Destination: Chiayi

You know that scene in Home Alone where the family scrambles to get to the airport and run to catch their plane? Well, thanks to the help of my family, that was not the case in the Gruen house this morning! My family knows I am a procrastinator and I need all the help I can get, even if I am perfectly at ease with three months of packing that I have to do and the few hours to do it in. My family sent me off in marvelous fashion this morning-- they always do.

O'Hare Airport is beginning to feel like a second home to me. Two years ago at this time, I was flying to Ecuador and eavesdropping on Spanish conversations behind me and before me in the luggage check-in line. There's no hope of doing that here, since all I know how to say in Korean is "hello", "thank you", and "you wanna die?" Koreans prefer wearing dark clothing and are very fashionable, I notice, as I sit sprawled on the floor chomping on my PB&J sandwich.

So here I am, sitting in the crowded airport terminal after weeks and months of planning. Until now, Taiwan has been an abstract thought in the back of my head, despite the prayers and preparations made with it in mind. But now I'm already experiencing the feeling of being a minority, lost in a language I don't understand. I am the American English teacher with the Bible in my carry-on, seated next to a bright orange Buddhist monk. I am a reddish-blondish head in a blur of black. I am six inches taller than the rest. I will stand out, that much is certain. What am I to do here? What will I say? What can I teach? What can I learn? What can I change? I feel eyes on me as I write on my baggage tags, Destination: Chiayi.

I did not come to enjoy myself or to teach English. I did not come to out-discipline the aesthetics or outthink Eastern philosophies. I did not come to prove myself or show what I'm made of. I came to serve and be a living testament to the Gospel and who God is. Hundreds of years from now, no one will remember my trip. But, as always is the case in our Christian lives, perhaps the fruit of well-planted roots might still show from the work that I do.

The Word of God Stands Forever

6 A voice says, “Cry!”

And I said,3 “What shall I cry?”

iAll flesh is grass,

and all its beauty4 is like the flower of the field.

7 The grass withers, the flower fades

when the breath of the Lord blows on it;

surely the people are grass.

8 jThe grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.

The Greatness of God

9 Go on up to a high mountain,

O Zion, kherald of good news;5

lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news;6

lift it up, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah,

“Behold your God!”

10 lBehold, the Lord God comes with might,

and his arm rules for him;

mbehold, his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.

11 nHe will tend his flock like a shepherd;

ohe will gather the lambs in his arms;

phe will carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead those that are with young.

Isaiah 40

Thanks for following me on this journey!

Anna

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