This Great Work

As we approach our second Christmas here, even though our hearts yearn for home and family, we're thankful for this 'assignment' to serve here in China.  We have learned much, experienced much, gained greater perspectives and learned for ourselves the reality of walking with Jesus Christ.  At this season we're extraordinarily thankful for Him.  He is our Savior.  He is our strength. He is our Friend.  We can only hope to be a light to others here.  This year we've had some mountains to climb--both physically and symbolically.   Purple mountain in Nanjing Language acquisition is an ongoing challenge.  Even Tom, who speaks quite well feels stretched at times, which should give you an idea of the struggle of the rest of us.  I spend several hours a week learning and I'm still not speaking much and unable to understand responses when I am able to muster a few words.  But, Jesus Christ has been with us on this mountain.  Language acquisition is a process, not an even

 We took a quick trip to Taiwan over Thanksgiving break.  Here is a quick photo sneeze.  My blog has been so lonely lately so I'm going to try to crank this out. (I've got WAY too many drafts on my dashboard that may never seen publication 😟, but such is life). So here we go with pictures not in any particular order (in other words, this is not a very connected, smooth read, but it is what it is!) First off:  interesting things we saw: This is a common scene in China on e-bikes, which are slower than motorcycles, but this was astounding to see.  Apparently it is illegal.  The baby did have a mask on.... Taiwan has interesting vehicles too. This year's must-have fashions? It's hard to tell what this picture is.  This taxi driver has every tinkly-noise-making trinket ever known to man sneezed into his taxi cab.  It was quite the 1 hour taxi ride with him! Food: Taiwan has very good breakfasts.  The three photos above were our longest wait time (40 minutes)--it had won se