More experiences in Taiwan

Every Taiwanese person has probably experienced riding on a crowded train during weekends. Me, being the half-Taiwanese that I am, ride the train usually twice a week and both of those are generally weekend trains. Buuuut, this weekend, I had a new experience - using a squat toilet on a moving train. lol :) I felt super Taiwanese.

I also attended my first funeral in Taiwan. Bro. Chen from the Kaohsiung church passed away and his service was this Saturday. We were given little ribbon crosses to put on when we arrived and those who brought the blue envelops with money were given towels to symbolize something with which to dry your tears. Sis. B gave me her towel as a souvenir. haha I never knew you could get souvenirs at a funeral. But it's a cute little pink towel and the price tag that was left on read about 190NT ... which is close to a six dollar face towel.

Anyways, there was a beautiful spirit of worship and peace in the chapel. Several songs were sung and lead by different church groups. I sang with the Tainan group and we did a medley of "Let there be glory and honor to Jesus" with "Because he lives." It was fun to learn to sing them in Chinese and an honor to be apart of the celebration of Bro. Chen's life. Among many things, he was a Bible School teacher for the original Bible School graduating class in Kaohsiung. Although I never met him, I appreciate the time that he gave to the Lord and the impact that his life has and will continue to have upon those who knew and loved him.

After the service, we took a bus (and some people drove in their own cars) to the burial sight that was about 40 minutes away in the mountains. Me, Alisha and Joyce sat in the back of the bus and had a grand time. Joyce did some napping and Alisha and I played with my electronic dictionary. First, it was a game of tic-tac-toe. Then it was a guessing game for Alisha as I practiced some Chinese writing and had her guess what it said. It was pretty hard to write as the bus was traversing some less-than-smooth places in the road and it basically had no shocks. ^_^ That definitely made the "game" more challenging, and therefore, more interesting ... or frustrating. lol But we had fun anyhow. Then, we were trying to assign Chinese names to my family. We did keep ourselves quite amused. On another note about names, I have the hardest time remembering Sis. Bracken's Chinese first name. Probably because I don't use it or hear it used by others. We just call her 師母(shi mu). If I'm correct, her name is 桑珍 (sang zhen) but I always want to say it, 三明治(san ming zhi) which is the word for sandwich. lol I have yet to tell Sis. B about this little mix-up. haha Annnnd then one for Bro. B came to me ... his first name is 瑞克(rui ke) which can sound similar in one's head to 肉桂粉（rou gui fen) which is the word for cinnamon. I haven't decided when I'll share these little "revelations" with the Brackens ... I've been saying Sis. B's name wrong since last summer ...

Church was great this morning! Worship was powerful and the preaching was awesome. Bro. Bracken preached from the verse in Psalm 8:4 where the Word says, "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" He talked about how each of us find fault with ourselves, but God finds us precious. He loves us more than we could imagine. And, as Christians, we need to learn to love people. The best gift we could give to our circles of acquaintances is an introduction to the ultimate and perfect love of Jesus Christ, which lead Him to give up His life and die for us. At the end of the service, he asked who would make a promise to talk to at least one person this week who we've never witnessed to before and tell them about the love of God/give our testimony. I think every person there raised their hand. Now, may God give us grace to be His ambassadors.

Well, the night-time creeper that I am ... it's quite late and I need to hit the pillow. My list of things to do this week is growing at a seemingly excellerated pace. Thankfully, there is a light at the end of this week's tunnel ... I'm looking forward to spending some time with Tiffany. :)

And tomorrow I have another butterfly note to open ... only three left. Yes, indeed, dear readers. My time in Taiwan this trip is quickly coming to a close ... I feel like I must have been living these last three months with my eyes closed. How they have flown.

Affectionately,
me