A week in Taiwan

We have now been in Taiwan for one week! We have stayed very busy and the time is going so fast. We are staying at Concordia Middle School in Chiayi. It is a private Christian school where they have missionary teachers from the U.S. that teach Bible classes as well as regular classes taught by Taiwanese teachers. We are staying with the missionaries and it has been really fun getting to know them as we do programs in their classrooms and also spending time with them outside of school. We played Ultimate Frisbee with them one day after school. It was a blast and it felt so good to get out and run around. We haven't gotten to do that much overseas. It's very humid here and we were all pretty sweaty after the game. This is a picture of my shirt after the game. Dave calls it my "reverse swimsuit."


We have done many programs at Concordia Middle School, going from class to class doing 40 minute programs for the classes. They are short programs, but so many of them add up. We have had some days of 7 programs.

We have been splitting time between Concordia Middle School (actually middle and high school) and Chiayi Girls School. The two schools are very different and we have gotten very different responses at the two. The kids at Concordia have teachers from the U.S. so seeing foreigners is not as exciting to them. Some of the girls at Chiayi Girls School have never seen someone from the United States. Also at Concordia the students have Bible classes so they have heard the gospel many times. For some of the girls at the girls' school, our program was one of the first times they have heard the gospel.

Here's a picture of us with one of the classes at Concordia after our program.


Here's a picture of us with one of the classes at Chiayi Girls' School.


The girls at Chiayi are so excited to meet us after the programs. After every different class they line up to come by to greet each of us, the boys with a handshake and Jenny and I with hugs. The first day I received over 200 hugs! Then there is usually an incredible number of pictures taken with us.


During lunch our first day at Chiayi Girls School, one of the classes came back to eat lunch with us. Then they showed us around their school campus, making a stop at the snack bar to buy us milk tea. Here's a picture we took along the way.



This is a picture of us with Ming. Ming is originally from Taiwan but now lives near Denver, Colorado in the U.S. She was back here visiting and helped give us a tour of the area and came to school one of the days. Yiwen, the music teacher we are working with at Chiayi, translated one of our songs, "Unify Us," into Chinese for us and Ming also helped us learn it. That makes 7 different languages of the song: English, Chinese, and 5 dialects from the Philippines.

During our tour of the area we went to a Taoist temple. Ming told us a little bit about what was going on. In Taiwan there is a lot of ancestor worship and worshiping different gods. This is a video of them processing into the temple with the gods.



We still don't know all that much about the different religions here, but I think visiting the temple was a good thing, to know a little background about where some of the students are coming from.

The culture here is so different from the Philippines. Where as the Filipino culture is very laid back, the culture here is more like the U.S., so that has been a change for us. It has also been very different staying with the missionaries. They are all around our ages and from different parts of the U.S.. The other day I realized how weird it was that people were speaking English when they weren't talking to us. We haven't had that since we left home in January!

One thing that we have been really excited about here is the tea! We have been trying different kinds a tea almost everyday. I really enjoy the milk tea with pearls (little jelly-like balls/bubbles that you suck up through your straw as you drink the tea). You can go to the tea stand and mix just about any flavor into your different kinds of tea.

We are really enjoying our time here and it is already going so fast. Two weeks from tomorrow we leave Taiwan. I think three weeks here is going to be so short.

last blog from the Philippines

It was hard to leave Baguio on Wednesday, leaving the seminary apartment that had become so much like home to us and saying goodbye to Pastor Luis, Pastor Rolly, and Vicar Eric. When we left the bus station, I felt like we were leaving the Philippines....on a bus.... Good thing that wasn’t true because I’m pretty sure we would have ended up on the bottom of the ocean. I looked out the window of the bus as we drove, trying to take it all in and remember all that I could, knowing that this would be the last time we would be driving through the mountains, seeing the Filipino homes.

We are now back in Manila preparing to leave the Philippines for Taiwan tomorrow. I can’t even believe that. We are leaving the Philippines tomorrow. It is very hot here, and once again, we are not used to it. After being in the cool highlands this feels like an oven. It has been at least 88 degrees Fahrenheit when we are going to bed late at night and in the 90’s when we wake up. I have to get used to sleeping without my sleeping bag again. I have trouble getting comfortable when I have sweat pouring off of me, just lying in my bed.

