Arriving...

It's Monday afternoon 3:40pm, I was sitting here at our dining room table listening to some music and sipping my boba milk tea when I started to miss home. I am starting to adjust to life here in Taiwan, but it is harder than I expected. I wanted to give an update about what I've been up to and things I've learned the short time I've been here. I have been having a lot of down time lately because I have not started work yet and I don't know which ministries I'll be a part of at Banner Church, the church I'll be working with here. So I've been driving around on my scooter getting familiar with the streets and area, reading, watching old episodes of Smallville, drinking my yogurt green tea and eating as many different foods as I possibly can.
On Thursday, I had a meeting with the Pastor Samuel, the Pastor of Banner Church. Basically his vision for the Church and what he wants to focus on for the coming year and the future is the youth group. Banner has an amazing group of kids who are souled out for God. Originally I thought that I would be mainly helping out the English service they have on Sunday afternoons, but Pastor Sam told me he wants me to primarily work with the youth group since I do speak some Chinese and the kids in one way or another seem to look up to me. What that would mean for me is that I would spend most of my time working at the church. [A side note: one of the things that I was surprised by was that the foreign missionaries here spend most of their time working, most of them teaching english. And they sort of choose the ministries they want to be a part of, and that is by their own discretion. So you can be as involved (or not) with the church as you want].
Here is a brief look at what my schedule for church might look like:
Tuesday night: Leadership/cell group leader training
Wednesday night: Leadership prayer meeting???
Thursday night: English service worship practice
Friday night: Sunday morning worship practice (don't know about this one yet)
Saturday: (All day) helping with the youth service, worship practice, prayer and small groups
Sunday: (All day) Helping out some morning services, English service in the afternoon and small group

So when Pastor Sam told me he wanted me to basically work part-time at the church, that was what I had expected going into it. However, looking at the schedule I really need to pray for wisdom on the things I should take on because that is a lot of stuff there. Also, because of the budget at Banner, they are unable to provide any income for me so I would need to find a job. Tonight I have an observation session at Joy School, an after school cram school where they have English classes. A missionary is leaving indefinitely back to the US, so she asked me to substitute for her classes. While the job is a good job, the hours stink, especially with ministry in mind. I would work M-F 3:30-9pm and some saturday mornings. This would conflict with a lot of the ministries at Banner. So I definitely need prayer on finding a job that would be good for my schedule as well as provide me with enough money to survive here.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to play guitar in the English service which was fun, definitely different than Rock Harbor, but fun. I also got to hang out with a lot of the youth here and join them for the saturday night youth service.
Life is definitely slower here, but people are on their own time schedules, so for me, just getting adjusted, it can get a bit lonely since people are doing their own thing and I'm just wandering about. Luckily my roommate Kevin is nice enough to keep me company. I definitely need prayer in finding my rhythm of life here and community. I also, need a mattress pad for my mattress, because my back has been killing me sleeping on that thing, and I need a thicker blanket. The weather has been getting colder, especially at night. I really can't complain though because God has blessed me so much here. Just meeting old friends and reconnecting with them has been great. Even riding around on my scooter and not getting run over yet. Though stuff keeps flying in my eyes because I don't have a wind shield on my helmet.
I do have some prayer requests though:
-Wisdom is choosing ministries to be involved with
-A job with the right hours/pay
-Adjusting to life here
-Finances
-Kevin's back and for his surgery if her gets it

I wanted to thank you guys again for all of your prayers and encouragement. I really miss you all. I got a program called Skype, where I can call long distance from my computer for like 2 cents a minute. So if you ever want to talk, email me and I'll give you a call...=) But I hope you are all doing well. I also put up some of my pictures online of our apartment and other random stuff. You can see them at this website: http://photobucket.com/albums/c56/WeX98x/