Well hello there. I haven't seen you in a while. For all of you people who wanted one last blog post here it is for you and I hope you enjoy it. If you are thinking to yourself, "Geeze!! Write much? It has only been like 2 months since you posted last!" I apologize. I have an excuse but it is a really long one. But hey, lets face it, you are reading a blog post right now you totally have the time.
The last post I made was my summing up my first month in Taiwan. I intended for it to be a really up-building post designed to draw your interest in serving in either Taiwan or another foreign country (but you know I really am pushing Taiwan). I was riding an amazing mental, emotional, and spiritual high and I really hadn't been so happy in my life. I was planning on trying to make my trip last for as long as I could. I was buying cheaper meals, going to places that costed less money, and walking everywhere I could. I was also seeing if I could do some small teaching jobs on the side. The goal was to get a full six months out of my stay. I had plans to write another blog post the week after my last one and it was bound to be interesting. It was new years after all. But it was that week that I got a feeling that my trip could end prematurely. To give you more insight on my meaning I have to digress from my narrative a little bit (because I never do that (sarcasm)).
My original plan for Taiwan was to stay for six months. I had enough money to stretch out four or five months but I wouldn't have been able to be that adventurous. I realistically could do three months and spend liberally. A lot of friends with experience and knowledge involving Taiwan reassured me that I could always get little teaching jobs on the side to stay a float. I would always ask if that would be legal (you need a Bachelors degree to get a work visa, I don't have one). Every single person I asked said it would be no problem. It's illegal like jay walking in New York is illegal, no one will care. So I said to myself, "Grain of salt, grain of salt. Lets just see what happens." Because if all else would fail I had an ace in the hole, I had quite a bit of money coming in from school (long story on that one, lets just say Nebraska schooling is generous).
I found out pretty late in the game that even though what people told me about the working thing was true in most of Taiwan it wasn't the case in Taipei. Taipei is the big city of Taiwan were everything is much more official. People will hire you illegally but you risk being deported. You also kind of can't have any congregation privileges either. To me it wasn't worth it. But I still had money coming in from school right? I was really hoping so at that point. I had meticulously planned my budget for Taiwan down to just about every daily cost. If you are interested I will tell you? Oh you are, great. 10 USD a day for food, 220 USD split three ways for rent a month, 20 USD a month for public transportation, 10 USD a month for toiletries if you want to be extravagant, and an extra hundred for all purposes (fun). All in all it was a rough 700 USD a month budget. But I knew I would cut it down eventually once I got to know the area. I did eventually cut it down to 500 USD a month. And if I found myself in a pinch I could even do 300 USD a month. But 500 USD a month was good. I came to Taiwan with close to 3000 USD and I though I would get an extra 800-1000 later. But I had to pay a 1000 USD down payment on the apartment I was staying in right off the bat and then another 200 for the utilities we all together bought. It then took me a month to realize I had to seriously shorten my budget to stay longer. But the time was coming around for me in January to start getting nervous about my money. I knew that my only hope for a full stay would be that extra money from school and maybe a small batch of tutoring jobs. Because strictly speaking you can substitute teach and private tutor and still be legal in Taipei. It's a government legal thingy or something, I really don't get it. But around the time I was thinking about my next blog post those things were occupying my thoughts.
But then a truly horrible tragedy also took place that really distracted me. A friend of mine from back home who I have know since we where children very tragically passed away. Her name was Gracie Ehlers and she was only 20. That was a huge shock that distracted me even more. But by no means feel bad for me. If you want to pray for someone please pray for her family. Because few things can compare to the grief you can feel when a family member dies. And the grief and sorrow of witnessing your child die is so great that I can't even comprehend it. But I definitely encourage you reader to pray for her surviving parents Jared and Nicki and two brothers Aden and Liam.
After you get distracted for a couple weeks it just gets harder and harder get the enthusiasm to write again. But my good friend Dylan Byrd has recently told me that I have been requested to write on final entry. But I will do even better than that. I will write another besides this one. This blog will be my final thoughts on Taiwan and my other will be another Greatest Hits complete with story and picture. So enough of the intro let us get into the meat of the blog.
Since New Years Eve I have really come to see the real Taiwan. This is both good and bad. But it is really good for all of you. What I mean is this, if you are thinking to yourself, "Should I go to Taiwan or not?" This will really be the perfect unbiased review on Taiwan. I mean all of this from the perspective of a Jehovah's Witness. I figure that not everyone that reads this blog is a Jehovah's Witness, so if you are not a Witness reader I hope not to confuse you too much. When it comes down to it Taiwan is the ideal place for someone who is learning Chinese to be. There are about 14 Chinese congregations located in Taiwan with the majority of them being located up North in the Taipei area. The congregation I am in right now is the Da'an South Congregation. They regularly have a large group of foreigners come in and out of town with the soul purpose of learning Chinese and preaching. Some of them move on to other places to preach and some go back home to help out locally. The majority of all the people that come in and out are Japanese or Koreans. This is really just because a plane ride to Japan or Korea is only about an hour or so away from Taiwan. But, in our congregation in particular there are a good number of Westerners from the States or parts of Europe. If you do decide to come to Taiwan you will find that both a good and bad thing. As I am sure for the Japanese and Korean friends as well; sometimes you just need to hang out with your own culture and speak your own language. This makes the initial adjustment period a bit easier but it can be a snare. What I found out myself was that I would go to some meetings and talk mostly in English to everyone afterwards. Now I came here to lean Chinese so that hurt when I realized that I was doing that. However, that can easily be avoided by just finding more friends that don't speak English. I picked out a few people who had moved here and were about the same level as I am and just started to speak to them in Chinese, very broken Chinese.
