacher as I begin a new afternoon year one class. This will *hopefully* give me more opportunities to talk to the Nemos and introduce them to more than rote prayer.

Classes end on the last day of June and will begin again on August 3rd. We have the entire month of July off, so I will be coming to the States for a visit July 3-16th. If you would like to meet up with me, let me know! I would love to see you, hear about your life, and pray with you.

This week I am touched by Psalm 37:4 which says,

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

A month ago I made a conscious decision to continue to follow God and to trust in Him. Each day I am learning to delight in Him more and more, especially delighting in the things that He has done and made. My prayer is that as I delight in Him, the desires of my heart will align more closely with His heart’s desires.

Please continue to pray for:

• Water. Taiwan desperately needs water as many of the island’s reservoirs are emptying. Please pray for rain for Taiwan.
• My mother. Her new medicine seems to be working and helping her. Please pray that this would continue and the doctor would know how to prevent future episodes.
• My classes. The Honeys are learning to talk to God as a powerful and loving Father and Friend and the Nemos are going through some class growing pains. Please pray that God would be working in both these classes and that He would be brought glory and honor in our classroom.
• New teacher. We will have a new foreign teacher join us for the next school year. Please pray that God provides everything she needs as she begins her journey here. Please pray that God gives her an open heart and a teachable mind and impresses upon her how much she is loved (by all of us!)

What can I pray about for you?
May God bless you and keep you,

Tr. Ruth

Hello friend! It’s been a while, so let’s grab some pomegranate green tea, curl up, and chat!

First of all, Happy Chinese New Year! To wish someone a happy new year, you can say “xīn  nián  kuài  lè” (新年快樂). In Taiwan, Chinese New Year is a big deal. It is kind of the equivalent of Christmas in the Western world. Chinese New Year is all about family – family meals, family gatherings, family outings, ancestor veneration, etc. As such, people travel all over to go see their families. For some families, this means they travel across the city while for others, this means they travel across the island. This causes transportation systems to become incredibly congested and makes travel a chore. Buses, trains, and airplanes are at full capacity while the highways are clogged. A normal 2 hour trip on the highway can take 6 or 7 hours during CNY. Life in the city during CNY also has it’s adventures as many shops and restaurants close down for the holiday. Many big chain stores close for one or two days and then are open the rest of the week. The small, family owned businesses are typically closed for the full week. I stocked up on food for the week so I was not affected by closed shops, but I have heard from some single men who don’t cook that finding food was an adventure. ^_^

This past month has been a month of refinement, growing closer to God, learning to be more sensitive to His direction, and refocusing on trusting God. The last two weeks I have struggled with a CFS/adrenal fatigue flare up. All my classic symptoms of brain fog, exhaustion, muscle and joint pain, weak muscles, difficulty word finding, lack of appetite, and dizziness were popping up on a daily basis. This was the worst it had been since my initial collapse in 2011. I could feel myself draining quickly. Immediately, my fears rose to the surface. “I’m going to have to move back to the States. I don’t want to lose my life here. I love it here. Why now? What did I do wrong? Why did God bring me here only for me to get sick again? Why, God? Why?” For the first time in my life, I found myself questioning God’s reasoning. My faith in Him was at an all time low and I could not see past my misery and pain. My co-workers were fantastic and immediately began praying for me and helping me find a doctor. The doctor ran blood tests and came up with normal results. Immediately, all the frustration from my 6 month search for answers in 2011-2012 rose up. Yes, it is good that the results were normal. Look at how all my hard work over the past 3 years has paid off! I have normal levels of cortisol, TSH, T3, and T4 for the first time in years! Yet all I could think was, “This doesn’t help me feel better. Why am I feeling so sick?!” That night I got home from the hospital with the doctor’s clean bill of health ringing in my ears. I broke down. I cried and sobbed and pleaded with God. I begged Him to take away this awful illness, to just let me do the job that I love. As distraught and despairing as I was, I could not sleep. For the first time in weeks, I was wide awake. I scrolled through Facebook, looking for something, anything, to get my mind off my mental anguish. A post by the wife of my college advisor caught my eye and I clicked on it. It was an electronic scrapbook that she had made, documenting their family’s catastrophic car crash several years prior and how they saw God working in it. Essentially, in every aspect of that crash, they saw God’s hand protecting and providing for them. These documentations were done in a way that highlighted many of God’s attributes.

