My classmate suggested I sneak onto the teacher’s bus and get back to Taoyuan that way instead of the MRT (Taipei’s Subway) and train. I guess I should explain first that MCU has a campus in Taoyuan (the only Emily goes to) and one in Taipei (the one I go to). They have a bus that shuttle’s professors between the two campuses running at different times throughout the day. There is also a bus company that runs a bus between the two campus students can ride that costs about 60NT which is about what I pay for the MRT and train but sadly it doesn’t start running early enough in the morning for me to get to class and stops running before I get done with class.

My classmate told me he’s snuck onto the teacher’s bus 3 times and never has been questioned or told to get off. “You look like a teacher” he told me. I decided to try it the other day. After class got done I walked to the teacher’s bus and climbed aboard with a bunch of middle-aged women trying to blend in and not saying a word to anybody.

The bus started driving around Taipei making stops with various amounts of teachers getting off. Then all of a sudden we were still in Taipei and I was the only person left besides the driver. “Hello?” he asked. I walked to the front of the bus and said “Hello,  Taoyuan?” “Blah blah blah in Chinese.” he said leading me to believe this was not the teacher’s bus to Taoyuan but simply the teacher’s bus around Taipei. CRAP!!!! “Oh.” I said with a pained expression on my face. He pointed and said “Gong cher zan” meaning bus stop. “Ok” I said grabbing my stuff from the back. Before I got off I asked “MRT?” and he pointed. I recognized the tall building thats by the Taipei main station only a few blocks away (thank goodness) and started walking towards it.

Well I got to the main station and onto the train to Taoyuan. I saved the 16NT that I would have spent on the MRT to the main station but used up about an hour of my time in the process.

Since then I haven’t tried to ride the teacher’s bus again. If I do, as I try and blend in with the teachers, I think I’ll ask the driver quickly (in a very teacher like way) if this is the bus to Taoyuan or not.

So the other day we bought a moped, here they are called motor scooters most of the time. Sadly I don’t have any action pictures to share right now but hopefully that will be remedied in the near future. I legally own it and everything. We bought it from a scooter place and the owner’s wife went with me to take care of the necessities. Basically that means she transfered what amounts to no-fault insurance to my name (no fee for me), and went to the government office and transfered the title to my name (the lady paid the fee of 150NT or about $4.50USD). I have to say it is incredibly nice to ask Emily if she wants to go out and then go without involving any waits for buses or riding on any buses….I hate buses. Plus, if we need something from the store we can just go instead of overpaying at our local convenience store!

Today I taught English to a class of high school students. I advertised my native English speaking abilities on a website used by many here to advertise and find English abilities www.tealit.com and a few days later I got an email from a lady asking if I was available to come teach. Actually this was on the third day of the advertisement and the second day I got an email as well asking for my resume. The request was for me to come teach this past Thursday and that day I was out all day getting the scooter. I called the number she gave in the email and said I wasn’t available Thursday but please keep me in mind for other days. Right during the call she discovered I was available to come Saturday (today) and arranged to pick me up and go. So today came, Emily and I went together and I taught about 9 high school students English for two hours and GOT PAID! I prepared for thirty minutes ahead of time and boom, payday! They had the curriculum there and everything and I just showed up a thirty minutes ahead of time.

Crazy I know! Crazier still is that the lady paid for a taxi back to our town and when we got back we decided to see if we could find out way back on the scooter. We got to the right town, Nanken, and even in the same neighborhood but for some reason we couldn’t find the little cram school we had been at. Then Emily practiced driving the scooter for a little bit and thats when we lost our way.

We switched back to me driving somewhere in Nanken but not sure where and ended up driving all over the countryside and finally ended up back in Gueishan (our town) a few hours later. It was fun but straddling a scooter for a few hours makes you feel kind of funny.

All in all a great day! Seeing Taiwan’s countryside reminded me of how beautiful it is here.

Its amazing how everyday we settle in just a little more. We’ve got a place to live, transportation, cell phones, extra-curricular activities, a church, school, jobs, friends, and all the stuff normal lives have! God is good!

Below I’ve posted an interview of a classmate I had to do for English Composition class. I know, I know, its a big suck-up job to the teacher but I can’t help it; my dad is Scot Jefferies. Anyways it may give you a good (what? it is good) read on just one of the other cultural backgrounds that I hang out with here.

Interview of Amin Ashraf 
As I started to ask questions of Amin I got the distinct impression that we were incredibly different. You see I’m a Christian, home-educated, twenty-three year old who’s lived in the same 150 mile radius in Michigan for my entire life. Amin on the other hand is a nineteen year old Muslim who has lived in Dubai, India, and Taiwan, as well as traveling everywhere in between. Living away from his parents since the age of fourteen, he is incredibly self-reliant, independent, and has a maturity about him to be admired.

Born in Kanpur, India, May 4^th, 1988 to Arif and Dr. Sabi Ashraf, Amin has three sisters, two of whom are now married and living in Dubai with the other studying in Yunsin, Taiwan. Until he was twelve Amin lived with his family in Kanpur, and had what he described as a pretty normal childhood. The language was a combination of Hindi, Urdu, English, and Arabic. 

