Shing Nien Kuai Luh!

Happy New Year!
It's been a while since my last update, so I just wanted to let you guys know what has been going on with me lately and in the coming weeks.
For New Years, I celebrated at Banner Church. They had sort of a singles group party. They had music, memories of the past year, sharing of new year resolutions, small fireworks, and a gift exchange. I played guitar. There were a couple of funny stories that came from this party. One, from the gift exchange I got woman's lipstick, or "lip balm" as they called it, but it said "Lady style" on it. But anyway, luckily I traded with someone for a scented candle; a less "girly" gift. The other story is that a worker at the Church went up and shared his new years resolutions. Well one of the last things he said was that he would find a girlfriend this year. I thought ok, cool. So when I went up and the last thing I said was that I was going to help HIM find a girlfriend. I spoke in English...bad idea. Well almost everyone I talked to afterwards thought I said that I wanted to find a girlfriend this year. So to make a long story longer, according to them, I'm on the lookout for a girlfriend! haha. After the party, I went over the Pastor's house where I hung out with over 20 of the youth at Banner. I got there at around 3:00am, so people were getting ready to sleep, but it was fun.

Speaking of the youth, I'm now officially one of the "sound engineers" for the youth worship team. It's kind of a way so that I would be more active with the group and build more relationships with them. Then later I would be a part of the band and play guitar or whatever they would need me to play. I also hope that I could be able to disciple at least one or two of the young men in the youth before I leave. Please pray that I would be effective in this ministry opportunity.

I got a haircut a few days ago and it could have been the best haircut experience I have ever had. First they served me tea, then had a 5 minute neck and shoulder massage, then they washed my hair twice, giving me a scalp massage (so nice), and then someone cut my hair, and then washed my hair again. Even though they thinned out my hair a lot (I already have thin hair!) it was a nice "fob cut". It was pretty cheap too!

During the past few weeks I have been trying to write some poetry, songs, and dabble in some photography with my little dinky digital camera. (you can see the pictures on the picture page link on the right or just click here: Pictures They are under the photography section. I try to update my photos as much as I can so check back often to see what I have added. Also, if you want to listen to some of the songs, I did record some of them. I can send them to you. Albeit they're not very good and some are covers and some are just for fun.

I'm leaving on Jan. 3rd to go to Amsterdam and then to London, England to travel and visit some friends in Cambridge. My visa is almost expired so I need to leave and reenter the country. It's kind of a forced vacation which is pretty cool. Luckily too that my mom works for China Airlines. I'm hoping to get to see and experience a lot of things over there. I want to visit Paris, France as well, but we'll see what I can do, because I'm only going to be there for about 2 weeks. Please pray for safe travel.

It has really started to feel like home here. I have been sleeping a little better...thank God, and when I wake up, it doesn't feel weird like I'm in another world. I've been trying to decorate my room too, it's slowly coming together.

I miss you all. New Years and Christmas definitely wasn't the same without my friends and family back home.