How God's Grace and an Island Changed Me

July 1st - I was up until 2:30 or 3am packing and I woke up at 8:45 to finish packing and leaning out my room at the Gibson’s. I got done early and Saffron, my host daughter, and I made bracelets for a while, a beloved past time for us together over the past few weeks. 12:30pm The family took me to lunch at my favorite restaurant and I had Steamed dumplings! (These are my absolute favorite and I miss them so much already!) I also had my favorite tea for the last time, milk tea with chewy tapioca balls (pronounced Jen Ju Nai Cha). Then we left for the HSR (high speed rail). I said my goodbyes to my wonderful host family. I had to say goodbye to everyone else the night before and they all said they hoped to see me again, at least in heaven. The interesting thing is that I felt like we all were pretty sure that we would see each other again. I still don't know what God has for my future, but I feel safe to say that I think I will see them again before Heaven.

The HSR left at 2:12pm and took a little more than 1 hour, the airport shuttle took about 10 minutes and I arrived at my gate with over 2 hours to spare 4:10pm. The 11 hour flight was less than pleasurable, at least compared to the comfortable flight over with 2 seats to myself. I couldn't sleep either, so I arrived at the LA airport very tired and a 6.5 hour layover. The flight from LA was a short 4 or 5 hours...but I don't really know (due to all the time changes).

July 3rd - After about 1 day to unpack and repack, while fighting jet-lag and visiting family and my best friend, we headed out to our family vacation in South Carolina. As soon as I return I start work for 1 month before school and being an RA at Grove City College starts again. That doesn't leave a lot of time for reflection about where to go from here.

The pull I have felt from the very beginning is still there: I want to travel and make a difference, but I want to be home with family and friends leading the life I know. I don't have an answer to that yet. But what I do know is that I like to plan things and I like to know what I am doing and where I am going...and I could have never planned this. 2 years ago Taiwan, missions, Asia...they weren't even on my radar. I jumped at a 2 week trip to China because it was a business class and I thought dad would let me go. All I wanted to do was travel. But through that haphazard decision, I landed in Taiwan and learned SOOOO much!

I have seen through it all God’s amazing, wonderful grace and sovereign power and I know whatever happens in the future is part of His plan. Will I start pursuing missions? I am going to start taking steps in that direction, but I don’t know if full time missions is the answer and I don’t know if it’s not. Will I pursue work in Taiwan in the future? I have truly fallen in love with the island and the Taiwanese people. They have a part of my heart, without a doubt. I see the need for people willing to go to this country. I just don’t know yet if that’s where God wants me.

I have 1 month of summer left and 1 year of school left. If you think of it pray for me. Pray that somehow I will see God pointing me somewhere and that doors will open so I will know what to do with my time in the short-run and where to start heading for the long-run. I know as a fact that God has used everyone one of your prayers for me while I was in Taiwan. I don’t want to drag this out, but I want to let you know that I truly appreciate your support for me 1000%. I know if not 1 person was praying for me, God would have protected me…but how wonderful is it to work together as the body of Christ and be of one mind and heart toward the work of the Lord!? J Thanks again. This is Lauren Beth Howell signing out for the last time from Taiwan (in heart).

LB

I'm coming HOME!

I don't have time to write, but I am flying home today! My flight will leave at 6:40pm here and I will be in Pittsburgh by 5:40am Thursday, about 24 hours later. I will write about my last week after I get home just to finish out the blog. Thanks everyone for prayers!

LB

Bittersweet

As I pack up to leave the UK today, I'm beginning to realize how much I'm going to miss this place. As it turns out, I love Asian (in the UK an asian is Pakistani, or from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc) people, asian food, and enjoyed being a part of the asian culture.

I've been living with a Pakistani familly for the last 3 weeks and 4 days, and its been a huge blessing to me. Its opened doors into the asian community that I never anticipated. Asians have a group oriented focus, where we are more individualistic. If one asian accepts you their entire circle opens up - their familly, extended familly on both sides, and all of their friends are now your familly and friends. They even call you cousin, brother, uncle, etc. There are even a few famillies who insist that when I come back to the UK, that I HAVE to live with them. At this point I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to stay with 3 people at once, but God can work out the details. The exciting thing, is that I have made some deep and lasting friendships with a good number of asians, christian, and non-christian alike.

