That quote was a little much...but amusing

Lately I have been wrestling with an aspect of this blog. I know that there are those of you out there that ask the question, "does he do anything besides take balck and whites, and move into apartments?" I know that I am here, and that one of the charges of missionaries is to report to those in places called home, and encourage the believers in these homes that their God is not failing to make believers all over the world. Some people need constant affirmation and attention on their faith, so that they are encouraged to move forward in their missions whatever they may be, here or there, home or away, next door or other countries. This is for you, my encouraging post, at least I hope as much. So here are some pictures for you, these are the students that I am with every day, around and talking to about the love that Jesus has for them, and the lack of anything they can do to change that. These are pictures of the mountaintops that I climb to have one conversation with a man in the streets of a city gripped by the practices of pagan society. This is Gods mission through me, not sent out by man, but by the Spirit that has laid waste my flesh. The Spirit that has led me here, to a place of growing unconsiousness of self. Peace to all of you under the vail of the StarMaker and Planet Spinner we call Christ.

"There are bits of Jack Bauer streaming through my package..."

these immortal words were just muttered by my roomate Mike. We are sitting here around our apartment, Mike is dowloading the next episode of one of his favorite series, 24. He started to think about the physics behind the wireless internet we have here in the Apt., and that we, as a civilization, do not fully know the implications of wireless internet on the human body. Oh sure we think it is harmless until bits and pieces of our anatomy start shrinking into nothingness, now this might not be too much of a worry for Mike, but for some of us there is more worry involved. Here is a picture that I took recently, try and tell me what you think it is.

Pace

This is a picture I took when on our trip up the mountain. At the top of the mountain there is a large sprawling teas field, and in the midst and mistiness of the top of the mountain there is a eatery. You can order any number of mountain top grown vegetables cooked by a small group of people that own the tea field. I have always been the fan of taking life slowly, I have not been one to like faced paced society constructs. This picture caputres what it was like to be on this mountain on a Saturday. Again another photo that I am going to have to get framed I think. Striking.

Today we (being a collection of American teachers) will being what many hope can become a regular day of Basketballing with the kids at Concordia. Pray we can make it happen.

Hey New Look...

Yeah, I wanted to spruce this place up a little and also add some links to sites I think are noteworthy, the list will increase with time. The theme of newness also spills over into my life with the apartment we have now. In this post you will get to see some pictures of the place I am now living, first the inside of my apartment, and then in a later post the actual location from the outside, the building itself and perhaps a view from the top.
We came to have this place through the man (Yule) who teaches me and several others in his home monday nights. he recieved this complex at a minimal cost from the government because of his years of service in the Taiwanese Air Force.
So Yule has this place, as well as three other homes, one of which he lives in, one of which he uses as guest quarters, and another for rent, and now another home, the one I am currently writing you from within. It is great. Cheap from the standpoint of an American, but many Taiwanese think it is a little expensive, all in all I think I will pay almost $200 for rent, and utilities in one month. Cheap, Cheap, Cheap and the place is big, 4 bedrooms, 2 bath, a large balcony, very quiet, in the downtown area of the city, what more can you ask for? I am accumulating plants for some of the window bays, getting to know the location more and more everyday.

Great Schedule

At the beginning of this new semester we recieved our schedules for class just like any other time, I guess I have only experienced the time before this, but I am making an educated guess. So I got into whatever kind of groove you can be in after almost a week, and then find out that the school has shifted my classes around a little bit, not too badly. I have a Monday-Friday Schedule that is like this for classes, 4, 5, 5, 1, 3 now I agree this is like I am teaching in a university. There is something I at least need to share as a blessing, Monday-Wednesday is a perfect schedule because on these nights there is really nothing too great going on during the evening, at least outreach wise. On Thursday and Friday though, there are two huge opportunities that we have to share what we are to people that dont know and have never heard, and what are the two days that I get a little break from really pounding the books hard so that I can have a little more energy in the later hours of the day.

Now something I have wanted to do for a while, a comparison of Sam in America and in Taiwan, not on maturity or cognitive thinking, but apperance, this is a chance for you to see what Rice and Tofu has done to my body. Here are some pictures and I hope they are side by side, but chances are that they will not be. I look like a goofy little rat in the picture where I am in my New York shirt. Albeit this was after a day hiking through the Royal palace in Thailand, i still have no neck to speak of. Never mind the women in the pictures, this should be common place for all of you that have ever looked at my pictures, being surrounded by beautiful women is a habit for me.
In my best estimation, from converting pounds to kilos, I am down about 15-18 lbs from America, all with regular excersise and a change in diet, which I guess could do it for everyone without a thyroid gland problem. An interchange of Badminton and Basketball, with a diet heavy in fresh fruit, fresh veggies, rice, and limited intake of meat and dairy products, and all the food is not laden with salts and preservatives, enhancers and color agents. My favorite restaurant buys their veggies from a vendor that comes from his farm and drops off all the vegetables with earth still wet from the morning picking clinging to the roots.
And now for another picture of my life pre Taiwan...guess some things havent changed.

