Lay Me Down

With this heart open wide
From the depths from the heights
I will bring a sacrifice
With these hands lifted high
Hear  my song
Hear my cry
I will bring a sacrifice
I will bring a sacrifice

Chorus:
I lay me down I’m not my own
I belong to you alone
Lay me down
Lay me down
Hand on my heart
 This much is true
There’s no life apart from you
Lay me down
Lay me down Oh oh oh
Lay me down
Lay me down

Letting go of my pride
Giving up all my rights
Take this life and let it shineTake this life and let it shine

Bridge:
It will be my joy to say
Your will
Your way
It will be my joy to say
Your will
Your way always(x3)


Every Monday morning, the  staff of Morrison Academy gather for devotions. We recently sang this Chris Tomlin song. The words, for me, describe my journey the last three months.

I started this school year knowing it would be difficult, but  I was confident in my abilities. I could handle it. Not too many days passed before reality set in. I found myself feeling like I had to prove to everyone that I was a good teacher; that I deserved to be here.

I was constantly stressed.  I strived. I persevered. I prayed. 

Yet, I continued to feel as if everyone around me was looking over my shoulder. It was the world against one- me.

 One day, after being less than perfect, I collapsed, emotionally. I just couldn't go on. So sitting at my kitchen table, I gave it all up.  I took my pride and gave it over to God. I instantly felt peace wash over me.

God also revealed to me that it was He, not any human, or any thing that I had done, that brought me to Taiwan. He, alone, according to His will. Wow! That simple thought released me from the prison I, alone, had erected. In a matter of seconds, my joy returned.

 

Letting go of my pride.

Giving up all my rights

Take this life and let it shine.

 

All my striving. All my worrying. It did nothing for me, or for anyone else.

 

My joy-- Your Will! Your Way!

 

I will shine when I am full of God, not myself!

 

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I prayed God would change my situation. Instead, He changed me!

Leftovers

Leftovers! No, not potroast or anything edible. I am refering to leftover pictures that should have been part of my last couple blogs.  The picture below was from our gondola ride up to the tea farms.

Tea fields

 Can you guess which blog this should have been included in? I guess I didn't think about it because this spider was not in my personal space. It was out among some trees far far away from me. Praise God for zoom lenses! Carl estimates its body was about 2 inches long.

Yesterday Carl, Abbi, and I rode our bikes to a hiking trail a couple miles from our house. This is the weekend of our annual Pike Lake camping trip where we always hiked through the beautiful Pike County hills. Obviously, thats not happening this year so we decided to hike the beautiful Taiwan "hills" instead. Oh my! It was quite a workout. The paths were mostly paved which was nice but the part that wasn't paved was covered with stairs. Lots of stairs! Steep stairs! My legs were shaking by the time we returned to our bikes. And yeah, we still had to ride the couple miles home!

                                                           Step One- Lock up the bikes.

 Step Two- Stop and accept the pine juice offered to you by the nice gentleman on the path. Yep, you read right- pine juice. Made from the pine cones from the trees in the area. Yep, it was green. Yep, it was not delicious. Very earthy. Somewhat grainy. But good for your health according to the nice man. Yep, I drank all mine. Abbi did not. And no, we didn't buy any of the bottles for sale.

                                             Step Three- Admire the beautiful scenery!

                      Step Four- Use the zoom on your lense to get a better look at the temple in the distance.

Step Five- Go up, and up. 

Step Six- Admire the banana trees.

 

 

Step Seven- Smile! We are almost back to our bikes!

This and That

Just some random thoughts......

Weather- Even though it is October, I joined Abbi in the pool yesterday to swim laps.  The sun still has a lot of heat but there is a slight chill in the breeze. Daytime highs are in the low 80's. There is a definite cool down when the sun disappears. The biggest changes have been in the humidity and the frequency of rain. When we first arrived, the humidity was always 80 % or higher. Everything was sticky- all the time. It rained often. We haven't had any rain in several weeks. Sounds like this will be the pattern for a couple more months. Our winter clothes can stay packed a little bit longer.

Cornhole-Carl introduced cornhole to my principal and his family last Sunday afternoon. They are from South Africa. Another teacher, who grew up in Kenya, joined in.  Naturally, they had never heard of cornhole before. Soon cornhole will be sweeping across this island!

Snake-Last week a warning came from the administration. A snake had been seen within the campus. Evidently a group of teens had seen the baby snake crawling into a locker (our hallways and lockers are all outside). One of the boys was able to kill it before it completely disappeared into the locker. One guess who that boy was....yep, Ben. Evidently the gate guard saw it happening on the security camera. He informed the gathered group that the snake was poisonous, very poisonous! God obviously was watching over Ben and the owner of the locker.

