Does God Yell, “GOL”?

We at the Bush house have been watching quite a bit of the 2006 World Cup Soccer tournament. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat have been experienced by many, to include us (the fans). This couch-potato spectator sport has caused us, however, to think seriously about theology as we often feel the urge to pray in real time for our favorites teams. Therefore, we have contemplated a good dissertation topic for future study: Does God Yell, “GOL”?: The Divine Perspective on Lutheran and Catholic Football Squads. If you would like to contribute some additional topic suggestions or maybe even a resource or two for our study, please drop us a note.

Travel warning

The US Department of State issued a travel warning on June 16 for the Philippines in light of the various bombings in the past week.

"The Department of State urges American citizens to consider carefully the risks of travel to the Philippines and continues to warn against all but essential travel throughout the country in light of heightened threats to Westerners."

Now that does that mean to us, who are leaving in a few months for the Philippines? Do we know about the danger? Yes, we do. Though we were assured by the missionaries there that westerners in Cebu City are rarely a target, we have thought about the potential danger for being there. I am not too worried about myself, since I don't look "western" at all. However, Dan and Kioni look different. But am I being fearful for them? Not really. We are pretty clear that this is the place where God is sending us for the next two years. Exercise common sense, don't do stupid things, and we are going to put the rest in God's hands.

The safest place on earth is at the center of God's will.

One of those guys!

Amy: "You are one of those guys!"
Dr. Cook : "What one of those guys."
Amy: "Those guys who drive their motorcycles on the sidewalk." (Look closely in the photo how the pedestrian actually YEILDED to the guy on the scooter ON-A-SIDEWALK!)

I was talking about motorcycles in Taipei with Dr. Cook. We were in Taipei at the same time some 20 years ago, I believe we lived in the same 10-mile radius, but never found out until we started chatting a while back. What a small world!

My experience with motorcycles in Taipei was limited, other than on one occasion, riding with a guy friend for 3 minutes, he was showing off his brand new cool muscle bike, he insisted that I'd be his first passenger. Most of the time, I was just hoping they wouldn't kill me. It would not be cool if my mother receive a call saying that her daughter was killed in a motorcycle accident while walking on a sidewalk.

I had a very close encounter with a motorcycle within the first week after I arrived at Taipei. (For those who didn't know, I got my undergrad degree in National Taiwan University (Tai Da).) Just walking from campus along a narrow sidewalk to get some fruit, a motorcycle zoomed up from behind me. At first I heard a loud motor roaring towards me, not knowing what it could be, I turned around to check it out. Then I saw this long-legged guy on a scooter charging towards me in full speed. He had a helmet on, which I found out later was pretty unusual, so I could not see his face. In a split second, I hopped to the side of the sidewalk, but I was blocked by a line of at least 10-15 scooters that were parked on the sidewalk. I managed to squeeze in between two scooters, just in time for the motocycle to zoom by. That guy's long leg actually touched my skirt! That was close.

They drove on the sidewalk because the road is jammed up, or not jammed up, it doesn't matter. Well, for one thing, there is no traffic lights to obey on the sidewalk. Dr. Cook even said this was the one "traffic law" that his friend told him when he first got his motorbike: "When the road is jammed up, use the sidewalk." (Now I wonder if that long-legged guy I encountered was him!) I was in awe when I saw for the first time a family of 5 all on one motorcycle making a turn on a busy street, with the mother holding a toddler and a huge watermelon! After a few years of seeing people carrying all sorts of cargos on their motorbikes, I was not surprised anymore.

Dr. Cook said since then the mayor of Taipei has cleaned up the messy traffic. I do hope so, since I have not been back since I graduated. There are many amazing things that Taiwanese do with their motorbikes or scooters. If China is the bicycle capital of the world, Taiwan is definitely the scooter capital of the universe.

Also check out You know you've been in Taiwan for too long when....

Where in the world

Now that the time for us to leave for the Philippines is drawing close, our friends and families start to realize that we indeed will be living on this land for the next two years! But where in the world will we be in the Philippines? For some of you who are geographacially challenged, you might even think, "Where in the world IS the Philippines?"

It is in South East Asia, to her north is China, south is Indonesia, and west are Myanmar (formerly Burma), Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. It consists of about 7,000 islands.
The Philippine Islands became a Spanish colony during the 16th century; they were ceded to the US in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. In 1935 the Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth. It has a population of 89,468,677 (July 2006 est.)
We are going to Cebu City, the second largest city in the Philippines, where Megellan landed. It is located in Cebu province in the middle of the country. (Click on map to enlarge.) To the south is the big island of Mindanao, where most of the country's Muslim population lives.