Man, the Righteous Brothers know what theya re singing about

After getting over whatever it was I had, I had a great need to listen to music that would lift the spirits of a man a shade slower than The Word. And I got it. Percy Sledge, Aretha, Roy Orbison, the Temptations, Dylan, James Brown, and yes the Righteous Brothers. Are you kidding me? Where the heck has music like this gone? With the 50 cents, Evanesence, Avril, what the crap? I want to hear music that is making me a better man, and if there aint nothing like James Brown and the Funk of "Get up off the Thing" "Good God yall!"
The absence of this music is a directly related to the upswing of violent tendancies in the U.S., perhaps that is not as scientific as I would like to think, but it sounds good to me. Where would the world be with a little more Temptations on mainstream radio and media coverage? Lets talk about a little more love, lets get down a little more.
Here is a perscription recomended to you by me, if you do not feel better (even if you are already in a good mood) after listening Martha Reeves and the Vandellas "Rescus Me" you dont know what good music is, if you are a guy and do not feel better about yourself after hearing "Soul Man" you need to get some help. I have to speak my peace on this, even if no one is listening. Get on it Music makers, get back to the roots, get back to the good stuff, I am speaking out, it is starting here, or something like that.

"Poison, Eggs are poison!"

That is of course a quote from a wierd creature in the concluding segments of a sequel to the Wizard of Oz, I believe the movie was called The Emerald City.

It has meaning to me because today is my first recovered day from a bout with food poisoning as I have diagnosed it. I was worried that I had got ahold of some tropical type flu bug or something, but seeing as how the turnover of the symptoms has come and gone so quickly and the severity of the symptoms while they were with me, it can only be "Poison."
I guess I should be thankful that yesterday was the hardest day of my time so far in Taiwan.

Today I am back in the saddle and getting ready to get into the classroom. It is already Friday which is awesome, this semester is going to go by very quickly I am being told, it is shorter than the first semester and there are several activities and exams at different times which will break up teaching quite nicely. Roll with the punches will be the term to use, I will see how many unexpected turns and twists this semester holds for me. So far I have had one thrown at me. I learned that this week, only a few days after our 3 week break had finished, that my Sr. 2 students get to take another 3 day holiday to mark their, well I do not really know the reason behind it at all, but they are gone, and I found out 18 hours before they were to leave after preparing to teach them for the week, Oh Well.

Peace to all of you that are out there living a life in the Light, bring others into the Light with you, with the help of God.

1. Picture one is the new view I have from my room out into the world.
2. This is me infront of the worlds tallest building, Taipei 101
3. This is the home for the most sacred Budha figurine in the Kingom of Thailand, the Jade Budha.

Here are some nice pictures

These are all photos that were taken over my hoilday break and I do not really knwo what it is about these three photos but there is something about each one that just just looks snappy.
I have no bone of art at all in my body, but something about these photos seems so deep. I put them here for you to see and perhaps put your two cents in about them.

Pray for some good rest for me if you read this in the next 12 hours. Last night was the worst night I have had here ever, and I have no idea why.

goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooing

...

Titles are always so hard to come up with. Now that the day has begun I am free to tell my feelings about having a great place in the city. How much more healthy is it to have a place that is away from where your place of work is located. There have to be some sort of studies on the suject. It is the same reason I believe why so many people get weary of living in Dorms at school after a certain number of years. Sure it is nice to have for the first 1 or 2 years when you are searching out all of the parties adn making your way to whatever floor the women are located. If you become serious abou tyour study after a while there is something of spite that rises up for the cell in which you abide. It begins to feel like the walls walk closer to you every minute, reaching into the pockets of your creativity and pick-pocketing idea after idea for paper and presentation until you come to a head and need release from the tangled twine of twixing drywall arms (I am not sure twixing is a word, and if it is I am sure it is wrongly used, but it sounds good).
I felt that way only after a few months in the digs here on the campus I teach. I did not realize it eaither until last night I had a refreshed sense of connectivity to others that have been out of touch.
For now I am off to purchase some lunch and hang out a little before the next duo of classes o'er take me.

Just...goinG

The Rhyming Three Sillies...

It is only by the sheer Grace of God that I am here to write this this to you. Not because I have endured some long hardship at risk of losing life or limb, or that I have seen the light at the end of some death rattling sickness. I am on the crumbly edge of another semester of teaching and another semester of growing in what God has done in me, and what He will hopefully and prayerfully do through me.
Back from the holiday in a bittersweet attitude I was until this morning when I walked to the floors that my classes are on. In the midst of tackling new books and figuring out their new classes, and finishing all of the homework they had over their break, my students shot to the door in hopes of asking me about my trip, where I went, "do you have pictures?", "did you get a girlfriend?"
Yes I got great pictures and no, not yet for that other one.

Here is a call out to anyone from college that reads this and tha tis concerned about me turning into what a friend of mine called, "diaper wearing comatose bible beating vagabond," or something like that. I am fine, I am not in diapers yet, and have been getting along just fine in my adaptation to my new position in faith without as some people might think, a "negative" swing in my personality. I am swingin and kickin just like I did in college.

BUT...

Who in the world would I be and what kind of faith would I have and what kind of God do I worship that would let me come back from this place as the exact same man as when I left. I am being transformed daily, yes into a diaper wearing, scripture beating, spouting, breathing vagabond. What a blessing to be called this by my friend I now think, to be totally out of touch with this world in the depths of thought about the Word given to us in the beginning and until the end. Truly if it were as my friend said you would not be getting this retort to his comments.

• Are you the same person you were in College/University or High School? (Apply where needed)

I truly hope not, I hope you have grown and seen how you have changed, looked at the path you have walked and seen the dips and rubble in the way, how you have overcome, I pray, and moved on down the line. Peace to all of you as I am off to sit in another section of school meetings on this first day back, lunch breaks always feel too short.

going, just...