When we arrived at Gloria Dei, where we have been staying when in Manila, the first one to greet us, before we even stepped out of the van, was Buboy’s daughter Gwen. We heard her cute little high pitched voice shout, “HELLO!” as we pulled up. She kept repeating it until we could respond. It was 11:30 at night but she was awake, excited to see us again. It has been good to be back here, seeing the familiar faces of Buboy, Pastor Chris and his daughter, Chelsey, Pastor Levi, Jiggs and Adeling.

Each time that we have stayed here at Gloria Dei, we have been a little more exploratory in our ventures out of the church and school compound. When we were first here our first week in the Philippines, we only went out to the Mercury Drug Store, about 30 steps from the compound. We would buy everything we needed here, including all of our meals. The second time we were here we ventured a little further down the road where the college is located, finding a restaurant called EJ Sizzlers where they serve really good hot Filipino food.

This time we walked down the main road a couple blocks to where there is a Jollibee. Jollibee is the Filipino equivalent of McDonalds but it is much better. We were skeptical to try it a couple months ago, but now here it has become our backup plan, because we know that we enjoy their food, it’s cheap and they have AIR CONDITIONING...which feels glorious in this heat.

Yesterday we got to go to a studio and record a CD of the music we have sang here in the Philippines. There were a total of 28 tracks, including program songs, sing-a-longs songs, and some cultural songs that we have learned here. We thought it was going to be a pretty long and painful process but it actually went really well and we had a lot of fun. There were only a couple songs that we decided to run twice, because of some small mistakes. Pastor Chris was there while we recorded and he brought in his one and a half year old daughter, Chelsey. She is pretty cute!
After we recorded we got to listen to a couple songs from New Dawn 95-96 and New Dawn 04-05. They also recorded in the same studio when they were here. It’s exciting to know that our music will be distributed to the churches that we visited and we hope that it can be a good ministry tool. We also won’t mind being able to share this CD with our friends and family back home.

When we were in Nueva Vizcaya in Kayapa we saw a guy with a monkey on his shoulder. We were hoping we would see a monkey during our time in the Philippines and then there he was walking down the road! We were all pretty excited about this! Here's a picture of the monkey, eating a roll, sitting on the guy's shoulder.


I don't think I have posted a picture of a Jeepney yet, so I figured I better do that before leaving the Philippines. This is one of the ways that we got around the Philippines. Most of the Jeepneys blast loud music and cram as many people into them as they can. The ones in Manila are much noisier that the ones in Baguio. You see them all over the place around here, all decroated differently with their own style.


I can not believe that we have already spent three months in the Philippines. So much has happened and I am thankful for every minute of it. I am not the same person that I was when I arrived here. This has been a stretching experience for me and such a time of growth.

I am so sad to be leaving the Philippines and the amazing people that we have met here. It’s hard knowing that I may never see some of these wonderful people again. I am so thankful though, that through our time spent together God has used us to impact each other. I have seen Christ in the people here, through their generosity, the way they take care of us and the way they love us, and I hope that they have seen Christ’s love in us the way we have in them.

This will be my last blog entry from the Philippines, tomorrow we will be in Taiwan. Even though I am sad to be leaving the Philippines, I am so excited for what Taiwan will bring: meeting many new people, a new culture, new foods, and new opportunities to spread Christ’s message of unity and peace.

Goodbye highlands

This is our last day in Baguio City. We leave on a bus for Manila tonight at 5pm and will be in Manila until April 13th, when we will fly to Taiwan. We have really enjoyed out time in Baguio. It is nice and cool here and we are not looking forward to going back to the summer heat of Manila. I can’t believe that our time in the Philippines is almost over! This past Sunday we realized that this was our last time attending Sunday worship in the Philippines. We were at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church here in Baguio, for our second Sunday (the first time that we have been at one church for more than one Sunday). Here is a picture of us during our program at St. Stephen's the week before.


This past week we got to attend the wedding of one of our contacts, Pastor Jerry. We originally didn't think that we were going to be able to make it, because we were scheduled to be doing a program that day in Nueva Vizcaya. Pastor Rolly was our hero and was able to reschedule it so we could attend the wedding.

We got to travel with many of the pastors that have been our contacts all over Luzon, so that was a blast! Meriam, the bride's, family sent a bus to Baguio to pick up people coming to the wedding. This was in addition to the normal bus going from Baguio to Tinoc. Both of the buses were packed, with many familiar faces from the churches we have been to. We crammed into the back of the bus with Pastor Chris, Pastor Rolly, Pastor Joel, Pastor Felipe, Pastor James, and Pastor Jimmy.

