Changhua

On this week's day off, we went to Changhua to do some exploring. But we needed to ride into the next town to first catch a bus to head to Changhua. And lo and behold, midway into the ride to Yuanlin, I discovered a flat. At first reaction, I started complaining in my mind how of all the days to pop a tire it had to be on my day off. But I soon realise, as it always is, that God was behind all of this.

After riding a few more minutes with the flat and Michelle praying, I looked across the street and there it was, a bicycle repair shop as if it dropped out of heaven. So glorious. Scampering across, we quickly approached the owner.

So long story short, what turned out to be an interruption turned out to be a God-given opportunity. Upon talking to us, the shopkeeper knew we were foreigners but asked us a strange question about whether we were living with American missionaries. Though we aren't, I sense that God is opening up an opportunity with this friendly and talkative shopkeeper. I hope to visit him again soon.

With the bike tire fixed, we were good to go and got on to Yuanlin and then to Changhua. Changhua, according to tourism sites is the breadbasket of Taiwan, one of the first settled places on the island. Life is simpler here. Lots of agriculture and simple foods. Very different than bustling Taipei or even Taichung.

猫鼠面 or Cat Mouse Noodles. No idea how they got the name, but it's great! 

Changhua and some other cities in the county now have Ubikes, stations where you can rent out by every 30 mins.

Nice to ride instead of walking in the sun

A railyard museum

So that was pretty much the day. An interruption in the morning, a nice stroll in the railyard and then a relaxing read in the coffee shop. A great way to enjoy the day off! 

Time

The last week or two have been a weird period of adjusting to the pace of life here in Puxin. As urbanites teachers enslaved to the clock, Michelle and I have been trying to figure out the value of time here. We are so used to calculating down to the minute in our timetables and packing our days full of tasks, events, and people to see. But here in Puxin things don't run at the same speed. Things are much slower.

People have asked us whether we've been busy. And while we haven't been drowning in busyness as we're used to in the classroom, we still reply that we have been. It's just the busyness here looks different. We are not running kids off to their next class, diffusing an argument between groupmates, or cramming down a lunch so we can discipline a student. Rather our days are packed with reading the Bible, meeting to talk about ministry, occasionally studying Chinese, and riding our bikes to the grocery store to pick up eggs and meat.

Time moves differently here. It's loosely governed and counted by chunks: appointments take up your morning and hanging out with kids could mean starting sometime around 5pm and just sitting around for the next 4 hours. To be honest, it's been a bit of a struggle getting used to the work output here.

So we've been adjusting to this new notion of time. Be flexible. Do what you can. Things may or may not happen at their proposed times. Sometimes they won't happen at all.

On a day off the Chen's took us out to Lugang, an old fishing village on the coast.

Ministry has been interesting as well. Since school has started for the highschoolers, we've been figuring out how to provide a safe and productive afterschool hangout environment for the students here. Most students don't have much to do at home, no homework, no real hobbies or extra-curricular activities. Some head to tutorial classes. But most who don't will often spend their evenings playing with their phones. We've been brainstorming how we can give the students a place to learn, grow and develop better study habits. So on weekdays after school, kids are invited to come hang out. Some days they come, some days they don't.

On the days they do come though, it's usually pretty loud and happening!

Here are a couple pictures:

Last weekend: putting up some Mid-Autumn festival decorations for our BBQ.

Mid-Autumn Festival BBQ (Kao Rou) is very popular here.

Families gather outside their front door, squat, and then grill food together for the whole evening.

Some of our girls being silly.

This girl had never eaten Hong Kong-style moon-cake. Her response: "These things are horrible. I will warn anyone who goes to Hong Kong to never buy them!" She then paid her friend to finish her piece of "disgusting" moon-cake.

The other ministry starting off are Champion classes at the local highschool. Champion classes are the equivalent to Health or CAPP classes back at home where students learn life skills to deal with stress and life problems. Wayne and Angela teach classes every week and have invited us to be their assistants in class. It was a neat gaze into schooling here in Puxin.

Pu-Hsin Junior High School

Waiting for students to finish their after-lunch siesta. Too hot to learn!

Ninth grade

Learning about life! 

I think that being here in Puxin the last few weeks has slowly stripped away the value I place on achieving things in my day. The slowness has forced to be honest with myself. Without my job, my appointments to run off to, and my errands to attend, I've been forced to ask myself where I derive my sense of identity. Do I feel good about myself because I was able to accomplish things today? Was I successful because I was able to pack much into my schedule? Or am I still being fruitful - or more importantly faithful to what God has called me to despite the slow turn of events?

We all live in different places with different paces of time. What I've learned in my time here is that God doesn't measure based on the busyness of my calendar but rather how my heart will delight in being faithful to Him in every moment of my day. Whether life be quick or slow, may my heart rejoice in giving Him my very best even when it might not seem like a lot in my own eyes.

Even when it's mundane.

Even when it's plain.