WHAT LOVE MEANS TO AGE 4 TO 8 YEAR OLD CHILDREN

I just received this in an email. And being a girl waiting...You can read for yourself :-)

What does 'Love' mean?
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does 'love' mean?' The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

• 'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.' Rebecca- age 8
• 'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.' Billy - age 4
• 'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.' Karl - age 5
• 'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.' Chrissy - age 6
• 'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.' Terri - age 4
• 'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.' Danny - age 7
• 'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
• 'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,' Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
• 'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.' Noelle - age 7
• 'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.' Tommy - age 6
• 'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.' Elaine-age 5
  'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.' C hris - age 7
• 'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day' Mary Ann - age 4
• 'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.' Jessica - age 8
• And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'
  
  

Some of my artistic pieces..

I love doing things with my hands...even more so if it is for Jesus! I recently spent a lot of hours in the bottom of a 95 year old ship (just my cabin, but i like the dramatic exaggeration) painting these five panels. I left before i could see it hanging. The Programme Room put it up (in the wrong order) and sent me some of the pics they took. Even in the wrong order it still looks good...well that is my opinion at least.

Enjoy...let me know what you think.

The first picture should be between the flowery parts (picture 2)...but i like it. :-)

The picture below is of my favourite pieces...

Frustration - the NEW definition.

I always thought i understood what it meant to be frustrated. I found out today what it means. I am here in a mono-culture. People do not speak English here, and if they do they misunderstand any good intentions.
I can not understand anything the people say to me.
I need to work through many different translators. Even something as stupid as answering the phone becomes a big headache! The websites are all in Chinese, the street signs, the brand names, the menus...EVERYTHING. So i am going to write to the guys who put together the dictionary, or maybe even the thesaurus and ask them to add this to the books:

Frustration: To be stuck in a country where you do not speak the local language.

Please pray for me as i finish this line up. In 7 weeks the ship sail in and we are fighting time to see who will win.

And so the TAIWAN saga continues...

I have been in Taiwan for 9 days...count them...NINE! These days were spent getting orientated, learning necessary mandarin and Taiwanese phrases and eating too much food.

Friday we took a train to Taichung. It took us 4 hours to get there so we used the traveling time to chat and listen to music and catch up on some sleep.
I love being on trains. I grew up on them and i have many fond memories of our family taking the train to go on holiday. I sat at the window listening how friends' snoring broke through the music that was playing in my ear. I sat there watching the picture in my window change every other second. At one station i watched an elderly man, wipe the hair out of his disabled wife's face. I was touched by the love this man showed his wife. I sat there wondering how long they have been married, where are they headed, do they have children and what did they look like when they were younger. I imagined them holding hands when they were younger...and then the picture changed.

When we arrived in Taichung we headed to the church of Rev. Lien. This pastor has such a kind face. He smiles with his eyes, he has the darkest hair with strokes of silver in it and he has the funniest sense of humor. His wife is the same. Her face captivated me as a whole theatrical play unfolded with every word she uttered. Neither of them spoke English so they communicated through the translator and hand gestures. I hadn't laughed so much in a long time! After a brief introduction we were rushed to the car to go and have some Hot Pot at a local Christian Restaurant. Hot Pot is sooooooooooooo cool. Each person is seated at a weird looking table. Each table sits 4 and at each seat there is a hole in the table fitted with a pot. In this pot is some soup liquid. They turn the heat up and then this soup starts to boil. Then they bring out a few small trays with raw goodies on it. One then sticks the raw stuff in the pot until it is cooked, pick it out with chopsticks and voila....food! Last night the pastor order everything on the menu...

Now before i proceed, it needs to be mentioned that there are 2 rules in this restaurant: each customer only has 2 hours in the restaurant, and no food is to be left on the plates! GREAT! A race against the menu!

