The Look of Christmas --

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. We have our decorations up (see picture above -- decorating the Christmas tree) and Hunter performed in a Christmas program this last week. He had a great time playing the cello and singing with his classmates. The weather even turned cold this weekend -- although it is supposed to warm back up. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!

Celebrating Thanksgiving!!!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We did. We celebrated with a few families here in Taichung. As you can see with this spread, we ate good. After eating, Page and Cheryl led us in a few worship songs.

Christmas Mission Trip

We found out that over Christmas break our family, along with a couple of other m families, will be going to an island, G-Bay, to help out a local church. It will be a big challenge for our family as the island does not have any Western food!! In fact, it is populated by mostly fisherman so they eat a lot of seafood. Besides, the food, our kids are looking forward to it. The island is between Taiwan and China. On the map below the island is near Makung in the Taiwan strait.

Franklin Graham Crusade in Taiwan

I don't know if you had heard but Franklin Graham and his ministry came to Taiwan a couple of weeks ago. It was a huge success as we have heard over 13,000 came to faith. Please join us in lifting these up to the Father that they will follow through with their commitment to follow Him. Below is "A Light for Taichung" moment. Please join us in praying for the people of Taiwan and specifically Taichung. Thanks.

LIGHT for TAICHUNG

The Franklin Graham Crusades came to Taipei, Taiwan October 30th, 31st and November 1st. Many people from Taichung invited friends and traveled the 3 hour journey north to participate in this evangelistic outreach. Other Taichung churches showed the event by video feed to their friends and family. One believer excitedly told of how her Mother accepted the Lord and now everyone in her family are believers. *Please pray for the thousands of Taiwan people who had opportunity to hear the gospel because of this event. Pray that they would not forget the truth that they heard. Ask the Lord to soften their hearts so that they will receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. Pray for those who already accepted Jesus as their Lord, that they would be discipled so that their faith will grow strong and solidly founded on the Bible. Ask that they will be bold witnesses to the power of a changed life through Christ.
To His Glory and Honor and for their salvation,

Junior Carnival

Every year the Junior Class at Morrison puts on a "carnival" for the local community. The carnival's purpose is to raise money for their class. Our kids love it. This year Keith was in the dunking booth and was dunked several times. Also pictured is Levi boxing with one of his buddies from his kindergarten class.

MS Volleyball tournament

Sorry for not posting in a couple of weeks. It has been a very busy couple of weeks. Below are some middle school volleyball pics of Milly and Wade. They both competed with their resepective teams in the annual MS volleyball tourney. Both had a great time playing volleyball and hanging out with friends.

Milly waiting intently on the serve to come her way!!

Milly waiting around with her team (along with 8th grade boys team) to receive awards.

Wade with his 6th grade volleyball team!!

Another Light for Taichung Moment...

Each month, our team here in Taichung writes on a real situation in which they are dealing with. Please join us in praying for the people of Taichung and for His light to shine here on this island.

LIGHT for TAICHUNG

Dr. Lee has watched his wife surrender her life to Jesus Christ and has seen the changes in her life. She now has greater strength and peace to face the many challenges that her busy life brings. Dr. Lee sees his wife get up early to have a quiet time and also one before bed, and has himself tried getting up and sitting still, but without the focus of seeking the one true God or a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He is like so many other husbands, of believing wives that see changes that Christ has made, but are unwilling to give up their current life and take that step of faith.

Please pray for Dr. Lee and the many other men like him to humble themselves, acknowledging their selfish, sinful nature and their need for a Savior. Pray that the Christian men of Taichung will walk in faith in such a way that men like Dr. Lee will see how Christ can lead men to have a full and meaningful life. Pray for the spiritual awakening of husbands so that the Christian church in Taichung can be established with Christian families.

To His Glory and Honor and for their salvation.

Visit from Annie and Mandy

Today we received a visit from two 7th girls from Taipei. One of them, Annie lives with a friend of ours and she thought it would be a good idea to visit our family for the day. We picked them up from the high speed rail and first showed them around Morrison. In the afternoon we went to the Natural Science Museum and for supper we ate our favorite Chinese restaurant. It was a fun day. Pictured above are Milly, Annie, and Mandy.

Thursday of no school week -- bike riding!!

We decided to stay close to home today. We went to a nearby town -- called Tanzih. It is only about a 15 minute drive from our apartment. They have a pretty cool bike trail there. The weather was great and we all had a great time. Milly was invited to a friend's house, so she missed all of the fun. The picture above is a typical picture of what we saw on this bike trail. A lot of rice fields!! It is very pretty but the smell is not so good. Below are all the bikers!! We rode about 10 kilometers today. That is especially good for Levi!!

