"Wor men nee sherng dun jyair hao" ("We wish you a Merry Christmas!")

Well it's Thursday here in Puli and it's another beautiful warm tropical winter's day. Winter in Taiwan is more like autumn in Australia, so all those warm clothes we packed have not been of much use so far. Oh well, I'll soon be in the stinking hot Australian summer... can't wait to hit the beach!

Dinner with the Boss
On Monday night we were invited over to Dr Chauo's place for dinner. He also invited Dr Chen (chief of staff), Dr Wally (chief of internal medicine) and Dr Chu (the ophthalmologist). Dr Chauo is a lovely Christian man who initially helped us organise the whole elective. He knows one of the Christian doctors in Sydney (Dr Cole) who came to Taiwan 25 years ago, and his English is very good. He specializes in paediatric neurology and we had some interesting discussions about language development and how to learn new languages using child development as a model.We ate a lavish feast and drank some lovely mint tea and it was great time of encouragement and fellowship.
Apparently Dr Chauo's family were some of the first converts to Christianity in Taiwan when missionaries first came to Taiwan many years ago. It's amazing to hear about how 4 generations of his family have all been serving Jesus as doctors in Taiwan (they are all ENT doctors except for him) and I thank God for how he has been working through this family!

"I was in a day spa dum-dum... D-A-I-Y-E!" - Zoolander
Dr Chu happened to have a couple of complimentary tickets to the New Era Spa Resort and so yesterday Pete and Jade and I went up to the mountain (well more like a hill 10 minutes walk from the hospital) to have a spa. The spa was amazing; it is 'supposed' to be heated from the molten lava that heat underground water to make hot springs, but Dr Chu thinks they may use gas heating now. I think poor Pete and Jade found it a bit too cold, but I loved running from the hot pool (42 degrees) into the cold pool (22 degrees); whilst Pete found much amusement in pressing all the buttons on the spa pool to make lots of bubbles (even though he didn't want to actually sit in the pool himself). Pete and Jade stayed the night in a log cabin there whilst I headed home feeling much refreshed and as wrinkled as a prune from the water.

My last Bible study here(sigh)
Last night while Jade and Pete where at the spa resort, I went to Bible study with Dr Chu at Dr Tsai's house. It was great to read the Bible and sing and pray with them all; I'm really going to miss the friends I've made here! We studied Acts 27 and I am amazed at how similar it is to the story of Jonah (where God's messenger refuses to preach God's message to the ancient world's capital city). In Acts 27 however, it is the sailors (not God's messenger) who don't believe God, whilst Paul is keen to preach God's message in the capital city of the ancient world.
After Bible study, one of the dentists said that her sister had been at the paediatric clinic and seen a very important American doctor with little hair (guess who?). Her sister had assumed I was a very important doctor from America because I was 'supervising' Dr Chauo (the hospital boss). We all had a good laugh about that and they all said that in Chinese culture, a lack of hair is a sign of wisdom and riches. I am still waiting for both of those though (wisdom and riches)... hahaha!

Dinner with Sammy
On Tuesday night we were taken out for dinner by one of the nurses Sammy. Sammy works with the mountain health teams and visits the mental health patients (especially schizophrenics) to deliver their medications. She really cares a lot about her patients and even bought all 70+ of them Christmas presents (out of her own pocket). She is also very blunt and frank with people (which is extremely rare in Taiwan because of people wanting to preserve 'face') which meant that we all get on really well with her.
She took us from the hospital to a nearby strawberry field, where you pay money for a box and some scissors and then you go and pick strawberries from the field for as long as you like. I'm not normally a fan of strawberries, but they were really nice and so I ate a few. Then we went to meet her family, (Mum, sister, brother-in-law, brother, brother's girlfriend and brother's girlfriend's daughter) who all share the one house. Then she took us to a nearby restaurant which sold really yummy beef soup noodles (they are hard to describe) and we ate these pancake-like things whilst Sammy's 3 year old niece ate this Italian millet like food which we all thought tasted quite foul. Then she took us for dessert, but instead of having ice-cream, we had shaved 'ice-milk' (they basically freeze milk then grind it up and put flavoured toppings on it). It was really really delicious and was also very cheap! I wish we had it in Australia!
Then we went back to her house and picked up her family and went to Taichung to visit the night markets. We had to carry her poor niece around on our shoulders because she was too tired to walk and I got many funny stares from the locals as I walked around with Sammy and a 3 year old Chinese girl on my shoulders. We ate some really spicy food (we tasted the 'mild' one and were almost crying) and then drank some 'bubble tea' (it has these really yummy jelly-like blobs in it which can cause you to choke if you haven't been warned about them). We didn't end up getting back to Puli until very late but that was okay because we had a very interesting time.
During the course of the evening, Sammy told us about herself and her family and she has been through some very bad experiences and has had to face some awful things in her life. She told us that she is looking for 'answers' to the questions in life and so we were able to share with her what we believed about Jesus and she wants us to give her a Bible in English so she can read it. She even says she feels like becoming a nun in order to escape for a while and find some meaning/answers in life. As we talked she even told us about how she has had to forgive certain people in her life and the way she talked sounded like the way that Christians talk. She is so close to the truth and it's really sad that we have to leave next week, because there is much more we could have said. We are going to invite her over for dinner next week before we leave and I would ask you to pray for her. I think God is working in her life and I pray that she will soon come to know Jesus.

Christmas plans
Today we are heading off to Heng Chun to visit Pete and Jade's missionary friend who lives in Heng Chun. It will be nice to have some time off hospital before we leave next week.
In the foyer of the hospital they have erected a life size Santa Claus statue that dances when plugged in and belts out lovely little Christmas ditties. It's nice to hear some familiar carols now and then as we wander the wards, making miss the festivities that are going on back home.
I hope all of you back home have a safe and happy holiday season, remembering the amazing news of Jesus our Saviour's birth and celebrating with family and friends.
I will miss all of you heaps and am looking forward to seeing you all real soon!

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests!

Jimbo