The Bumper Tap!

Alan loves driving in Taiwan... If you've been here, you probably think he is crazy. But it's true. And after his recent experience in the States, I'm sure he loves driving in Taiwan even more. Let me explain.

When we were in the States together, I'd often tell him, "Alan, be careful how you drive in the States. This is not Taiwan."

And I guess last Monday, he learned what I meant.

I don't have all the details, but what I know is:

He was at the Y in San Diego.
He bumper tapped someone else's parked car with NO ONE INSIDE.
He didn't take any pictures of the other person's car.
He received a message, stating that the cost of fixing the 'damage' was going to be around 270US$.

I have been praying ever since I heard!

In Taiwan, bumper taping someone is an every day occurrence. No one who bumper tapped you in a parking lot would leave a note or ask the person to pay almost 10,000NT$ to get it fixed. But not in America... I think Alan sees that now.

What is also quite stressful is that Alan's mom has planned a family cruise that leaves from Long Beach on Saturday. If the repair is delayed in any way, how are they going to be on the cruise? And what we know of the speed of getting things fixed in the states... well... you know why Alan is stressed.

Alan met with the lady at the dealership (yes, she is getting the car fixed at the Toyota dealership) and renting a car for two days (I have no idea who is paying for the rental car?!?!?!). And Alan is to meet with her again on Friday morning when the repair on the car is supposedly 'finished' and he will have to fork out the money to pay. The estimate is around 270US$ and that's another source of stress. How accurate are these estimates?!?!?

We are committing this to the Lord... It's especially 'stressful' as I'm not there with him.

I guess if I was there, it might NOT have happened as I would have reminded him all too many times NOT to drive like he was in Taiwan!

Seek Him First!

Tutoring and Manicure

Yes, I've started back with tutoring... in fact, I'll be tutoring 8 hours this week...

In the afternoon, I had purchased a coupon for Abby to get her nails done -- professionally. This lady was so nice. She really took the time to make Abby's nails so perfectly beautiful. We were there for 3 hours! She even put fruit decor on her newly painted nails.

The rest of the day was spent studying and working... and melting... as the temperature reached 97 today! And without the afternoon thunder shower, it was boiling outside and inside!

Seek Him First!

What A Splendid 7/17/17 Monday!

Abby and I were hoping to be out of the house by 6:30 this morning. We didn't make it... But to our pleasant surprise... the Lord gave us a relatively overcast morning...

We went for a 15-30-15 -- That's 15 minute walk followed by a 30 minute run and then finally a 15 minute walk.

We drank a fruity smoothie and went off.

Abby does not enjoy running... but she did a fantastic job!

I've also started doing a bit of weightlifting... trying to strengthen my arm muscles. Even in just two days I am seeing results!

The rest of the day was spent on studying and working... I worked on putting together a few ppt files for my sermons while Abby worked on Chinese essays. This evening I met up with a friend from the States and Abby went to cram school!

Tomorrow is a swim day... for Abby. I will go and run... Let's hope it's another overcast morning!

Seek Him First!

The Second Prayer Walk of 2017

I've been praying all week... I posted yesterday how hot it is in Taipei... well... with our second prayer walk, I was praying for the weather.

To have those in our congregation to be out at 5:15, walking and praying, in that heat... I asked the Lord to have mercy!

Our prayer focus came from Luke 18: 26-27 -- What is impossible with men is possible with God!

We had a much smaller group on this evening, but the Lord answered.

There were clouds overhead, a light breeze blowing, and the temperature actually dropped by a couple of degrees! MIRACULOUS!

People stayed out walking for much longer...

I had also ordered a splendid dinner and we had plenty of leftover. Every family took home at least two big containers filled with fried rice, fried noddles and Italian spaghetti. I baked a cake and brought Gatorade!

Abby and I came home and went for a walk... then settled in front of the TV...

What a blessed day!

Seek Him First!

These Hot Summer Days

The one thing I don't miss about Taiwan is the hot summer days... It's hot and humid here.  Sitting in our living room is like sitting in a sauna. If Abby and I don't go out for our morning exercise by 7am, then we have to wait until after 8pm. So, I have been getting up at 5am each morning... By 8am, the heat is unbearable to try to be out for a walk or a bike ride, not to mention a run!

So, whenever someone talks about the heat or the humidity in the States... I shake my head... and invite them to come to Taiwan!

For example, it was 94 degrees with 70% humidity! And that's by 9am!

Seek Him First!

A Few More Details...

I forgot to tell you about what happened on the second half of my time in the States.

I went to San Diego and had 10 days to hang out with Alan's Mom and Aunt Ethel. It was a fun time. They took me out to In & Out. I took them out to Souplantation to celebrate Mom Bea's birthday. I had also bought a few things for Mom Bea as she will be going on a cruise with Alden's family, Alan and Isaiah! A few more things my Mom Bea reminded me to mention are: a beautiful visit with Amy and her parents, Mr. & Mrs. Hartman. I have not seen the Hartmans in too long. They now live 15 minutes away from where Mom Bea lives. The second thing was to have dinner with Dave and Leslie Wilson and their daughter, Kami, and Mark and Sherri Daria in San Clemente. In fact, Mark Daria bought their own place that is 10 minutes from Mom Bea's place. I also went to see Daniel and Jamie Wei, but they were in Taiwan. So, I got to visit with two of their three kids. Their oldest has graduated from UC Irvine. Their youngest is so grown up! Oh, they live about 15 minutes away from Mom Bea. The point is: I can find my way to all of these wonderful people's home as they live so close by!

