Restless nights

At first, I thought it was really cool to be waken up by roosters in the countryside. Until I looked at my phone and noticed it was 3:30 in the morning. Yesterday I saw my first stray dog. It was kind of scary, but also kind of cool. So far, I've had quite an exciting time in Taiwan, led and sustained by the grace of God.

To leave where I left off, I had quite a restless night here on my arrival to Taiwan. Worrying about school and where I would live, I tossed and turned in my bed, trying to force myself to trust in God and just find some peace. Eventually, I turned on the light and read God's word and spent some time in prayer. At the time, I had missed two days of devotions because of the plane ride and other discrepancies in time. Luckily, God had saved two verses for me for just the right time, giving me comfort for just the right moment. The first one I read was about finding comfort in the shadow of God's wings. God had wanted to carry Israel under the shadow of His wings, but they refused. It was like a plea from Christ for me to seek Him that night. Finding peace in God's word, I sung a few songs of praise in my mind as I finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, I left to Taipei (that night I had actually went to Hsinchu because I had the wrong hostel in mind the night before). I thank God once again for taking care of me through a Buddhist family, who graciously took off a day of work to bring me around and help me take care of the administrative process. If not for God's grace, I would have taken the whole day to take a train to different parts of the city in order to get all the paperwork for my scholarship and class registration covered - not to mention figure out some way to find the right hostel I was supposed to stay at. Instead, I was taken out to breakfast and given a hearty lesson on loving others by two unbelieving souls, who were willing to wait patiently with me at each step of the process, just as God was waiting patiently for the night before to find rest in Him.

Yesterday I took some tests to find in what class I would be placed. Unfortunately, I did rather poorly on some tests where I was asked about a few things that we hadn't learned about, making me look rather unlearned in the process (I can't believe we still haven't learned about colors). By the way, does anyone reading know about the cash crops of Maryland, or about the major commodities bought by the state?

Although things didn't work out the way I had hoped in terms of classes, if the way things have been going are an indication of anything, it's the great grace that God has had for me, and that I pray He will continue to sustain me with. Right now, I'm about to be late for a meeting to decide my fate in terms of classes, so please pray that God places me in the right class.

In Christ,

Moses