Trip breakdown: Tainan, Taiwan week 1 part 2

June 26th-July 1st:
One of the many cultural shifts from Japan to Taiwan was the more family type culture. Because in Japan so many people we met were new to us, being with family and friends in Taiwan that we know and love was a big culture shock as it involved more of our heart and emotion, wearing us out a bit more. Another thing was the language shift! We had already experienced Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese and now were into Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese. Hahaha....our poor brains. I still remember trying to say something and trying 3 or 4 different languages before getting the right one! =) Plus we also had a major food shift! Although I prefer Chinese food to Japanese food (they are both good though!), it is sometimes harder to find food that those of us on the team with food allergies can eat. Even still, we grew to love the Taiwanese and people from Living Waters Church even more.

       Alice Shao, Lydia Chen, Joy Maas                    Rose Marie Chen & me

                         A bunch of the 222 leadership team         The Kawase team & Jimmy

                           The Shao family: Jess, Alice, Abby, Moses, Nemo, Jojo

One of the evenings, we were able to go to the Huang's restaurant. It was incredible, both the building and the food! We also got so see Elaine Lee. She used to live with the Kawases about 3 or 4 years ago but was not re-issued another visa and so had to return home. It was so good to get to see her, hear how her heart was doing, and love on her. Elaine, being just over 30, expressed her desire to be married. So we said that we would pray for her. In all seriousness, Kenon said, "Let's pray in tongues: hubby hubby hubby hubby hubby hubby hubby hubby......." Hahaha......=) We did get to pray for her and bless her and her family.

 

               The Huang Restaurant                The table Abi & I sat at-look at that food!

Jess Shao, Yutaka Kawase, Matt Chen       Elizabeth Chen, Sue Kawase, Alice Shao,
                                                                          Joy Maas

                                             The team and Elaine Lee

Another afternoon, we got to go shopping with Emily Hong (in school at ORU currently as a Senior) and Sarah Wong. It was fun to see her light up as she was showing us all the fun places to shop in her hometown. The boys also got very Taiwanese stylish hair cuts! It was quite the shock at the difference in their appearance when they came back! I also got to go with Kirsti and Natalie to the night market with Candy and Amber. It was my first time to experience that and was so much fun! It's kind of like an outdoor, overcrowded Walmart and an Oriental market where you can haggle prices and find literally everything! I got to try a cranberry drink with Candy (super yummy!) and bought a few little nic nacs/Christmas presents for some of my family. The smells and sounds are like nothing else! So many different things, all at once, all at different times. I love Asia!

                                              Shopping! (Kirsti, Abi, Emily, Jenna)

               Funny picture I found.......=)                    Taiwan at night

                                              A beautiful Taiwanese flower

Scooters are the main transportation                  Funny mis-translation on T-shirt
and are everywhere!   

                        Asian Mona Lisa!!!!!                      Beautiful architecture!

                                                               Traffic in Tainan

                                                     Funny moments while shopping

                   The night market!                                  Kirsti, Amber, Me, Candy

 There were so many people in a little              Some of the night market merchandise
space in the hot, humid outside

       Even though you can't read the writing, you know what this is. Fried octopus anyone?

                            Kirsti, Me, Amber                           More funky foods

On Sunday we were able to attend morning services at Living Waters Church. It was so good to get to experience Taiwanese church! That afternoon we helped pack everything up so that we could head on Monday (2nd) to the college where we were going to have the conference.

    Headed to the Shine conference!              Beautiful Sarah Wong (went shopping
                                                                              with us)

                  Me and Candy on her moped-I got to ride on it. It was so much fun!

   They call these trees 'beard trees' because          One of the drinks we get
they remind them of the old men's beards          a lot in Asia-kinda like Gatorade

Trip breakdown: Taipei, Taiwan week 1 part 1

                                                           Tainan, Taiwan
June 26th-July 1st:

If you read my last post, you'll know we were a bit slap happy the night before we left Japan and even the next day as we were leaving. Here are some more pictures!

Abi at the hotel, going to the parents room to eat snacks       Me being a flight
                                                                                     attendant poster =)

     In the airport in Narita-look at Abi's face!            Found this in the airport gift shop
                                                                                     Pray for Japan!

