Showing posts with label A Day in the Life of.... Show all posts
Showing posts with label A Day in the Life of.... Show all posts
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, December 8, 2007
A Day in the Life of...Matt Lui
Breakfast
Woke up, got out of bed, went to "Is" for daily bread...
Evangelism
I couldn't find a word for this that starts with "B" so I'm not going to waste any more time trying. Each week, we go on campus three times to preach Christ to individuals on campus, one person at a time.
Bible Study
I am studying the book of Acts and the book of Philippians. Every week I meet up with two of EBCT brothers for "small group" (each small group has 2 people in it) to share with them what I've learned.
Buxiban. (Chinese for "cram school") - An Hour to Raise the Dead
"Remove your sandals from your feet..."
"Awake, sleeper..."
"Do not hide your face from me..."
"They crucified two robbers with Him..."
"They do not know what they are doing..."
"It is finished."
Back from Work
One of the most enjoyable emotional feelings for me is for there to be other people at home when I come back from a tiring day of work.
This is also one of the highlights of my day--the prelude to a big, "you-made-it-through-a-day-of-work" hug!
Bedtime
Bye-bye!
Benediction:
Grace be with your spirit! --A disciple whom Jesus Loves
Sunday, November 4, 2007
life of joyce
i was gonna post pictures of what i see on my way to work. but it was a bit disgusting. basically...when i'm walking, i look only at the ground because there are dog droppings EVERYWHERE. i probably come across at least five piles on my way to work.
i play with yeast.
and putting them together to find where their DNA sequences differ.
quite tedious business. but at least we don't have to come to work early/stay late for that.
during experiments, i'm always using the pipetman. usually my hand muscles get so tired that i have to take a break every 30 minutes or so, whenever the experiment permits. after taking off the gloves, my right hand is always a lot more swollen than my left.
that's m-f
as for weekends, it's usually packed with ebct events or meeting up. busy but nice. sanny and clara graciously let me spend the nights there on sat so i save 2 hours of transpo time and can spend more time people.
prayer requests
1) FOCUS. my purpose here, in life. being a good living testimony/witness
2) sharing: family, coworkers, roomates
thank you for your prayers. and email me!
but once in a while, when i do look up, there are majestic mountains to my right. very peaceful to look at on rainy days.
i live in nankang, which i like to dub the "swamp-desert" because it is in the middle of nowhere and it is ALWAYS RAINING. oftentimes i'd be at EBCT enjoying good weather and then come home to a storm. btw, everything slightly wooly/velvety molds within half a week. i need to wash my bathroom of molds every 3 days or so...
also, to emphasize that fact, we don't have squirrel, cat, or dog roadkill. we get frog roadkill. they're everywhere.
look closely...
as for what i do everyday during work...
i play with yeast.
after experiments we must do analysis which involves going to online databases for the DNA sequences of certain genes:
and putting them together to find where their DNA sequences differ.
quite tedious business. but at least we don't have to come to work early/stay late for that.during experiments, i'm always using the pipetman. usually my hand muscles get so tired that i have to take a break every 30 minutes or so, whenever the experiment permits. after taking off the gloves, my right hand is always a lot more swollen than my left.
that's m-f
as for weekends, it's usually packed with ebct events or meeting up. busy but nice. sanny and clara graciously let me spend the nights there on sat so i save 2 hours of transpo time and can spend more time people.
prayer requests
1) FOCUS. my purpose here, in life. being a good living testimony/witness
2) sharing: family, coworkers, roomates
thank you for your prayers. and email me!
*edit* this one's for you jisu:
that's what i get to do some weeknights. (:
Saturday, October 27, 2007
A Day in the Life of...Bryan
New series time. Each of us at some point in the future will update you all about what a typical day looks like. We hope that this will give you all a better idea of what we do and help you pray more specifically for us.
Morning/School
I start my day by waking up at ~7:25 and leaving the apartment by 7:45.
I walk out the building and see this...
...then I turn to the right to see the next picture.
I walk all the way down this street until a dead end. The street is surrounded by relatively new apartment buildings (that look old and disgusting because of the acid rain turning every building brownish). Along the way, I see two shacks that look hand built. I don't know how they survive the crazier typhoons, but obviously they do. In front of the shack pictured here is always an old man standing outside doing random things in the morning like fixing a bike or cleaning vegetables or stretching. I usually just smile and say hi as I walk by then I look at the sky and it makes me want to cry as I wonder why last night I didn't die then I heave a sigh and go eat some pie. Just kidding.
This is the intersection that I almost always get stuck at. It's a pretty monstrous intersection (there is another 4 way intersection just after the overpass), and the city decided to give people only ~35 seconds to cross, which is how long it takes for someone to stroll through it. So, if I don't arrive around the time when the light turns green, I have to wait until the next cycle to cross completely...