I will be staying in touch with atleast two muslims after I return to the US, so pray that they are receptive to the gospel!

As sad as I am to say goodbye to these people, and as much as I'm going to miss the food, I feel certain that one day soon the Lord will bring me back to this place, and these people.

Many Memories Made

I can’t believe how many people I have been saying goodbye to already! I only have 3 whole days left here in Taiwan and I leave Wednesday to fly back home and arrive home Thursday morning. This week was a lot of lasts. On Wednesday Birgit and I visited our last school Bible club. I didn’t really get to know these students, except for one girl Bess who came to class, because they were all too shy to speak English. The thing that saddens me about the Bible clubs is that the kids don’t come for the Bible. Most if not all of the students randomly pick the club and aren’t Christians. At this last club meeting they asked some of the students to share some of the things that have learned and they couldn’t come up with anything that they learned. Most of them just said having fun.

I am stumbling into a change of heart on this matter. I just had a conversation with a co-worker tonight about how one of the hardest things about my month here was not knowing the language. He pointed out to me that language is only one way of sharing the gospel. He said when I play with the kids, laugh with them, and just listen to them I am sharing the gospel. They will remember me, remember this odd, yet smiley foreign girl that came to spend time with them. So I guess if nothing else, I hope that I had that impact.

On Thursday I went ad visited my last temple (for now I think). It almost physically saddened me to watch the people come so earnestly to the temple expecting things. Expecting answers, expecting blessings, expecting something that will deliver them. That is hard to watch when you have the truth…just about BUSTING out of you. But I will continue to pray for the people of Taiwan, long after I leave.

On Friday my mentor and I had out last study time. We have been going through Galatians, which is a wonderful book, in case you hadn’t noticed or had forgotten. Sometimes I forget about this amazing thing called God’s grace! And it’s right there over and over again! You can’t earn righteousness, salvation, or God’s love through works…no matter how “godly” the works are. No matter if it’s your own pride or even your church over-stressing something important, that’s not the point. The point is the gospel. These are just a few of the things that I have been re-introduced to in our study.

Today was my last “class” although I shared my testimony instead of teaching English. Tonight was…a night of laughs to say the least. We decided a while ago to have everyone bring a favorite Chinese dish to share for a big American potluck dinner before class, Chinese style. If any of you have seen the movie “Beauty and the Beast” and remember the part where Belle is hungry and the kitchen puts on a show for her…that’s a little bit of what I felt like tonight, with everyone yelling “try the gray stuff it’s delicious, don’t believe me ask the dishes!” EVERYONE wanted to make sure I tried their dish. From three cup chicken, to green bean soup (for dessert), to three color egg (NOT dyed with the Easter bunny) to some more unidentifiable dishes, I tried to make them believe I’d tried it all…and I carefully avoided the people that brought stinky tofu.

As an added bonus to my evening, that morning I went and played basketball with some friends and due to the extreme heat and sun at ALL parts of the day, I got a little sun burnt. Bad timing I suppose because I didn’t realize that Taiwanese don’t really get burned and so they assumed that I was drunk. Some gave me the benefit of the doubt that I was blushing…constantly. Thankfully I cleared up this misunderstanding.

Tonight, I also got to play probably my last big game of Uno here. I don’t think I mentioned before that I play roughly 5-10 games of Uno a gay at the Gospel Center with the students. They just LOVE it.

Ok, I know I didn’t give too many details, but I have to get some sleep before I leave tomorrow for Kenting Beach for a couple of days before I fly home. I’ll let you know how it goes and how “drunk” I look when I get back. I am NOT ready to leave all of the friends I have made here and the learning I am doing, but I miss you all so much and I can’t wait to see you! Love you all!