What is most well-known about the Philippines? Other than the large number of professionals and workers who live all over the world. Geographically, The deepest known spot on the planet, Challenger Deep, is found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, just east of the Philippine Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Sounding of the depths in the Mariana Trench measure 36,198 feet. This is approximately 7152 feet deeper than Mount Everest (29,022 feet)! Click on the map below to see a fly-by video of the Mariana Trench. They even found fish there! (Click here to see the fish video).
And of course, you can't talk about the Philippines without talking about the white sandy beaches.
Anyway, it is a hot and humid place that will give your books a good coating of mold. Will tell you more when we get there.

World minus America Cup Soccer

When the world (I am not exaggerating) is going crazy over FIFA 2006 World Cup Soccer, I cannot even find one channel in Direct TV (satellite TV) that airs a game during primetime! I was floored! I had to search all one hundred and some channels and eventually, found one airing Germany vs Poland, in Spanish. Yep, I had to go to a Spanish speaking channel in order to watch a game.
Last night when I was happy to see that they were showing Czech Republic vs the U.S. at 9:00pm on ESPN, but when I went to that channel at 9:00, they were showing college baseball, still in 8th inning. I sighed and Dan said, "Be patient, it will be over soon." Well, he doesn't understand, soccer fans cannot wait for a slow-moving-nobody-cares-about-but-Americans game to be over, in order to watch World Cup soccer, you are talking about WORLD CUP SOCCER. The baseball game lasted another half an hour before they put the soccer game on. If this happens in any other parts of the world, the TV station if not swamped with angry soccer fans, would have their phone lines jammed already.
Today I was talking with a student who is going to be a missionary in Eastern Europe, he said, "If you are going to be a missionary outside of America, you better know soccer."
He was right, only Americans don't care about soccer. Even with the U.S. team making it into Group E this year, Americans are mostly ignorant about what is going on in Germany right now. I told Dan that I feel isolated. Tomorrow when I go to work, NO ONE will talk with me about how Germany scored during the last two minutes. How they hit the crossbar of the goal twice in one attack, how the Polish was playing with one less man because of a red card. NO ONE, absolutely NO ONE will talk about it. Rather, if I am in Hong Kong, I would be walking into an elevator at work and everyone will be talking about it. Strangers are not strangers anymore because of soccer.
I am glad that I will be watching the 2008 Beijing Olypmics in the Philippines, and hopefully, I will be watching the next 2010 World Cup Soccer in SCOTLAND! Hurry!

Want and Need

I want so many things, why is that? Do I just turn my wants into needs and then convince myself that I actually need those things rather than just desiring them? I guess greed is the culprit, or just plain selfish, because I want to satisfy myself with all the stuff that I think I "need". This picture becomes painfully clear now that we are clearing our house to move out, we have so much STUFF! My goodness! I will try from now on not to accumulate anymore, I don't need all those things to live a productive life. OK, it is not too late to start getting rid of things, things I even think I need. After doing without for a while, I am sure I will realize that those are just things I want.

Litter OR Trash

While driving through Wisconsin to the UP in Michigan, a sign by the road says:
"Do not Litter OR Trash along the highway"
So you have to say both "litter" or "trash" in order to get the message through? That give "cheese-head" a new meaning.

SOLD!

Our house is sold! 9 days on the market, it is sold tonight!

The story goes like this:

Day 1 (Tuesday) - I told people about it, sent out an email to my co-workers at work. The real estate lady brought over some colourful flyers for potential buyers to take when they come to see the house.

Day 2 (Wednesday) - Late afternoon, someone made an appointment to look at our house tomorrow! Wow! We cleaned until 1:00 in the morning.

Day 3 (Thursday) - They cancelled the showing right before the scheduled time, they changed their mind on the price range. We were disappointed. But then in the afternoon, we got another phone call asking for another showing that night!
In the mean time, I was putting flyers up around campus, but only 5 were allowed. Therefore, I was wrecking my brain trying to think where else should I post something. Well, yes, there is an e-classifieds on the Trinity International University website, but I know not many people know about that site, but hey, something is better than nothing. Later that day, another party called and came to see the house. Good. We went out for our 10th wedding anniversary dinner, so we can get away from the house for a 7:30pm - 8:30pm showing.

Day 4 (Friday) - No activity, no offer, no phone calls. The real estate lady brought over some more flyer packets, because I wanted to post some colourful ones on campus. We told her we are leaving for a trip next Thursday, so if someone wants to see the house, feel free to let them come. She said, "Maybe the house will be sold by then." Dan said to her, "I hope you are a prophet!" She walked away with a smile.

Day 5 (Saturday) - No activity, we went to the park with Kioni.

Day 6 (Sunday) - Went to church, had a restful day. The phone did not ring.

