Day 1: Biking in Taiwan

Our day started off early at 5:30 as dad had asked me to be at the airport by 6:30 for our 9:00 flight. Dad actually arrived late himself as the van that was supposed to pick him and the bikes up flaked out. But it didn't matter in the end as our flight was delayed anyways. We ended up sitting in the lounge for a few hours. Dad read the newspaper and I studied my Chinese. 

After a few hours dad went to check the flight statuses and came back to say that our flight had been delayed again so we should just continue eating and stuffing our faces. But after another hour of that we just decided to walk over to the gate to be "early" just in case. Well, wouldn't you know it, as we glanced at the board we found out that our flight wasn't actually delayed a second time- it was actually leaving in 5 minutes. So we made a mad dash for the gate and got there just in time. 

So in all, we arrived in Taipei around 2.5 hours late but we made up for it in the commute to Sun Moon Lake (mid-Taiwan). 

We got here and I realized that I severely under-packed. Dad had gone through the packing list with me and warned me not to pack too much. I had taken his advice quite literally so when he didn't mention to bring shorts, I didn't. So I guess I'll be sharing a bed with dad in boxers.

Checked into an awesome hotel- it'll probably be the best one this trip and walked around the Main Street to eat dinner. We chatted with a friendly restaurant owner and fruit stall lady. It's a nice quaint little town. 

So we are back at the hotel now eating fruit we bought at the stall. There's some really funky stuff that I don't even know the names for. They probably don't even have English names. 

We're going to start assembling the bikes soon but dad's on Facebook again. I guess it's not a rush because we have a few more hours. So far it's been a really good start having some good conversations with dad. Looking forward to tomorrow as we'll start riding. 

That's all for now. 

Happy New Year / Updates

First off, Michelle and I wish you a very Happy New Year! May the Lord fill your year with the richness of his grace and experiences to stretch your faith. Praying that 2014 will be a year of much fruit in your lives.

Admittedly, Mich and I have been a bit busy these days and have neglected the blog. Michelle doesn't like blogging and makes it no secret, so she leaves me to do all the work. But nonetheless, she resolved to update more as this year looks to be a very eventful year.

So, a few things that have happened lately. I best leave you with pictures rather than words as most people like to look at photos.

The Growth Group at church has been "growing" (for a lack of a better word) both in size and depth.
We really enjoy fellowshipping and studying God's word with these friends! This is our Christmas dinner / Naughty Santa Gift Exchange.

A birthday celebration for Cheryl our teaching colleague!

At the end of December, Dennis from Vancouver came to visit and stay with us.
We were blessed with his company and the giant pot roast he brought over.

During the holidays, we were able to go on more family excursions - this one in Sai Kung to
explore the outlying islands in HK. Nice father-daughter picture.

We also had the opportunity to visit Cambodia together.

Beautiful country

with beautiful people.

Upon coming back to school I got some bad news that one of my students had been hit by a car during the holidays
and was in the hospital recuperating. We have been Skyping with his during lessons to keep him up to date
with lessons. It was really heart-warming to see the love shown by the class and their care for Thomas.

Preparing for the bike trip!

So one big thing I'm looking forward to soon, Chinese New Year holiday in fact, is a bike ride with my dad in Taiwan. This idea came about rather randomly after returning from Cambodia. I was explaining to my parents how awesome Cambodia was to visit and told my dad to go some time. He responded by saying that he had planned to ride his bike through Thailand to Vietnam, through Cambodia one day and I got excited and suggested that we could go on a father-son bike ride in Vietnam, since Grandpa spent much of his working life as a businessman there. The original intention was more nostalgic than anything: an opportunity to spend time with dad and see Grandpa's old stomping grounds.

After some research I found out that a cross-country Vietnam trip in itself would take close to a month, taking up holidays I couldn't afford so we had to rethink our plans. Dad suggested Taiwan and we quickly jumped on the planning and bought our plane tickets. With that settled, we are going in a mere 2.5 weeks!

Our trip has 3 purposes:

1. Spending time with Dad. After all this time in HK, I've never really taken the time to sharing in something quite intensive with my dad. We've never really had a sport we enjoyed together, much to chat about (besides church politics), so I'm really looking forward to be able to hang out with Dad. This is a memory we can look back on in years to come.

2. Practice my mandarin. In preparation for our 6 months in Taiwan this coming year, I need to get my mandarin up to snuff. I shouldn't have spent those days in Chinese school farting around and now that I'm old enough to regret it, I should do something about it. So I'm brushing up on Chinese flashcards and hoping my dad will hold my hand while we converse with the locals we meet.

3. Pray for the country and the people. Again, as we see God's confirmation unfolding for us to be in Taiwan the upcoming year, we want to continue to pray for the people and the nation. With only 0.5% of the working class in Taiwan Christian, we pray for a breakthrough in this nation- that truth and the light of the Gospel would be revealed to those still in darkness. We pray that this land would be governed by justice and righteousness and that the Kingdom of God would come in this place for these people as well.


So basically, that's our update for now. There's much happening, and we hope to share regularly. Please pray for us as you remember. We are blessed to have you in our lives.

Much love,

Tin and Mich