Our first few days at the camp were quite rustic, but a blessed time. The people were wonderful and embraced us with enthusiasm. Here at the Center we are treated very well.

I have my own room and Anita and Elaine share one. The bathroom we share with Michelle and Claire. We have had two days of teaching. Going well. Our translator for the teaching is Tim Lee, Pastor Lee’s son and a pastor in the San Francisco area. He and his wife, Penny, and their children took us to Costco in Taipei today. Two-story building. Lots of western food but lots of Taiwanese, too. Fun to browse through.

It was funny to watch the folks we were eating with tonight. They were trying to figure Elaine out. The way she uses chopsticks and kept trying to help her. Elaine is such a good sport, and it didn’t bother her in the slightest. She hasn’t used a fork yet. She and Anita and I played with the Lee’s two little girls today.

We went to a big supermarket on Sunday to buy Western food for us for breakfast. This way we can eat in our own kitchen, a big spacious affair, very clean but with the usual cockroaches. It’s nice to start the day with toast (although not quite the bread we are used to) and cereal (different flavors than we are used to). And coffee and juice. The Taiwanese don’t drink with their meals, or rather they have soup to finish the meal, so we always go back to our apartment to make a cup of tea or Milo after the meals.

We are well cared for and plans are being made to take us to all sorts of places. Yesterday Anita and Elaine and I went walking (taking our lives in our hands it seems) but we did find a little river and a park. In the park was some exercise equipment so Anita showed us all what to do with it. And squat toilets, which took a little maneuvering to use. There are little vegetable gardens all over, in all sorts of little crannies, the only grass we have seen is in front of the Center. But we did see a wheelchair accessible sidewalk. Quite new, with curb cuts and a yellow stripe down the middle to mark it. But the sidewalk is still used as a parking area for the multitude of scooters that are everywhere.

We are well and thankful for your prayers. I’ll try to access this address whenever I can. I am in the Center office in the evening.

Much love,

Joy and the team

23 February 2002

Dear All,

It’s Saturday morning here and we have just finished our week of staff training at the Center. The end of the week, Friday was lovely. We had an extended time to pray for each of the teachers. They came up and asked for prayer. Tim, Pastor Lee’s son, a pastor in the San Francisco area, interpreted, then Elaine and Anita prayed (and were translated), then I prayed and was translated. Then Elaine passed around the Kleenex. Then the teachers went to Pastor Lee to pray for them. We celebrated by having Peanut Butter and toast for lunch. No rice.... In the afternoon, we wrote postcards and then joined the teachers in the little field in front of the Center for traditional Taiwanese dancing. This is the only patch of grass we have seen so far in Taiwan. Usually land is used for a purpose, i.e., buildings, a dump for garbage, parking, or vegetable gardens. It was fun to dance, quite simple once we had mastered it. There were several garlands of flowers that were passed around. Some of the folks from the Center joined us too, it was fun. Part of the dance involved putting the specially chosen one in a wicker chair, which was then carried around by strong people. The person in the chair was also tossed into the air... Anita loved it, was cheering and throwing her arms up into the air as she was tossed up in the chair. The day ended by going to a very special Japanese buffet. So many different kinds of food. We couldn’t sample a quarter of them. All the teachers were there plus some of their families with their children.

Anita, Elaine, and I have been brave venturing into the town from several directions. The traffic is amazing. Scooters everywhere. The rules of the road are: if you get your nose in first, you can go first. So everyone is trying hard to get into the intersections first, to get their scooters into the lane first. Some of the streets we drive and walk on wouldn’t qualify as back lanes in the West. People seem to really know their vehicles well, i.e., where the bumpers are. They cut things very close and succeed.

Today we are doing laundry. There is a washing machine and dryer, but only one plug. So we do what most Taiwanese do and hang up as much laundry as we can in a little alcove designed for that purpose. Anita likes doing that so she’s in charge of the hanging up. Elaine has taken charge of cleaning up and doing the dishes after breakfast.

This afternoon we are speaking to pastors, staff, and some of the folks who attend church. Tomorrow, Sunday, we are speaking at a church, then having dinner with Esther’s mum. On Monday we start our week-long travel around Taiwan. We hear that the East Coast is very beautiful and there is much amazing scenery. We are looking forward to that. We will be visiting several different Centers on the way and visiting with our friends Dick and Carolyn Ardon. They are part of YWAM as well as coordinating a Crisis Pregnancy Center (well it’s not quite a center but that is the best way of describing it at the moment). They know us from the times the teams visited the Children in Need Schools, plus they were at the memorable Mudslide at Camp Squamish week. So there are exciting things ahead.

We are doing well, we are healthy, the laptop computer is very fragile but still working (just), Elaine keeps praying for the computer and for my patience and peace. Michelle and Claire are well and looking after us so kindly. We pray for you all... and miss you.

Much love,

The Taiwan Team (TTT)
Anita, Elaine, and Joy

7 March 2002

Hello all,

This will be our last e-mail from here, I hope. We had no chance to get near a phone or e-mail while we were travelling around Taiwan. We were so busy and saw so much. The mountains are very beautiful and the trees lovely. So many flowers too, and some trees are just budding. They don’t have seasons in the same way that Canada does.

Some trees lose their leaves but not many, there are many plants here that we try so hard to cultivate in our home that grow everywhere here. Ficus fig, Amarylis, Crown of Thorns, Ferns, Palm trees. We have passed so many fields that we had to ask what was growing there. Papaya, corn, Coconut palms, Betel nut palms, bananas, Buddah’s head fruit (my favorite so far), oranges, guava, star fruit... so many good things to eat and I think we have tried them all. We have had so much good food to eat and are quite proficient at eating, too. We decided that we didn’t much like Taiwanese Western food, it’s a little like American Chinese food, OK but not like the real thing. McDonald’s was OK though.

Here in Chung Li, some of the days we need a sweater, like yesterday, but today is quite comfortable without, but on the east coast we bought an extra t-shirt each as it was quite warm and that was in the cool season. Green Island was beautiful, and we walked on barren beaches and collected rocks. Joy liked the ones with holes in them but couldn’t bring them home, so she took lots of photos. Joy went snorkeling, all went into the hot springs in the ocean.

We visited four Christian centers and were really moved by some of the people we met and the visions that they had for loving the people there. In one we’d like to support one of their children. So much was the love there that we’d love to help them a little.

We have stayed in a five-star hotel, and in sleeping rooms in a tribal person’s home (by sleeping room we mean the floor). We have stayed in run-down churches and churches with guest facilities. God has been with us. We have our share of bumps and bruises, and Joy has a cold, but we have felt your prayers behind us. Fortunately for me there are not too many speaking times left. I am feeling very empty of words, but full of all we have seen and heard.

Please continue to pray for Claire and for Michelle, We’ll tell you more when we return, but I spend many hours listening to them and just being present. We are starting to look forward to coming home. We have lots of photos, lots of treasures to show, and a diary that is becoming a book.

Much love to you all,