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mdivgirl
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Name: Elizabeth
Country: Taiwan
Gender: Female
Interests: Oh, everything -- non-sports related, that is. Mostly music, languages, writing, Chinese -- the latest ones: card-making, knitting, crocheting, and trying to figure out baking and cooking in a country that doesn't bake much and I can't read any of the packages!
Expertise: Well, people tell me I'm smart because I know English so well.
Occupation: English teaching/interm church
Industry: Kingdom work
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
12/4/2003
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| We had an amazing weekend -- really, we've been having a pretty incredible couple of months at our church. God is moving, and I feel that I am waking up -- albeit slowly -- from an apathetic haze, and it's so good. God has been amazingly faithful in all He's done at the Bread of Life English Fellowship here in Kaoshiung, Taiwan. A month or two before I married Stephen almost a year and a half ago now, the pastor left and I have been quasi "interm-ing" it here. We finally came up with the title of "ministry coordinator" for what I do. I'm not very good at preaching anyway, and though I was worship leading for a while, vocal issues have meant I really haven't been doing any of either for over a year. Basically, I lead with a bunch of other leaders, and make sure my husband and a few others are all scheduled for preaching team (where sermons are "sample preached" and discussed so they can be reworked and practiced before the service) and church, people get directed into small groups, and leaders and other meet at least once or twice a month for prayer and teaching or discussion or other things. I don't do it well because I do not know God as well as I should and it is only what is done through him that counts, but God has been so faithful.
This weekend we had baptism, and it was awesome. It all started at the end of the summer when one of the Taiwanese men who had been coming to the English church and some other Bible studies decided that he wanted to pray to accept Christ and someone told him that he should then be baptism. We decided to meet with him and talk through his decision with him and at the same time to announce an upcoming baptism in church to see if anyone else was interested. Sadly, the man who got this started has backed down and is not yet ready to give up his plans and dreams and ambitions for God's, but over the past few months, several others came and said, "Yes. It's time for me to be baptized." One of the dearest to Stephen and I is a French Canadian guy named Benoit who has since joined our small group. He came in one day in September -- his first time in church in a really, really long time having formally been a staunch, staunch atheist -- found our friend Jacob and said, "I want to be baptized." Fortunately, Jacob had been listening to the announcements and led him to the right place. Another is a Taiwanese American who had had a lot of contact with churches before, but God brought him here to have it all "click." Another guy, Jerri, is a student from India who we met up with when the Doulos Ship was in town ministering this past March and drew most English speaking Christians out of the woodwork. He's been a Christian for a while, but God has been doing amazing things in his life recently and though he was baptized as a baby, he really wanted to take this step for himself as an adult. He's going back to India soon, but it's been an amazing blessing having him here with us the past few months. Those were the three that came out, and for various reasons, the service was moved first from September to October and then October to November. It seems that God had a plan for that too. The timing of things has been amazing. For one thing, it ended up being scheduled the day after the wedding of some of our leaders, Matt (from Australia) and Josephine (from Taiwan) -- and so we spent a whole weekend as a church celebrating God's good work in our lives and being a church, and his family from Australia were able to join us today. It was good to have them there. Then, last week Ava, a very dear Taiwanese girl who has been coming to the English church for a while, asked us to baptize her for a second time since the first time she didn't actually mean it and now she wholeheartedly does. That was a special blessing for me, because she asked me to be the one that actually baptized her and it's the first time I actually did that. Then, a girl in our church called up and said that her friend from back home who's been a Christian quite a while but never been baptized, wanted to get baptized while he was here. At first we were hesitant since it's good for baptism to take place in the community where you really are and he's only here for a short visit, but he persisted in a quiet way, and convinced us that this trip to Asia really meany a lot to him in understanding God and His church and it was something that would be very special for him to do here -- and how do you say no to someone who is saying, "Look. I'm a Christian. I really want to be baptized --" So we had a really last minute addition. Oh, it was so good to hear their stories of how God has worked in their lives. Oh, it was so good.