Reading this shattered me. Their testimony of a car crash that should have been fatal for nearly all involved but instead led them deeper into God’s arms as He protected them made me realize so many things. One, as my advisor said when he felt the vehicle begin to make it’s first roll, “This is not an accident! God is in control!”. My life, as topsy turvy and disheveled as it may appear, is completely controlled by the God who gives good things to His children. There is absolutely nothing left to chance. Second, as I read about my advisor’s family I was struck by the fact that I had somewhere along the line stopped trusting God. He brought me across the world, settled me into a community of believers, and forged relationships with my students, and I took it all on myself. My pride rose up and consumed me so wholly that I could not see it for what it was. Third, I lost my joy in God. I lost being able to look at the things God created, the people He made and find joy. All I had left were pain, bitterness, pride, and fear. Lots and lots and lots of fear. That night, God used that book to humble me. He brought me back to Him with open arms, let me cry into His shoulder about how scared and hurt and lonely I was, and He changed my mind about my illness. Even though I live with something that many people cannot understand and cannot treat, I do not have to live as if the world is collapsing. Finding joy in the things that I can do, the things that God has created, loving those around me, and seeing their joy in life is what is helping me feel better. These last two days I have had almost normal energy levels. I came home from work last night and didn’t immediately fall into bed. It isn’t much by normal standards, but it means so much to me.

When I stop trusting God, when I stop finding joy in Him, everything becomes much darker, bleaker, and hopeless. I lost my footing for a while, but I am definitely back on the narrow path with God’s Word as my lamp.  As a cat or a dog sleeps in the sun, perfectly content to wait upon their owners to feed them, walk them, and provide entertainment, so am I learning to bask in the good things that my Father has provided for me.

I have several prayer requests.

• My mother’s heart condition is continuing to bother her. Please keep her in your prayers.
• My afternoon students are starting to have a huge heart for prayer. Please pray that they would continue to grow in this regard, and that their heart would also include listening to God’s Word.
• I have started something with my afternoon students that I call, “Bible Race”. This week we learned about the Old and New Testament and took turns racing to turn to the correct part of the Bible. I am in need of 18 Bibles (cheap, preferably around US$1-2) that I can give out to the students. I want each student to have their own Bible. Please pray that God would provide a means to do this, both in finding cheap Bibles and transporting them here.
• My school is in the process of looking for another foreign teacher to come join our team. Please pray for wisdom and discernment in the selection process. Please pray that God would provide the teacher that would fit in with our school, love the students, and mostly have a heart for God.

Thank you, lovelies. I love and miss you!

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
Tr. Ruth

Hey friend! All I’ve got this week, tea-wise, is some herbal tea. Hope it works for you. =)

This week has been a long week filled with many doubts, misgivings, and things seemingly going wrong. Two weeks ago, while on vacation in Kenting, I caught a cold. I have sniffled, coughed, and “Teacher, are you ok”-eyed my way through the past two weeks of classes. My energy has decreased, my sleep has worsened, and my coordination and speech has suffered.

In addition to this cold, there have been a number of things that have happened this week.

1. General Comments
2. Confrontational Phone Call
3. Parent Meeting
4. Customs Frustration
5. Unusable Classroom
6. Illness

General comments are a great way to connect to parents and let them know how their child is doing in class. In these comments, teachers talk about behavior, class involvement, improvement in their reading and writing, and any other fun anecdotes the teacher wants to share with the parents. General comments do take a bit of time and thought, which normally is not an issue. With the non-existent immune system, the chronic illness, and my decreasing energy and thought clarity, they have seemed like a looming cloud over my head.

On Tuesday I received a phone call from a friend who basically was telling me that they felt that they have repeatedly reached out to me only to be repeatedly rejected. This shook me up quite a bit and I felt pretty wretched about it. At the same time, though, I didn’t feel I had rejected this person and that I had done several things to reach out to them, as well. This phone call affected me for a while and led to thoughts of worthlessness, incompetence in work and life, and a general sense of failure.