Day Trip to Leo Foo Village

Leo Foo Village is an amusement park about an hour and a half north of where we live -- Taichung. We went with another family from Morrison -- the Strange family. They really are not that strange!! They have 4 kids also -- around the same age as ours so it worked well. Below are some of the shots of the day.

The four middle schoolers on the drop zone (Caleb, Milly, Wade, and Rachel)

Keith, Matt, Josh, Jake, Hunter, and Levi on the water ride. (Levi ended up drenched!!!)

Keith and Page with their cool sunglasses. Too bad you can not see the background of this shot. Beautiful mountains!!!

As you can tell we had a great day!! Sorry not a good shot of Susan Strange but she really did go on this trip too.

Morrison Campus Pictures

Thought we would show you around Morrison with some pictures. The campus is much bigger than these pictures show. It includes an elementary, middle school, high school, 5 dorms (for students whose parents do not live in Taichung), faculty housing (some faculty live on campus - some live off campus), gym, auditorium, sports fields, swimming pool, etc. Currently, we are building a new library, cafeteria, administration building, dorms, and faculty housing. It is exciting to see all of the changes!! This phase of the construction should be done by the end of the school year. Below are some pictures of the school part of the campus. This is one wing of the high school. All hallways and lockers are outside but covered. Keith's classroom is on this hallway.
This picture was taken from Keith's classroom. Directly, below is the plaza. This plaza is a hang- out for the high school students. On the other side of the plaza, you can see the new middle school being constructed.
This picture was taken from the plaza, looking back up to one of the high school wings.

This picture was taken from the same spot on the plaza, just facing the other way. Beyond, the palm trees, you should be able to see our soccer field.

We hope you have enjoyed your mini-tour of MCA -- where we spend a lot of our time!!!

Day Trip to Shi-Tou

As we told you in our earlier post, we have this week off of school so we plan to do several day outings around the island. Today, we went to Shi-Tou -- which is about an hour and a half drive south of Taichung. It is a beautiful forest high in the mountains. As you can tell by the pictures -- it rained on us and we were not prepared. So, we used these huge leaves as our umbrellas. One of our good friends, Julie, and one of Milly's friends, Lauren, went with us. It was a lot of fun as these pictures show.

Fall Break 2008

We have been to school for 7 weeks now. We will have our first vacation this next week!! We are all looking forward to it, especially Keith. We will be staying here in Taichung but plan to take several day outings to see more of this island. We will post pictures soon.

Super Typhoon Jangmi

This has been by far the worst typhoon that we have experienced in our almost 3 years in Taiwan. This one did not have as much rain but the wind was very strong -- knocking over tree limbs, signs, etc.

We did not have church today nor are we going to have school tomorrow.

We are all fine and even enjoyed a typhoon party with another family tonight.

Thanks for your prayers.

Believe It or Not ... Another Typhoon Approaching

We are bracing for yet another typhoon (our 5th one this summer/fall season -- by our count). This one (Typhoon Jangmi) is supposed to be a big one. We will keep you updated!!

Light of Taichung

Here is another excerpt for you to get a feel for the type of people we minister to here in Taiwan. The Light of Taichung is our m team that focuses on the entire city of Taichung. Thanks for your prayers for the people of Taiwan.

LIGHT for TAICHUNG

Neel and Grace are a young couple with a boy who is almost two and another baby on the way. They want to raise their family in a healthy environment, such as they have observed in the lives of some Christian friends. In the past few months they have expressed interest in the truth of Christ and have consistently been participating in a local church. They are beginning to understand the joy and peace that comes from salvation through Christ. However, they are struggling with how to reconcile the Taiwanese tradition of honoring family by times of ancestor worship if they give their faith to Christ. Please pray for them to see that faith in Christ is of far greater worth and pray that God will show them ways to honor their family without having to bow down and worship the ancestors. Pray that they will realize their sin and understand God's provision of forgiveness and new life through Jesus Christ.

John 16:8 He will convict the world of guilt, in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment; in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me.

To His Glory and Honor and for their salvation

Taiwan --

Here is a recent excerpt about Taiwan from an EA publication. Continue to lift this precious nation along with its people to our Lord. Thanks.

