Enjoy the pictures...

Some of these pictures were taken when we first came to the Carolinas. We stayed the first week with Daniel and Candice and then moved into the townhome! The neighbor boys at Daniel's home came by one day to wash their car. They love Daniel!

The deer came right to our back porch!

We miss Brock....

Rebekah sent this picture from Manton! Brock found our picture and Rebekah snapped his!

Merry Christmas 2007

Volume 5

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me."

Revelation 3:20

Year in Review: Christmas letter #5, Anniversary #4, Address #3,

Family wedding #2, New Job #1

Merry Christmas! I love the verse above. Not only does Jesus knock and stand patiently at the doors of our hearts to seek a personal relationship with us, but He desires for us to open the door of our hearts and listen to His voice on a daily basis so that He can come in and fellowship with us. What a great time of the year to celebrate His birth!

We can hardly believe it is December (where is the snow?) and the start of the Christmas season. We've had three addresses this year... have you lost track of us yet? As most of you already know, God quickly opened a door for us to move to the Carolinas on Oct. 26, 2007. Jason applied, interviewed, and accepted an in-house attorney job at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Charlotte, NC, within a matter of days! Before the job opening, we were in the midst of a missions conference at our church and we had just sung, "I'll go where you want me to go." Well, the Lord told us WHERE the very next day and we WENT two weeks later!

A year for FLYING...

• Dallas, TX, for Tim and Kirstee's elegant January wedding (Kirstee is Jason's cousin);
• Augusta, GA, for Daniel and Candice's March wedding (Daniel is Elizabeth's brother);
• Charlotte, NC, for Elizabeth's September visit to see Daniel and Candice and the Godfreys' celebration of Brock's first birthday;
• Charlotte, NC, for Jason's October interview at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association;
• Taipai, Taiwan, to visit Matt, Rachel, and Micah Sawatzky for the last 9 days of November!

A year for MOVING...

• We started the year in our small one-bedroom apartment at 946 Dewey Street, Lapeer, MI;
• We rented a home 1 mile away at 367 Wildflower Ln.;
• We are currently renting a condo in South Carolina! (No more boxes, please!!!)

Once again, a huge blessing for us as a couple was serving and attending Hunters Creek Community Church. So many people gave us letters of encouragement, goodbye gifts, and well wishes as we headed for the Carolinas. I found it hard to leave the precious 54 piano students with a 2 week notice, but the Lord has already given me several students in SC as well as an accompanying job at a Fort Mill high school. We have found a great church family: Calvary Church in Charlotte, NC, and Jason just loves his job and all the people at BGEA!

We expect some visitors as we have plenty of room and a golf course in our back yard, so y'all come and visit soon, OK?

Relaxing....

Rachel and I had a great idea last night.... a massage and hair wash! It's really cheap in Taiwan and they are so fast at it and my hair felt so clean! We also went grocery shopping at their "walmart-type" store. Somehow the cart grips the escalator... it's pretty cool. Today (Friday morning) we enjoyed watching Micah while Rachel was taping and Matt was at work. We'll get a taxi to the airport at 1:30 PM!

Last full day in Taiwan.... Thursday

We've had such a great time here! We were blessed to attend ORTV's 8:00AM worship service! The singing and instruments were just fabulous! Everyone there is just so nice! Rachel and Matt took us to a "Mongolian BBQ" place for lunch... and it was really neat! Then Rachel took us to some really cool places. It will be hard to say goodbye!

WEDNESDAY!

This morning Rachel gave us a map, cell phone, umbrella, camera, and snacks -- we were travelling by ourselves to Danshui! We took a bus part of the way and then the MRT (subway). We had a lot of fun walking around and even split 3 big ice-cream cones for only 10NT (~30 cents!). Did you notice the Starbuck's building, Pizza Hut delivery man, and the potato sticks? ... check out the "fresh" outdoor meat market, too! We ended a fabulous evening with Matt's parents and Pizza Hut for dinner! Micah is saying "da" so much now! We're working on "ba."

Tuesday in Taiwan!

This morning we watched our T.V. star sister, Rachel, film a show about the Olympics in the Studio Classroom. It was so cool! We went shopping this afternoon and then at 7 PM we left for the night market. You have to hold tightly onto the bus handles because traffic is CRAZY! We ended the evening with the shaved ice or "bing" dessert. It was fabulous!