Employment | Taiwaneers

Summer break in Kentucky

Employment, Michael's Posts, Travel & Exploring, USA 1 Response »

Jul 262010

A lot has happened since the last post. Since then Emily and I have traveled back to Michigan for summer break, spent a few wonderful weeks with family and friends, and now are in Owensboro, Kentucky for a 4 and 1/2 week long visit with Emily’s grandparents and aunt.

God did provide a place for Emily and I to stay here in Kentucky. Janet, Emily’s grandparents’ former cleaning lady, generously offered to let us stay in the spare room of her house. She and her daughter are two of the sweetest, kindest people you’d ever want to meet and have been making us feel right at home.

Last week, on Sunday, Emily and I attended the First Presbyterian Church of Owensboro’s service. We had sent an email to a bunch of pastors here in Owensboro a few weeks before arriving asking for help in finding housing. The presbyterian pastor, Eric, had emailed us back and we wanted to go catch up with him. The congregants were extremely welcoming and it was really great to get a chance to find out that the pastor recognized us right when we walked in because he had seen pictures of us here on our blog.

Today, Emily and I went with her grandfather to his church, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Owensboro. It was very interesting and definitely got me thinking about stuff. It was quite different from any service I had ever been to before. One thing I really liked was that there was time for members of the congregation to get up and share their joys and struggles with everyone.

On the jobs front Jesus has provided as well. The first few days Emily and I were here in Owensboro we drove around and stopped in everywhere there was a currently hiring sign to fill out applications. We also went to the temporary employment agencies. After doing the latter we have both become huge fans of temp agencies. Tomorrow we both start work at Columbia Sportwear Company’s midwest distribution center, jobs we obtained from Jeff at Spartan Staffing…thank you Jeff! The other temp agency that found us work but that we ended up not taking was Peoplemark. Both agencies were great. There are definitely jobs to be had as we have only been here a week and a half and already are turning down jobs and interviews.

Last week we both got a workout at Packaging Unlimited. It’s one of those places that is a day-to-day thing. If you get there early enough you have a job that day. We arrived at 5:30am, got our names added to the list, and began our shift at 7:30am. Emily spent the day making boxes for peanut butter jars and I was stacking packages of Ragu onto pallets. No air conditioning and minimum wage made it a little different from the jobs we are accustomed to but I have to say I really enjoyed it. Working there forever would have been horrible but doing really hard work every so often is something I really get a lot out of. I liked it so much I went back for seconds the next day.

This new job has pretty good pay and is air conditioned as well. We are both very grateful and excited for tomorrow morning at 6am when we begin our first shift at Columbia!

Other than that we have been having a great time with Scott and Ruth, Emily’s grandparents, and Winnie, Emily’s Aunt. They have been wining and dining us at some of Owensboro’s best eateries. That reminds me, anyone in Owensboro, Kentucky should definitely give The Famous Bistro a try. Excellent food and great service.

Well I guess that’ll do it for now.

Waiting

Emily's Posts, Employment 7 Responses »

Jun 142010

Since coming to Taiwan to study, we’ve been able to afford the plane ticket home every summer to see family and friends. When we do get home, however, we live with our parents, friends and relatives – anyone who will let us sleep on a couch or floor. And, contrary to popular belief, we are not rolling in the dough, so it’s been necessary every summer to find some sort of work to pay for living expenses. That reality has made the past few summers interesting indeed!

We have, among other things:

~Spent weeks painting the outside of a building, and getting some pretty amazing tan lines.

~Worked for Michigan State University’s Cafeteria system, both as secretaries and kitchen hands, depending on the day.

~Labored a summer in the corn fields of southern Michigan, de-tasseling. Don’t know what that is? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detasseling

~Donated plasma. Michael calls this “selling his body.” He wrote quite a few posts about it.

This summer, we are again able to afford the plane tickets. This is a miracle in itself, because we already went home once in March for my brother’s wedding. Glory to God, he answered our prayers and provided Michael with a job just in time! I love answers to prayer!

Now, we’re waiting patiently for the perfect answer to our next request: a way to stay in Owensboro, KY for the summer with my grandparents. Grandma and Grandad are precious to us, beloved family and two of the most interesting and beautiful people we’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Neither one of them has trusted in Jesus as their savior, though, and we both feel very led to spend time sharing Christ with them and serving. If this were last summer, there wouldn’t be a problem – they had a big, beautiful house with plenty of space – but they’ve just moved into a retirement home with no room for us. We can’t afford a hotel for more than a night or two, but want to stay for more than a month. So, what to do? Good question. We’ve been talking to family about this for months, with no one offering to let us stay with them. We’ve just recently started to email churches in the area, asking for help, knowing that God always provides – even if it’s through strangers!

I was talking to my friend Loreta at church this morning, a woman who has hours and hours of stories about the provision and faithfulness of God. Michael and I had asked the church for prayer about our living and job situation this summer, and she wondered if God had answered our prayers yet.

“Not yet,” I said, “We’re waiting patiently.”

She clapped her hands like a giddy child, beaming, “God will bring you the perfect gift! I have something I’m waiting for, too. Let me tell you.”

Over the past few weeks she’s been praying about where He wanted to send her, and received overwhelming confirmation that He wants her in Poland. Poland?! She called the coordinator of the organization, asking with confusion if they needed help.

“Oh, YES! We’ve been emailing and calling you for months, but we couldn’t reach you! Please come as quickly as you can!”