Taiwan is known as a hard mission field. If you walk down just about any street or alley and look into the windows of homes and businesses, you will see "god shelves" laden with idols and offerings of fruit and incense. A worker in Taipei recently said, "Idolatry has blinded the people's ability to see The Truth."
Southern Baptist missionary efforts in Taiwan began in 1948 when Christian workers had to leave China. Since then, generations of Chinese believers and missionaries have labored faithfully — some of them for decades — all throughout the island. Taiwan now has 400,000 believers, 206 Baptist congregations, and many other churches. But tragically, only 2.7 percent of Taiwan's 23 million people have accepted Christ.Despite 60 years of concerted Christian witness in Taiwan, many of her people are still walking in deep darkness. Workers are urgently needed for Tainan, Hsinchu/Chungli, and Taoyuan. If you sense that God might be calling you to share Christ in Taiwan, please write to: ripetoharvest@pobox.com.

Survived the typhoon...

We survived the latest typhoon (see below post). Not much damage here -- just a lot of rain which meant a lot of leaks. We did manage to have friends over for an "American supper" on one of the typhoon days. Nick, Gloria and Zack (their 2 year old son) came over for Page's homemade pizza. They seemed to enjoy it. The picture above has Nick and Gloria in it with Keith and Hunter, but Zack did not want to stay still for the picture. Nick and Gloria have been attending our church and both seem very interested in Christianity. We watched the Jesus film in our church for two Sundays. Afterwards Nick told me that was the first time he had ever heard that story. Please pray that they would put their trust in Jesus. Thanks!!

Another Typhoon

We are in the midst of another typhoon. This is the 4th one for Taiwan this year. Not much wind here in Taichung but a lot of rain. Keith went into his classroom today and there is some water in his classroom -- not too much but it is still pouring outside. Our apartment seems dry except for a small leak in the boys' room. Here is an expert from an article about the typhoon.

Typhoon slams into Taiwan, six injured
6 hours ago
TAIPEI (AFP) — A typhoon pounded Taiwan on Sunday bringing fierce winds and torrential rains, sparking evacuations and leaving at least six people injured, officials said.
Traffic was severely disrupted as Typhoon Sinlaku made landfall in northeastern Ilan county early Sunday, packing winds of up to 173 kilometres (107 miles) per hour, the Central Weather Bureau said.
Hundreds of domestic and international flights have been cancelled on the island, and around 500 passengers were stranded in Kinmen airport, a Taiwan-controlled offshore island near the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen.
Power and telephone services were also disrupted to nearly 100,000 households as trees were uprooted by the strong winds.
Some 250 residents in northern mountain villages were evacuated to safety, said the National Fire Agency which coordinates Taiwan's rescue missions.
The typhoon lost momentum after making landfall but weather forecasters warned residents against relaxing their vigilance, saying the storm had brought heavy rains across the island.
"Its strength declined slightly, but the whole island remains surrounded by the typhoon. People should take precautions against the torrential (rains) which may trigger flooding and landslides," said a weather bureau official.
"Over the last six hours, the typhoon circled near Suao," a fishing port in Ilan county, the official said.
Six people were injured, including two hit by debris, while four were hurt when their bus crashed in southern Taiwan, the National Fire Agency said.
At 0100 GMT, the centre of the typhoon was 30 kilometres east-northeast of Ilan. With a radius of 250 kilometres, Typhoon Sinlaku was moving north-northeast towards Japan.

Teacher Ding

As many of you know, last year, Levi attended a Chinese kindergarten. Levi's teacher was Ding Lao Shr (or Teacher Ding). Levi loved her. Recently, we invited her to our church and she attended. We watched the Jesus Film in Chinese and her heart was very moved. We are hopeful that she now believes in Jesus!!! We praise God for this news. Please pray that she will continue to grow and understand more about Jesus.

This picture was taken last Christmas of Levi, Ding Lao Shr, and Levi's classmates. At Christmas time, Levi's classmates were told about Jesus, and we caught them in a prayer to Jesus. Isn't that a great picture??!!!

Jennifer and Albert visit from Taipei

We had a nice visit with Jennifer and Albert along with their kids (Tracy and Felix) this past weekend. Tracy is not pictured because she actually took the picture. They live in Taipei, and Jennifer used to teach Page Chinese. They took a weekend trip to Taichung. It was great to catch up with them.

Meet the New President...

Wade was nominated by his class to be the first class president. Every six weeks they will have another one, so his reign is very short. He has a few duties as president -- such as holding class meetings, writing an emergency phone list, etc. He likes the title of Mr. President.

First Day of School

The first day of school for us here was Monday, August 18 -- Keith's 42 birthday!!!

