Life Goal Completed: Visit Asia

Disclaimer: I want to get off on the right foot here as I begin to post about visiting Asia. In order to do that, I need to address the fact that, although I've spent the last 9 weeks in Asia, I've only been in one country, with basically one type of people group, and heck, I've haven't even been to the mainland; I'm on an island! However, this is still Asia, and I've definitely had a life goal for a while to spend time on every continent, so even though I'll make generalizations about Asia, know that they don't necessarily apply all over the continent, just like any other generalization isn't always true.

Now that we're clear on that...

First of all, I'm blessed that God has allowed me, at the young age of 20, to have already spent time on four continents. I'm especially thankful for the last two months I've been allowed to serve here and fill a need for a time...

Some More Water in the Bucket: Visit the Pacific Ocean

I can feel it when I sleep, when I wake up, when I walk, when I shower, when I eat, when I hold babies, and even when I blog: we got to go to the beach yesterday!

Getting out is quite a feat around here. Kalyn and I hadn't seen daylight for 3 weeks as of yesterday, so getting to go out was almost the highlight of our month. Even more exciting is the fact that I accomplished another life goal: visit the Pacific Ocean!

In Progress and Done: Care for Orphans

I'm thankful for my school, Manhattan Christian College (MCC), for a number of reasons, but namely because of our professors. I'm thankful that 95% of my classes are about things that I want to learn about, even if they bore me at times. I'm seeing more and more as I get older that the "basic" classes I took were some of the most important and some of the "busy work" given in those classes has taught me a lot...

Another Forever in Progress: Be Kind to Every Person I Meet

My time here at THOGL and in Taiwan has taught me a lot of things that you usually learn when you go overseas for an extended amount of time, whether to do missions or study abroad, or whatever you may be doing. Mostly, though, I have learned to appreciate the little things. Naturally, I'm thankful for a refreshing swig of Coke in the middle of our shift, just as I am thankful for the family who left us with an abundance of Macaroni and Cheese. I'm thankful for cold water, because it is sometimes hard to come across. But what I find I am most thankful for is this: kindness...

More than Just a Life Goal: Visit a Buddhist Temple

A few nights ago, as we were taking care of the babies, Kalyn and I talked about how we were getting cabin fever from not being anywhere outside of THOGL or our apartment here in Taiwan. We were a little frustrated and not sure what to do because, well, we work at night. There aren't a lot of places open around midnight here, we can't just abandon the babies, and let's be honest - nobody wants to pick up a night shift and then work again the next day. We figured out a solution to our "sickness", though. We decided to visit the Buddhist temple that hovers over the lake on the way home in the morning (after our shift was over)...

A Long-Shot: Go to the World Cup

With all of the World Cup frenzy winding down, I figured I'd touch on the subject a little.

First of all, I'm excited at how the U.S. fan base has grown this year. Sadly, this was the first year I have ever actually watched the World Cup, so you can count me in as part of the "new" fans, but I really enjoyed watching my country and others play on such a large stage in South Africa, even if I did have to find some "bootleg" streams to watch it on while working the night shift in Taiwan (ABC doesn't stream their games!)...

A Random Act of Accomplishment

Tonight, as I sat down toward the beginning of shift at THOGL, I didn't expect much to happen outside of hearing a lot of babies cry. Little did I know that I would be accomplishing a life goal before the night was over...

A Goal Forever in Progress: Be(come) a Good Father

This year, June 20th passed without much fanfare in my life. I spent the day sleeping, because, by then, I had switched to the night shift with Kalyn here at The Home of God's Love (THOGL). I woke up around 5 PM, and the day progressed as usual. We didn't eat dinner, because dinner never sounds appetizing right after waking up, and we took care of babies for the remainder of the night. Later on that night, while the babies were sleeping, Kalyn and I Skype'd (is there a "proper" way to spell that?) with her family because it was June 20th - Father's Day...

Goal in Progress: Lead a Small Group

Alright, here's the deal. This is the first goal I'm posting about that I haven't actually completed. However, I'm posting because I'm looking for some input...

Ride a Passenger Train: Another Life Goal Completed!

So, as you can see from the picture, I rode my first train! A few days ago we traversed from Luodong, Taiwan to Hualien, Taiwan via train, and I couldn't contain my excitement. Turns out it was pretty awesome!







Entering the train, I wasn't really sure what to do, seeing as how I am in a foreign country and hardly understand 10 words of Chinese. However, our fearless leader, Ted, made sure we found our seats...

Start a Blog (That Doesn't Belong to Xanga): The First Drop in My Bucket

Alright, so here I am. I'm taking on a task I've been avoiding, but a task worth doing. I've started a blog.

Of course, you knew this already because you're reading this. Obviously, nothing groundbreaking to you. However, it's a different matter for me...