This past Thursday I had a meeting with one of my student’s parents along with the owner of our school and two of the Chinese co-teachers. I have been struggling with meting out discipline and dealing with behavior issues, especially with this child. The talk went very well! We learned some important information about the student that will help us help him in the future. We are learning more about this student’s background, as well, which helps us connect the dots and see where his behavior might be stemming from. This was a bit of an emotional and draining experience, although overall quite positive. Even though the talk went well, I still struggled with overwhelming feelings of inadequacy and questioning why I was trying to be a teacher.

This week I was supposed to receive 3 packages from different online shoppings I had completed a few weeks ago. On Sunday I got my first package and Friday I received my third package. Tuesday I was supposed to receive my second package, however, on Monday I received a text message (in Chinese) that said my package could not clear customs and I needed to fill out two forms and send them in. One of our brilliant front desk teachers dealt with all this and sent in the forms with copies of my ARC and passport. We then got a phone call saying that because my name on the package and the name on my ARC/passport were not the same, the package could not clear customs. I had used my nickname which is something I did all the time in the States with no issues. They wanted me to write a letter explaining why I had used this name as well as send documentation with that name on it. I do not have such documentation. After explaining that it is a nickname, the lady on the phone eventually said she would just change the name on the package. Three days later, my package finally cleared customs and is now in Taichung. Hopefully I will get it either Monday or Tuesday.

On Friday I came into work and found out that my classroom floor had cracked over night. I am told that this is a result of heating and cooling. I am sure there is more to the story that I just don’t understand. Although it is not a gaping hole, our classroom is not usable. Until it is fixed, we will be having class in any place available. Friday’s classes were held in the classroom of a grade 4 class that did not arrive at the school until 5pm. If the Badger classroom is not fixed by Monday, we will most likely be holding our class in the basement of the school. The basement is used primarily for parking, storage, and games like dodgeball. It is estimated that our classroom will be ready either Monday or Tuesday. Here are some pictures of the Badger class floor.

With the classroom unusable, I am having to plan for extra things like, “How do I get the kid’s textbooks?” and “What can I use in place of a whiteboard?” “Do I really need to use ____ for this lesson?” One of our classes last year had to deal with a week of displacement from their classroom. According to their teacher, it was a time of growth for them and didn’t affect them very much. My kids have handled it pretty well and think that it is a fun adventure. I am glad they think so! I agree with them, but I will also be glad to be back in our classroom. ^_^ (Update Jan. 27th: We were able to return to our classroom on Thursday. Monday was spent in the basement and library area, Tuesday in the basement, Wednesday split between the basement and the classroom of a flexible class that graciously shared their space with us. The Honeys were grateful to have their own classroom back. It was a week of flexibility, patience, and supporting each other.)

Five weeks ago, I was diagnosed with bronchitis. After three days of antibiotics, my headache, earache, breathlessness, and backache were all gone. My cough and chest pain lasted for three weeks following the course of antibiotics. The next week, I caught a cold and was coughing for two weeks. Sometime this past week my cough morphed into a nastier cough with chest pain, headache, backache, breathlessness, and ear pain. I went back to the doctor this afternoon and was diagnosed with bronchitis. I have been prescribed three days worth of antibiotics along with a nighttime syrup that is supposed to help me sleep better. (Update Jan. 27th: Two days later I was also duagnosed with the flu and placed on dual courses of medicine. The doctors here are fantastic and combined all my medicines (new and old) into easy to recognize packets and just told me to take certain packets at certain times of the day. As of today I am feeling much improved!)

Masked for the well-being of myself and my students!

Steam inhalation treatments!

Taiwanese eye chart. How does one tell the doctor what they see?

Whew. It has been quite the week! There were lots of emotional highs (kids grasping complex grammar points, remembering new vocab words, talking about castles, making our own castle, Skyping close friends, talking with new friends here, and more!) and there were quite a few emotional lows (that phone call, feelings of aloneness and inadequacy, and extreme fatigue). With this, God has been reminding me of all the times He has placed many hard things all together in my life. Those times, while hard, were never meant to crush me. On the contrary, they were designed to grow me in ways that I could not see until the situations had passed. So while this week has been hard and I have doubted many things, including my heart standing with God, it has been a good week of refinement, growth, and leaning on God’s understandings. God is faithful, friend. He is there for you when the times are good, bad, stormy, and downright awful. He loves you with a love that never fails, cannot fail, and perseveres even in the darkest and nastiest of times. He is pursuing you (Hebrews 7:25). Respond to Him, pursue Him as much as you can, seek Him with abandoned passion. This is the lesson I am learning this week. My passion has become hidden and I have ceased to seek Him with abandon, with all that I am, and all that He has given me. As I learn this, I pray that my students, my co-workers, my friends and family, and you would all learn this lesson as well.