The next several pictures are all between the fatty intersection and the dead end. It takes 10-12 minutes to walk from the apartment to the dead end.
At the dead end (not really a dead end I guess, just a T-intersection), I turn left and walk up toward school on the last 1/3 of my trip.
This is the intersection I always cross at. I learned of the timing from Matt Hauck. If you walk at a normal pace from the fatty intersection, the timing works out perfectly to catch the light here at the intersection. It's brilliant.
Here is the 7-11 I buy breakfast at almost everyday.
This is what I usually buy. On the left is "pineapple bread" and a drink on the right, ~1 US dollar. The drink changes daily, but the bread is always there. I eat breakfast either in class or during the 10 minute break.
Almost to school! I keep walking up the road and pass several banks and a police station.
Here is the gate I walk into. There is a bigger, slightly more majestic gate a little further up, but since this is how I enter the campus, this is the picture you guys get.
This is the Mandarin Training Center building. Pretty sweet huh? I have class on the 9th floor from 8-10 every weekday morning.
After School
Some days, EBCT has campus evangelism at 10:30 so I head back right away. Other days, I stay on campus for maybe an hour or two and study a little. The Taiwan government is trying to crack down on foreigners working illegally so I need to clock in at least 2 hours of out-of-class studying time at the school library or language lab.
Anyway, we go out to campus to evangelize three times during the weekdays. This is the long walkway into the campus to the area where we meet called Xiao Fu.
This is Xiao Fu. It's a mini-Sproul fountain area for you Berkeley people who have never been to Taiwan.
< aside >
It's difficult to see in these pictures since my camera has such a small dynamic range, but the sky is seriously gorgeous. The background is a beautiful blue, and the clouds look super fluffy and white and are usually moving REALLY fast. Hopefully the picture with the MTC building gives you guys an idea of how the sky looks since I used photoshop to increase the contrast of the sky although that still didn't capture the blue I see. During the previous winter I was here, I used to think the air in Taipei was disgusting and the sky was gray and gloomy. I think it's the turned-brown-by-the-acid-rain buildings that give the impression of gloominess because the sky is often very beautiful.
< / aside >
After eating lunch and having devotion time, it usually places me somewhere in the early-middle afternoon. I typically to go study at the Truth Lutheran Church library at this time. The Truth Lutheran church building is gigantic and conveniently located near EBCT.
This is the library on the 8th floor. They have some good resources for Bible study right next to heretical teachings by cult leaders...
-_-
I try to take care of all the Chinese homework and studying and ET preparations as early as possible. That way I get the evenings to relax, read, and hang out or meet with EBCTers or gospel friends.
Unfortunately, a lot of days my schedule doesn't work out like this. Some days I have more Chinese work or I meet with one of my five EBCT language exchange partners in the afternoon or I have random responsibilities come up or I get lazy or some guys go exercise or we clean the apartment...so yeah, it rarely ever works out so cleanly.
After dinner I try to review the Chinese again to make sure I have it. I clean up and take a shower and get ready for bed. Before knocking out, I try to get in 20-30 minutes of whatever book I'm currently reading.
Weekends
I guess this is kind of for all of us since its so general, but here it is anyway.
The weekends are always packed with church stuff. Saturday's usual stuff is:
Evangelism Training: 10-11:15
Prayer Meeting: 1:30-2:30
Bible Study: 2:30-4:30
After Bible study, there always seems to be some sort of miscellaneous activity during some part of the evening.
Sunday we have service and then lunch. After that, several groups meet for accountability or some committees have meetings while the rest are doing their own thing (studying, talking, singing, hanging out).
Pretty much all the breaks we have and the meals we eat on the weekends is with the church. Most of the members are graduated and have full time jobs and some live far away (one travels ~5 hours to get here on the weekends) so we only see them on the weekends. The weekend is really a haven for some of them as they are without fellowship during the week, so they cherish the time they get to spend with the body. It's super encouraging to see it every week.
Then evening comes and we go out to dinner then hang out usually til ~9. People finish trickling out at this time then we get the last bit of Sunday evening to ourselves.
Then we prepare to repeat everything all over again.
Prayer Requests:
1) to love the lost and to go out with the desire to glorify God
2) for passion in all the things I do, specifically spending time with God, sharing the gospel, and studying Chinese.
3) for the ET class, both me and the students
Thank you for reading and hopefully that helps you all pray for me (us)!
Morning/School
I start my day by waking up at ~7:25 and leaving the apartment by 7:45.
I walk out the building and see this...
...then I turn to the right to see the next picture.
I walk all the way down this street until a dead end. The street is surrounded by relatively new apartment buildings (that look old and disgusting because of the acid rain turning every building brownish). Along the way, I see two shacks that look hand built. I don't know how they survive the crazier typhoons, but obviously they do. In front of the shack pictured here is always an old man standing outside doing random things in the morning like fixing a bike or cleaning vegetables or stretching. I usually just smile and say hi as I walk by then I look at the sky and it makes me want to cry as I wonder why last night I didn't die then I heave a sigh and go eat some pie. Just kidding.
