Every
time I write one of these I want to be as creative as possible and bury as much
meaning as I can within every word. It
is just who I am; its how God has wired me, but if I honestly tried to do that
with every blog post, there probably wouldn’t be very many blog posts. This is simply because there is so much going
on here, my mind has a hard time focusing and connecting to themes. Instead, I just want to throw mind vomit all
over this page and hope who ever is unfortunate enough to read this can process
the mass quantity and craziness of my thoughts.
Therefore, you are warned now, the following subject is messy mind vomit
that might contain smells as raunchy as Stinky Tofu
-This weekend we
visited Sun Moon Lake. It was beautiful
with incredible hiking and boating. I
was blessed to eat traditional Taiwanese food like a whole, boiling fish,
small, crunchy shrimps with their shells still attached, and some steamed
bamboo. The hike was incredible, and
Taiwanese people clearly do not enjoy exercising in the heat, because I thought
my students were going to die the whole time as the sweated, breathed hard, and
complained. Pictures can be found on Facebook if you are feeling really bored.
-Language
barriers and Christianese. Have you
every tried to explain the truth of Jesus to someone who struggles to speak
English? Have you tried it when you have a lovely East Tennessee accent, which
my wonderful friend Bobby can mimic quite well? Have you ever had to explain
terms like salvation, repentance, and threshing floor in basic terms? It is
freaking hard, and it has constantly reminded me how complicated we make the
Gospel and faith. In the end it is so
simple, its about God sending Jesus to die for us so that we can be with him
forever. It is the ultimate love story
and let’s not forget that fact.
-One of the
favorites of my friend Alexa while here is to climb everything she sees. Her excuse for this is that she is a
foreigner, and she does not speak Chinese.
Oddly enough it has worked quite well as we have climbed a large
elephant statue in front of a temple, posed like the Titanic on the front of a
moving boat, and swung from the hanging drumstick of a large drum at the
temple. Remember, if anyone asks, just
shake your head and say you don’t speak Chinese.
-I’m on my
fourth book in three weeks while being here, and I have written at least 5
poems. My mind is on hyper drive when it
comes to literature and language, and I am not complaining about this at
all. My reading class is having a
competition with me to see who can read the most pages in one week. Guess who is winninng….
-My students
have nicked named my Captain America.
One, I have absolutely no problem with this what so ever. Two, I haven’t had many nicknames in my life,
so this one just feels perfect. Go
‘Merica.
-Tea here is
absolutely amazing. It is a staple of
their diet, and it is addicting. I have
tried everything from Oolong tea to Milk Tea.
The fruit tea from Mr. Wish puts Pal’s to shame (I can’t believe I just
said that), and I will never be able to order my Route 44 Diet Mango Green Tea
from Sonic after having tasted real Mango Green Tea here.
-Meanwhile, I am
a growing boy, and the food has a tendency to always leave me hungry. I guess I just need to drink more tea to fill
my belly.
-I leave with
you these two things both about God moving here.
1.
One of my students brought me to tears on Thursday. We had been discussing how much he is worth
in the eyes of Jesus. He has struggled
with the concept, and seeing as I have spent almost half of my life now
wrestling with depression, I feel like I could relate. I shared with him that God says he has so
much worth that he is now priceless. I
also shared a truth that has shaped my life: We are God-designed,
purpose-intended, significant, lavishly-loved, prince/princess, son/daughter of
the King of the Universe. He proceeded
to share these truthes to the entire student body here in a talk he gave at
Chapel. God has been constantly
reminding us in the past week his love for us through things like that.
2.
One of my prayers I would like you to join me is simply this: Pray that the
Spirit of God fills SYME to much that when random people walk in off the
street, they are impacted, and that none of us, teachers or students, leave
without loving Jesus more and more. God
is moving, and we are following his lead.
Join me in this.
“Thus says the
Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God, who
teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.”
-Isaiah 41:17
No comments:
Post a Comment