A few years ago my sister Karen and I went to Taiwan for 2 weeks to teach English at Christ's College for a program called American Villiage. Students from the college could sign up for an intensive 8 day program where they would pretend they were coming to America and were only allowed to speak English. Karen would be teaching one of the 4 classes held each day and I was a room 'mom' and helped with planning different activities.
Before we left we got a video to look at from the previous year and there was a girl who had been to American Village to help improve her English. Karen and I immediately hoped that we would get to meet this sweet girls who was touched that people would come from the States to teach her English "They don't even know what Taiwan is... is it a tree?" she said. To our great delight we got to meet Fiona on our first evening! She was going to be taking care of some children that had come along on the trip. Fiona showed us many interesting little things about Taiwan - like ice milk and milk tea, and was even able to take up to a few places for sight seeing when we were the only ones from the group left.
The next winter, Fiona went to Winthrop Univeristy in Rock Hill, SC to study to be an ESL teacher. Karen and I went down for New Year's and had a great visit with the Brannon's (a family that we met in Taiwan who Fiona was then living with). The next year Karen & Mike and I went for New Year's again. After many tries, Fiona has finally passed her last exam and is now able to teach ESL. Fiona is now back in Taiwan and a few days ago celebrated her birthday.
I am so thankful for the time that we have been able to come together and talk of God's working in her life and how he is working in her family as well. I used to think that people in different countries didn't experience the same things we did in the same ways (I'm not sure why I thought that). Being on the other side of the world, seeing the same cloud fomations that we have here in Canada, I realized how small we really are and how great God is! That he knows each of his children by name and loves us all just fills me with awe and wonder. What a precious gift the friendship that we have with this sweet girl is.

Comments

Household of Faith said…
Just thought I'd say, Welcome to the world of blogging! It will be nice to catch up that way. Hope all things are well with you.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007 9:48:00 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
I think that it is oftent the simplest gestures that mean the most to me. Last week I had the priviledge of going to visit friends for dinner. When their 4 year old boy heard I was coming he wanted to set the table extra special. So he carefully put out the plates then put out the forks and knives. When he put out the napkins he decided to make it extra special and 'crinkled' the napkin around the utensil. Just a sim ple thoughful gesture to make things a bit more special. In February at our Ladies retreat we talked about Hospitality and how we need to get out of our comfort zones and start to make our homes and churches more inviting and welcoming places. We were encouraged and challenged to not worry if our homes weren't clean, we didn't have a 5 course meal prepared, or anyother excuse that we may have thought of in the past and just obey the command to Practice Hospitality (Romans 12:13). What a blessing it could be if our children grew up without the same hang ups ...
Read more
Image
Hannah Rose Everts July 27, 2007 7 lbs 3oz We are so excited to have a little girl in the family! (though after 6 sisters you wouldn't think so!) Because Hannah was a footling breech, Rachel had a c-section planned for Friday early evening, but got bumped up to a later time. Hannah was born at 9:56 pm. She was laying sideways and it took some effort, but sh e is here safely. Rachel is doing extremly well and looking forward to coming home. Tristan wasn't quite sure what was going on... what 13 mont h old does? He pointed straight to her nose (like he does on his doll). He now looks like a GIANT! We are so thankful to the Lord for his blessings to Ryan and Rachel with another covenant child.
Read more
Image
On the long weekend, Mike & Karen and I decided to spend a quiet weekend together camping. (Did I just say Karen and quiet in the same sentence?!?) We were a bit smarter this year than last and brought the trailer, got an electrical site and brought a heater along. While it was quite cold at night we were snug as bugs in rugs. Our first night was not one of much sleep. The people beside us came in just before 1 am drinking and making all sorts of noise. Finally at 4 am I opened the door and told them to be quiet. (Mike was shocked awake because he hadn't heard a thing!) At 4:30 Mike and Karen went out looking for the park rangers and then went to the site and told them to be quiet. Finally at about 5am they were asleep in their tents. Karen (who doesn't always need a lot of sleep) went out at about 8 and found the ranger and by 9 he was shaking their tents telling them that they had to leave. Karen, being Karen, made sure that we got our money back for the night! Our neigh...
Read more