This is the intersection that I almost always get stuck at. It's a pretty monstrous intersection (there is another 4 way intersection just after the overpass), and the city decided to give people only ~35 seconds to cross, which is how long it takes for someone to stroll through it. So, if I don't arrive around the time when the light turns green, I have to wait until the next cycle to cross completely...
The next several pictures are all between the fatty intersection and the dead end. It takes 10-12 minutes to walk from the apartment to the dead end.
At the dead end (not really a dead end I guess, just a T-intersection), I turn left and walk up toward school on the last 1/3 of my trip.
This is the intersection I always cross at. I learned of the timing from Matt Hauck. If you walk at a normal pace from the fatty intersection, the timing works out perfectly to catch the light here at the intersection. It's brilliant.
Here is the 7-11 I buy breakfast at almost everyday.
This is what I usually buy. On the left is "pineapple bread" and a drink on the right, ~1 US dollar. The drink changes daily, but the bread is always there. I eat breakfast either in class or during the 10 minute break.
Almost to school! I keep walking up the road and pass several banks and a police station.
Here is the gate I walk into. There is a bigger, slightly more majestic gate a little further up, but since this is how I enter the campus, this is the picture you guys get.
This is the Mandarin Training Center building. Pretty sweet huh? I have class on the 9th floor from 8-10 every weekday morning.
After School
Some days, EBCT has campus evangelism at 10:30 so I head back right away. Other days, I stay on campus for maybe an hour or two and study a little. The Taiwan government is trying to crack down on foreigners working illegally so I need to clock in at least 2 hours of out-of-class studying time at the school library or language lab.
Anyway, we go out to campus to evangelize three times during the weekdays. This is the long walkway into the campus to the area where we meet called Xiao Fu.
This is Xiao Fu. It's a mini-Sproul fountain area for you Berkeley people who have never been to Taiwan.
< aside >
It's difficult to see in these pictures since my camera has such a small dynamic range, but the sky is seriously gorgeous. The background is a beautiful blue, and the clouds look super fluffy and white and are usually moving REALLY fast. Hopefully the picture with the MTC building gives you guys an idea of how the sky looks since I used photoshop to increase the contrast of the sky although that still didn't capture the blue I see. During the previous winter I was here, I used to think the air in Taipei was disgusting and the sky was gray and gloomy. I think it's the turned-brown-by-the-acid-rain buildings that give the impression of gloominess because the sky is often very beautiful.
< / aside >
After eating lunch and having devotion time, it usually places me somewhere in the early-middle afternoon. I typically to go study at the Truth Lutheran Church library at this time. The Truth Lutheran church building is gigantic and conveniently located near EBCT.
This is the library on the 8th floor. They have some good resources for Bible study right next to heretical teachings by cult leaders...
-_-
I try to take care of all the Chinese homework and studying and ET preparations as early as possible. That way I get the evenings to relax, read, and hang out or meet with EBCTers or gospel friends.
Unfortunately, a lot of days my schedule doesn't work out like this. Some days I have more Chinese work or I meet with one of my five EBCT language exchange partners in the afternoon or I have random responsibilities come up or I get lazy or some guys go exercise or we clean the apartment...so yeah, it rarely ever works out so cleanly.
After dinner I try to review the Chinese again to make sure I have it. I clean up and take a shower and get ready for bed. Before knocking out, I try to get in 20-30 minutes of whatever book I'm currently reading.
Weekends
I guess this is kind of for all of us since its so general, but here it is anyway.
The weekends are always packed with church stuff. Saturday's usual stuff is:
Evangelism Training: 10-11:15
Prayer Meeting: 1:30-2:30
Bible Study: 2:30-4:30
After Bible study, there always seems to be some sort of miscellaneous activity during some part of the evening.
Sunday we have service and then lunch. After that, several groups meet for accountability or some committees have meetings while the rest are doing their own thing (studying, talking, singing, hanging out).
Pretty much all the breaks we have and the meals we eat on the weekends is with the church. Most of the members are graduated and have full time jobs and some live far away (one travels ~5 hours to get here on the weekends) so we only see them on the weekends. The weekend is really a haven for some of them as they are without fellowship during the week, so they cherish the time they get to spend with the body. It's super encouraging to see it every week.
Then evening comes and we go out to dinner then hang out usually til ~9. People finish trickling out at this time then we get the last bit of Sunday evening to ourselves.
Then we prepare to repeat everything all over again.
Prayer Requests:
1) to love the lost and to go out with the desire to glorify God
2) for passion in all the things I do, specifically spending time with God, sharing the gospel, and studying Chinese.
3) for the ET class, both me and the students
Thank you for reading and hopefully that helps you all pray for me (us)!
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