May your heart be full of His love and mercy, may you gift others with God’s grace and compassion, and may the Lord bless you and keep you,

Teacher Ruth

My mother asked me the other day on Skype, “How are you really doing?” I was surprised by this question as I am quite open about the things going on in my life. Her next comment was, “It is so easy for you to put on a happy face for an hour Skype call. I want to know how things are really going.” As I was having a good day, it was easy to dismiss this comment as a mother’s well-meaning concern for her daughter living overseas. I admitted that there are days that I am lonely but I am getting used to it, and my kids fill my days. Content, we both left it at that.

Now, I was truthful with my mother. There are days where I am so lonely I feel like I might shrivel and fade away if I don’t get some quality time ASAP. However, I am also the Queen of Internalization. Unconsciously, I take little hurts, slights, annoyances, and frustrations and shove them somewhere deep inside where they can’t mar my happiness. I shove them so deep that I am not aware they are still inside, growing into a bigger being that is biding its time to emerge. Then one day, another small irritant gets shoved inside and the being of mass irritants no longer has room to stay inside. It erupts and I break down over a small non-issue. Today’s meltdown was over apartments. Specifically, my inability to communicate enough in Chinese to set up an appointment to look at apartments on my own. There is one apartment that I really, truly, deeply desire to live in. It has a full kitchen, is close to my school, and has far more space than I would know what to do with. However, the person helping me find an apartment didn’t think it was a good match for me. My Never-Can-Say-No Syndrome came back full force and I meekly agreed. After hanging up, I could feel the meltdown coming. Ten minutes after the storm had blown through, I heard the bread machine signal that the bread was done. I walked out of my room and saw my roommate sitting at the kitchen table. She greeted me and then asked, “What’s wrong?” As I got out the oven mitts and pulled out the freshly baked bread, I explained. She was sympathetic and listened carefully. I placed the bread on the cutting board and noticed that although the outer section of bread had baked and looked ready to eat, the entire center section of the bread had not cooked. So caught up in my frustration about the apartments, I barely noticed. I grabbed the toaster oven tray, placed the bread on it, and popped the bread in the oven. After twenty minutes, the bread was completely cooked.

My emotions were still quite raw and I began to feel like a failure. I came to a country where I speak the local language to a limited degree. It is slowly improving, but my desire to communicate is much much stronger than my language ability. I couldn’t think of a single person I could ask to help me set up appointments and just felt incredibly isolated. At the suggestion of my roommate, I texted a friend who speaks Chinese and asked them to make the appointment. As I sat down to eat my bread, I couldn’t help but to think about how I am very much like this bread. Although the ingredients were properly put in, the settings correct, and the machine working, for some reason it did not come out the way I expected. God has clearly placed me in Taiwan. He has set me up in a wonderful ministry environment, given me an excellent support system, and has helped me gain basic language skills. Although to my eye this should equal success, God had other plans. Just like the bread’s crust, my life looks great from the outside. I look happy, fulfilled, excited, and passionate about where I am, what I do, and why I am doing it. Even to myself this looks to be the truth. However, today all those internalized annoyances and frustrations spoiled that image, just as the uncooked dough spoiled the image of a well-done loaf of bread. “Perhaps,” I thought, “God needs to put me back in the oven to finish cooking. Just because He put all the ingredients together and started the baking process does not mean that I am a finished product.” That was an interesting thought and one I have been chewing on.

