a pictorial year in the life of

Like last year, I am summing up my entire 2006 in only 12 photos (one for each month). 

For someone who took over 9000 photos in less than one year that is a lot of choices!!  So, picking just 12 is NOT easy to do (in fact it is REALLY HARD)!!  It gets even harder when several important things happen in one month. 

Anywho . . . less yappin' and on to the pictures.

(BTW, each month name below is a link to a calander view of pictures I took that month and uploaded to flickr. Just in case you wanna see more than 12.)

January: Gilby and I visit Kady in TaiNan

Feburary: Ellen and I go to Taipei (world's tallest building is behind us)

March: I spend time with little friends

April: My sister, Sarah, is married

May: Sam Comes to Taiwan

June: Sam and I do some sightseeing

July: After LOTS more sightseeing, and a day of flying, Sam and I get back to Austin.

August: I visit family and friends in Texas, and I have straight hair for three days!!

September: A very good friend has her engagment ceremony.

October: My mission team had a retreat in Kenting

November: I spend time with my students friends

December: Lots of students come to my house (and we get a little silly)!

If you make your own 12-picture collection for 2006, please leave your link below!  I'd love to see your year-in-review in pictures!!

new, new, new

After I gave my Chinese/English Bible to a NEW beliver a few months ago, I needed to get me a NEW one.  So, I went to the store, and they didn't have the kind that I had before.  However, they had a NEW version out.  It is the NEW Chinese translation for today's generation and the English Standard Version, which is relatively NEW. 

I am a very happy camper!!

If you are looking for online tools or for a NEW year-long reading plan, check out this post from earlier this week.

"And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' Also he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'” (Rev 21:5)

P.S. Remember what you are invited to participate in tomorrow!!

9000

After my old camera bit the dust (actually it was tile but that's just semantics) this time last year.  My "old one" was my precious for about 3 years.  It lived in my purse and was with me at all times.  It blessed me with over 7000 digital images.  That averages out to about 7 pics a day. 

I got a new camera--a new precious in January.  This new baby took the empty spot in my purse and lived their all year, faithfully accompanying me through my adventures. 

Well, something happened this year. 

I am not sure if it was the new camera, my brother coming to visit, all the weddings I attended, a cute puppy to photograph, joining flickr, or what.  But something did happen  . . . because, well, I took a ton of photographs this year. 

I've not owned this camera 365 days yet, but this precious has blessed me with over 9,000 digital images!  That's averages to about 25 images a day.  I know that sometimes my precious didn't see sunlight for days or weeks at a time, so that means some days I took hundreds of photos.

Thought I'd grace you with the 9000th image I took with my Sony T9:

dancing christmas tree (aka earthquakes) *Updated*

My Christmas tree danced twice tonight as the earth shook--HARD.

We just had two very strong earthquakes about 10 minutes apart.  Each had its own distinct feel.  The first one was side to side and seemed to last a very long time.  The second one was shorter but stronger--it was also distinctly up and down before going side to side. 

With the first one, nothing really happened.  The second knocked some canisters off the top of my fridge.  It was markedly more scary.

The first one was at 8:26 and had a magnitude of 6.7 at the center which is south of where I live in HengChun (where Sam and I vacationed this summer).

The second one was at 8:34 and had a magnitude of 6.4.  This one was much closer to me--the epicenter was about 30 KM south of Kaohsiung City.

There was also a smaller one on the east coast (4.7) just minutes (8:20) before the first one I felt.

*Updated to add: The U.S. Geological Survey puts the first quake at 7.1 on the Richter scale and the second one at 7.0.  And, I now see in the news that these first two were unusually long--over a minute each!  We have also had (at least) two powerful aftershocks so far both with magnitudes over 5.  In addition, so far there has been one reported death and 20 injuries.

News reports can be found here, here, and here.  Clicking on the maps in this post will take you to Taiwan's weather bureau for reports on recent earthquake activity in English.

Know that I am ok.  But, please continue to pray for safety.  And, please pray for the Taiwanese people, many who undoubtly will be consumed with fear tonight.

online Scripture tools

About this time every year, I begin to search for a "read thru the Bible in a year" plan.   As I was searching this year, I found some cool stuff.  So, I thought I'd share it with you.

As you probably well know, there are several options of "year-long reading plans" to choose from.  If you haven't seen it yet, the ESV Bible Blog displays them in a unique way.  They are charted so that you can actualy visualize the path through scripture different plans guide you though. 

Also, on that same blog page you will find links to the various reading plans in the ESV, of which you can subscribe for the RSS feed of the reading plan (here are all the ESV Bible RSS Feeds avaliable). 

(I think) I have choosen the chronological reading plan for 2007.  When I clicked to look at today's reading, I noticed a little "listen" link.  I clicked.  I listened.  I like listening to scripture being read aloud--it's historical, bibical (faith comes from hearing), and very modern all at the same time.

Some other neat tools I found are:

• the podbible produces podcasts of the CEV translation of the Bible,



• the NeXt Bible Learning Environment claims to be "a new generation of online Bible study and research tools;" it uses the NET Bible.



• Bible Gateway has a calander view with daily links to various year-long reading plans all on one nifty page.



• the ESV Bible blog also has an RSS feed or PDF file of a scripture memorization plan (more info on this plan from Between Two Worlds).



• John Piper has a sermon on treasuring God's words.  You can read or listen to it. (More of his sermons on the Bible can be found here.)

What tools or resources do you use to study or access Scripture online?
Do you try to read thru the Bible in a year?  If so, what plan do you use?

Christmas in Taiwan (a video and a mosaic)

Merry Christmas!! 

Christmas Day will soon be over for me.  I wish you all a wonderful day as you celebrate our Savior today!!

This morning before I left to go celebrate at a fellow missionary's home, I took a few pics of Gilby and me with my tree:

1. gilby, me, and my tree, 2. gilby decides it is time to kiss me,
3. me and my tree, 4. merry CHRISTmas!

Christmas is not a holiday in Taiwan, so most people do not celebrate and it.  Christians usually have some kind of activity at church for Christmas, but nothing like we are used to in the West and not necessarily on Christmas Day.  So, for the most part it is work and school as normal.  However, every year so far, I have been blessed to be able to rearrange my classes, so that I don't have to work on Christmas Day.  Day after Christmas?  Yes!  But not the actual Christmas Day. 

This year, I went to our mission team leader's home.  We had a traditional Christmas meal, and then played games for hours!  It was fun and full of laughter.  However, I do miss my family. 

Merry Christmas!!

Gilby and I wish you a very Merry Christmas!!!

(Do you see what Gilby found under the couch?)

P.S. It is already CHRISTMAS here in Taiwan!! :D