Fools for the Lord

We met as a big group for the last time today before dispersing to our host homes.
The Taiwan Covenant Church welcomed us, led us in worship and gave us a few pointers on Taiwan culture.
Then we had a lesson in the Chinese language. Lai li and Ma ri si are our new names. Wo shi Ma ri si.
Ask Larry for a demonstration of his Chinese - he replied in Japanese!
It was a fun time of practicing and putting ourselves in the place of our students.
We had lunch with our church representatives and met Cole from Idaho and a family from Washington, DC.
All of them will be at the same church as Laura, Larry and I. It is a big group. Cole and Marlys are doing
music. Larry and George are doing games (in a room half as small as one of our classrooms). George's wife
and daughter will do the story. We are looking forward to this new adventure. Laura and Bob are doing cooking.

Today our team met at the church to dress up and help advertise the camp. Larry was a crab. Laura
was a lobster. Bob and the others had a mask and Marlys had a queen's crown. Cole didn't dress up.
Tonight we joined one of the families from church at a very nice restaurant and had a wonderful time
around the table.
We are in our air conditioned room in Winni's house. The family is out but we are comfortable and getting
ready to go to bed. It is almost 10.
We are looking forward to church tomorrow. The church is Kung Ho and is on the 7th floor of a big building.
God's blessings on our family and friends.
Marlys & Larry

Taipei - Day 1

We arrived safely last night. Flights were good, food was delicious and we slept via the sleeping pills.
Still had a good night's sleep when we arrived.
Today we hiked around Taipei and used the MRT - public transportation and bus. We took a gondola ride up the mountain to a tea growing area.
Came back and are resting before going out for supper along the street.
We'll have a laid back evening and then have orientation tomorrow.
Saturday our churches come to meet us and take us to our various locations.
Laura, Marlys & Larry were asked if we would dress up in costumes Saturday and hand out invitations to English camp before meeting our host families!
Sounds like fun - I thought we would be funny enough without putting on costumes.

Waiting in Los Angeles

We are watching the China Airlines plane being serviced and waiting to board very soon.
It is a beautiful day. We are trusting that our flight will be uneventful.
God is good. All the time!

Preparing for Mission Trip

There are always last minute details to think about when leaving home for a trip. We are pretty well packed and I am trying to get the house in order before leaving. Larry is winding up projects outside and downstairs too. We are enjoying the wonderful 70 degree, low humidity, sunny sky weather we will leave tomorrow.
Yesterday was a great day. The team was prayed over three times. Many people told us how they would be praying for us.
Here is the latest prayer request: Michael's grandfather, Cyril LaCasse is in the hospital and not doing well. Please pray for healing for him and for peace as Michael and Beth leave for Taiwan. Thank you for praying for Laura. She is doing well and was even back to work at the end of the week.

We have been blessed this past week to have Skyler staying with us and helping Grandpa with many things. He had five parades to march in with the Herd from Buffalo. The Herd has done well and we even were able to watch the parade with Pete and family in Sauk Rapids.

Wow, the year is half gone!

We have had a very good year. As usual we have been super busy. Larry worked on more cupboard doors for my kitchen. When it got nice he headed outside and has refurbished the wood on his dad's old fishing boat. It is even on a trailer now. We finished a great year in AWANA and MOPS and most recently Vacation Bible School. The family is doing well too Pat's gang is busy with Scouting. Mark received his Eagle earlier this year! Pete's girls are growing up. Gen finished Kindergarden and had her dance recital. Paul's family are on a trip to South Carolina. Skyler is staying with us so he can march in 6 parades in the next seven days! Our next adventure begins next week. We'll be heading back to Taiwan to teach English. Hope you'll follow along. We will need your prayer support. We want to share Jesus with others. Our team from BCC is Laura, Michael, Beth, Larry & Marlys.