Day 4

Hi all,
WOW! What an amazing last 4 days I have had! I don't know where to begin but here goes...

Day 1
Arrived in Taipei at 10pm after another brilliant flight with Singapore Airlines (I can't recommend them enough!) and was picked up by my friend from Sydney (Julia) and her family. They asked if I was hungry and I mentioned that I was a little bit peckish so they took me out for steamboat (for those of you who don't know what steamboat is; you get a pot of water and all your food and cook it... We ate so much for 'supper' that I couldn't finish it all!) Then we went back to Julia's place where I stayed the night in Taipei.
Now Taipei is nothing like Sydney! Firstly they drive on the right hand side of the road and instead of obeying the traffic lights they are more like "recommendations" which no one follows. Also, only half the people in Taiwan drive cars... Most people instead ride motorised scooters/motorbikes everywhere which causes all sorts of traffic chaos (and pedestrians cross the road at their own risk).
Julia's family were extremely hospitable and drove me to the hotel and packed me lunch and lent me some money until I could find a bank... I am completely blown away by how generous everyone (whether Christian or not) is.

Day 2
Met Pete and Jade (my med buddy and his wife) at their hotel in Taipei early Sunday morning and then we bravely made a dash across town in taxis (did I mention you don't 'have' to wear your seatbelt in Taiwan?) to catch the midday bus to Puli. We almost missed it but thanks to Pete and Jade's Taiwanese friend Vivian, we got on the right bus and the bus driver was kind enough to shout at us and jump up and down when it was our stop in Puli. On the way to Puli I was amazed at the beautiful scenery that god has made here. Everything is so lush and green with gorgeous green mountains dotted with plam trees. Despite this amazing creation, the cities are very smoggy and not well organised but that adds to the feel of the place.
When we got to pull, Vivian had called ahead and we were met at the bus stop by one of the hospital workers named Peter . Peter came and drove us from the bus station to our temporary accommodation (this little house with a bathroom, 2 bunk beds and a table). We were so amazed by Peter's generosity towards us. Here we were in the middle of Taiwan and having no idea what to do and Peter took us out for dinner with his wife and friend and then took us shopping for food and necessities then he looked at our accommodation and said "That's not good enough!" and arranged some new accommodation for us!
Eating out in Taiwan seems to be a national pastime. All we do in our spare time here is go out and eat with people from the hospital who have been so generous in showing us around. We went to this majestic place called Sun-Moon Lake which funnily enough looks like a sun and moon. It was so quiet and peaceful and reminded me just how great our God is!
Pete and Jade and I settled in for our first nite at Puli and gave thanks to God for his many blessings to us!

Day 3
We were driven to hospital by Peter the next morning (even though it was a 5 min walk!) and he bought us breakfast ("please, no more food!" haha!) which consisted of these amazing dumplings (about 30 dumplings for $3AUS) and we went to hospital where we were greeted by the doctors and administration staff. Many of the staff here (including Peter) speak English so we have been feeling more comfortable about that!
The admin staff were so keen to meet us that the hospital administrator took us out for lunch to eat some Western food (which was still pretty Taiwanese!) and we had lunch with him (Michael) and his assistant (Spencer) and another admin girl (Joyce) They are all Christians and have made us feel so welcome and we plan to visit their churches over the coming weeks. Joyce's dad is one of the pastor's here but has suffered a stroke recently so please pray for them that he would be restored to good health soon for the church's sake.
Then in the afternoon we met another Christian doctor called Nathan (who is my supervisor here) He took us to the city (Taichung) on the coast for a medical respiratory meeting for specialists and then drove us home. We were able to talk to him about how he became a Christian and he told us how very recently his elderly mother came to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior! Praise God!!!! I was really amazed to hear his passion for his parents who didn't know Jesus.
However from our chats with people, it seems that Christians here feel quite 'swamped' by the 'spirituality' around them. People here follow a from of Taoism mixed with Buddhism so they basically worship their ancestors and not our Lord Jesus. It is so sad to see these people living their lives in rejection of the one true and living God and I would ask that you would pray for the Christians here; that they would be encouraged to stand firm in the gospel and that Jesus name would be honoured here as people come to repent and believe!
That nite, we got back and Peter had arranged a new place for us... A 2 storey house with about 5 bedrooms and heaps of space! We were gobsmacked! He had even come and cleaned the house for us and gotten his wife to buy us crockery and cutlery etc. We felt so humbled by all this and then he outdid himself again and took us out for dinner. This time however he felt we could use some Western food so we went to MaiTung Low (I've probably not written that correctly) which you may know in English as "McDonald's" Tell you what, a Big Mac never tasted so good! Also I got to drink Coca-Cola! Man it was heavenly! Tastes the same as in Australia and was a welcome relief after all the tea we have been drinking (yes Mum, I AM drinking tea! It's more accessible than water because you have to boil water then cool it).
Then we went back to our new 'home' and settled in. After Pete and Jade played 'Renovation Rescue' with the place and moved the furniture around (and then back to its original configuration) we had our first meeting of A.C.M.E. Now what is ACME I hear you ask? Well ACME stands for Australian Chong & Mittelstadt Evangelical Church; which is our way of saying "Bible study time". We are reading thru the Briefing notes this month on the Atonement using the book of Mark. Thank God for Jesus! In the midst of all this craziness that we had been going thru, God reminded us of his Son and how much he loved us. Pray that we would continue to encourage each other of this truth all the more as we see His day approaching!

Day 4
After a nice warm shower (the other showers we had been using scalded the skin or were sub-zero in temperature) Pete and I raced off to hospital this morning to do some medicine. I got to admit a patient from the ER and take a full history via a translator then do a full examination and present the case to my doctor. He was impressed that I picked up a pleural rub (don't worry if you don't know what that is!) and so I felt happy.

Anyway, it's getting dark now so I'm gonna finish today's entry!

To sum up, God has been very good to us and we are so thankful to Him!
Please pray for Peter the hospital guy who has been very kind to us. He is not a Christian but we have struck up a great friendship with him (he used to study in Wollongong). Pray that we might have more opportunities to talk to him further about Jesus.

Missing everyone in Australia! Thanks to all of you who posted comments on the blog! I've been reading them all!

Will put up some photos into the email account very soon!

God bless!
Jimbo 9/11/04