Happy Chinese New Year!!

Happy New Year!

Xing Nian Quai La!

BEEP! beep! BEEP!...

That sound is the alarm that my two roommates and I did NOT hear this morning when Tim called us at 8:45AM and asked why we were not down in the lobby ready to go to church at 8:40AM like were supposed to be. I then witnessed the craziest 3 minutes I have probably ever seen! The three of us went into a flurry of shirts, ties, and pants and somehow managed to get out of it alive and down in the lobby by 8:50AM. That is something I will definitely NEVER forget.

After church (where they were kind enough to have Dr. Chen translate the message for us) we went to lunch at an "American" Steakhouse (I put that in quotes because anything that serves FREE REFILLS in Taiwan is definitely considered American!) and had a fun time trying to figure out a riddle from one of the team members. After lunch, we made a pit stop at the hotel for about an hour, then took the MRT (let me tell you, subway surfing is AMAZING!) to Danshui. With it being Chinese New Year, everyone JACKS their prices up, but it was still fun roaming the town on bikes and trying as best we could to stay alive in the mess they call traffic over here :)

After eating dinner, we went to the house of one of the interpreters from this week and we had a "lively" game of telephone charades. To cap the night off, we went down to a local soccer field and blew our arms off... I mean, shot some fireworks off to put the finishing touches on a memorable start to a"New Year!" There is another thing I will never forget from this trip! It was amazing to see God work in allowing me to be able to go on the trip.

When I first sent in my application, I was wondering in the back of my head if I was going on the trip because "all" my older brothers and sisters had gone before me and brought back stories about the great time they had while over here. I can safely say that God wanted me on this trip for a reason. I believe that reason is to teach me about prayer. Prayer for me has always been me telling God what I needed and that He needed to get this done before this certain time... but in many different ways (and I mean MANY!) God has been showing me that prayer is a relationship with Him and a way for God to manifest HIS power and glory to us! I praise and thank God for allowing me to come on this trip and we would covet everyone's prayers for us as we fly into Hong Kong tomorrow.

In Christ,

Aaron Cook