Just as I got on a Skype call this evening, the friend I had texted called me. She had called the lady and made a tentative appointment contingent upon whether the people looking at the apartment now take the apartment. She then told me to send her any more potential apartments and she will call and make appointments for me. It struck me that God was indeed putting me back in the oven and continuing my bake cycle. Sure, I might come out looking a little more well done (or feeling so!), but I will be where God, the Baker, wants me. How many times have I been merely one ingredient, not even mixed into the dough yet, wanting to be a fully baked loaf of bread, and the Baker kept me in the cupboard? Too many to count. I am so grateful that God is perfect, that He knows the perfect time, and that He is in control! I am grateful to be in the baking process, although it is often hot, uncomfortable, and painful. I can feel myself growing and stretching, gradually forming into the person He knows I will be. Our God is greater than all trials, all struggles, all temptations, and despair.

I don’t know if one can label this “culture shock” but it is definitely an adjustment period. I am grateful that my desire to communicate is only growing, pushing me to find new words and develop courage. One of my fears coming here was that I would retreat into the expat community, only interacting with other Westerners. God is faithful and has answered so many of my prayers, even unspoken heart prayers.

That being said, one of the prayers that I have begun to see God answering is that my students would know Him and love Him with an unbridled passion. It is a slow process and I have to remind myself that I am not the one changing hearts. I was sitting with two of my students after class last week. I asked one of them, “What will you do this weekend?” He answered, “We go to church Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.” I asked him if he liked going to church. He giggled, gave me a guilty smile and said, “Little bit.” The girl who was sitting with me had wide eyes and breathed, “I never go church.” I looked at her and asked, “Would you like to go to church?” She nodded her head enthusiastically. I began discussing the possibility of her going to church with a small group of students. She looked torn and eventually told me that her mother takes her to the library every Saturday and Sunday to study. Although taking her to church is not a practical possibility at this moment, the desire is there. I am praying for this student, and all the students in my class. Please join with me in prayer that they would have the desire to learn more about God!

How may I be praying for you?
May the Lord bless you and keep you,

Teacher Ruth

Good evening, friend! This is an extraordinarily long post so snuggle up and sip on this cup of jasmine green tea.

First off, I want to say that this post will be both ministry related as well as personal. If you would only like to read about my ministry, only read the first half of the post. If you want to read both, well, be my guest! I love knowing that you find what I have to say worth your time to read. Your comments, either on here, Facebook, or through email are encouraging and sweet. Thank you!

These past few weeks have been great! My students and I are really getting to know one another well and classes have been going smoother and smoother (at least on my end). My Chinese co-teacher is incredible and thinks of solutions to things that I haven’t even thought of yet. She is great with the kids and inspires me to treat each student as a thinking individual. It is easy for me to play with kids ~ something God is growing in me is to talk to them on a deeper level. Today I was blessed with an opportunity to do so. Last week, one of my students moved to a class that is a grade higher. She is a very smart girl and I know that academically she will do great in this new class. I was a bit worried about the social aspect, and especially her emotional/mental standing. She was the oldest girl in our class, and the most academically advanced. As such, she moved into a class where she is amongst students her own age who are more advanced than her. She had several trepidations and I hadn’t had a chance to talk with her since she started the new class. Today I got a chance to talk with her. I was punching out paper stars for my afternoon class’s Bible Scrapbook project when I felt a tug on my hand. The girl had come over to see what I was doing. She wanted to help so I handed over the paper punch and showed her how to punch out the stars. While she was punching, I started talking with her. We ended up talking about her new class and how she felt about it. She didn’t seem excited and told me, “That question is hard to answer. I don’t know yet.” I know that she is used to finishing her work quickly with few mistakes. Now, according to her new teacher, she sometimes does not finish in class and stays after. It cannot be an easy adjustment. She is a hard worker, determined, and so very bright. Our Honey class has been praying for her. Would you please pray for her, too?

While the Honey class lost one student, we gained another as one of the first year students tested into the second year. Having attended an all-English pre-school, her reading, speaking, and listening are quite good and make her a very strong second year student. As she is quite young, though, her writing is in the lower-end of the second year. Although she has only been with us for a week, she is starting to warm up to the other students in the class. She has started to answer teacher’s questions, talking, volunteering for class activities, and even helping other students. The students in our class love to help others, so I am glad to see that she is joining in on this behavior. The Honeys have also been praying for our new student. Would you please pray for her, too? Please also pray for me, that I would include her in all class activities, be aware of her discomfort, and find ways to connect with her.