We had originally planned to have the baptism in the sanctuary in our portable bathtub, but Benoit is a really outdoorsy guy and wanted to have it in nature, and since we do live in a coastal city we decided that as long as he would help organize, we had to be able to figure out a way to swing it. We ended up booking a barbecue area at a beach at the local university, and through some crazy misunderstanding, ended up double booking it with a French association of French and French speakers from all over Taiwan. Ben actually gave his testimony in French, being a Quebecois, and at least one of them came over and listened. I doubt we'll ever see him again and we didn't get a chance to talk with him, but I pray that God keeps these words in his head. We also had a great barbecue and were able to spend time with each other and with some guests who aren't part of our church, and I know there were a lot of good things going on -- though my ministry mostly ended up being getting buried in the sand by two sweet little girls who were quite determined to get sand everywhere they possibly could. I was shedding sand from my scalp and even my eyebrows -- but one was the daughter of Benoit's corked who's a not-very-active Christian and whose husband is a Buddhist who's really nervous about contact with Christians, so hopefully showing love to their daughter meant something to them. The other thing was the waves. The actual baptisms were hilarious trying to do it in the two foot waves. But it was good, and we got to pray for them down in the surf and it was so good.
Stephen wants to next baptize someone the next service now too. Today he was so excited that he almost charged into the ocean to help, forgetting that he had just put his cell phone in his shirt pocket -- so I stopped him this time, but I so pray that we have the opportunity to let him get his chance soon. God is so amazingly great and so good, and so many foreigners and Taiwanese need so badly to hear that message. Oh Lord, make us more obediently so that we are better at sharing this. Help us to see things with the eternal perspective that motivates us to act and preach and love and live your life! | | |
| Whoah -- it's been more than 7 months since I last wrote on here. I will have anyone who still reads my blog know that I just recently filled up an entire real journal -- my eighth completely handwritten journal since starting college many moons ago. That doesn't help any of you, of course, but it makes me feel less guilty.
I did finally give into pressure, though, and join Facebook, so if anyone's on it and wants to add me, I'm there with all my names: Elizabeth Margaret Lefavour Clark. I figured that way people should be able to find me whatever they knew me as -- though I did leave out Lisa. Oh well. You'll figure it out
Hey, speaking of my vicarious life via the internet -- if anyone has a chance check out my friend's band "Reilly the Band." Koo Chung is a fan of theirs -- for those of you who blog about him. (I'm sure Reilly is a fan of his in return.) They just opened for Jars of Clay and Newsboys at a NY/NJ/Philly festival -- and those bands have been around long enough that even I know about them, and I have been out of the loop forever! Anyway, they have a song on their site www.reillytheband.com and a new CD coming out soon. (I used to sing with John Reilly in the worship band at Rutgers Campus Crusade way back in the day when I could actually sing. Sigh. I miss that day.)
I am on my own for a week or so -- my husband flew back to England for a friend's wedding. I told him I didn't know what to do without him. He asked what I did before we were married: I had roommates. Oh well. I spent a good long time leisurely browsing a bookstore today. I found an inexpensive copy of "The Little Prince" which includes the original French, Chinese, and English all in the same book! That's cool. My French reading is much, much better than my Chinese, though. That is, of course, to be expected. I'm not sure I ever read the whole thing through in any language, so I'm glad of the English. I also found a beautifully illustrated retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," so I'll snuggle down with my kids books for the next day or so. It's always good to keep up on the fairy tales.
I'm also kicking around the ideas of a sermon on Matthew 3. It's not like I ever preach really, and I'm really no good at it, but our preaching team is getting a little thin and a sermon might come in handy someday -- even a fairly mediocre one. Besides, it forces me to think about God's Word, which is the best part of preaching anyway for me. (The best part of preaching for an actual preacher, of course, is then communicating that Word to others -- but I don't really have that part down very well in that formal setting.)
