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 friends! Merry Christmas and happy new year from Taiwan! I’ve got some hot cocoa and mint chocolate cookies on the table for you. Grab some and let’s settle in by the Christmas tree. =)

This year I caved and bought a few things that I have been desiring ~ one of this was a large Christmas tree. My apartment is feeling Christmas-y and homey! I also bought a 5′ tree for my classroom which the Cubbies decorated with handmade ornaments. A Bible story craft about God’s Good Rules turned into a cute little decoration. (Remember ~ you can click on the pictures to enlarge them!)

As Christmas was on a Friday, the Polar Bear class got to celebrate Christmas together. The first class was a music class in which we sang Christmas and praise songs. Our second class was story time where we learned about the birth of Christ. The final class was our gift exchange. I am very proud of these kiddos! They exchanged gifts with maturity beyond their years. They showed a thankful face to their friends, even when they got a gift they weren’t happy with. They helped clean up and took delight in their friend’s gifts. Even when a gift went missing, everyone jumped in to help find it.

My Christmas gifts this year were homemade. Here in Taiwan, bakeries make something called “snack boxes”. They are boxes filled with  little goodies ~ cookies, cakes, scones, little bread loaves, etc. As these are fun to receive and I love to bake, I thought it would be an interesting opportunity for me to give it a try. These boxes were filled with mini pumpkin pies, chocolate pumpkin muffins, sugar cookies, “Thin Mints”, handmade chocolates, and snickerdoodles.

As we were decorating our classroom for Christmas, I realized that I have never shared with you what the classroom looks like. As such, I welcome you to the Polar Bear classroom!

On Saturday I was invited to a local friend’s house for a Christmas dinner hosted by her Taiwanese parents. There was lots of Taiwanese food (including my favorite egg and radish dish!), lots of Taiwanese people (my co-worker and I were the only foreigners), and lots of laughter. I got to practice my Chinese and celebrate with friends. My friend’s mom wanted to make sure my co-worker and I had something American to eat for Christmas, so she made us a turkey. Which we ate with chopsticks. =) On Sunday I was invited to a Christmas dinner hosted by an American family. There were mostly foreigners at this dinner with one Taiwanese friend. We ate a massive dinner, played games, and exchanged gifts. It was fantastic!

It is hard to believe that it was only five months ago that the Polar Bears first came to JacksonFive. These children are fully verbal, expressing their thoughts, desires, frustrations, and learning at an avid rate. Each day there is an encouraging conversation, sweet moment, funny joke, or a cause for amazement. One of these amazing moments came yesterday when I was doing corrections at my desk during lunchtime. A student took her assignment to write a letter to a friend, “Dear friend. (draw a picture). Love, _____” and turned it into a masterpiece. Please keep in mind that this child is a first grader who’s native language is Chinese. I showed this letter to another teacher (who has been teaching for 9 years) and the response was, “This is as good as or better than something my year three’s would write.” I am staggered at this little girl’s grasp of the English language, her writing skills, and her detail oriented nature. Her picture is essentially a comic strip that she has detailed as 1.) swim 2.) run 3.) talk 4.) jump and 5.) God. The first picture is of a girl saying she can sing and swim. The second is of a running race with one person encouraging another by saying, “Go, go, go!”. The third is a detailed picture of a conversation while the fourth seems to be merged with the fifth. It appears to take place at a church with one person talking in front of lots of (detailed) people.

What an amazing letter!

New Years Eve was spent in bed while New Years Day was spent baking and celebrating with friends. While out with friends, I came across this striking sight.

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and have enjoyed ushering in the new year. May 2016 be a year of growth, a dependency on God, and full of love and laughter.

Please let me know how I can pray for you! 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

Hey, friend! How does iced plum green tea sound for today’s chat? I picked it up on my way here, so it should still be cold. ^_^

Something that I have been thinking a lot about lately is faithfulness. Specifically, God’s faithfulness. Four years ago I sat in Da’an Park in Taipei and begged God with all my heart not to send me back to the US. It felt right to be in Taiwan; I felt at home. Although I could not understand why God sent me back to the States, I obeyed. Last weekend I sat on the same bench I made my desperate pleadings and I reflected on where God has met me, brought me from, and brought me to. Through this reflection, I realized that I am no longer the person that I once was. Over the last 4 years, God has drastically and faithfully changed me, challenged me, comforted me, and grown me. I have worked 3 jobs, fallen ill with a life-changing chronic illness, returned to school, graduated with a Bachelor’s degree, made a number of close friends from all backgrounds, and moved across the world to live on my own as an English teacher…in Taiwan. There were joyously beautiful and wonderful moments in these past 4 years. There have also been some incredibly hard moments. Through these moments, though, God was faithful. When I could not see the answer to a seemingly impossible problem, God did and He reassured me that what I saw was not the end but merely a dark part of the path. Tonight as I am thinking over the waiting, changing, growing, and challenging God did in me these years, I cannot help but think back to one day in a worship service in chapel at CIU. It was an evening worship service during my first year as a transfer. My group of newly acquired friends and I were standing in the front, singing and worshiping. A song I had never heard started, and I closed my eyes and just listened to the words. As I listened, I felt a deep affinity stir my heart and tears fell from my eyes. The song? Never Once, by Matt Redman.

On that day of worship three years ago, I had heard news of a crisis in my family. The hurt, pain, fear, despair, and hopelessness had been eating away at me the whole day. On top of this, I had a CFS flare and was weak. At that moment, I stopped and I thought about all the things God had done in my life since I accepted that Christ is God’s son and made the decision to follow Him. Through all the bad things, the hopeless and dark moments, God was there. He was my Rock, my loving Daddy, and a guiding Shepherd.