Day 7 (Monday)- I went to work, 4 Trinity related people asked about the house while I was at work. By 4:30pm, I was wrapping up for the day when the phone rang, I thought to myself: "This will be my last phone call of the day."

"I teach at Trinity College. I am looking into buying a house this summer. I saw your ad in the e-classifieds in the Trinity webiste. I would like to know more about your house."
"Well, are you on campus?"
"Yes, I am."
"I have colour photos of the house, if you would like to take a walk to my office, I will show you some photos and talk more about the house."
10 minutes later, he was sitting in my office. We talked about half an hour, from the house to taking a year of sabbatical to go teach overseas! Obviously, our conversation went beyond the townhouse.
"I will ask my real estate agent to set an appointment to look at the house."
"Sure, but don't feel pressured into buying a house. Make sure you feel comfortable when you walk into the house, and can see yourself living in it."

Day 8 (Tuesday) - Our real estate agent called and said there was another showing request at 2:00pm. It was right in the middle of Kioni nap time. Dan scrambled to find a place to let Kioni sleep. After several phone calls, Dan found Iris Feinberg who was available at home. They went over for a few hours. Kioni took a shorter than normal nap. But the house was available to show.

Day 9 (Wednesday) - We were invited to Donna and Ernie Manges' home for dinner. While we were eating dinner, Dan got a message. It is our real estate lady. I thought it was a call for another showing. I thought to myself, it was good that we cleaned up the house before we leave. After hanging up the phone with the real estate lady, Dan said with a smile. "We got an offer!" What?!? Several phone calls for negotiation and the deal is done! (The offer was made by the person whom saw the house yesterday afternoon.)

During the last phone call, the real estate lady said, "The buyer likes your lights." But we are not selling the lights, those are custom made mission style lights. So we credited him $500 to go and buy light fixtures. Dan asked if he can find out the name of the buyer, when Dan told me the name, I was floored - it was the Trinity professor!

We could not believe what God has done for us. He has shown us in so many ways that he wants us to be in Cebu as soon as possible. Using people saying things to us that was prophetic, even though that person had no clue what they were talking about. He let us share this great news while we are with friends. The Manges are not just friends, they are fellow missionaries teaching in Cebu Graduate School of Theology who are on leave! What a wonderful thing to share this piece of great news with them while visiting them. Ernie Manges prayed before we ate, Dan made a comment about him not praying for the selling of the house. Little did Dan know at that time that a decision was already made in the buyer's mind, there was no need to pray for the selling of the house anymore.

We signed some papers tonight, the house is set to close by July 28 (my sister's birthday). I will decide on a date to resign my position, we will have to start packing and ready to go to Michigan.

God is able! There are six other units that are of the same price range as ours selling in our subdivision. Some have been there for months. But ours is sold in 9 days! Dan said it right, other people do not have God as their real estate agent!

There is nothing more I can say, other than that our God is able and powerful. He provides in ways that we cannot even imagine. What else can we do than to praise him!

Almost there

We are almost there, we are at 90% of our monthly support pledge! We thought it is going to be a long time before we reached it, but before we know it, we are at 90%. That is just 9 months after we started having any fund-raising activities. And during these 9 months, Dan spent 6 months writing his thesis and took his comphrensive exam and I did not do much at all for support raising. All that is to say are two things:

1) God is powerful and he does provide as he has promised
2) God's people are willing to sacrifice

We are grateful for God's provision through his people, during this process, it just shows how alive and great our God is. If he can raise the funding for us like this, we are fully convinced that he is going to sell our house for us. People of God who are reading this post, please pray that God will sell our house quickly, just like how he has send in the funding.

10th Anniversary

Went out to dinner at "The Melting Pot". Kind of a new experience, but crazy expensive, do not recommend it. Oh, we are underdressed also, and it took us three hours to finish the "experience". I guess I am just too cheap to eat like that.

Who is your real estate agent?

We are tired this morning because we cleaned the house until almost 1:00am last night. Our real estate agent company called yesterday afternoon saying that someone wanted to look at our house. We didn't think it will be that soon when someone responded, with the house on the market less than 36 hours, we were going to have our first showing! So we put Kioni to bed and started cleaning, last minute painting, stuffing things in the closets, but still have to keep the closets relatively tidy, etc.. When all else fails, there is always the garage. People don't care much about your garage being a bit messy.

So this morning, though tired, I could not sleep.
I had the following conversation with Dan:

"I couldn't sleep."
"Are you excited that someone is coming to see our house?"
"No, I am worried that our house won't sell."
"Why don't you think it will sell."
"I looked it up on the internet, there are at least 6 other units selling at the same price range in our subdivision."
"OK... but I bet they don't have God as their real estate agent!"

Now, that's faith in action. Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary, it is good to know that I am married to a man of great faith.