We’re still testing the blog and how it works. There should be a link above this – other than the title.
Sorry to bother you 
Sep 272009
Sep 272009
Well, over the last week I’ve spent more time than I could afford trying to get the blog back up and going. I think I’ve restored most of the tweaks and 85% of the older posts. There is still a time gap from November 12, 2008 until Sept. 22, 2009. Fortunately(?) we didn’t post a lot during the last winter and early spring. Unfortunately, if we want those posts back on the blog we’ll have to re-enter them one by one.
So if you see some weird posts appear in your feed reader or over at Facebook, they may be blasts from the past 
P.S. I’m trying out a new plugin that should put a tagline at the beginning of the RSS feed that will let people who are reading on a feed reader or Facebook know that it is really a blog post and it will provide a link to our blog. This should be the first post that will have it. . . . We’ll see how obtrusive it is ~
Sep 242009
Baptist Press brings us some disturbing news.
President Obama’s health care proposal would spell the end of denominational health insurance programs such as the one run by the Southern Baptist Convention’s GuideStone Financial Resources, GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins says.
Read the whole article here:
Baptist Press – Hawkins: GuideStone, other denominational plans at risk
This is very bad news!
Sep 232009
The September edition of East Asia Update is out! Click the image below to be taken there.
Sep 232009
I believe that I now have the RSS feed fixed.
So . . . . some of you may just now be getting the news that the blog died over the weekend – see earlier post.
My aim is to add back the tweaks one by one over the next week. And I’ll be backing up regularly
Sep 202009
Look different? Well . . . . the company that has been hosting our website/blog for 7 years just up and “closed the doors.” No notice, no nothing. Suddenly TheBellSite could not be found. The worst of it is that all the trouble it has caused could have been avoided with one email, a week ahead of time, to let us know that it was going to happen.
Shame on me – the latest backup I have on my machine is a year old. Now I’m trying to decide if I even want to bother with uploading it. I’m thinking not. Fresh start and all that. We’ll see.
Stay tuned!
Sep 152009
After nine years we’ve seen a lot of weird things. Just when you think you can’t be surprised by “stuff” in Asia something pops up and you go “now that’s something you wouldn’t see in Dallas!”
Our very sweet language teacher is an excellent cook. When she arrives to teach us our weekly Chinese lesson she will sometimes bless us with something she has cooked. Well, last Friday she brought us some Rice Krispy treats.
While at the local market she saw some puffed rice (in bulk – not the cereal) and remembered that one of her former students (an American) had given her a recipe for Rice Krispy treats. So, she bought the puffed rice and prepared the treats. I doubt that she followed the recipe exactly though.
Her -admittedly Taiwanese- version of the treats included peanuts and seaweed. Fran and I decided that they were ma ma hu hu – roughly translated as so-so
Today, 9-9-2009, marks the completion of 9 years of living in Taiwan. It was on this day in the year 2000 that we both set foot on Taiwan soil for the first time. We had no idea we could be so happy here. It is a wonderful place full of wonderful people. You should come visit us sometime. Here is what we looked like just after we arrived in Taipei 9 years ago . . .
Jack & Fran Sept. 2000