The wedding was on April 4, 2008 and 9am and when we went up to the church, there were already soooo many people there. Pastor Jerry leads over 10 congregations in the mountains, and it seemed like almost all of them came! People traveled for so long to come and support Pastor Jerry and Meriam and to be part of the celebration. In the Philippines, if you are free you can come to the wedding and to the wedding feast. Everyone is welcome at the wedding celebration.

This is a picture of the outside of the church with all the wedding decorations.


The beautiful bride, Meriam, getting ready to walk down the isle.


And here she is with her parents.


The wedding ceremony was beautiful. Pastor Jerry asked us to sing two songs during the ceremony. There were soooooo many people there. They crowded into the church, outside the back door, cramming in the windows, and sitting outside. There were around 2,000 people there! The only word to describe it, as well put, by one of the pastors, "WOW!"

Pastor Jerry seemed a little nervous about all the guests being taken care of and getting where they needed to be, so it was good to see a smile on his face during the ceremony.



This is a picture of the Lutheran Church in the Philippines pastors with the married couple. These guys are some of the ones who have taken such good care of us during our time here. They are all a lot of fun, and fun to watch interacting with each other.


Here's us and Vicar Matthew with the couple.


After the wedding we walked down to Meriam's family's home for the wedding feast. There were people lining the whole walk down to the house. We were seated at a table. Out came the rice wine and the food. The night before they butchered 3 pigs for the feast that night. The day of the wedding they butchered eight pigs, which was about 1500 pounds of pork and made 1500 pounds of rice! They also had huge clay pots filled with rice wine. It seemed like there was a stream of rice wine coming from somewhere, they just kept bringing out more. They feed everyone! The night before we got to watch them preparing the pigs. They use pretty much every part of it, so that was interesting to watch, and even more interesting to eat. While we were sitting at the table they came around and put a handful of pork on our plate: a slice of liver, a big slice of fat layers with the skin on top, sausage made from the intestines - cooked and filled with blood and onions, and a couple other big hunks of meat.
This is a picture of my plate at the wedding feast


As I was sitting at the table I was trying to imagine this feast being transported to a wedding in the U.S. It made me laugh really hard. The meat was really good but I am not to good with the huge chunk of just fat and skin. Thankfully they bring out plastic bags so that people can take home their leftovers. So we filled up a couple bags with the parts that we just couldn't eat. The bride's father was so excited to see that we were using the "native way" and that we would "have a snack later if we get hungry."

While we were eating at the table all of the people that had been lined up on the way down filed through the house, getting a bag of food. They fed everyone!

There were lots of festivities after the feast. We sang a couple songs during the afternoon. All of the pastors and Dave, Luke, and Ua got to join in the native gong dance that Jenny and I have done before. They were pretty funny to watch and looked like they were having a lot of fun.


I am so glad that we got to go to the wedding. It was so special to be able to experience the culture and to be there for Jerry and Meriam. It is definitely an experience that I will never forget!

On April 7th we went to Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya and did our last program in the Philippines there at an outdoor school gym. We did a program in the afternoon for the kids and then another one in the evening for everyone. Here's a picture of our last program.


As we leave the Philippines on Sunday, I am really going to miss the people of the Philippines. They have been so wonderful to us, making us feel so at home. They have taught us what it means to give and to love without hesitation. I hope that someday I can come back here.

Here's a picture of us with some of the people in Kayapa, after our program.



We went shopping in the market yesterday to buy some souvenirs and gifts for people back home. Sam, the council president of St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, was our guide/haggler/body guard. This is picture of Sam and Pastor Felipe.

While we were in the market Dave almost got pick-pocketed. A young man came up behind him and reached his hand into his pocket grabbing our team cell phone. Sam turned around and saw him. He yelled at him and they guy looked very scared, shoved the phone back at Dave and ran away. Sam almost chased him down. It all happened so fast and Dave didn't even feel anything. I'm glad Sam knew what he was doing and took such good care of us.

At the market we also bought some cultural Filipino clothing.
Here's some of the pictures we took in our cultural dress.







This might be the last blog until we are in Taiwan on April 13th, unless we have time in Manila. Hope all is well back home!