merry christmas from taiwan

I love and miss you all,

Wes

P.S. A Gift (may take a while to download)
A video of the 3000 Taiwanese kids dancing to "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey

new pictures, new page, new news

Well, still couldn't sleep yesterday, but gotta keep praying.

Anyway, I put up some new picture and a new picture page it's on Flickr It's a way better page, more bandwidth, more upload space, etc, etc, not to mention it looks a lot better. I'm going to hopefully try to take a lot more pictures.

Also, I just found out today that my support money is going to be coming to me soon which is GREAT news, because I haven't gotten it yet since I arrived. And on top of that I received support beyond my expectations. This is a HUGE blessing because realistically, I probably won't be able to find a job until after Chinese New Year (End of January). I want to just say THANK YOU for all of you that have prayed for me and supported me financially. It has really been an encouragement to my life and my time here.

Tomorrow morning, some of the foreign missionaries and I are going to play some Christmas carols at a local school and also on Friday, I was invited along to play a few songs and perform a drama at a high school that a worker at the church teaches at. There will be about 2500 students in attendance! So please pray that the real message of Christmas will be received by those students.

In addition to all that, I will actually have an opportunity to go to England in the beginning of January for a few weeks to visit a good friend and his family who moved out there for his continued education. This will be a great little break before Chinese New Year where a lot of things will start moving faster afterthat (job, Youth Camp in Feb., English Club, Banner youth, preparing for the Bilingual Summer Camp and other ministries going on in the church). Exciting times coming up. I'll keep this site updated as best as I can. It's time for bed...hopefully.

Merry Christmas

Wes

sleepless in taichung

For the past few weeks, I've been having the hardest time trying to get to sleep at night and getting good sleep. I'll get into bed hopefully by 1 or 2am and then toss and turn until falling in a state of amphibasleep where I'm half sleeping, half awake for almost the rest of the night. As you can see, it's almost 4am here now. I have tried a lot of things, at first I thought it was my bed (which it still might be), but I think my bed is fine for now. I have cut out caffeine (which means tea!) for the past 2 days to no avail. Listening to music, praying, listening to sermons, even reading the Bible haha....just keep me up. Even when I pretty much stay up the whole night one day, the next night will be exactly the same, where I still can't sleep until very late. It is, for the lack of a better word, discouraging. It's thrown my days completely off. A friend and fellow missionary here told me that the longer she's been in Taiwan, the more and more she realizes that it's a pretty dark place. I fully agree, and after reading "The Screwtape Letters", chalk up another possibility of why I can't go to sleep. So if I may ask, would you please pray that I'll be able to get some good rest and that if there is something evil in here that it would leave. Also, pray that I would find a job soon. By the way, I hope you're having a great holiday so far.

Wes

Gift Giving

Since this is the season for giving, I think this would be a great time to practice focusing outwards, putting the needs of others ahead of our own. Here is something you can do for me this Christmas:

I have always had trouble finding organizations to give to, but a friend of mine recently introduced me to two organizations: Christian Aid and UN Foundation. The first site: Christian Aid is a great site (although they deal in UK pounds and Euros) for giving for specific needs in areas with poverty and malnourishment. It has lots of opportunities to teach and train the people to support themselves; "teach a man to fish" if you will. It reminds me of the serve opportunities they'll have posted on little paper circles outside of Rock Harbor occasionally. The other site is UN Foundation it helps aid the UN's relief and rebuilding effort in different parts of the world, especially in the aftermath of the South Asia earthquake.

Let's be "dangerous" this year and may you all have a truly blessed Christmas.

Wes

the sound of settling

I think things for me are finally settling in here. After I couldn't sleep the other day, I got up and was given a sense of direction to what I'm supposed to do here. Even though my role in the church isn't exactly specified as of yet, I do know that a big part is just spending time with the youth here. Starting with their worship team. I can only hope that growth and maturity will be a result, as I, as well as others sense a big need for discipleship here. I need to get out of my shell and be unafraid to speak truth and hopefully some of my life and God's love will rub off as we follow Christ's example.
I wasn't able to sleep again last night, I kept waking up every few hours, always feeling awake but not really. It's not a real fun place to be when you're trying to sleep. But anyway, I'm still on the job hunt. I will probably keep looking today, calling different places. I also started to read another book last night, "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis. I needed something lighter to read while reading "The Divine Conspiracy". I recommend both. Read them and maybe we can talk about them. =)

character

check out this cool article/speech I found.
Dartmouth

under the weather

I've been having this reoccuring cough/throat/lung problem, so I went to a throat, lung, and head specialist over here and I got some medication for the week. The medication is making me feel weak and drowsy, but my throat feels a lot better, especially in the morning. The cool thing too was that the whole doctor visit+medication only cost me 350NT which is about $10 USD. AND the doctor that checked me was from CERRITOS! I was so surprised, and he's been to UC Irvine, so we had a nice conversation about school and why I'm not in med school and about why he would only live in Cerritos if he came back to the States...Anyway...I think the meds are kicking in...gonna take a nap before I go to work.

it's cold outside

It's been a while since my last update. I decided to start this blog instead of emailing everyone so that I wouldn't bug people with the emails and also so that I could include little tidbits and thoughts from Taiwan, like a mini journal of sorts. The past few weeks have been pretty good for me. I feel like I'm finally settling in here at my apartment and with my rooommates. We have been having a great time cooking, eating and watching movies. It has been getting pretty cold over here, the temperature was in the 50's during the day earlier this week; very cold, especially with the icy cold wind in your face. Unfortunately my scooter was also stolen last week. But thankfully another missionary here is letting me use hers until I find another one because she rarely rides it.
These past two weeks I substituted for my roommate Kevin at his school. I really like working there, the kids are great except for one, and the job is much more like a teaching job back in the states rather than the cram schools they have here where each class is very fast-paced. The hours are also great. I'm still praying that I'll find a job like that one. I am also considering working part-time for an ESL magazine they have here, editing/writing articles, and recording dvds for a magazine targeted for people wanting to learn english.
Ministry-wise, Banner Church decided to end their English service this week. They said that it was not serving the Taiwanese people the way it was planned to. In it's place, they are starting an "English Club" where the foreigners and Taiwanese people can just hang out, go out for activities and just talk and practice their conversational English. My roommate Kevin and I are kind of excited for this new opportunity. We have been having great talks about ways we could minister to the people here. One of which I'm excited about, is playing music at a shopping plaza that reminds me of Third Street Promonade. We also have lots of ideas about what to do for the English club. Exciting times. Pray that things will work out.
Thanksgiving was great! I had 3 big meals spread out over two days. We had a big dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie and the whole shebang on Thanksgiving day at our apartment. Two days later other missionaries hosted a Thanksgiving lunch and then that night the church had their annual Thanksgiving Dinner at a nice hotel.
That's what's been going on in a nutshell. I really appreciate all of your messages and prayers. Sorry if I take a while responding to some of them, but I will do my best.
God Bless,
Wes