Wow. What a season. There seriously is so much to recap on-
and it’s a wild thought to think that one whole semester is already finished,
but I’m praising God and lifting my hands in complete thankfulness in this
post. Let’s see if I can bring you up to speed:
First, two weeks before Christmas, we helped put together a
huge Christmas event at the university. Each part of our team was involved with
a different part of the ministry (again amazed with the perfect workings of the
Body of Christ): Cami was in charge of cookie decorating, Caris set up a tree
decorating game, Eunice led a craft table, Bethany ran a crazy marshmallow-eating
game, and I was the Nativity skit director. After the general festivities and
games, we got to share the Gospel and show the “#FallingPlates” video which
shares about salvation in a really interesting way. The evening was ended with
a huge caroling party. The prep work was well worth it.
The very next day, we went to BiShan village for another big
Christmas party where we taught “Joy to the World” and made cookies with the
kids. Because of the team’s ministry at the village for this last semester, the
local people put together a little series of performances to thank us for
coming and playing with their kids. To finish, we ended up caroling around the
village~ singing “Joy to the World” and the chorus of “We Wish You a Merry
Christmas” over…and over….and over again. J
I wish I helped out with this ministry more this last semester- praying to have
more time to help out this spring. 
So as far as I was concerned, that weekend was DONE. We
worked so hard and got very little rest that it was so nice to just chill all
day Sunday- little did I know that the weekend wasn’t quite over yet. That
evening, I was waiting in the dorm living room waiting for typical Sunday night
Bible study to start, when my entire team came running in screaming like a team
of banshees. They all jumped on me, covered my head with a bag, and then walked
me out to the parking lot without even shoes on. I’m not quite sure what
happened from there; but I do know I was pushed into a taxi, and then was
“un-bagged” in an elevator heading up to my favorite restaurant in the center
of town. Turns out this was their way of saying “Happy Birthday Christina!” We
had a lovely (peaceful) dinner and then all piled back in the car and headed
off for one more surprise: a fire on the beach! We roasted marshmallows, sang
along with the guitar, and enjoyed each other’s company. I’m so blessed. That
was one of my favorit-est birthdays ever. Praising God for my sisters here in
Taiwan. 
After all those preceding Christmas festivities, we managed
to have a very much family-oriented Christmas holiday with gift opening on
Christmas Eve and a fancy sit-down dinner on Christmas day. We enjoyed the
perfect weather Christmas day by climbing the TaiHu Mountain, and then passed
out candy canes around town with the team later on in the week. It was a great
time of sharing Christ’s love and the message of His redemption with the city
we live in. Such a lovely Christmas season.
The Kinmen team then took an entire three days off- just
teaching our normal classes and enjoying a somewhat normal schedule. Then
Saturday morning, all of us jumped on a plane to Taipei for the weekend. We got
to see the Hobbit movie, eat at T.G.I. Friday’s, and watch the Taipei 101
building’s New Year fireworks. I finally got to go up to the top of the 101 and
see Taipei from the birds’ eye view.
The last big event on our list was the Passion Conference
life link sessions. A good friend of ours gave us his 40” flat screen TV, so it
was such a blessing to hook that up to our laptop and watch Francis Chan, John
Piper, Louie Giglio, Beth Moore, and lots of other pastors teach from the Word
of God. After our extremely busy holiday season, it was so nice to be just FED
the Word of God. Since then, I have felt awakened spiritually and ready for
this next semester. Ready for the semester to be filled with Christ.
So I’m sitting right now in PingXi King Car English Camps,
and I’ve been totally enjoying this last hour of peace and quiet I’ve had to
catch you all up on life here. At this camp, the children are really smart- and
some of them have pretty stellar “higher than thou” attitudes. I was blessed
with seven children fresh out of 4th grade, so I have extremely
sweet children to work with and co-teachers that love the children very much.
But other teachers have not been as lucky, so please keep us in your prayers as
we seek to show love to those hard to love this week. ;)
Next week, Caris, Johnny, Adam, and I will be headed out to
the Philippines to help out at Safe Refuge: a home for women and children who
have been in terrible situations- like abuse or being trapped in human
trafficking industry. Our past Swing Dance fundraiser in Jingmen supported this
ministry, and the Lord really put them on our hearts as we prepared for our
winter vacation, so here we go! We’ll be there for two weeks really just
hanging out with the girls and helping out with anything around the home that
they might need. I think the boys may be teaching a self-defense class, and I’m
planning on teaching ballet workshops in the community. Praise God for such a
huge opportunity to share His love. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for
a while now.
Praise God for everything He’s done in and through the
Jingmen team this last semester! Don’t we serve a faithful God? Thank you all
so much for praying- you never know what a simple prayer can do in the heavenly
realm.
“For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.” (2
Corinthians 10:4)
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