1 Day Til Taiwan

It has been a week since we left Vancouver and we were blessed to have spent quality time with friends and family. We experienced the love and support of our church back at home as we head to Taiwan.

Taiwan Prayer Night - included with a delicious spread of Taiwanese food

A British and Taiwanese Farewell BBQ

Since returning to HK for our brief one-week pit stop before Taiwan, things have been busy. The last few days have been a flurry of packing, running errands, and completing our journey guide before our start in Taiwan. It's strange because time has a way of just flying by. Before we know it, the day is over but there's still tons to be done.

packing everything for Taiwan

We think one of the biggest differences coming back this time is that we don't have a home to go back to. We've since moved out of our place and our friends James and Rodi have moved into our flat for the year. Gone are the days when we used to load up our luggage with teaching supplies, dried goods to last the year, kitchenware and clothes- this year, we had no where to put these things because our home wasn't really our home anymore. It was a really odd feeling to enter our apartment that day and see the place we had called home for 3 years with other peoples' stuff, everything eerily in the same place, but strangely different. It's one of those little losses we'll have to accept as we transition this year.

moving day: we waited an hour for a taxi

Another bittersweet moment: we picked up our hedgehogs from the pet hotel. We've missed these guys all summer (6 weeks apart). They're still the same, still ridiculously cute and still so oblivious. One thing we are very grateful for is that a friend of a friend from my parents' church promised to take them in for the year. This was one of our greatest worries (this and the apartment) leading up to our decision to go on this one-year journey, so it's a great relief and an answered prayer to know that these two will be taken care of. We'll miss them a lot!

Uni!

The last few days have been full of encouragement as well. On Wednesday, we were able to have dinner with Ah Wah and hear his life story. He shared about how he ended up on the streets but also how God has taken care of him and caused his trust to grow over the years. We were so challenged and inspired this by this guy; here was a man who had lost everything in life, yet had the perspective to know that in growing intimately with the Lord, he had gained everything. Ah Wah told us that because the street cleaners often come by to clear his belongings during the day and fellow street people try to steal his things at night, he hides his most treasured possession - his Bible- during the day and sleeps with it during the night. Tintin was so challenged when he heard this, that he wanted to cry. How sweet the Word must be when it becomes all you have in life.

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On Friday night, some friends came over for a visit. It was such a good time of catching up, to hear how they were doing as they started off their school years. At the end of the evening they prayed for us to send us off. We are so blessed to have good friends.

On Sunday, it was refreshing to connect back with friends at St. Andrews. Our time here in Hong Kong has been more enriched because of these friendships. We thank God for placing us in a community with believers who are willing to share openly in life together.

So, we have one night left at our parents' place before we fly off to Taiwan on Wednesday. A few more things to attend to, friends and family to catch up with, and hopefully time to quietly prepare our hearts for what's around the corner. God is so good. We feel so full - full of love from family, joy of friendships, and peace to know that God has provided all we need. We appreciate your continued prayers and will update soon.


Love you all.

NOTE: We will be blogging about what God will be teaching us through this experience. Feel free to journey and read along. We will be sending monthly prayer updates through email. Please let us know if you want to be on our mailing list. You can email us at: tintinandmichelle@gmail.com