All the kids had a great first day. Wade and Levi were especially excited. Wade has now entered middle school. He was especially looking forward to his HUGE locker as well as being able to wear flip-flops. Levi was thrilled to finally be able to go to an English speaking school. Milly and Hunter enjoyed their days as well. Here are a few pictures of the day!!

School Starts Tomorrow!!

It is always exciting the day before school starts. All the kids are excited about the 1st day of school, especially Levi. He told us this morning that "he can't stop waiting for school to start". We think he meant that he can't wait for school to start.

Keith is excited to to be back in the classroom full time after a 10 year absence.

We will post some pics soon about the start of the school year.

A Visit from a Good Friend

Janet, pictured on the left, has been a good friend to us. We met Janet through Keith Hall -- a friend from High Point. Janet and Keith do buisness together. When Keith Hall found out we were moving to Taipei, Keith told Janet and Janet helped us a lot. Janet's English is very good so she was big help. The other night Janet and her sister joined us for dinner here in Taichung. It was neat because now a majority of our conversation is in Chinese. Please pray for both Janet and Jennifer as they are not yet believers. Thanks.

Levi Learns to Ride A Bike!!!

Levi finally did it. We bought him a new bike for his birthday. Wade spent one afternoon teaching Levi -- now he is very comfortable and proud of riding his bike.

Milly and Wade Taking Chinese Classes

We survived our second typhoon in less than two weeks. Thanks for your prayers. Not much damage was done here in Taichung.

We are now back to our normal routine. Since coming back from the States, both Milly and Wade have enrolled in Chinese classes. They both are doing great!!! Pictured above are their teachers. Teacher Tien is Wade's teacher while Teacher Chang is Milly's teacher. Both teachers have taught Keith and Page as well.

Another Typhoon Headed Our Way!!!

It looks like we will have to deal with yet another typhoon in the next day or so. As you can see in the picture above, the typhoon is headed right toward the island of Taiwan. We will let you know how it goes. With the typhoon last week, here in Taichung, we had major flooding problems.

Day Road Trip to Taipei

Today, Saturday, we took a road trip to where we used to live -- Taipei. Milly and Wade hung out with old Bethany friends while the rest of us enjoyed catching up with some friends that we have not seen in a while. It was a nice trip -- even though our air conditioning in our van did not work on the way back.

Page -- 3 Days of Sickness

Page has been really sick -- and in bed the last three days. She apparently caught a virus that I (Keith) had in the States. Finally, today she is at least up and moving around. Hopefully, tomorrow she can get out of the house some.

On one of the dinners that Keith and the kids had alone -- Levi said "it is sure hard when Mom is sick. Dad, I would rather you be sick." All the other kids nodded in agreement :).

Flooding in Taichung!!

Here in Taiwan we have a typhoon (I think it has now been downgraded to a tropical storm) that has dumped a ton of rain down on us. Thankfully, Keith unplugged our drains on our 5th floor porches before the water could get into our apartment. Other friends were not so fortunate as their places have been flooded or close to it. We are hoping this storm moves out of here soon.

Back in Taiwan!!!

We made it back home safely. We left the Charlotte airport on Sunday, July 13 at 5:00am and walked into our front door in Taichung on Monday, July 14 at 8:00pm. A total of 27 hours -- not too bad.

We enjoyed spending time with family and friends in the States. A big thank you for all of your love and support.

Week #2 at the Beach

We are winding down our time in the States. This week we were able to spend time with Page's family at the beach. (See picture above). We have had a super time in the US but we are ready to get home and not live out of suitcases. We leave the Charlotte airport early on Sunday morning and are scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on Monday night.

At the Beach

We have really enjoyed our vacation in the States. However, the pace has been very hectic. In two weeks we have stayed at 4 different places and seen countless friends and family. So, we were all glad to get to the beach for some real R & R. We will be staying at Holden Beach for the next two weeks. This week we are spending time with Keith's family. Next week, Page's family will come to the same beach cottage. So far the weather has been great!! Above is the view we have from our front porch.

Celebrating Birthdays in the US!!!

We have been busy celebrating birthdays here in the US. Levi turned 6 and had a putt-putt party (see sign below). Actually, he will officially turn 6 on July 10. Page turned 40 on June 23 and we had a surprise birthday party last night for her. The picture above is of Page and her very good friend, Jeanne, who helped plan the party. Page was quoted as saying, "This was the best birthday party that I have ever had!!" Milly also had a party -- a sleepover with 5 of her HPCA friends. Sorry, no picture of that one. Milly will turn 13 on June 26.

In the US!!!

