Christmas Letter 2011

Christmas 2011
Dear friends,

My family and I are thankful for your friendship and prayer. We wish you all the best during the Christmas season and the coming New Year. This year is full of God’s grace and mercy. My treatment ended in March, and the prognosis of breast cancer went well. I gave up my doctoral study in Lancaster and denied full-time job opportunities because the priority of my life was changed. Before I clearly know what our Father in Heaven wants me to do, I prefer to spend time with my family, close friends, Christian brothers and sisters, other breast cancer survivors, and the kids/teens who haven’t known how valuable they are.


Family BBQ with neighbours in the Mid-Autumn Festival and some gathering with family and friends

Being a freelancer, I take a few translation cases from friends and write travel notes for websites. If you’re interested in my English notes, please see the links. Every suggestion is very welcome. http://www.hometown.org.tw/eng-2011/caseStudyAction.do?method=doDetail&&engId=17
http://www.hometown.org.tw/eng-2011/caseStudyAction.do?method=doDetail&&engId=18
I’ve never been so relaxed after I grew up. With limited workloads, I’m able to cook dinner for my family, to have deep conversation with close friends, and to borrow interesting books from libraries. I think it’s a testimony of Matthew 11:30 – “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Finally, I learn how to ignore the evaluation of the world and simply count on Him.

Try to be a good cook for my family. :-)

To find my way ahead, I take part in voluntary activities, which I was interested in but had no courage to devote to. I continue being a volunteer translator for the World Vision Taiwan. Recently they shift me to translate children’s letters from Swaziland. The children’s living environment seems worse than that in Latin America and East Europe. Some children couldn’t pay the remaining tuition and got their school reports before getting the gifts from Taiwan’s sponsors. Some orphans, whose parents had been passed away because of AIDS, were looked after by neighbourhood care points. These true stories remind me of the blessing I have received. I cherish my current life and hope that God lighten the lives of the children on the other end of the earth.

In addition, this summer I participated in two voluntary vacation programmes in East and South Taiwan (Hualien & Pingtung) respectively. Our main job was to assist local students’ homework and to accompany them, as I shared before. The four-week experience taught me how wide the rural-urban divide was. Interpersonal trust relationship was established over time, so a short-stay volunteer could be a helper at most. The rural communities needed local residents or long-stay volunteers to come forward and to be the kids’ spiritual guides. As a social worker said, “some kids are tired to pretend that they like to play with big brothers and sisters from urban areas.” I realized that rural areas in Taiwan couldn’t be my harvest.

Fortunately, God opened a window in Taipei City. I became a volunteer tutor for the Champions Education Association R.O.C. The Christian founders of the association thought that social problems could be decreased when young people rooted in correct value. Hence, the association designed course materials and invited Christian brothers and sisters to teach in Taiwan’s junior high schools. The materials included how to value oneself without bias, how to deal with problems and emotions, and how to get along with friends whose gender differed from his/hers. Until present, over 400 schools have been allied with the association. Last year, our priest started to teach in a junior high school near our church. This term, I joined his team. It’s nice to see students’ changes in the classes. Our priest’s wife told me that last year a student promised to face his drug-taking problem after our class. They also discovered some potential family (sexual) violence cases and then were able to prevent it.

At church, I serve as a greeter on Sunday worship and coordinate an English Bible Study for the youth group. We had the Bible Study twice only. I’m still learning from doing, but I thank God and our priest giving me the chance to share what I had learned in England with the teens. To celebrate Christmas, we’re having a party in the park beside our church this Saturday afternoon. Our youth and kid groups will perform one of the shows. During the past three months, they have practiced drumming and dancing once a week very hard. I’m indeed proud of them.

The voluntary activities and the drumming and dancing practice of our youth and kid groups

For the reason of health, I’ve taken a walk once a week for about one year. Green forests, blue sky, and the creatures in the Nature refresh me whenever I feel sorrow. It also provides me a less burdensome situation to talk with my family, friends, and other breast cancer survivors. Furthermore, it’s good to meet friends up for a walk instead of for a meal because I’m still fighting for the weights gained in the chemos. (Awwww…why do Asian women always fight for weights?) When Elspeth and Andy visited Taiwan, we went to Mt. Yangming together. (Dear Sue, they can prove that I’m better in hiking now. I’ll demonstrate it when we visit the Lakes again.) But I found that I had little knowledge about the Nature in Taiwan. Thus, I registered to be an environmental volunteer in the Zhishan Cultural and Ecological Garden. I enjoyed the training lessons and gardening work there, with the smell of soil and grass.

Go hiking with friends for the Nature beauty and the warm friendship.

Next year, my biggest challenge is to face the psychological shade in my mind. I’m weak when I hear news about cancer reoccurrence. I’m also easily to feel frustrated about my poor health. For example, my immunity is not as good as before. My nail, skin, and ear are infected in turn this year. After a surgery for the nail disease paronychia, it took me six months for the recovery. Last week, my aching right ear was diagnosed with otitis externa. After the first three-day medicine, the condition wasn’t improved. So I’m taking stronger antibiotics now. Taking flight becomes a complex thing due to my upper extremity lymphedema following treatment of breast cancer. I need someone to go with me and lying down for 30 minutes when we arrive at the destination airport. However, I believe I’ll getting better when I get used to my current condition.

Praise the Lord! My family are all in good health. The most wonderful news this year is that my niece Jenny was enrolled by the best university in Taiwan. My nephew Alan will take the University Entrance Examination next year. Hopefully he can pass the exam without stress and have a good result like his sister. Another good news is that we will move to a four-room flat next year. Each of us, my Mum, my two big sisters, and I, will have our own room. I’ve been thinking of the interior design for over two years because it’s part of pre-sale homes*. Thank my family giving me such a big present while I was having chemos. It brought me lots of fun and hope.

(*Briefly to say, pre-sale homes refer to new homes that are being offered for sale before construction, in order to decrease the funding stress and the sale risk of the constructors. It’s a unique real estate system in Taiwan.)

Wish you and your beloved ones have a happy Christmas and New Year,

With lots of love and prayer,
Carol