I am also still working on making the boundaries clear to my students. I love to play with them and sometimes it is only when things get out of hand do I realize I didn’t establish the clear boundary that was in my head. Please pray that I would be more consistent, clear, and vocal in this matter.

My afternoon class, the Honeys, have recently started working on a Bible Scrapbook. For those who know the Progress of Redemption class at CIU, you will know the basic premise of this project. For the Progress chart project, one outlines the cohesiveness (the main story, if you will), of the Bible. Through all the stories of the Bible, there is one main theme: God’s grace in planned redemption. It begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. I made a scrapbook. Not sure I would ever use this scrapbook I made, I brought it to Taiwan upon my friend’s urging. Oh my word, how thankful I am she pushed me to pack it! I showed it to my Honeys and they were so excited to make their own Bible Scrapbook. Every week they look forward to our Bible time, and now they are excited to see their scrapbook come together. With the upcoming Christmas concert and the consequent music/dance practice, I am having to do some careful planning so that we get enough rehearsal but their Bible and scrapbook time is not sacrificed. It is truly a delicate balancing act!

My evening class, the Nemos, are still the cutest, sweetest things alive. We have currently learned up to the letter “P” in the alphabet and have begun learning shapes. My Nemos are constantly surprising me with how much English they have already picked up. I had a (very simple) conversation with one student yesterday! It was wonderful!! I am ridiculously proud of them and cannot wait to see what else they will surprise me with in the future! Last night we had our first prayer time. Although I used more English than they are accustomed to, they imitated me nicely. Before you worry that they had no idea what we were doing, I asked my Chinese co-teacher to translate my explanation on prayer. We asked the students if they had anything they wanted to pray about, and even got a response. Please pray that I would manage our class time well enough that we have time to pray before the end of class every evening.

Okay, friend. This is the end of the ministry post. Keep reading if you would like a look into my thoughts about life in Taiwan!

There are a few things that I have learned while living in Taiwan:

1. It is almost impossible to de-seed a sweetsop.

A sweetsop is also known as a sugar apple. When one buys them, they are hard. Leave it out in the air for a day or two and it will become quite soft. One can then peel it with their fingertips and begin munching. There are large-ish seeds inside nearly every fruit segment, so most people pop it in their mouth and then spit out the seeds. They look like this:

2. Jasmine green tea is an acquired taste.

The first week I started teaching, the teachers were bought tea. I went with one of my co-teacher’s recommendations and got the jasmine green tea (ordered without sugar). Oh. My. Word. I have no words for what that was like for me. Bitter. Dry. Kind of like ingesting the remnants of bitter flower petals that someone had chewed on. Part of this, I have come to realize, is that I was totally unused to green tea. Not only was I unaccustomed to it, I didn’t like it. Add to that that this particular tea was quite potent green tea, and you had yourself a Teacher Ruth who valiantly drank the whole cup while simultaneously wanting to vomit. (It took me the whole day to finish that cup of tea…) I have now had that exact tea three times (the most recent was today ~ the picture of it is at the beginning of the page). Each time, it gets better and more bearable. I do actually enjoy green tea, now, instead of putting up with it because it is the only one my body will tolerate. 😉 If you ever come visit, I’ll take you to some teahouses and introduce you to some yummy green teas! Although, maybe don’t try the jasmine green tea right away. We’ll build up your tolerance, first. ^_^

3. Danshui is a huge tourist destination.

When I visited Taiwan in 2011, someone took me to Danshui at night. We walked along the ocean, looked at the beautiful silhouetted mountains, had a portrait sketched, meandered through the few open shops, and then sat at the Starbucks for a cup of tea. My heart fell in love with the quiet, peaceful and beautiful place. So this past weekend when a friend came to visit, I asked if we could visit Danshui. We went on a Sunday and it was packed with people. Picture Six Flags on the busiest day of the park’s season and you have a vague idea of what Danshui (the entire town!) looks like during tourist season. There was a typhoon approaching Japan, so Danshui (being the northern most tip of Taiwan and closest to Japan) was taking a bit of backlash from the storm. What normally would be a bike path was covered in ocean water. Kids (and me!) took off their shoes and played in the water. My friend was quite patient with my six-year-old heart and watched over my things for me. 😀 The lesson learned from this, though, is to only go to Danshui on the off-season. Unless you desire feeling like you are at an amusement park. Then by all means, go during the season. =) Here is a small look at the ocean at Danshui:

Ocean view from the Danshui MRT.

