Road Warrier

I know that I have said it before but I cannot thank you, my friends and family, enough for all your prayers over the last couple of weeks. I have seen the love of our Savior and Lord poured out in abundance for my father, family and me through so many people, words alone are not enough to describe.

While in Taiwan I was going to write about my adventures of driving a scooter in an Asian country and title it “Road Warrior.” However I will briefly share how I have been a “Road Warrior,” since I have been back.

The day after I arrive in Texas I drive from Temple to San Angelo, about three and a half hour drive. Not much for a Texas drive but you have to take in consideration that is almost the amount of time it would take to drive from Southern Taiwan to Norther Taiwan. The following weekend I drive roughly four hours to go to a family reunion just east of Lubbock on Saturday. Then on Sunday I drive another four hours to see a good friend outside of Dallas for a couple of hours then head back to San Angelo that afternoon, another three to four hour drive. On Tuesday after the memorial service go with my dad to Oklahoma to drop off my grandma, stay the night in Tulsa, and drive into Northwest Arkansas on Wednesday.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be heading back to Texas where my dad will drop me off in Temple where I will spend some time with my mother. In the last two weeks I have been doing more road travel here in the states then in the last two years I before I left for Taiwan. But it has been a wonderful time of seeing family and friends, and if I could choose to do it differently I wouldn't.

I may be a bit tired from all the traveling, but I have been extremely blessed by the time I have spent with loved ones; whether it is my family by birth, or my family in Christ.

I still don't fully realize it, and I may never, but I am coming to see how blessed I am to be surrounded and loved by so many people. I may not have great sums of money but I can see that I am truly wealthy in ways money cannot buy.

I truly love you and will write again soon

Joshua

Another day

It has been about a week since I left Taiwan and came home in a flurry of events. Since I have been home I have not done that much except spend time with my dad. He is doing well, his church has been an incredible blessing to him. We have not had the memorial service yet, we will do that on Tuesday next week.

Ever since I made it back everything seemed to be surreal, while I know that my stepmother has passed away it still doesn't seem real is a sense. I am not denying what happened, it is just that the weight of what has happened has not hit me yet. However I know that we all go through grief in different ways and in different stages.

In the mean time I am just resting when I can and helping my dad as I can. There is more that I could say, however at this point I am still processing what has been going on. One thing that is certain and is the source of my strength and confidence is that we have a redeemer. Paul said that to be ascent from the body is to be present with the Lord, 2Corinthians 5:8, so it is our comfort, our joy, our hope that even though Connie is no longer with us that she is in a coveted place, that being in the presence of Jesus.

Thank you all for you well wishes and prayers

Joshua

A quick overview of the last couple of days

As you most likely know by now I have made it home to my dad's and that my stepmother passed on from this earth on Thursday July 16, 2009. However, because I was traveling I did not find out that she left us until I arrived in Texas on Thursday morning.

I will try to be brief but a lot has happened over the last couple of days, and I am still reeling from the all the transitions.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been talking with my dad about Connie's condition. Early last week I got the feeling the I should start planning a trip home soon. By Wednesday I figured that I should head out within a week or so and I spoke with my boss about it. Thursday my time (Taiwan is 13 hours ahead of Central standard time), I got the word Connie had 2 or 3 days left so I stared to plan on leaving on Saturday. Friday morning (my time once again) I made made calls about getting plane ticket for Saturday as well as tell my boss that I need time off. I found out there was a typhoon coming toward Taiwan and it would be better to head out that evening so I would not get delayed so I booked the ticket for Friday evening.

So I packed some stuff, made quick arrangements and left Taiwan at 8:30pm. I flew from Kaohsiung where I live to Hong Kong, to L.A., to Dallas and finally landed in Austin Saturday morning at 8:30. I made it home in just over 24 hours, which is the fastest I have ever made it across the ocean, it usually takes over 30 hours so I know that the Lords hands were in my traveling. I would also like to thank everyone for your prayers.

I spent Saturday getting adjusted to the time change and getting a bit organized for my time here. Sunday afternoon I left Temple and arrived safely at my dad's Sunday evening.