So, it's not much of a post, but I'm alive and kickin' here in Taiwan. And there you have it -- quite possibly for another seven months unless you join my Facebook thing -- but you never know. Maybe I'll be inspired to write again as I shrink into my virtual life in this time of abandonment by my husband. I may even get around to adding pictures. <> | | |
| I just joined a Blogring for Houghton's First Year Honor's Program in London, England, and it's funny to realize that there have been a decade of FYHP classes running around London since I was there with the very first Honor's Program. I guess that should make me feel old, but I feel like I have filled the years since then well and have no regrets and that I haven't let life pass me by so the years don't weigh that heavily on me. It was quite a transforming experience, I will have to say. Trial by Dr. Airhart taught me to think and write papers well, which helped sustain me through the rest of my time at Houghton as well as through seminary -- though sometimes the thinking part wasn't so good. I do remember at least one upper-level Dr. Airhart paper where the comments were "Weak introduction, weak argument, weak conclusion -- but good writing" and the latter was the only thing that kept me from failing that particular class. I have not tackled the Jansenists, the Jesuits, or the French Revolution since that fateful class, however.
It did, however, start me on my travel kick -- I've been to Ireland, Tanzania, France, Taiwan, Singapore, and Germany since then. Sometimes I wish I were a little more settled, though I guess I sort of am here in Taiwan for the time being at least. And now that I am married to an Englishman, I am glad to have had a little experience in my past with his country and countrymen. And, of course, as much as I loved London and England in general, I don't mind the fact that my husband really wants to drag me off there and show me around, especially Cambridge where he spent some time growing up and in university.
My drift from science into the liberal arts could probably be traced to those fateful three months in London with Dr. Airhart making era after era live to a bunch of 20th century teenagers. It seemed to work, and I started to realize that history takes brains as well as the sciences, which had not really been apparent in high school where most history was cast in the "look it up and spit it back" mode. I've been told on several occasions that not everyone can do math and science and since I can, maybe I should, but too much water has gone unter the bridge on that one and if I go on in anything other than ministry (or a comeplete new direction like teaching -- oh wait, I am a teacher -- I mean a real, certified one), it looks like it's going to be history or something related, for better or worse -- but God has not yet revealed that to me, and I am content at the moment with interesting speculations and the suspense of seeing where God will lead me.
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Just for fun, here's a picture of Stephen's and my first Christmas together. We had people from our small group and a few other friends over to share it with us. The people in the picture are from America, England, Canada, Finland, and Japan. I think the picture was taken by a New Zealander who stopped in for carols, and somehow the South African missed being in the picture, but he was there with us to. It's going to take me some time to adjust to living in plain old America again after this, though I guess I've never quite lived in plain old America before anyway, and I have my Bristish husband to keep me international wherever I am.
Anyway, it took a while to hunt down all the Western Christmas decorations, but I was pleased with the result -- so pleased I still have them up, though now that it's February, I guess they need to come down soon. It was a good Christmas with a good family here. | | |
| I'm cold. I live in Taiwan, a country whose climate the CIA factbook describes as "tropical," and I am cold. I am currently sitting indoors, next to a heater, wearing four thin sweaters (two of them warm cashmere), and I'm cold. I have issues (and here I am specifically referring to circulation ones, not any others I might have).
Two of the things that make Taiwan cold, despite the fact that in my southern, coastal city the temperature will never approach freezing, are that the buildings are poorly insulated and never heated, and the fact that the main form of transportation for many -- myself included -- is a scooter, which means you are not only completely exposed to the elements but you create your own freezing wind-chill factor. However, despite my body's complete inability to deal with it, I really don't mind the cold that much. There's something so homy about huddling in down blankets for the night and sitting next to heaters. I miss my New Jersey/Boston weather from time to time, so something about cold fingers and multiple sweater layers just feels right.
I love being in Taiwan. I love being in a church full of people from all over the world who despite the youth of almost all of us are taking leadership and actually seeking to live in obedience to Christ in the midst of His people, the local body. I am amazed at both the caliber of people that God has led to this out-of-the way destinatioin as well as the work He is doing to transfor our lives as we live here. I am not a great church leader. I'll be the first to admit it. I'm in this position of leadership pretty much because I had the degree and the relationships and was already involved in everything when our old pastor left, and we have not yet called a new one. But God has brought together and prepared such a team and He is so faithful in leading and taking care of things, that it makes up for my lack. Still, that is no excuse for my failing to live the life He has called me to in Christ Jesus with my heart and soul and mind and strength. God, have mercy and lead me into you. | | |
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