The past 4 years have been filled with joy always tempered with some despair, dark place, or heart-crushing pressure. Today, I look around my life and I wonder. Where are the strengthening and stretching trials? Where is the pain and despair? The nights of tears and desperate prayers, of running towards the comforting hugs of friends? God is now showing Himself to be faithful in different ways. Yes, He is there for the hard, dark, and painful times. However, He is also here for the joy of the day-to-day. Simply put, God is faithful in every way and in every situation.

While Skyping a close friend the other day, we realized that I have been a Christian for 6 years. When that realization was voiced, my jaw dropped. Although I recognize that I have indeed become a new person and have learned more of the basics of my faith than I started with, I still feel like a toddler. And that…is a good thing. In this life, and even beyond, we will never know the fullness that is God. We will never fully understand His actions and reasons. If I ever get to a point where I feel I know everything and assume to know God, please, please, PLEASE, point me back to God. To who God is. To what God has brought me from. To who I was before God saved me. To God’s amazing power to create, how He knew how and when I would end up in Taiwan, how He knew how I would afford school and even which school I would go to… Please point me back to God.

God’s faithfulness is infinite. Boundless. Amazing. Comforting. As the song says, “Your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me.” To that I cling, even when it seems all the storms have left me to luxuriate on my not-so-deserted sub-tropic island!

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

Merry Christmas, friend! I know it is cold out, so I grabbed you a cup of hot tea. I hope you don’t mind. =)

The Thursday before Christmas, I had the wonderful experience with my Nemo class (the evening class) of having our first dialogue  initiated by the students. Before class and during breaks individual students would come up to me and ask me a question they had learned the previous week. “Tr. Ruth, what do you like?” I would pretend to think and then answer. I would then ask them in turn what they liked or ask them, “Do you like ____?” They would answer yes or no, then continue the question and answer cycle with me. Over time we expanded to asking other students and having them answer. It was fun to watch them start to interact with each other in English. Although Chinese is still spoken heavily between the students, I can already see it diminishing when they know the English word for what they want to express. After our break time, we came back to the classroom. The afternoon teacher has a small Christmas tree set up. The students pointed it out to me. I said, “Christmas tree!” Their eyes lit up and they said, “Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!” I asked them, “Do you like Christmas trees?” They all shouted back at me, “Yes, I do!” I asked, “Do you like Christmas?” Again they replied, “Yes, I do!” What an excited teacher I was when I realized that I would get to celebrate Christmas with my Honeys and Nemos ON the day of Christmas! I made Christmas cards for all the Nemos that had, “Dear (student), Merry Christmas! Love, Tr. Ruth”. On Christmas my co-teacher and I handed out chocolates and Pepperidge Farms cookies that I found at CostCo. Unlike the afternoon classes, the evening classes still had classwork. Therefore, I took the last ten minutes of class to dedicate to Christmas. The afternoon class had a day of talking about the Christmas story, reading the Bible, Christmas activity sheets and a special snack from teacher (the same Pepperidge Farms cookies).

Every day I am finding myself more and more adjusted. I have found routines that are soothing and help me maintain my self within the whirlwind of teaching and pouring into lives. In my teaching this is becoming true, as well. I have found routines that work for my classes, a way of teaching for each class that meshes with the class environment, and am learning little tricks that help students grasp the content. Without the help of the more experienced teachers around me, I do not think I would be doing so well. I will forever be grateful for their help, wise counsel, and support.

Despite having conquered much of the steep learning curve, each day brings with it small learning curves and challenges. Culture and language barriers have a way of making the simple things, like buying pillows and trash bags, into major hurdles that need to be dealt with. Usually these happen when one is exhausted, hungry, has a raging migraine, and can’t recall any of the language that they have learned to date. These can be very frustrating and miserable times and emotionally push one to reconsider living in another country. I know that I am extremely blessed to have only had a handful of these experiences. God has been so good to me and has truly paved my way here. Something I have seen in common with my difficulties is that they force me to interact with the people here. My fears of retreating back into myself or the expat community will be hard to actualize. God seems to be forcing me to jump outside of my emotional comfort zone and act upon my heart desires to make friends with locals and increase my language.

Some things I have learned this month are:

• one can buy trash bags in three sizes: 小(small), 中(medium), and 大(large).
• 小 bags are all I need, although I now have 小，中，and 大. I don’t know what to do with the medium and large. Maybe hide a body?
• Degradable trash bags (made from corn) are cheaper than non-degradable trash bags.
• Bronchitis is no fun. Even after the antibiotics and the coughing are gone, one’s chest hurts for a long time!
• Online clothes shopping is a major life savor! Although people told me that humid winters in Taiwan will make me cold, I didn’t believe them. There is no central heating here and the humidity makes the cold slide right into one’s bones. Thus, I am making several orders of cute sweaters as I refuse to wear a winter coat inside. As you know, sweaters and Tr. Ruth do not go together in a normal winter. 😛
• Essential oils are amazing! I used the Lime essential oil (good for respiratory issues) and my bronchitis cleared up in 3 days. (Well, except for that chest pain!)
• Friends are wonderful. I had a friend send me a package from the States. Now I am trying Juice + for four months! ^_^
• The Chinese word for rent is 租金 (zūjīn). My landlords are really patient with me. I’ll get there. =/ Eventually.

November and December were very busy and continuous months full of children, Christmas show prep, and work. A lot has happened in my life and I am sure in yours, as well. How may I be praying for you?

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