LB

An Opportunity for Compassion

A few days ago Jenna and I went with Chad (one of the church planters) to a modern art museum in Paris. It was very good to have Chad with us so that we could learn from the study that he has done on the subject. A missionary cannot possibly do their job without getting to know the people he / she is trying to reach. It is necessary to have a working knowledge of the general society, it's cultural history, and the people, events, and ideas that have shaped it. This museum trip was an opportunity to get to know the French a little bit better, to understand their questions and struggles. Modern Art, beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was a movement away from the past. Prior to this point all painting and artistic endeavors were strictly regulated by the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (the royally accepted institution of art patronage), which ran the Salon art exhibition. If your work of did not meet the criteria of this group, meaning that it had to include only certain "important" subjects (like kings, nobles, or religious subjects), and be painted only in acceptable styles (realism), you had no chance as an artist. Modern art was a rebellion against this oppression. It sought freedom of expression for the artist, seeing value not just in the work itself, but also in the artist who produced it. This change of attitude came about (according to Chad) along with the realization that historians were essentially influenced by their individual subjective perspectives and biases, and were not objective recorders of events. Just as a subjective historian records an interpretation of an event, so the modern artist presents in his work a particular interpretation of whatever it is that he observes. What was produced was often quite bizarre to the viewer, often confusing and devoid of meaning. Contemporary art, which is now being produced, is everything that modern art was and more so. It is more confusing, more bizarre and rebellious. My professor Dr. Minto always told us that in order to understand a culture we must look at the products of that culture, particularly the products of the artists and high culture. Europe is a very old place with a lot of history behind it. Many modern artists, working during the early 20th century saw the great wars and violence that all of this history and "progress" had brought to the world. So they rejected that history and declared the world meaningless and absurd, as indeed it seemed to be. For an example of this look at the artwork of a Frenchman named Marcel Duchamp. These artists were expressing, and are still expressing what is referred to as the "spirit of the age". This "spirit" is entrenched in the society as a whole, it is not isolated within the artistic or philosophical communities. The good news of Jesus to these people is that there is an ultimate meaning to the chaos which they observe, that God is working out his plan in history, and invites them to be a part of it. To see this gospel expressed in the contemporary art world check out the work of Makoto Fujimura.

Its been an amazing trip so far here in the UK. God worked it out so that my host family would also have a muslim woman living here. She's estranged from her husband right now and waiting for him to call her home. They've been married over a year, and have only spent 4 nights in the same country, all 4 nights were spent apart from each other as well. She lived in her home, and he in his.

She asked me to pray for her and this difficult situation. So we stopped right there and prayed in Jesus name. We just found out this weekend that her husband got his visa and will be arriving within the week. Praise the Lord for answered prayers! Since then, we've been able to help her husbands brother as well, their network of friends is accepting us in which is exciting for me, because unlike in America, you can't instantly befriend everyone. Friendships come with time and effort, and can't be made from a simple conversation in line at the grocer.

Another situation that has occurred (and another answer to prayer) was that we - myself, and one of the missionary families here in the UK - were exposed to the swine flu. We took a group of contacts to this seminar on managing money, and as it turns out the girl that sat at the table in front of us had contracted H1N1 and didn't know. But praise the Lord that no one (neither the missionaries, interns, or contacts) became sick. This would be a serious hurdle given certain religions predispositions against anything related to swine!

Yesterday was particularly interesting - we spent half the day or so touring the biblical antiquities at the British museum. They have alot of very cool things that scripture talks about. For instance in the old testament where the israelites were forced to make stones with straw, and later as a punishment - without straw. They have stones that go back to this time period that were found near each other, one having been made with straw, the next was made without straw. Equally cool was the little statue of a goat caught in a thicket. It dates back to the time we believe Abraham would have lived. I'm sure everyone has heard the story about God asking abraham to sacrafice his son, and then in the last moments providing a goat - stuck in a thicket - for sacrifice instead. This statue many think was to symbolize that and has been around for thousands and thousands of years!

Entire books have been written about these nuggets of faith building treasure hidden away in this musuem so I don't intend to re-produce them here. However if your ever in London, you should drop by.

If you think about it, keep me in prayer this saturday afternoon as well, as I will be speaking with some muslims at a book table. The muslims set up book tables, and give out pamphlets of information (and books as well) to any and all who are interested in hearing more. I suppose its part of their form of evangelism. It was suggested to me that I aproach them and ask them to explain Islam to me, and see if I can't develope some contacts while I'm here. So the weekend before last I did just that and have befriended a muslim man whose been to mecca on the Hajj. Pray that God will make him receptive to the truth. We have had some good conversations so far, but this saturday is my last saturday in the UK and thus my last face to face conversation with him.