As I have stated earlier I did not hear about Connie passing away until I made it home so it was a bit of a shock, and to tell the truth the weight of it has yet to hit. I know that she has finally made it home with our Lord and that is comforting and in a way I am jealous because she is in the presence of Jesus. But I am also sorrowful that she is not with us and that I was not able to say one last goodby.

Anyway I will keep you updated on what happens.

I love you and ask that you are blessed with the peace that only comes from Jesus

Joshua

No title

Although I was planning on planning on writing on the stresses of driving in Taiwan for my next post something more urgent has come up.

As I sit to write this I am in the process of making plans to head back to the States because I recently got the news that my step mom will soon pass away. Right now I don't have all that much to say but as I process this I will keep you informed.

Blessings

Joshua

A Long Awaited updated Part 1:The Holiday Blues

I know it has been a long time since since I last posted and I greatly apologize for not writing earlier. I could give a couple of excuses why I have not posted before but I will refrain and just let you know what I have been up to these last few months.

The last time I posted was before Christmas so that is where I will start. Christmas is supposed to be be a joyous time when we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I usually celebrate Christmas. However this year I was somewhat depressed being away from my family. Most of you know this is not the first time I was away from home for Christmas, but this year I truly felt like that I was away from my family. The years I was in China I served on a team that was really close. We all lived in the same building or building complex. We all had relatively the same teaching schedule and did many things together as a team. My teammates we essentially my family away from home, and when Christmas came we celebrated together as a team or better yet as a family. I do have fellowship with other believers here but I do not have a group of friends like I did in China. Most of the other partners live in downtown Kaohsiung which is half an hour away, and the partners that live nearby have different schedules so we rarely see each other throughout the week. To add to my burden I also had to work on Christmas day, which I have never had to do before. I know that there are many believers who have to go through much worse circumstances, but all these things just came together and made me feel down on Christmas.

New Year's was better; Though I usually don't do anything special for the New Year I got a three and a half day weekend. Yes I had to work on New Year's Morning. Since we Had the extended weekend my roommate and I got on our scooters and went to a place about two hours away and spent two days in the mountains. We stayed in a small village called Maolin. We went hiking at various places and just drove through the mountains stopping at different places to enjoy the beautiful scenery. It was a good time to get away to relax a bit see the how beautiful this island can be once you get away from the city. I was not able to take picture since I still don't have a camera but fortunately my roommate has one so we were able to take some incredible pictures. Because it is a bit difficult to post on this blog I placed them on my facebook page, you can see them there.

The Chinese New Year was the best holiday that I have had thus far. I got a full week off and I went up to Taipei to visit a friend who also served with ELIC. The weather was a bit cold while I was there, but I enjoyed being able to see my friend and being able to see some of the more famous tourist sights. During my time in Taipei I got to talk with my friend about personal and spiritual disciplines in life. Through our conversation I have come to see there are three areas in my life that I need to focus on: The first one is my debt. Though I came to Taiwan to pay off my loans I have decided that I am going to be more active to pay off all my debt so that I do not have any financial burdens holding me back from serving my Lord. Second is my relationship with my Lord. Now I know that may seem a bit strange to hear, but as I look over the last few years I see that my relationship with my with my God has not been what I desire it to be. I have been going through periods of intense seeking and then simple neglect. I have come to see that I need to have a more stable and consistent walk with God. The Last area I will work on is finding a wife. My friend made a comment about Proverbs 18:22 where it says "whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord." The idea that he pointed out was that find implies that one is looking. This may open up a big discussion, but I am not going to start that here, if you want to know more then you are just going to have to write me.

Through all the difficulties that I have faced thus far one thing assured me that I am still in the right place. That even when facing some of the problems I have gone through over here I still rather be here serving as a teacher, serving my Lord than being back in the states in the "comforts" of home.

Thanks for your time and I should have a couple of new posts within the next week. Blessings in Christ Name

Joshua

Well I have been here in Taiwan for two months and it has been about a month since I last posted. I will give a glimpse into my life as what I am doing but there is something more weighty that I want to write about.