And while in San Diego, I also took Isaiah to the Poway Salvation Army! Thanks to a tip from my sister in law, Gina, I found out that every Monday was the 75% off sale -- anything that's been in the store for more than 10 days gets discounted! Isaiah & I had a great time!

We headed back up to LA on June 30th. On the way back up, we stopped and spent time praying with Tina, a dear friend that Alan and I have known from our Evergreen days!  After leaving her place, the traffic got really bad. It turned out that a twin engine plane crashed landed on the 405 Freeway! I told Isaiah to take a picture, but he said it wasn't that big of a deal. Well, when we got back to my mom's place, it was all over the news.

The last few days were a blur of activities. I had already packed most things, so it was just a matter of balancing the weight of the boxes and suitcases. I was extremely busy only because I wanted to pack a box for Isaiah and Alan to bring back, meaning I was packing a total of six items!

My wonderful sister bought tickets for us to go to the Hollywood Bowl and that was such a fantastic evening. She also stocked my mom's frig with spinach and tofu. I had brought instant noodles from Taiwan. We also picked peaches from the tree in the back yard. My best friends and I had time for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Pasadena. Another friend, Liz, brought over Mexican tamales and bread plus a breakfast chocolate drink! All this in the last week helped me to maintain my weight. (I only lost one kilo instead of the usual two!)

I tried to get everything sorted at my mom's house. But I know the cleanliness and organization won't last too long, unfortunately! I tried my best!

It's always difficult to say goodbye... and this was no exception... When I got on the plane, exhausted, I spent time in prayer, giving thanks and surrendering... There is always more that I wanted to do but didn't get to...

God is good... all the time!

Seek Him First!

I'm Back... in more ways than one!

I'm back in Taipei and I'm back to blogging!

It's been less than a week since I landed at the Taoyuan Airport and two people have asked me why I haven't blogged yet.

Like my last blog in which I summarized my first few days in the States, what have I been doing in these past few days since I got back to Taipei?

I landed on July 8th and Alan met me at the airport. We had 8 hours together, catching up and sharing a meal. Yes, we had lunch at the usual -- Burger King! He brought the computer so that I can see how he had set it up. My laptop was getting so slow. I am now using the church's old computer. It runs faster than what I had! I also went through the 800+ emails, deleting whatever was junk mail. Then I inserted the flash drive that contained my talks. YIKES... the files were corrupted! So, we had to ask Isaiah to email each talk. I'm not sure what happened. And the sad part was -- some of the things I worked on were not saved. I was using Isaiah's new Mac, which is a new system for me. I might not have saved things properly. At around 3:30, Alan went through custom and at the security check, he realized, HE HAD THE KEYS TO THE CAR, when he emptied his pockets. The people were nice enough to let him get out and run down to B1, where I was. From behind me, I heard this voice, "You're not going to find the keys as I had them." I turned around and there he was. We had one more quick kiss and he ran back up to catch his flight. I had to drive home. Thank God that in the middle of the drive, it started to rain. That helped me to stay awake. I was so exhausted.

It was fantastic to be back in Taipei. Abby had made me instant noodles and bought me stinky tofu! We worked together to put things away. I was in bed by 9:30 and of course, woke up three times. I finally got up at 5am. Abby and I went out for a walk in the morning before it got too hot. In fact, we decided that we would exercise every day until school starts back as she had gained 2 kilos while I was away!

So, what was the house like this time? I think I have extremely high standard when it comes to cleanliness... so there was a lot of cleaning to be done! They never dusted or mopped the floor! They never wiped down the frig doors (there was mold growing on the door handles). The kitchen counter and stove top were also never wiped down. They never took out the sink drainer to clean that or the inside of the drain. (Wow... I can't tell you how disgusting that was!) And the drawers were in a bit of disarray. I've been doing a bit of cleaning all week and still I have a few more places to clean but the house is getting back to what I consider to be clean and organized.

I have also been working on my sermons! Abby and I would work 50 minutes and then take a 10 minute break. We would do that for about 5-7 hours each day! I had to go through the talks that I had finished just to see if things were saved. And now I'm moving forward to the talks that are not done. I'd like to finish 12 by July 23rd, when I start with my overview of the book of Luke. Then I will be speaking every Sunday until January 28th, 2018, just days before Abby's Joint College Entrance Exam! I want to get ahead because I need the time to make the ppt files, not to mention that by the middle of August, I'll be tutoring again. I'm not sure how much 'free' time I'll have!

Besides exercising, Abby and I have decided to eat mostly healthy things for these next 7 weeks. We have a fruit smoothie in the morning, a healthy and filling lunch and then a 3pm snack. For dinner we'd have a salad or veggie soup. We started on Sunday and so far, we both love it. It has been great also because of the hot weather in Taipei. We really don't feel like eating much.

A few more things to mention... When I got back, my brother James was in Taipei. It was so nice to see him. I hope he'll be back in August. My dear friend, Angel, is also here. She and her two daughters are here for a month. Before I left, I had already set up several appointments -- counseling others. Abby has been busy with her studies and going to cram school.

I think this has helped to let you know what I've been doing these past few days. I will be back to blogging... and yes, I'm hoping to blog every day...

Yes, I'm back!

Seek Him First!