Speaking of snakes......  we were invited to supper with a family shortly after our arrival. We were enjoying after dinner conversation when Carl calmly informed our hostess that a mouse/rat was on her stove. They caught it, and a friend, in a trap a couple days later. Turned out it wasn't a rat. It was a shrew. Hmmmm...

Cockroaches- Haven't had any in our apartment, yet. Yeah! With the humidity they are bigger and more common than in Ohio. Ants haven't been a problem for us... yet. ( I am editing because Carl just told me he found a dead cockroach behind a box. Bettet dead than alive! )

Why am I thinking about creepy crawly things? Life is good, even with snakes, shrews, cockroaches, and ants. How about you?

Fall Break

 

Yep, you read it right. Fall break.... just what it sounds like- it's fall and we are taking a break. In fact, today (10/10) is a national holiday- Double Ten. It is equivalent to America's July 4. But before you get too jealous, my teacher friends, remember we started school August 13!

 Morrison teachers are taking advantage of this week long holiday. Several are with the swim team in the Philippines while others have traveled to other Asian destinations- Malaysia and Indonesia. Most, however, are traveling within Taiwan.. The most popular destination by far is Kenting- the beach town on the most southern tip of the island. Owning a car is a practical necessity of traveling that far south.

Since we own a scooter, not a car, Kenting was not a feasible choice.  I have seen families of four on one scooter but the children are usually young and still small, unlike our family of three teenagers and one preteen. But I will admit sitting on a sun-kissed beach would have helped my hyperactive stress levels.

Another factor dominated our travel decisions- an expiring passport. So instead of going south, we went north, north to the largest city in Taiwan- Taipei.

Early Monday morning, five of us (Nick decided to stay home) left our apartment and walked a mile to the closest bus station. We boarded the bus and traveled about two hours to the main bus station in Taipei. And how, you ask, do you do that in a foreign country where you have a minimal understanding on the language? Well, you first thank Jesus that the Chinese schools start teachimg English before their students become teens. Then you pick the brains of those who have lived here longer, or even better yet, those who were born here. And when all else fails, you stop and ask a stranger.

Carl mainly relies on the second of the above listed. I, on the other hand, largely rely on the second. which only works, may I add, due to the first.

A friend, Ling-En, helped us buy our tickets Saturday afternoon from the closest 7-11 (yeah, they're everywhere). The kiosk was all in Chinese so her help was a necessity! Scott and Jennifer Finch, Morrison teachers at the Taipei campus and great friends, met us at the end of our bus trip. The MRT (subway) carried us closer to our overnight accomendations- the Southern Baptist Guest House.

                                         There were many options on how to spend the day!                      

 Our first stop was at the Taiwan equivalent to the Washington Memorial. We just happened to arrive ten minutes before the combined forces of the Army, Navy, and Air Force began their dress rehearsal for the Double Ten celebration. Perfect timing!

 Next stop- Taipei 101. Once the tallest building in the world, it now proudly holds second place. For this short country girl, even though my eyes beheld it, it still seems quite impossible that such a tall building could actually remain standing! Although we would have loved to, we didn't go to the top. 

We did, however, partake of another marvel. Along with Tim and Grace Heebner (long time friends, also newly hired at Morrison), and the Finches (new in time but old in heart friends), we experienced a tantalizing taste bud extravaganza! Which by the way, may be the world's tallest dessert!

Three scoops vanilla ice cream sprinkled with a handful of chopped pecans, topped with a mountain of fluffy cotton candy.... wait, I'm not done yet.....

followed by, after the chorus of ooohs and aaaahs, a cup of espresso  drizzled over it all. Sounds odd, weird, off beat....

                                               But your tastebuds will have a different opinion!

 Just ask Abbi! All the other teens were left behind at a food court. She was the only one who chose to try the adult choice of dessert! Lucky girl. Lucky,  that is, that her mother didn't snatch the bowl away and scream, "It's Mine" !

The next morning was spent drowning in govermental hoop jumping! By the way, if you ever need passport pictures, do NOT get them taken in Taiwan. Someone (the goverment? the photographers?) has an obsession with ears. Your ears MUST be showing in any official photo. As a result, I am stuck with the all time worse passport photo, ever, for the next ten years!

After our American experience on Taiwan soil, back to sightseeing! This time we traveled on an above ground train to the Maokong Gondolas. This inexpensive but quite amazing trip took us up and over several mountain tops. At the end was a village of tea farms.

                                         Jacob laying down on the clear floor of our gondola!

                                                     The view from the restaurant.

                                            Scott made us traditional tea among the tea fields.
                                                    (Ann, if you ever visit, we got to do this!)

 

Pizza for supper. A subway ride, a long underground walk, and finally back to a bus station- just in time to catch the sold out 10pm bus. At midnight, we made the mile long walk back to our apartment!Two days, 48 hours--- it was good to be back in Taichung. Home sweet home!