First the glimpse. Monday through Friday I am at work from 2 until 9, which means I have to leave my apartment about 1:30 on my scooter and drive up to Gangshan where I work. I spend roughly a hour and half preparing for my classes, that is all four for you teachers, eat you heart out. I get 30 minutes for a break to get something to eat then I spend an hour listening to students work on memorizing spelling words and sentences. Then from 5 to 9 I teach four different classes; they range in age between kindergarten and junior high, and each one of them has its own personality, both the students and classes. After I get home I will either pick up something to eat from a local “restaurant,” or I will cooks something simple for dinner. I will also play a game on my computer or watch some movie that I was able to get my hands on to relax. If you are wondering about my morning schedule, well there really isn't much of one. I will get up anywhere between 8 and 10, depending on how tired I was from the day before and also depending if I have a appointment that day. I will take some time to do my devotional then I head out the the local coffee shop where I check my email, though that will change soon because I have finally gotten my ARC, Alien Residence Card, and will be able to get phone and internet in my apartment. Once I finish checking my email and surfing the web I come back home, do a few things around the apartment, have lunch and prepare to got to work. As far as the weekends are concerned, well my schedule is even more non existent, I think I have done the same thing on the weekend only twice or three times since I got here, but that will be for a different post.

Now for the more weighty matter. In the last month I have seen two things have have just about made me cry and for two different reasons and in two different ways. The first happened about a month ago as I was coming home from checking my email on a Sunday evening I say what seemed to be a parade. I just made it to the bottom of my apartment building when I saw them coming down the street. Since my apartment looks over the street I thought I would just watch from my balcony. Over the next forty five minutes to a hour I watched the procession of different groups pass along the street as they were wearing beautifully decorated costumes that were highly detailed in their color and how they were made; also a number of different musical troupes passed by with either some kind of wind instrument or drums, you could hear the drums echoing through the streets for what seemed like miles. Yet despite all the beautiful colors and rhythmic sounds I did not enjoy watching the people as they passed by; for everything that was being expressed in the parade seemed to have some link to Buddhism. Buddhism is not a religion of peace and tranquility as some would try to lead you to believe, but of fear of demons always tying to find ways to appease the gods. If you ever go into a Buddhist temple you will be struck by how the people inside burn incense and other 'offerings' to various gods hopping to gain their favor.
Seeing people like this did not bring out any joy or happiness, but a deep sense of sorrow for them, and it reminded me that without the good news of Jesus there is no true hope.

The second thing that I saw just today did not make me want to cry tears of sorrow but of joy. At the church I have been attending since I got here, three people were baptized, one of them is a friend. To see the contrast of people who have no hope and people who have found hope is just overwhelming.

As I end this message I cannot but think of anything more important than the words of or Savor and Lord when he said in John 4: 35, 36 “do not say that it is yet four months, and the harvest cometh; lo, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and see the fields, that they are white unto harvest already. And he who is reaping doth receive a reward, and doth gather fruit to life age-during, that both he who is sowing and he who is reaping may rejoice together;”

Goodbye to a friend

With all the burdens and needs there are out there it might seem strange to want to take time to stop and shed a tear over the passing of a dog, but when that dog has been your pet for over thirteen years, it is less of an animal or pet and more like a friend or member of the family. Killa came into our family when I was still in high school and before my brother went off into the Navy. As a pup we kept her in the garage and as she grew up we would let her stay inside the house while we were home and the we would put her in a small pin in the back yard until we returned. It was always comical to watch her burst out of the pen when I got home because she had so much energy pent up during the day while I was at school. Even though she was a pit bull, she was more playful and loving than anything else, in fact she would rather play keep away with a ball or stick than bark at anyone. As she grew up she saw herself more as my mother than as my pet I believe, because the only time you could get her riled up is if she felt that I was threatened. It would be humorous at times when my girlfriend would come over how Killa would do everything possible to insinuate herself between us as we would sit together on the sofa.

When I went off to college mom would tell me of how she would mope for days, but when I came home she was only excited to see me and ready to play as if I had never left. As I was away for school or when I was in China I was noticing that mom was collecting more pictures of the dog than of me. As she started to grow older and was not able to play as much that did not stop her from showing her enthusiasm of seeing me by wagging her tail and wanting to sit by me so that I could scratch her and she never grew tired of licking my arms even when I got tired of her doing it.

Even though you might say she was just a dog, she was one of the most loyal and trusting friends I have ever had. She made me laugh, she would sit quietly by if I needed to cry, and she was always happy to see me.

She was my pet and friend and I will miss her

Bye Killa