Greetings to all
I wanted to introduce myself to all those long term residents up there in the big city. I lived in Taipei for two years to the day before moving down here eleven years ago. I’ve enjoyed a wonderful life here in Tainan and feel blessed and lucky to live here. Taipei is my second home, since my wife’s mother lives there. We go up several times a year and I have a great time when we do. Actually, this whole island is full of cool places to go and cool things to do. And everyone will agree that Taiwanese people in general are truely cool. So, whenever I see an opportunity to chip in and help people, I usually don’t hesitate. Here’s a story to show you what I mean.
One of my private students, a nine year old boy, was found to have inoperable pancreatic cancer when his folks brought him to the emergency room one night. He had an emergency colostectomy(spelling?), and adapted bravely to the regimine of treatments he was subjected to. As you can imagine, he suffered a long and miserable battle before dying two years later. He spent many long weeks in the hospital where family and friends did their best to comfort and care for him. When visiting I would entertain the crowd with magic tricks and delight any sweet-tooth in the room with Costco cookies and chocolate muffins. Not long before Chris died, my pal in Taipei lost his wife to breast cancer. He came down for Christmas that year and met Chris and his folks at the hospital and assisted me in visiting all the children in that ward. We both felt visiting these kids was a worthwhile thing to do, so we decided to do the same up in the hospital in Tienmu, where his wife died.
That was about four years ago and we’ve done it every year since. But this year several buddies came along with balloons and puppets and chipped in to help cheer up the little children.
The hospitals here with children’s cancer wards truely appreciated our efforts and always welcome us. I understand that several missionaries here in Taiwan do similar things like this.
If anybody up there is interested in chipping in and covering a hospital or two, come on down to Tainan and we’ll teach you ballon twisting and get you started with some simple prestidigitation.
Jose,
You have the heart of gold. I like reading these kinds of stories.
Jose, could you post a contact e-mail address where people can reach you if they are interested or have other questions?
Thanks,
Jeff
jeff@oriented.org