t for taiwan

Thank you guys for your prayers and support, it really means a lot. And God has been answering! This week one of the foreign missionaries referred me to a friend she has that works for a huge magazine/radio/TV company that focuses on teaching English. She was searching for teachers to help her out with a few jobs and I was still looking for a jobs, so it was a great match. I just started a tutoring gig Mon. & Tues. prepping a high school student for her college interview. She's really cool and her mom is very nice as well. That is only until mid April. Also, I just met with the director of a junior high school and they want me to come every thursday to teach conversational English to 3 classes of Jr. highers. On top of that there are a couple of ladies that own a sweet steak/mongolian bbq buffet chain that want more help with their English as well as their kids and want me to tutor them on Wednesdays. So right now I have about 12-14 hours of tutoring a week. It is really a huge blessing because I have been in need of a job since I came here and the way it looks now, this is better than what I wanted, because now I have a lot more time to serve compared to if I had a full time job.
I've also had more opportunities to serve doing what I love; playing music. I've been able to lead worship at the Zhong Hsing Bible Study the past few weeks. This week I'll be playing guitar on the worship team for the first time for the two sunday morning services. I'm also leading worship this friday at the Tower ministry. Also for Tower, we'll play outside and pass out fliers to invite people to come. I'm excited. Freely we received, freely we give. right?
I have also been trying to finish my grad school essays, it's taking longer and is harder than I expected. I hope to finish them by this week. Technically I need to finish them by this week.
I've also been missing home a lot more lately, but my mom just told me the other day that her and my eleven year-old brother Derek are going to come out to visit me on April 15th. I am very excited to be able to see them and especially excited for Derek because this will be the first time out of the country I think and plus I miss the guy.
As I look at my schedule I realize that i have a load of stuff on my plate, please pray for wisdom and that I'll manage my time well and learn to pick the "better" from the loads of "good".

陶柏衡
(my chinese name)

back home

Just got back from my trip to Singapore. It was a really huge blessing to be able to go and "relax-lah" (Singaporeans always say "lah" after everything). "lets go to the pool lah!" Anyway, I had a great time. Yesterday we met up with my missions pastor at Rock Harbor and a few other guys that went on the trip to India with him. It was sweet to talk with them and just hang out. We had great conversations and good times eating/shopping.
Here's a brief look at Singapore (more are on my flickr site):

Peace Lah
W

Singapore #3

I don't have much time because I purchased a 30 min. internet access at the hotel. So to be brief...Singapore has been great so far. Kevin and I have done a lot so far. It's been great to experience and see so many different cultures coming together. There are Chinese, Indian, Arab, Malaysian, Singaporean people all living in a tiny little island. We stayed in an Arab area, where there was a lot Middle Eastern people. Then we changed yesterday to a nicer hotel, the Furama Riverfront. We got to go around a lot of places. We explored Chinatown, Orchard Road which is like a long street of malls. We went an area by the Singapore river, ate at great chinese, thai, local singaporean, and American restaurants. Yesterday we went to a music festival where we heard great latin music and even met a local singer there, Deb Fung. Today, we went to City Harvest Church, which is like a huge church here with I think 20,000 people. They hold their services in the Singapore expo which seats 7,000. Got to go on a night safari tonight, walked through trails to see leopards, bats like inches from your face, and other interesting jungle animals. We just got back. I'm uploading my pictures on my flickr page, so check that out if you wanna see some the things I've seen.
W

coffee bean...etc.

I'm at Coffee Bean and tea leaf in this little shopping center. I walked around a lot earlier. I went to this huge electronics store the guy at the restaurant told me about. It was like best buy x 20. A building of shops of electronics, sound, etc. And there were two buildings of them. Found my power adapter for a buck. Then I went to Bugis center, a large street vendor shopping area. Very cheap bootleg stuff, but a lot of shops weren't open yet, because I think they open at night. I'm sweating like crazy over here. I want to go on this night safari thing they have. I think it's at the zoo. But should be fun. Also, I heard Orchard Street is cool too. And a huge mega church called City Harvest Church is here too. Kevin and I will probably go there Sunday. Banner Church gets a lot of their ministry inspiration from that church. Well gotta run, gotta meet Kevin at the hostel.

taoinsingapore

Hey everyone!
Right now I'm in the lobby of Sleepy Sam's Bed & Breakfast hostel on their computer, still can't get my wireless to work, but will keep trying. I arrived last night safe and sound. I slept pretty well on their bunk bed. The weather is hot and humid (about 88-93F). It feels like it does in Taiwan in the summer. Singapore seems like a safe and clean place. I talked to a local at a restaurant I ate at yesterday and he said that it's because of Singapore's strict laws. I agree, on the MRT subway, the fine for littering was like $1000SPD=$6-700USD. I'm even a afraid to jaywalk like I would in Taiwan all the time. haha. It's a different feeling. In Taiwan, no one respects the traffic laws, or most laws. Anyway, I'm really excited to visit different places and experience Singaporean culture. Kevin should be arriving in 3 hours or so. I need to eat my breakfast and go find a power adapter. I'll try to have some pictures up today, though I forgot my camera usb cable, hopefully Kevin brought his.
W

singaporean emporium

So here's the plan:

3/16/06
10:00am-Take a shower and eat breakfast.
11:00am-go to bus stop
11-12:30pm-bus to Taipei
3:30pm-8pm-Fly to Singapore
10:00pm -Check in. Staying at the Sleepy Sam Bed & Breakfast one night in their 8-bed dorm. Then the next day, my roommate Kevin will be with me and we will have a private double. After that we will stay at the Furama Riverfront Hotel for the next 3 nights.