So we started this raw feast being entertained but the 10 odd shrimps jumping up and down in the little plastic container that became their home. There is something weird about seeing these gray things turn pink in the boiling water.... Anyway...pastor and wife kept on putting weird fish things in our pots and we had no choice but to eat it! At the end of the night we had a few plates of squid left. I now declare squid: OFF THE MENU! I don't think i will ever eat it again. We finished the food and rolled out the restaurant and off to bed! Unhealthy i know but my word this was one meal that required a long nap afterward.

This morning pastor paged for us, in his broken English, to come and eat breakfast. (They had an intercom system that is linked up to each of the three floors in their house) We had toast and eggs and a few pieces of fruit. Lunch time was a different story. Pastor's Wife cooked 100 dumplings for us. Chinese dumplings are the size of a baby's fist and is filled with pork. For those of you who know me - i don't like eating pork and pork doesn't like me! So...in this culture where being polite is as important as breathing, i could not say - 'uhm sorry i don't eat pork'. I am also not the type of person to say that. I was taught that you eat what is on your plate - and as a missionary you do this not matter what is on your plate! So the non-pork eater was confronted with 100 pork filled goodies!YAY...not.

We had no choice but to eat these little sunshine-pockets. Man...i must say that i have never been so happy to eat a dumpling as i was the moment that last dumpling jumped into my mouth! RELIEF! I could hear the angelic voices sing HALLELUJAH!!

The train ride home was spent taking pictures of the millions of rice fields next to the railway while trying not to freeze to death. ( My team mate left her jacket at home so being the strong South African that i am, i lent my to her...)

So there you have it. But just before i go and waste some time on facebook...A few statistics of the week gone by:

* We have had 9 rice meals. Not SA sized portion of rice...no...asian sized rice portion where it is half the pot! STARCH=FAT!

*We have had 6 near death experiences. Here in Kaohsiung the motorcyclists are similar to the bullies that pick on little children at school. They don't seem to get that you slow down when you get close to people.

*We have had bubble tea 5 times! (Bubble tea is nice...milk tea with tapioca balls in it - mmmm goodness. I am inserting a picture so you can see!)



Till the next update. Be blessed as you bathe in the love of Jesus!

Lenhert and the Cockroach...

So...we have been here in Taiwan for almost a week now and during this time we have picked up some phrases to impress the many pastors we meet. Well as you might know...Mandarin is a VERY complicated language. We have learnt how to say:
* 'hello'
* 'my name is ___and i come from'
* 'i have had enough' (when it comes to food)
* 'thank you'
* good night

This morning we wanted to learn how to say good morning. When Lenhert practised it the translator got a strange look on her face. Later in the morning our taiwanese teammate helped us to learn how to say 'Elder Yu' (he is one of our main contact). Same strange look appeared on the translators face...

At lunch time we were hanging out with our taiwanese friends and heard how lenhert said the F-word instead of good morning and how he said cockroach instead of Elder yu. So he ended up insulting the poor guy...LUCKILY only in practise and not to his face. Oh my goodness talk about a difficult and dangerous language!
We will NOT be saying good morning and we will not be saying Elder Yu's chinese name...just to keep the family bonds tight. *smile*

I'll keep you updated on how it goes...

Adventures in Taiwan - backwards...*smile*

Above: Trying to order food in Chinese...

Above: Beautiful frames to tie your bicycle to.

Above: Lenhert checking out a HUGE church...Pretending to preach.

Above: On a boat trip around the harbour, Lenhert tried to catch up on some sleep he missed the night before.

Above: I like these dinosaurs/giraffe-looking cranes.

Above: A ladder up to the ship...sort of...

Above: Truth on a ship...

Above: More cranes... told you i like them!

Above: Su Ray trying to give us orientation...

Above: Our Line up poster...

Explanation: These are not milkshakes. One of the things Taiwan is famous for it Bubble tea.

Some call it pearl tea. It is a special milk tea with tapioca balls inside. It is one of my favourites but i have to admit that it takes some getting use to.

Please pray for us whenever you remember. :-)