4. I love night markets.

Yes, they are crowded, dark places with vendors on every inch of road selling similar items to their neighbors and greasy, many time strange foods being hawked by harried men and women. Sometimes, though, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. In terms of feeling outside of one’s culture, this is a great place to go. In terms of learning something about culture and cuisine, this is a wonderful place to go. In terms of having a fun night out with friends, this is a perfect place to go! When you go, be wary of the quality of the items you are looking at, and haggle. This is not a place to take point-blank value ~~ except for the food. 😛

5. Ladies, wear a jacket on your lap while driving!

Remember in middle school when we would tie our jacket around our waist and let it hang down our backside? That was so cool, then. Here, women who are wearing short shorts or a skirt wear a jacket tied around their waist down the front so to keep the wind from picking up their skirt and showing everything to the world. There are half-apron looking things that women also might purchase and wear. I am here to tell you that the jacket thing doesn’t always work. It’s just not a 360 protective shield. 😉 The apron-like things seem to work pretty well as they go all the way around someone’s torso.

6. When driving a scooter in Taiwan, make box turns!

This means that when you accelerate from a light, you don’t not make an immediate left turn. Instead, coast to the adjacent right-hand side road and do an about face so that you are facing the direction you want to go in. There are usually small boxes for scooters to turn into and wait in in front of the traffic.

It does take some getting used to, but it is kind of nice. No death defying traffic to maneuver around.

6. Death-defying traffic is a fact of life and you can’t change it.

So, learn to anticipate. This will be your best friend on the road. That, and your brakes. Well, and your horn, too. First of all, learn the traffic patterns. Scooters tend to drive in the right hand lane (and bicycles, and pedestrians, and wheelchairs). Cars like to double park in the right lane, so be careful that the car you see ahead is not actually a parked one. Cars also like to open their doors at random times. Steer as clear as them as you can! Cars typically drive in the left hand lane. If they are in your blind spot, you will definitely not be able to see their right hand turn signal, as they turn towards you. Just be careful of cars. Mmmkay? Also stay clear of buses and trucks, and you should be fine. =) That eliminates half of the traffic… Yeah. Just be careful. Second, go slow. The slower you go, the more reaction time you have to other ridiculous drivers. Third, beware of scooters carrying ridiculous loads of things. *Random driving story* Last night I was driving home and got stuck behind a guy who had a beautiful Chinese painting on his scooter. The painting was in the foot area of his scooter and his legs were at nearly 90 degree angles from the seat of the scooter. The painting stuck out probably 3 feet on either side of the bike. He was going slow and wobbled occasionally. The wind resistance must have been intense.

7. Traditional open air markets are where it is going on!

Sure the local grocery store and the bigger stores like Carrefour and A-Mart are nice (and remind one of a shopping center in the US), but their prices are generally higher and their packaging is much more…existent. I have found that, although one needs to have some Chinese skills when shopping at the local market (and haggling is also a skill you might benefit from!) the traditional market is cheaper, friendlier, fresher, and they give you free products to try. Cilantro and chili peppers are some of the freebies you might find in your bag. This is definitely one of my favorite places to go. Especially when I look around the streets and feel too much like I am in the West. Want a taste of life in the East? Go to the traditional market around butchering time. ^_^

8. Noise pollution is a fact of life.

Yes, there are curfews and people are generally respectful of others. However, they have these wonderful trucks that roll slowly through the streets blasting political ads or product advertising. If a restaurant is newly opened, there probably is a loud speaker outside the doors blaring an advertisement and/or incentive for someone to come try them out. I think the worst night I experienced was during the Mid-Autumn Festival. There was a giant barbeque in my apartment’s courtyard complete with karaoke. It was fun to walk through the mass of people eating, socializing, and singing at 8pm. It was not amusing to be kept awake until 11 by singing so amplified that I could hear every perfectly enunciated word in my bed with the doors shut and AC and fan on. That is when it hit home to me that I am now living in a very busy city.