We arrived in the US last Sunday night!! We had a short visit with Page's folks and then headed to our hometown of High Point, NC. We are having a great time seeing family and friends. The food has been great too. We will post some pictures soon.

Headed to the US!!!

On Sunday we are headed for a 30 day vacation to the States. We will fly into Charlotte, NC, and spend a few days with Page's parents. We then will head to High Point, NC, for about a week in our home town. On the 26th we head to Southern Pines to spend time with Keith's dad and stepmom. Finally, from June 28 to July 12 we will be at Holden Beach, NC, (one of our favorite places). We are looking forward to having time with our extended family, our church family, and friends. This will be our first time on US soil since December 29, 2005 - we are very excited! Please remember us in prayer as we travel.

An early swimming "turtle" 13th birthday party!

Yes, our little girl will be 13 on June 26! We are the parents of a teenager!

Since we are going to the US for vacation over her birthday, Milly wanted to have a party with her friends here before we left. So we rented out the MCA pool for a night-time swim party! This is the first time she has had a party where both boys and girls are invited - it is no longer "gross" to have boys who are friends. In fact she has just as many boy friends as she does girl friends now! She also loves turtles, so mom made her cake into a turtle...

Here are a few photos:

Keith passed Level 3 Test BUT....

an even cooler thing happened today.

First, thanks for praying for Keith on this test. He felt relaxed, and the test administrator was very kind and forgiving. Passing this test does not mean we are done studying, but it is an indicator that we are making progress. Again, thanks for your prayers!!!

After the test, Keith joined Page and the boys at a local water park. The place was very empty since Chinese school is still going on. This gave Keith an opportunity to talk to a lifeguard named Eden. Small talk turned into spiritual talk, and Keith gave his testimony to Eden. She had heard about Christianity from a Christian friend of hers. After finishing his testimony, Keith asked Eden if she wanted to believe, and Eden said, "Yes"!!! Keith asked, "Are you sure?" Eden said, "Yes, I am sure!" Keith led her in a short prayer, and Eden said she accepted Christ. We are going to follow up on Friday and take her a Bible - so please pray for us. We also will give her name to another Christian who will follow up since we will be in the States for the next month. Another cool part of this is that all of this was done in Chinese. If Keith had not prepared so hard for the assessment then he could not have shared or prayed in Chinese. Exciting stuff!!! God is working here in Taiwan.

Happy Dragon Boat Day

Today, Sunday June 8 is Dragon Boast Festival. This is the day that ushers in the summer here in Taiwan -- although it has already been pretty hot and humid for the last couple months. Today, as I was walking I saw two Chinese ladies trying to make chicken eggs stand up. Well they did it. I asked why they were doing this and they commented that on Dragon Boat Day around 12:00pm you can make chicken eggs stand up. They were right as all three were standing. You do see some interesting things here in Taiwan.

Here is some more from Wickipedia on the Dragon Boat Festival celebrated here.

The Duanwu Festival is a Chinese traditional and statutory holiday. It is a public holiday in mainland China[1][2] and in Taiwan, where it is known as the "Duanwu Festival". It is also a public holiday in Hong Kong and Macau, where it is known as Duen Ng Festival. Its alternative name in English is "Dragon Boat Festival", after one of the traditional activities for the holiday.
The Duanwu Festival has also been celebrated in other East Asian nations. For their equivalent or related celebrations, see Dano (Korean festival), Tết Đoan Ngọ (Vietnam), and Kodomo no hi (Japan).
The Duanwu Festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, giving rise to the alternative name of Double Fifth [3]. In 2008, this falls on 8 June. The focus of the celebrations include eating zongzi (see picture above) which are large rice wraps with some interesting things inside, drink realgar wine, and race dragon boats.

Good day at Morrison

We had a good day at Morrison today. It was the first day of summer vacation for the kids. Secondly, Morrison graduated 77 seniors in a very nice ceremony tonight.

However, the best part of the day was that we had two more students baptized this afternoon. Two brothers, one senior and one freshman accepted Christ some time ago but followed Him today in believer's baptism. Both of these guys attend our House of Blessing Church. Praise God for their bold statement of faith!!!

Teaching English

Page's last day of teaching English to the three classes in Levi's kindergarten was today. Page had a great time in teaching the kids English and some of the stories of Jesus. We hope many seeds were planted!!!

Above is a picture of one of the three classes -- Levi's class. I bet you can pick him out. One little girl told Page -- "Ke Ma-Ma (Ke is our last name in Chinese, and since Levi is one of their classmates they call her mom) please don't forget me when you go to America." Page told her we she would never forget her, but we will only be in America for 4 weeks!!