Ken

Taipei, the Western Taiwan

I want to warn my friends and family not to try to get the whole trip out of me with the question, “what was your favorite thing about Taiwan!?” I promise you all that you will get tired of hearing about Taiwan long before I get tired of telling you about it. That’s all part of my culture shock and re-entry into my old way of living. If you didn’t understand that last sentence, I studied culture shock in a couple classes last semester, which nicely prepared me for this trip, and I learned that sometimes the most shocking part of your trip is returning to your old way of life. After seeing and experiencing so many different and new things, you begin to question “which way really is the best?” So that can be something to pray for in the upcoming future for me… but let’s not rush it. I only have 1 week left in this beautiful country!

It is already Thursday morning here and I can’t believe how quickly the days go by. On Sunday evening I left Chiayi and took the Taiwan High Speed Rail to Taichung, my previous location. (As a side note, the HSR is very nice, and not super expensive. It has been around only about 2 years and I am warned that it might not be here ‘next time I come’ because no one uses it. There are plenty of wealthy people here, but maybe Taiwan is just not big enough to make it worth it?) I stayed the night with a good friend I made and we took a 2 hour bus in the morning for Taipei.

I find it very interesting that so few Americans have heard of Taiwan. I know you are all defending yourselves now, but how many of you asked me before I left, “how long will you be in Thailand?” J It’s really ok if you did because at least 10 people did so you’re not alone and a lot of Americans don’t know where Taiwan is on the map. But for a long time Taiwan had the tallest building in the world! That is worth knowing about. In Taipei I got to visit Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world I think. And it is beautiful! They designed it to look like bamboo, so the structure has ‘notches’ in it and flourishes on the edges. I didn’t get to go to the top of it, but we ate lunch in the bottom.

Not just the Taipei 101 building, but in Taipei there are a lot of foreigners, like myself that is. When I saw them, I actually felt like they were out of place and not more comfortable. I have gotten used to the stares I get in Chiayi, and the more rural you get the more stares. People were actually speaking in English around me and I was feeling out of place.

I got to visit the National Taiwan University in Taipei. It is the best University in Taiwan, one of the best in Asia, and has made its mark on the world scene as well. I have a friend from Chiayi that will be going there soon and he is very smart. There are quite a lot of foreigners and international students attending. Also there is a huge Christian bookstore right across from the campus, which a campus ministry started some time ago. It is actually much bigger than any Christian bookstore I have been to in the states. I bought a beautiful Chinese/English Bible, which have given my co-workers hope that I might have to come back to use it.

We headed a little farther out of Taipei to Danshui. This is considered Taipei’s beach. There is no sand, but there is plenty of water and you can take a boat over to a little island, which is actually a mountain. If you stand on the shore of Danshui and look at the skyline you can see the mountain on one side of the water and Taipei’s city skyline right across the water and it’s beautiful. Along the shore is a whole host of shops and carnival-like games. Then we stopped at the night market near-by for our last stop in Taipei. Night-markets are amazing. I think I have maybe once been to something remotely similar in America, but they have multiple ones in every city, every night of the year. They are filled with carnival-like foods, Taiwanese style, like squid on a stick, stinky tofu, bubble waffles, pearl ice, blood cakes, fresh juices, and everything else you have never imagined. And between those stalls are the vendors selling knock-off purses for $3, cheap clothing that would be in style in the US, jewelry, roach poison, and any other necessity. Then between all that are carnival games, arcade games and other more obscure attractions like ‘snake alley’ where they kill these huge scary snakes right in front of you!

This coming week…is packed. English class is basically over, praise the Lord! I don’t mean to say I didn’t enjoy it, because I really did. I am the kind of person who loves being in front of people, but worries about it constantly before it happens. So I have worried about it every single class and then the class knocks my socks off (if it wasn't too hot to wear them) with greatness! NOT because of me! I always feel under prepared and not ready to teach, but my co-workers are so helpful, the students are so fun, and God is soooooo good that I didn’t even have a chance to fail! The last class will be this Saturday and instead of really teaching, I will be sharing my testimony with the class. As you might expect, I am nervous, so keep that in your prayers if you remember.

Well, it is time to get little more rest before I start my day. Love you all and I’ll probably be writing again soon. I have to get all my blog time in before I leave and have no more excuse to! ;)

LB