The need for preaching here is huge as well. The ratio of Witnesses to locals here in Taiwan is somewhere between 1 and 2,500/3,000. Just to give you an idea of what that actually means our Watchtower study editions for a while had special articles about serving in foreign lands with a focus on South America. In a lot of those areas the ratio is 1 to 500 to 1 to 700. I believe I saw a 1 to 900 in there as well but I could be mistaken. Still that ratio is dwarfed by Taiwan. A large reason for this is because only since the 1980's has the preaching work been really getting off the ground. And with most of the help coming from smaller countries such as Korean or Japan the man power is just lacking. Also, there are other areas of the world very close to Taiwan that need help to a much larger degree and Taiwan kind of gets lost in the shuffle. When I came here at first I was a little afraid of preaching because of my very poor Chinese. But people are more than helpful taking you on there Bible Studies and teaching you presentations. Most people feel comfortable getting a Bible Study after being here for about 4 or 6 months. This really just depends on you though. If you want a Bible Study you can get one. Eastern Asian cultures are very polite and they really like Westerners.
There is a down side to the preaching work here though. Mind you it is not a very big down side, but it should at least be mentioned. The people here are not as desperate to find the truth as some other cultures are. Some have very happy lives and take a Bible Study just out of curiosity. What I find is the case with the progressive ones is they really don't realize how much they have been missing until they really get into the study. That being said Taiwan has had a 15 to 20 percent increase in growth in recent years. The preaching work is just exploding. Also worth mentioning is that here in Taipei most of the preaching is done in the city. So if you come over expect lots of preaching in apartments, preaching over an intercom, and preaching in places of business. All of it is done on foot, but they take lots of short breaks. I personally love the breaks because it is a really easy opportunity to get to know everyone. Plus it just feels like you are having fun.
The friends you meet in the ministry and at the hall will definitely be unforgettable. In my personal opinion this is my favorite part of Taiwan. Meeting all the new friends that I did is something that is truly unforgettable. While you do meet a lot of people that speak English the real fun is becoming friends with someone who doesn't. Mind you though that now a days in Taiwan most everyone that is under 40 will be able to speak some English no matter what race they are. But the whole process of talking with someone who has a completely different background than you do is enthralling. To talk with some of the Korean brothers who have had to spend time in prison due to conscientious objection in joining the military really gives you a whole new out look on what the preaching work is like. Getting to know the Japanese brothers and their work ethic as well helps you get a much more full picture of the world wide brotherhood. It is also quite funny seeing how the local Taiwanese friends handle all these people constantly moving in and out. I dare to think what their phone books look like.
As I finish up this post I am sitting in LAX airport reminiscing about the last couple days I spent in Taipei. My leave was a bit too sudden for my comfort but I still had wanted to have a bunch of people over to my house. My last official night was what truly sold me on coming back. People I hardly had come to know for 3 months flooded my small two bed room apartment while we all ate a very unhealthy amount of junk food and played "Mafia." I tried (also failed) to narrate the game in Chinese. All the while brothers and sisters who literally had come from all over the world talked and laughed in my house. I really don't think that what I saw that night can really be seen in to many other places. It is really the ultimate testimony that Jehovah's Witnesses have the true religion. How else can people with completely different background and relatively nothing in common on the surface get along so flawlessly. Even the language barrier (4 different languages being spoken at any given time) was no problem. That was always the sort of thing I wanted to experience and now I can say that I have. After the party we all went to play soccer and met up with even more people. We stayed at the field well past midnight laughing and taking pictures. My next and final post will show all that madness.
In all seriousness I really can't recommend Taiwan enough as a place to serve where the need is greater. Yes, there may be places that need more help. But all in all there really aren't a whole lot of places that need as much help as is needed there. The very so imposing challenge of learning Chinese is felled quite a bit. This is especially true if you are taking Chinese classes but it isn't really necessary. When you first start preaching you may feel scared but trust me, you will place so much literature. Placing 30 magazines in one day is not unheard of; actually it happens quite often. You may think it hard to make friends with everyone that doesn't speak your language but again, it is totally easy. If you totally want to make lifelong friends just learn to say a simple phrase in Japanese or Korean and say it to the proper person. It is especially entertaining to watch the Koreans basically do cart wheels around you when they find out you know something in Korean (they are just so darn enthusiastic).
I have personally made it up in my mind to come back soon. But if you are reading this and find yourself on the fence, just go for it. This is one of those things that you really can't go wrong with. A common trait of faithful men depicted in the Bible is always being taken care of materially. I know that is what most of you are thinking. "Can I afford it?" is probably the common train of thought. I already said that a rough ballpark estimate if you share a room in Taipei is about 700 USD a month and that can be shortened to 500 USD when you figure the place out. But outside of Taipei it does get significantly cheaper. In fact I kind of just happened to live in one of the most expensive areas. I really got the money for my three month stay quite fast while only working part time. Obviously people financial situations always will differ, but you shouldn't let it stop you. If you have ever done the trust building exercise of falling backwards into a person's arms you know that the first time is the hardest. But one that first time is out of the way it really isn't that hard to do it over again and again. I am definitely not saying take a blind leap of faith and just move. You always want to be shrewd and count the cost before you do something like this. But at the same time, do you really think Jehovah would just abandon you once you moved to serve were the needs greater? Obviously not.
So there it is reader. In three months everything has changed for me. I changed into yet another new person, and I kind of like this new version of me. Man is really a product of his environment. And what better environment could there be than among fellow brothers and sisters advancing the kingdom interest in need greater areas? There really isn't any. Sorry Bethal, I mean no offence, but this is more my style. If you are thinking maybe this is your style, or this sounds appealing, or you have had a nagging thought in the back of your head saying, "Should I? Should I?" Yes, reader, you should.