Before Amin’s father moved to Dubai for business Amin described himself as a shy young man who didn’t make friends very easily. However because Amin has been back and forth between India and Dubai as well as traveling extensively since the age of fourteen he says its completely changed. “Its like something popped” and now he “makes friends everyday.” While Amin wouldn’t say he’s religious, he considers Allah to be very close to his heart and wishes he had more time to pray.

The question is, how did Amin Ashraf end up in the International College of a university in Taiwan? The answer is spontaneity. Amin was in Yunsin visiting his mother, Dr. Sabi, who teaches at a university there, heard about Ming Chuan’s program, and said “let’s do it.” He chose the International Business degree because his goal is to own his own manufacturing business; probably something related to leather, or rubber-botox products. 

Although he’s frustrated with the food in Taiwan as well as the language barrier, when I asked what he considers to be his greatest accomplishment his answer was “coming here to Taiwan to make a better life for myself.” Amin said he really likes the diversity of our class, giving him the opportunity to see perspectives he’s never thought of before, however “its been hard being the only Indian.”

Standing up from the interview I had a completely different perspective. I’m not so different from Amin. We’re both in a foreign country, trying to get used to everything. We both miss and love our families. We both love our god. We’re both here trying to make better lives for ourselves and so far having great times in our new home. What a great realization this is and how wonderful that I now have a friend who can challenge my way of thinking and expand my mind.

I’m here in World Literature class reflecting on how wonderful it is to study in English spoken by a non-native English speaker. So far today the teacher has offered the following slip-ups, providing me with entertainment.

She misspelled Satan as Saturn
She pronounced and keeps pronouncing antagonist as anta Go nist.
She pronounced and keeps pronouncing alliteration as Aditoration.
She pronounced and keeps pronouncing psychoanalytic as psycho a NAL ly tic.

I’m not complaining. I’m reveling in how much fun this is and merely understanding offers so much satisfaction!

Recently, I had an email exchange with an American missionary who is pastoring a church here in Taipei. I had asked him if he had any good tract suggestions for me to give away to people who practice their English on me while riding the buses or trains and quick encounters like that. I’ve been having several of these quick chats but the language barrier has been too great when I would ask about religion or whatever. My thought in asking for a good tract suggestion from this pastor was to find something I could leave with people after a chat and let the rest be their/Gods decision. All that to say, below I’ve pasted the response I got from Pastor Linton because its so fascinating and might offer those of you back home some insight as to how to pray for the Taiwanese people.

“I’ll look into a good tract. Taiwanese in general do not pay much attention to tracts. They have the biggest response from a sustained relationship.

There are some things I’ve thought about writing in tract form, myself.

Yes, people tune out for many reasons.The thing is, you have to just teach Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Meaning — sin, suffering, and God’s love and judgment and mercy — which culminated with the cross and the resurrection. Point to Jesus the person. “What do you think about Jesus”? What was he doing on this earth 2000 years ago? What about his completely righteous life? If so, then why did he have to die on a cross? (If you do not have much time to talk, it can be good for them to walk away with an unanswered question that comes back up in their minds… restlessly.)
The problem for Taiwanese is that they will have the same idolatrous orientation towards Jesus — some holy or powerful person and/or spirit whom you make deals with to get some of the power or good luck on your side to get what you want. So whether you turn to Buddha or your ancestors or Daoist gods, Matsu or the Red-Faced General or the Earth god (or Jesus — in their minds), they just worship or do the required rituals or give the right gifts to get that power on their side, so they can get the idol they really want: health, wealth, success, fame, sons, etc. And there is the other side of it, the mafia side: i.e. worship or pay off gods or ghosts to keep them from bringing you bad luck: I think of it as an extortion racket, protection money payments. That’s their orientation.

You want to tell about Jesus? They’ll think: I’m glad he’s working for you. If my other gods don’t come through, I’ll consider him. Or … Oh, Jesus? Does he work for you? What do I have to do? What rituals does this god require? Then maybe he can help me with this problem I have — e.g. cannot get pregnant. Or want to pass a qualifying exam, etc.

So in this background, you have a lot more work to do. You need to convince them of the fact of sin — therefore the need of salvation. You need to teach them how God is just wholly other, totally different from Man. Man cannot become gods. Keep bringing them back to… but where did it all start, who created everything. You try to get some little power on your side, but what about the Most High Power, the One who created the Universe? Why talk to the desk secretary at a company when you can go straight to talk to the Boss, Founder and Owner of the company?

The Holy Spirit is the One who will make something you say “stick” in their minds. So say a little, or if the person seems open, say a lot, but that first time will not usually be the time they believe. It often will be 10 years down the road. Some of the Christians that became believers at New Hope actually first interacted with Christianity years before. And something stuck. Something made an impression. And at some point, they came back for a closer look.

So it is also good if you connect people with a church where there is relationship and a clear Gospel message. Some of the new believers had been coming to New Hope for three years… and it just was gradual, or they kept being confronted by something… and finally there was a breakthrough in their hearts.”

Joel Linton is the pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Taipei, Taiwan. Emily and I visited the church with Megan over the Moon Festival weekend. Its a really cool small church that meets at what I think is a University in Taipei. If you want to check out New Hope’s website its http://www.taiwanchurch.org/~linton