Taiwan: July 15, 2016

I haven't been keeping up with this blog very well, so I will be making a late post about each day, hopefully I'll catch up eventually! :D There are just too many fun things to do here, computer time is limited!

Friday

After I made my last post, we traveled to another district in Taoyuan and visited a Suzuki motorcycle plant. The man who gave us the tour showed us some of their commercials and a short drama about a girl who's motorcycle helped her overcome heartbreak. I found it so funny that a commercial here would be so long and entertaining. We all yelled when the girl in the story almost got back with the guy who broke her heart. I'm learning that all people share similar themes, including love and heartbreak; these are experiences that all people are familiar with. After he showed us their promotional information we took a short tour of their plant and actually got to see how the motorcycles are fashioned together.

After the Suzuki tour we headed a little closer to our school and went to a place called The Carpenter's Caring house. It is a non-profit consignment shop that sells free coffee in order to get customers in the door. This business wiggled its way into my heart because it was started by an American pastor who wanted to offer a safe place for Taiwanese youth to spend time in. He believed too many of them were spending time drinking, smoking and gambling. The pastor and his wife also thought offering free coffee would provide an awesome opportunity to tell Taiwanese people about Jesus. What was also special about their business was their employment practices. They offer jobs to the less fortunate, disabled and elderly people in their community. One employee is blind but has learned how to fix machines without needing his eye sight. Because of the job he has since become a Christian and uses his life to fix broken machines and make them new again. To me this is amazing imagery of what happened when Christ claimed this man's life; He fixed his brokenness and made him new. Another man who works for them is paralyzed from the waist down, he used to work in construction but he is now a carpenter there and he makes all these beautiful furniture pieces for The Carpenter's House to sell!

All in all, on Friday I was very happy to be back in Taiwan! I missed this beautiful country and its people!