What started this whole amazing adventure!

Hello everyone!  I am going to apologize in advance, partly because I am Canadian and this happens to be my first blog post ever, so it might be a bit rough.  At the beginning of February, I will be getting on a plane with one of my best friends, Mary, and flying to Taiwan.  First of all, I would like to explain were exactly I will be going in Taiwan and what I will be doing.  I will be living in Hualien City.  Which was not my first choice, but I will get to that further down.  Hualien City, I have been told, is a beautiful location in relation to what it is surrounded by.  Hualien is relatively close to the water, as well as mountains and valleys, meaning great scenery and good background for pictures!  In Hualien I will be teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) along with three others whom also volunteered from the United States.  Each week at the school, about seventy grade 4 level students come and stay at the school from Monday to Friday.  Most of these students come from rural areas outside of Hualien.  Between the entire English team, we have to teach 20 classes each week, which is actually not too bad, especially for me considering this is a whole new ball field.  Another important part of my job as an EFL teacher is not just to teach English, but also good character and show the students that they are loved.  Unfortunately, a majority of these students do not know they are loved because they come from broken families; some students live with their grandparents because their parents abandoned them and moved to the city.  In other words it is a great opportunity to share the love of God with them.  In addition to the teaching, there will be plenty of witnessing opportunities outside of the classroom.

In the beginning, when this whole trip to Taiwan was first brought up, my plans were quite different than what God had planned for me, which seems to happen to me a lot.  Actually, Mary, told me about this trip.  Mary had gone to Yuli, Taiwan for two consecutive years, and this time she wanted me to come with her for the final semester of school in Taiwan.  She said there were three openings in Pingtung, Taiwan, that way we could both be teaching on the same team together.  At first, all of this seemed crazy.  I had just applied to the Police Academy and I had been scheduled for an interview.  I could not picture dropping everything I had planned and to go to Taiwan for 6 months.  But that was the problem, it was what I had planned.  Now, I am not saying I will not be going into law enforcement when I get back, but I am saying it is completely up to God.  So, I did what I normally do when I am stressed and do not know what to do!  I prayed, talked to my parents, and I made a pros and cons list!  Believe it or not, those lists are actually quite helpful!  In the end, my parents and I were in agreement, I would only be able to go to Taiwan if I was on the same Team as Mary.  After talking to Mary, who had talked with her connections, I was told it was a almost guarantee (key word, almost).  So I cancelled the academy, put as it seemed "my future" on hold and started the process of getting things in order for Taiwan.  Then a couple weeks ago, after paying for a visa, cancelling everything, and getting my LOA from my job, I was informed I would not be going with Mary to Pingtung.  Now, I will admit it was a big blow to the stomach.  Looking back at the process of deciding to go to Taiwan, I still saw God every step of the way and I knew this was his will, but I could not understand what God was doing! why could I not go to Pingtung?  What I could not see until now was that God had always planned for me to got to Hualien, I just was not listening-something I need to work on!  In God's infinite wisdom, he knew I would never had considered this trip if I knew I would not be on the same team as Mary.  So, God planned it in such a way that when I got the news I would be going to Hualien instead of Pingtung, it would be at the point where it would be too late to back out. Knowing all these things, looking forward to the unknown is not very terrifying anymore, because I know that if this is God's plan, then he will not leave me, but provide me with the strength and courage to continue.  In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Paul writes to the saints in Corinth, "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."  As the verse above states, Christ loved me and died for me so that I can live my life for him.  I am confident, God has many more wonderful surprises waiting for me in Taiwan, even if at first they may not look like "wonderful" surprises.  

On the plus side, at least I will finally be in the same time zone as Mary :)