Missing Books & Other Things

I love borrowing books from the local library... but as I'm leaving for the States, I decided to return all the books. That's when I found out that I have two missing books! Yikes... where are those books?

I also had to renew our car insurance... Usually, this is very easy... but it got complicated because when we bought our second hand car, we purchased additional insurance... and for some reason, the expiration dates are different. One expired on 4/24 and the other one doesn't expire until 6/24! I had to get that sorted out, which took a lot longer than I had expected!

In the afternoon, I had a friend who came over so that I can cut her hair. I also had to help someone edit her resume and personal statement of faith!

The rain started at around 4:30... which was when I found out that Taiwan's High Court has approved a very controversial 'bill'... The sky seemed to be crying with me...

Yet, I feel as if the Lord has been preparing me for this news as I have been reading a new book by Max Lucado and preparing for my message on Luke 4. In all things, I choose to REJOICE ALWAYS and to TRUST IN GOD'S MERCY AND GRACE AND GOODNESS.

Seek Him First!

Taking Time to Rest

Whenever I get mouth sores, I know it's time to rest!

So, that's what I did today! I finally TOOK the time to nap! So, I was thinking... what have I been doing these past few days that prevented me from napping?

I realized... I have been busy, trying to get things ready for my month long trip to the States, preparing for the Sunday messages, taking care of church needs and handling all the household errands and chores! I'm only TWO weeks away from departure!

After taking an hour nap, I woke up feeling refreshed and took some vitamin Cs. I think I'll do that every day this week.

I'm so glad I took time to rest... I'm hoping the mouth sores will be less painful tomorrow!

Seek Him First!

God Who Is More Than Enough

I started the day, thinking... I don't have enough time to get everything done... I don't have enough strength... And lots of not enough...

But throughout the day, I walked in trust, knowing that if the Lord gave me the jobs to do, He will also give me the resources of time, strength, wisdom and whatever else I needed!

Sure enough... as I write this... He gave me the time to finish everything (except, I didn't go for a run!)

He gave me more than enough strength to get through the day.

He gave me safety as I rode to different places.

And He gave me wisdom as I remembered to buy a birthday gift for a friend I met up with in the afternoon!

Amazing...

I woke up thinking... NOT ENOUGH... I ended the day praising and proclaiming... He is the God who is more than enough!

Seek Him First!

A Strange Sunday

Abby signed up to take her TOEIC test today and unfortunately, it was in the afternoon at the same time as our HOP Service.

I say unfortunately, because I had to pack everything and tell Alan to take care of the details of the Love Café and the Love Feast.

Needless to say, when I got there... things were quite in a strange state.

I had ordered Subway sandwiches and Alan forgot to tell the helper NOT to make the rice. He saw her in the kitchen making rice, gave her the book I had to return to her and totally forgot to tell her NOT to make the rice. So... we had to give away an entire pot of nicely made rice.

Then I noticed that people had nothing to drink. I ran and asked, Alan... where's all the drinks I bought? He forgot to set them out with the cups I had sent with him.

I then looked at the Love Café table... and NONE of the snacks were set out there! The sugar and creamer for the coffee were also NOT set out... so we had a lot of coffee leftover!

So... how did Abby feel about the test? She was super nervous going into it... but she came out with a smile... she thinks she did fairly well... She was glad that I stayed around and was there the whole time. I was glad too... even though things were amiss with the HOP Love Café and Love Feast... it was good to be there for Abby!

The TOEIC score will come out in 10 days! Isaiah got 980 (990 is a perfect score). I want Abby to get at least 850! Isaiah's score gets him to 'skip' a few pre-requisite classes and I hope Abby will be able to do the same!

Seek Him First!

Couples Only Date Night Core!

As the leaders in charge of building couples up to love God and each other, we had another Couples Only Date Night!

I bought coupons to a new tea house (fabulous food and great ambiance. They even set out a whole area just for us). And I also booked three ping pong tables and one pool table at the local sports center, which was only a 10 minute walk from the restaurant.  I made table questions and handed out table treats. During the ping pong or pool rec time, I made desserts and bought drinks. It was a wonderful evening!  We were to end at 9, but no one wanted to leave!

The weather was nice and all the couples enjoyed being together.

We won't have our next one until September!

I wonder what ideas the Lord will give me for the next one!

Seek Him First!

Taxes Done

This morning we went to the foreign tax office... the people there are all so efficient and friendly.

Alan had finished a draft and the lady took over from there.

This year, we didn't have to wait too long.

In about 30 minutes, I was handing over my credit card to pay.

Now... how much did we have to pay?

We maxed out on all our donations as the cap is 20%, UNFORTUNATELY!

And even though we are down to one income, it turned out that Soochow University now takes out very little each month for tax purposes. So, out of our salary for the entire year, they took out ... are you ready???... ONLY 600US$! That's less than 50US$ a month!

Ok... so back to my question, how much did we have to pay? (drum rolls, please!)

ONLY 400US$!!!!!!!!!!

That means the total amount of tax we had to pay was 1,000US$ for THE FISCAL YEAR OF 2016!

Another reason why you all need to move to Taiwan!

Seek Him First!