Well, hello there! It sure has been awhile since I’ve done this sort of thing. I will be honest with you, I kind of missed this. This will be the kickstarter to my ‘New and Improved mmmtaiwanblog.’ Lets see, how should I start this thing…
Well, to start I will say that this blog marks the start of my return journey back to Taipei, Taiwan. Back in November of 2013 I was blessed enough to be able to go and visit for a stay of about 3 months. I had every intention of staying for 6 months when I started the trip. Then I had every intention of staying forever when I arrived. Then I was forced to return home after just 3 months (sad face). But the trip gave me some great insight. I learned a lot from going there and then I learned even more from coming back home and working to get back. This is where you readers might be interested. You see I am writing this blog for the sole purpose to encourage brothers and sisters who are interested in doing something more. If you are doing everything that your circumstances allow you to right now but still have a little emptiness in your heart, then this blog is dedicated to you. If you have had a nagging feeling in the back of your mind since you saw some sort of experience at the last convention about serving where the need is greater, or saw something similar on jw.org, then this blog is dedicated to you. Or if you have had every intention in the past to go and serve in some greater capacity but since then you just haven’t seemed to find the right circumstances, then this blog is for you. Basically, plan on enticing all of you dear brothers and sisters to leave your current life behind and make a mad dash for that celestial chariot #dashlikeJehu.
Now this is not my first blog post on mmmtaiwan. I had made some other posts back when
I had lived over in Taiwan before. If you all have the courage to read any of them then good for you. But I will say this about my mindset back then. I was writing as a 23 year old kid with no real idea of what he was doing. I was just kind of going over to escape the boredom of living in a small town with not a lot of friends in it (as a side note to the friends I do have back home, I love you :)). So when, sorry if, you read them you will be reading a dairy of the fun stuff I did. Things have changed now though. Right around January 2014 a childhood friend of mine died and it really got me thinking. Sure I was pioneering, and was a servant, and was in a foreign language group, but was I really doing what I could? I was in a foreign country, but was I making the most of it? I was 23 almost 24 and I really had serious thoughts about what I was doing with my life. My friend was making good progress too but then she just died out of nowhere. Her story in this world just ended. What if something like that happened to me? If I had the ability to read my life like it was a book would I be happy with the story? I realized I wouldn’t. I wanted to do more. It’s always a very tragic thing when death makes you see life more clearly, but that is what happened. My friend will come back one day, that I know. But would I if the same thing happened to me? I don’t want to chance that.
So now I will be going back improve my story. It really wasn’t easy. I want to be upfront about that. When each of you attempt to improve your own stories it won’t be easy either. In my own case I had to go back home with 3,000 dollar of debt, no car, no job. I also had to get an Associate's Degree from my local Community College. I then had to save the money I needed to live over there. The whole process took me about 1 year and 6 months. During that time I was forced to stop pioneering due to nagging personal circumstances, I lost quite a few friends (they moved away, nothing tragic), and I had to work a lot. When I say work a lot I mean like 54 hours a week while trying to balance pioneering or school. So this wasn’t a very fun year and a half. But it was totally worth it. “Keep on seeking first the Kingdom and these other things will be added to you…” I have definite proof that this is 100% true. Because I enrolled in a 1 year accelerated degree program in Electrical Technology I am a certified Electrician now. It just so happens that Bethal really needs Electricians right now. Without ever planning to go to Bethal or even turning in an application I got asked to go to Bethal to help construction at Warwick, twice. The first time I just didn’t think it would work out. Then they emailed me again and asked for my help. Well you can’t say no to that. I also needed to buy a ticket to Taiwan. Those tickets are not very cheap, let me tell you. My return flight ticket alone cost me 2,000 dollars, and most other one way flights out of where I live are anywhere from 900 (cheapest) to 1500 (about normal). I also needed to buy a ticket to New York, but I thought, “Come on Mason, it’s Bethal, it’s totally worth it.” So I said, “You know what self, your right. This is a once in a lifetime chance. The friends in other countries don’t have this kind of opportunity. I need to take advantage of it.” So here is where things got interesting. My ticket to New York and then to Taiwan, one way, only cost me 650 dollars! That is insane! And I looked at tickets for the weeks surrounding the week I had to go to Bethal going out of my home town instead of New York. They were all so much more expensive! I am blessed man, I really am.
So I will be at New York for a week first, then I am off to Taiwan. The grand adventure has almost started. I am excited, I am really, really excited. I hope that some of you can feel what I am feeling right now sometime in the future. When you try to move somewhere permanently to serve were the need is greater there will always be difficulties. But after every difficulty there is a blessing that makes you forget all about it. So keep on fighting my friends. I will catch you all later. Same Bat-time same Bat-place.