There are so many more, but this post is already so long! I will leave you with some pictures, and a promise to post again soon. If you liked this post, let me know! I am not sure if you are more interested in the ministry side of my life, or the daily adventures that I am finding comes with living in a foreign country. Your feedback is much appreciated!

Please let me know how I can be praying for you!

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
Teacher Ruth

Welcome back to Taiwan’s Teahouse! Grab a steaming cup of tea and settle in! =)

Two and a half weeks ago I returned from a week long tour of the island in which my roommates and I traveled to Taitung and Penghu Island. Adventures in Taitung included a hot air balloon ride, Chinese speaking only hostel managers, meeting new friends, and paragliding. Adventures in Penghu included renting bicycles and scooters, exploring the island, going swimming in the ocean, and (lots!) of relaxing. This was a great way to get to know the island and see the different aspects of my new home.

Two weeks ago I began my training at JacksonFive English. There has been so much information to take in and process and some days I feel like I am nowhere close to being able to synthesize and pass on my knowledge to students. By God’s grace I am gaining a better understanding of how each piece of information fits together and am beginning to see the puzzle as a whole rather than the individual pieces with which I had initially begun. My first day of teaching will be this Friday, August 1st. As the date approaches, I find myself feeling more and more excited! My afternoon class (2-5pm, every day) consists of 18 students aged 7-9 years old while my evening class (6-9pm, Tuesdays and Fridays) is made up of 12 students aged 10-12 years old. This first week will definitely be an adventure as we feel each other out and get routines established.

On Wednesday July 23rd, a typhoon swept across Taiwan. Taichung is in a unique position of being shielded by mountains and thus does not experience the brunt of bad weather. Therefore, Taichung was not hit very hard by the typhoon. We did experience high wind and quite a bit of rain, but there was no flooding. Other areas of Taiwan were not so fortunate, however, as shown by the plane crash in Penghu [news article]. This typhoon, typhoon Matmo, also hit the south eastern coast of China.

On Saturday I began having stomach pain and other symptoms resulting in my inability to eat food. Yesterday my boss had two of the Chinese co-teachers take me to a doctor. He told me that I have acute viral gastroenteritis which is very common in Taiwan and in fact is sweeping the island right now. I was prescribed medicine to take before each meal and put on a strict diet of plain white rice with a little bit of dried, shredded pork.

Rice With Dried Shredded Pork (Rousong)

The packets that the medicine comes in are so cute!

Individual Servings of Prescribed Medicines

God has been providing incredible opportunities for growth, fellowship, and evangelism. The other day I went outside to walk to the nearest 7-11 to withdraw money (a 2 minute walk) when I was stopped by a salesman. I spent the next 20 minutes talking to him in my rudimentary Chinese and was able to share a little of the Gospel with him (although most of our conversation consisted of me trying to politely avoid buying his product). Last Wednesday I was invited to a fellow JacksonFive teacher’s house for dinner. There were 7 adults and 2 children and we had such fun! I definitely am beginning to feel a sense of belonging here.

One of the reasons I am most excited to begin teaching this Friday is because I can’t wait to build relationships with the students, love them, and share Jesus with them!

For the next few weeks, please be praying for:

• Teaching. Please pray that my first week of teaching goes well and that I am able to connect with my students. Please pray that they are receptive to a new teacher and willing to try new things.
• Typhoon Victims. Please pray for those that have been affected by the typhoon – the survivors and grieving families of the Penghu plane crash and those where the winds and water hit the hardest.
• Food. Please pray that I will continue to heal and be able to keep down food!
• JacksonFive – Teachers and Students. Please pray for the start of the new semester! Keep the JacksonFive teachers and administrators in your prayers, that they would be open and receptive to God’s directions, that they would keep their focus on God, and that they would seek His approval, not the approval of men. Please pray for the students, that they would not only learn English but that they would see the godly example set by the teachers and staff and would absorb Biblical information being taught. Most of all, please pray that we would all remain humble and sensitive to the Holy Spirit!

I am looking forward to sharing new adventures with you and update you on this incredible ministry opportunity that God has granted! Remember that you can keep up with my daily adventures in Taichung on Facebook. ^_^

May the Lord bless you and keep you!
Teacher Ruth