10pm-3/21/06=singapore adventure

Only downer is that the weather is like in the 90s and raining.
I'll keep you posted.

WT

boohockey

Honestly, I've been feeling a little burned out lately. After many consecutive days of activity, from conferences, church ministry, tutoring, looking for work, activities, etc, etc I sometimes wonder if I've taken on too much stuff. On the up side however, I have learned how to gauge myself and know when things are starting to go in the wrong direction. I've always tried to tough it out through those times before, only to hit bottom one way or another. We'll always be busy, unless we're living in Fiji, husking coconuts, fishing for tuna and living off the land, but we don't always have to be distracted. I don't even know what I'm saying at this point. It's late.
Some good news, I had the opportunity to share the Gospel to one of the people I'm tutoring. He's 25 and he's going to Atlanta, Ga, for 8 months to study English in a few months, but he wanted extra practice with his conversational English. In our last session we were talking about, what else; girls and relationships. After talking about how foreigners are taking away the local Taiwanese girls and other interesting things like that, he started to ask about me and if I had to follow a set of "rules" because I'm a Christian. I told him I didn't like that term, but nonetheless they are there, not to restrict us, but in order to set us free. I started to go more in depth into what I meant by that and then he asked me about when you break the "rules" and have to confess. I agreed with him and we got into a discussion about sin/forgiveness and that's when I told him the story about Jesus and what He came to do.
I've also been coming to grips with my own "lostness", no not the show, although it's a great show. But about my own fallenness and ugliness. A lot of ministry is aimed at making you feel better or giving you more self-esteem. But the truth is that we are all pretty messed up. And as unapologetic that is, it is, at least for me a great realization and something that leads me to take my eyes off myself and look and learn from Jesus. This is part of the reason I have been better at gauging where I am at. For example, I know that I should be sleeping right now.
Lastly, my roomate Kevin and I will be going to Singapore next week Thursday. We will be meeting up with my missions pastor from Rock Harbor for a few days as he has a lay-over on his way to India. I'm excited for this trip, it will be a great to meet with him. Please pray for safety. Also, tomorrow is the Amazing Race - Taichung. Pray it goes well if you read this in time.

Mahal Kita

encounter

I just got back from a weekend retreat/conference called "E 1" or Encounter with God 1. One of a three part series, E1 is sort of how Banner Church does membership; they give their church's history and overview of some of the major Christian principles (similar to The Call at RH in some ways). It wasn't really a retreat, because I went home to sleep yesterday.
Anyway, of all that went on this weekend, probably the most powerful aspect for me was the "snapshot" of how God is moving in Asia, especially Taiwan. Not to sound cheesy or fluffy, but God is moving. How do I know? Lives are being changed. 130 Taiwanese proclaiming the love of God, some for the first time in their lives. Breaking ties from thousands of years of the tradition of ancestor worship, Buddhism, and idolatry in Jesus name for the hope of the Kingdom. Lives marked by fear and curses transformed into lives marked by hope and faith. It would always break my heart whenever I saw Taiwanese people (and my parents at one point) in temples and shrines set up in their house with idols hoping for some luck or good fortune to pass their way, but it was awesome to see those bonds broken and people set free. To see father's taking responsibility in the raising up and parenting of their sons and daughters, and parents learning to encourage rather than ridicule and dictate their children, encouraging them to do God's work, loving their children unconditionally in a culture where so much of the parent-child relationship is marked by results, test scores, pressure and abuse is truly revolutionary. To see true joy that comes from Christ, to hear testimonies of Taiwanese committing to live counter-cultural lives for the first time, though they would probably never use that term; at least not yet, was a great breath of life for me in my own ministry here.
When I first arrived here I wasn't sure what I would be doing exactly and what God was doing, and honestly I was a little skeptical of some of the ministry "methods" because they seemed "outdated", if not foreign to me, since about 80-90% of their ministry is evangelism driven. But over time as I began to see the culture through their eyes and the way people interacted, I started to realize that whatever my preference was, however convinced I was about the effectiveness of it, might not be the best thing for the people now. While there still is a major need in the area of discipleship and the teaching of what it means to be a follower/learner of Christ, I have high hopes for these people, that they can influence China, India, and the Middle East to bring the Gospel back across the globe. They've influenced me.

spiritual formation

I know after my last post, some people are probably wondering what spiritual formation is (many people in Taiwan have asked me as well). Since it is very hard to explain in a few sentences, here is a link to a couple of articles by Dallas Willard, a guy who has written a lot of works about it. Spiritual Formation 1 and Spiritual Formation 2
They are kind of long, so I hope you have a little bit of time to read.
Note: I know that when an idea is given a term or phrase to describe it, we kind of compartmentalize it, so when you read this, try to see it not as just a section of our lives, rather see it as something we all do, whether good or bad.
Another Note: "Ophra"=Oprah
p.s. I still want to video chat with ya'll