TheBellSite

During the Christmas break we took a couple of days vacation and did some driving around this beautiful island that we live on. Here are a few of the pictures we took . . .
Click any picture to see a larger version of it. Click HERE to go to Flickr and see a slide show of all the pictures.

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After a too long hiatus we have finally issued a new newsletter. You can read it here:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Click the link below for a really good article that highlights the work of another couple serving with our company in Taiwan.

“In America, people have a good background of what a Christian is, but they don’t have that here,” Schexnayder said. “They are truly a baby. Oftentimes they add Jesus to their existing dichotomy of gods. It sometimes takes a while for those other gods to fall away.”

Baptist Press – Taiwanese churches needing American help – News with a Christian Perspective.

We’ve been a little busy so I’m just now getting around to posting about our newest gadget. Two weeks ago we took the plunge and bought a new camera. Our other camera – Canon S3 IS – is 3 years old and kinda bulky. I love it and it’s 12X zoom, but it doesn’t do real well indoors and it sometimes blurs the left side of the picture.

When we were home for vacation this summer I looked at a replacement – a Canon S90 – but I just couldn’t bring myself to spend the bucks. So I just shopped and drooled. A few weeks after returning to Taiwan I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I started looking at it here. Too expensive!

Then one day online I discovered that the S90 (and it’s main 3 flaws) had been upgraded. The Canon S95 had been released. Now I was really obsessed! I started looking around Taipei and learned a couple of things:

Cameras, regardless of price do not come with international warranties. The warranty is only good in the country of purchase.

Some Canon dealers in Taipei get (some of) their cameras through channels other than Canon in Taiwan, outside of the country of Taiwan. Therefore, if you purchase the camera through them and you have a warranty issue, Canon Taiwan will not perform warranty work on it. It is called parallel importing.

So, after all the looking and learning we decided to go for it and saved $70 over the price of the “official” Canon Taiwan product. The shop we used will provide the one year warranty for the camera.

Camera Shop

We’ve been busy and haven’t had a chance to really get to know it very but have played around with it a little bit.

It is a very powerful pocket sized camera that we hope will provide us with many memories.

S90

A thorough list of features

Well the weather should become milder now; at least that’s what everyone has been telling me for the last month. Every time I would ask someone, “When will it start to cool off?”, they told me “Right after Mid-Autumn Festival!” . . . OK – I’m ready now. Bring on the cool, even crisp, fall weather. Make me think football, bonfires, camping . . . . I can hardly wait.

We’ve been so busy over the last couple of months and then catching up over the last couple of days that I failed to notice a milestone. Our blog celebrated it’s EIGHTH birthday on Monday.

A couple of years after our arrival in Taiwan we decided that it would be better to use a blog than monthly newsletters to keep friends and family updated on our life and ministry. We have done a so-so job of regularly posting what’s going on on this side of the water.

As always, I intend to do better in the future

Stay tuned.

Today in Taipei we are reminded of the traditions and superstitions of the people we now live among.

The Ghost Festival also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month (14th in southern China).