8 sleeps till Santa comes! Yay!

Good evening to all down under (I really don't get the term 'Down Under' because now that I'm in Taiwan I don't feel 'Up Above')

Christian Stuff
God is amazing isn't he? Yesterday we went with Dr Benjamin, Dr Nathan and Pastor Yao to sing carols to the patients and talk to them about Jesus. As we went to visit one lady, Dr Nathan began talking to her son. Apparently this lady has end stage cancer or something and when she was in the ICU Dr Nathan talked to her about Jesus and she became a Christian. After we had sung some carols and prayed for her health, Dr Nathan began to talk to her son about Jesus and then Dr Nathan asked him if he wanted to accept Jesus as his Lord. The son said 'Yes' and we prayed for him. It was so amazing to see how God has been working through the Christian doctors here as they proclaim the good news of Jesus to their patients (unlike in Australia where we are not professionally allowed to raise the subject). Then another girl called Jessie (not to be confused with the male doctor Jesse) heard us singing carols and joined us as we sang and then later that night asked to follow Jesus too. I've never seen people so willing to turn to Christ. I pray that these will be serious commitments and that these 2 people will become established in their faith. It's so great to see God working his purposes out each day.
We also got to speak to Mr Lin (the man with the tracheostomy tube) again and it's actually quite a good opportunity for us to talk to him about Jesus because basically he is stuck in bed all day and can't talk and we so we talk to him in English (he was a journalist in Taipei and so can speak English when he is not being ventilated) and he has to listen to us whether he likes it or not (in a good way). Please pray for him, that he would come to know Jesus and understand why this is such good news.
I've noticed whilst I've been here, that many of our patients are recovering from attempted suicide (which Dr Benjamin pronounces as 'swchayersai' and we don't understand him so he draws a line across his throat with his finger and we quickly get the point). It's really sad to see the people here resorting to such drastic measures to solve their problems. A lot of people here seem to lack hope for the future and they really need to hear about God's message to them. Many of them try to hurt themselves after having an argument with their spouse or partner and many don't survive. Pray that the churches here will hold out the hope of eternal life in Jesus to them.
This morning we had Bible study with Pastor Tsai and the doctors. To be perfectly frank, it's not much of a Bible study at all, but more like an opppurtunity for him to talk about whatever seems to be his topic of the day which he then uses to encourage them all to be good little doctors and it seems to have very little to do with Jesus. I know I am sounding pretty critical and I apologise if I do, but in the last 6 weeks I have not heard this man (who is entrusted to teach the word of God) talk about Jesus for more than a fleeting second. I really hope that my impressions about him are wrong, but I have some serious reservations about his ministry.
Last night however, was fun! We had the annual Christmas concert bash and the doctors and their wives and little kiddies got up and sang some Christmas carols and when they sang 'The First Noel' in Mandarin I felt like I was back home at the carols in Cooke Park (Parkes' version of the Domain) and it suddenly hit me that I am a long way from home and won't be with my family for Christmas. So I felt a bit sad about that. But the rest of the night was 'interesting'. The nurses did some aboriginal dancing and then this one doctor (I think he was a doctor) got up and sang about 7 songs and talked in between each song and he just kept talking and talking and talking and you realize that when you can't understand what they are saying, that sermons seem to go for twice as long as normal.

Hospital
Has been very busy! I feel like I'm doing more work here than I do in Sydney. I can't wait for a break when I get back home... but then again, I've got to prepare for Bathurst Mission... oh well!

This weekend
We are going to have dinner with Dr Nathan in a few hours time, then possibly go to a wedding on Sunday (we still aren't sure) and then hopefully we can find the Aussie Christmas Carols on Pay TV (apparently they ARE on, we just don't know which of the 122 channels it is on).

Steak!
On Wednesday, Dr Benjamin took us out with Sami the nurse (one of the nurses we works in the aboriginal villages - we are going to her house for dinner next week) to a steak house! Wow! I have never eaten a steak that was so nice (maybe it's just cos I had forgotten what steak tasted like) and it cost $6AUS for the steak which came with noodles and egg and all you can eat buffet. Poor Pete and Jade however felt sick and couldn't eat much so I made the most of the opportunity and ate away! We also introduced Sami to 'ice cream spiders' which she didn't seem to keen on.

Politics
Finally those silly trucks with their election campaigning have disappeared and only a few lone posters remind us of the election that once was. Apparently the 'blue' team won (the KMT who are pro-China?) and the DPP lost (the green team who the president belongs to). This means that the status quo is maintained in Taiwan which some people like (because it means China will not send the reported 600 missiles it has aimed at Taiwan over the Taiwan Strait) but others don't like (because the blue party blocks all the legislation that the green party president puts forward and the blue party like China and steal money and are supposedly corrupt). Apparently both China and America are happy with the result and since the election the Taiwan economy has been faring better so I guess that's always a good thing. There is much more to Taiwan politics than this but if you ask me in Australia I can explain it to you (there's some weird stories about politicians with IV drips in parliament).

Well sorry to dash but I have to go to one of those boring Friday afternoon meetings which they always seem to put on from 5-6:30pm on a Friday (what a stupid time for a meeting!)
Hope that you all have a festive weekend and buy your Christmas presents and send Santa your list!

God bless,

Jimbo