                           One of my favorite signs in the whole world: Welcome to Taiwan
                                         The other being: Welcome to China


We arrived in Tainan, Taiwan on Tuesday (26th) evening and from there caught the high speed rail train to Taipei. Two friends from the Living Water's church picked us up and took us to the Huang's house, our host home for the week. They were such a hospitable family serving us fresh fruit for breakfast each morning, doing many loads of laundry for us, and much more! Their daughter Vicki was a great help in translating as they did not speak any English! 

      Mr. & Mrs. Huang and the wonderful breakfast they had for us each morning

 A view into the Huang kitchen                             A lion flower

         Breakfast one morning                               Teeth brushing! Good morning!

 The team and Vicki Huang              The incredible fruit they had each morning
                                                              for our breakfast

 

             A chandelier in their house                            A cross design on one of their walls

 

                       A pond they had outside               Another chandelier on the second floor

Wednesday morning (27th) we got to go to Bus 7 Cafe (the restaurant on the first floor of the building the church is in) and see everyone. It was so good to see the Chen family, Matt & Elizabeth, and their kids, Jessica (27), Christopher (25), Jacqueline (23), Lydia (21), Nathaniel (18), Rose-Marie & Stephanie (twins-15). Matt is a local Taiwanese pastor and Elizabeth is a missionary daughter from the USA. It was also really good to see many of our Taiwanese friends!

                                                      Bus 7 Cafe-great food and hangout spot!

            Abi & Peipei (one of our good friends)        Me eating ice cream with chopsticks
 

Though we had many hours we could've sat and talked to catch up with friends, we had to get to work! The whole Living Waters church, the 222 leadership program (these are the kids of the Living Water's church who were the mentors/group leaders in the Shine conference), the Shao family (a family from IHOP-KC whose kids have lived in Taiwan this past year), the Moss family (another IHOP-KC family), the Kawase team, and many other IHOP-KC leaders prepared for the Shine 2012 conference that week (26th-30th). The Kawase team had to prepare for three different evangelistic evening performances as well as our 2 hour workshops we would do in the afternoons. We had to choreograph/learn all of the performances as well as teach it to some of the students from Living Waters who would be performing with us. Needless to say, it was a pretty busy, crazy, and sweaty week. Some of us were also in other things that for the conference like skits and a guy flag intense theme camp kick off, so we had to have rehearsals for that as well. We helped paint flags, make costumes, put together lists and other administration things, and much more all the while switching multiple floors of the building (the church is on floor 11, the rehearsal room on floor 9, and Bus 7 Cafe on 1).

        Dance rehearsal: Emily & Natalie                 Skit rehearsal: Kenon, Jimmy, Jackie 

              One of the rooms we were able to rehearse in with a beautiful view of the city

 

    Some of the Living Waters 222 leaders               Rehearsal with Living Waters kids
     that danced with us

 

                      Moses Shao doing an aerial              Jenna & Me in rehearsal

The Living Waters church is also home to the All Nations Training Center. In 2010, we were able to attend this conference and minister with them and the Kawases returned to help in 2011. We had planned on attending this year as well, but the conference was canceled due to schedule conflicts. During the week before Shine, we also got to see the 222 leadership kids pretty regularly between their Bible classes and even got to do prayer room hours with them. The Living Waters church has several hours during the day that the teens as well as others with lead worship for the church in their prayer room. It was great to join in prayer with them praying for God to change the hearts of the teens coming to the Shine conference, pray over the staff, pray over the speakers and the messages they were going to give, pray over the worship team, and pray over us dancers. It was really neat considering they had been praying for the Shine Conference for over 10 months!

  Me & Kirsti by the All Nations Training Center sign         Me, RoseMarie Chen, Cindy

                 The view from the 10th floor where the Living Water's church is located

 

                              There are some amazing sunsets in Tainan!

      The Living Waters' sign, the Taiwan House of Prayer sign, and the Shine 2012 sign

        One of my good friends Candy Yao (Yao Ni Wun) We are crazy sometimes!

 

   Squished like sardines riding in the elevator-esp fun in hot, muggy, tropical Taiwan!

      The Taiwan House of Prayer prayer room-praying for the Shine conference


Part 2 of week 1 in Taiwan coming next week! Keep your eyes open! =)