ChurchQuest 2008!

I still have yet to find a church here in Kaohsiung, but I have had some interesting adventures during my attempts. Last weekend I was strolling down our street, just kind of exploring the area a little bit, when I noticed a street sign that had a cross on it. When I read the text, it said "Water of Life Christian Church," and there was an arrow pointing down the little road that's next to our apartment. I wandered down the road, looking for the address on the sign, and ended up going down another little lane and around the corner into an alley where I finally found the church. As I stood outside reading the sign with all the meeting times, a man pulled up on his bicycle and asked me what I was looking for. I asked if it was his church, and we got into a little conversation. He even drew me 2 little maps to get to 2 churches in the area that he said might have English services. Then his wife came out, and we ended up talking for a really long time, and they were really cute and wanted to be friends. Their names are Joseph and Sarah, and they told me that I should feel free to come over and visit them. I asked what was a good time to come over, and they said usually during the daytime, and then they told me that I should come over Sunday evening at 6 and they would take me out to dinner and I could bring a friend if I wanted. So nice!

The next day, I went exploring with my two little hand-drawn maps. I did lots of walking, and even found a nice little fruit market, which I meant to go to on my way home but then I forgot. Anyway, I found both churches, but neither of them seemed to have English services. Oh well. That evening, I meandered over at 6ish and we went out to dinner. The restaurant was far away, so we took scooters! I rode with their daughter Claire, and she went slow for me because it was my first time on a scooter. (Don't worry, Mommy, I wore a helmet!) Claire is 24 and we are totally pals; she's really fun. They also have a son who's a year older than me, but he said like 2 words the entire time we were at dinner. Aww, he is shy. Dinner was really hilarious, because there was sooo much food and since I was a guest they were pressuring me to eat everything, and I could barely keep up. There was one food that was sort of ice-cream-cone-esque, only the cone was made of seaweed and full of rice and cucumber and topped with fish eggs, and they said it is a special Japanese delicacy, and they only ordered one of them because they said that they had all had it before, but I just HAD to try one. Talk about pressure! I ate some of everything in the end, but I had to pace myself. Sarah kept offering me more food and hassling me about looking skinny...shades of my own mother! It was a really fun time, and Claire drove me home afterwards, and I was a lot less scared that time. They invited me to come to their Bible study some time, and Joseph said that if I have trouble understanding the language, they can talk slow and translate for me a little. My religious vocabulary in Chinese is very small. I realized when we prayed before dinner that it was the first time I had ever heard anyone pray in Chinese! I understood a pretty good amount of it, actually. Considering the lack of English-speaking churches in my area, I might have to start going to church in Chinese. That would be an intense vocabulary adventure. I really want a Chinese-English Bible...I wonder where I can find one.