That was enough for her. She booked her ticket to Poland, using all the money she had.

“But what about the rest, Loreta, all the money you still need? And you only have a week and a half!” I was incredulous.

She looked at me and smiled. “Emily, I have had God provide for me over and over again in my life, in so many ways that my faith is unbreakable now. He has made it clear that He wants me there. He’ll bring the money. I’m going to Poland.”

We clasped hands and prayed for each other, holding each other accountable to believe in faith that God gives what He promises. Always enough, and just what we need. What a dear woman. She has encouraged me in so many ways.

So, now we wait. School ends next Friday, and we fly home on June 28th. Everything is up in the air still, but the plan is to stay in Michigan for 2-3 weeks visiting family and friends, then drive down to Kentucky to stay for 4-6 weeks. God will tell us where to go and what to do, when the time is right.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. -Hebrews 4:16

Every generous act of giving and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father who made the heavenly lights, in whom there is no inconsistency or shifting shadow. -James 1:17

If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! -Matthew 7:11

We believe in faith and trust in God’s unchanging goodness. This life is filled with sweetness.

Ruth Constance

Learning Sweet Skills, or, How I became Gainfully Employed

Employment, Michael's Posts 3 Responses »

May 302010

You are looking at, or rather reading the words of, GlobalPR’s newest employee. I have been given a part-time job writing press releases for English-speaking markets as well as helping to communicate, via email mostly, to those markets’ press outlets about our client’s products.

It’s kind of a long story actually. Last fall I realized that I had a lot more time on my hands as a junior than in the first two years of university. I started trying to find something to do. For a while I was trying to get in touch with an orphanage to help volunteer but it just kept on falling through. So then I was looking around the foreigner websites for jobs and stumbled upon a job listing on Taiwanted.com, asking for someone who could write press releases in English, specifically looking for university students who could work part-time. Well – I emailed my resume over and got a call to go interview. I got all dressed up and sweated (it was still really hot at the time) my way over to GlobalPR’s offices in Beitou, just north of Taipei City. It was a small office and the 4-5 people there were all dressed pretty casually so I stuck out all dressed up and sweating, as only a foreigner in Taiwan can. The interview went well with the guy who is now my boss, a German Swiss who married a Taiwanese woman and settled down to make a life of it here in Taiwan. It seemed by the end of the interview that I’d be receiving word from him in the very near future regarding the whole work permit application process, and starting work. But that is not at all what happened. Bear in mind was in September/October.

Like I said, I felt at the end of the interview that it was pretty much a done deal. I didn’t hear anything though and so, being the Scot Jefferies-trained guy that I am (that’s my dad, fyi), I gave him a call and an email. He said he was ‘really interested still but he was just really busy, and yes we should be ready to move in the near future.’ Well, nothing happened still and after a few more emails I figured that was the end of it. I supposed it was just a small company that put up a job listing before they were really interested in filling a position.

Time passed…

In March, four months later, I got a call on my mobile from a German Swiss guy asking me if I was still interested in the job I interviewed for back in the Fall. I was definitely surprised. ‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘my wife recently had a baby and we were just really busy but the job is ready for you if you are still interested.’ I told him I was game and there you have it…or do you?

Well now that both parties wanted to move forward, we had to get the government’s approval. I needed to apply for a work permit for foreign students issued by Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan. This turned out to be quite an arduous process. I love bureaucracy don’t you?

With guidance from the extremely nice ladies in the International College office of MCU and the bosses wife at GlobalPR I figured out what needed to be done. I had to fill out and turn in an application to Taiwan’s Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training. My application also needed to have my university’s official stamp as well as GlobalPR’s stamp. Seals and stamps are very important in Taiwan. Along with the application I had to submit my transcript, a photocopy of my apartment’s lease agreement, a photocopy of my passport, national ID card, and student ID card, a letter from my university advisor explaining that I had financial need and that this job would offer me the chance to apply the knowledge I am learning (as an International Business & Management major) in a real-world situation, and 100NT dollars – about $3.00 USD.

It definitely was a process to get all the different university people and GlobalPR people to get all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed on the same set of papers…and I didn’t even do it right. About a week after I got everything turned in, instead of getting my work permit in the mail I got a letter saying my application was incomplete. Thankfully my university was able to satisfy that whole thing with a quick fax and in the end I finally got the permit.

10 points to the person that can find my name. You know this, I've told you my Chinese name before.

With Uncle Sam (or is it Uncle Yat-sen) satisfied I started work as a “PR Assistant.” I work on Mondays and Thursdays and so far I’ve been having a great experience. It’s been a real pleasure to get to know my officemates. My boss is the only other guy in the office, and then there is his wife and five other Taiwanese women. This is not including their baby, the nanny, and their little boy who also hang out in the office with us. It’s different to experience Taiwanese culture in an office setting as opposed to the classroom setting. I find it fascinating.

So far I’ve helped write fifteen press releases for clients including a computer chassis manufacturer, an LED lightbulb manufacturer, and a computer peripherals (that’s keyboards and mice and things like that for the rest of you) manufacturer. I’ve also started to help clean up the database and improve the contact information we have for foreign press outlets in places like Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA.

For those of you who are interested here are a few of the press releases I have helped with so far:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=24606
http://computingondemand.com/?p=3434
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/products/22391

Besides the extra money it has really been great to be working again. Being a student and spending all this time ‘investing’ in myself has definitely taken a toll. The feeling of satisfaction after a day of work is a welcome change!