Hello everyone! I thought it would be great if I posted a little update for all the friends and family of Alice and I. At first I was going to write about every event in great detail, but I realized I have many photos and some video clips to share so I’ll try to keep a neat balance of both writing and media. Whether you read every bit of text or just scan over things to see what we’ve been up to, Alice and I hope that you enjoy our first marriage blog post.
To start off let me say that Alice and I recently celebrated our one year anniversary and we are looking forward to many more years together.
Our wedding was a grand event in September 24, 2016 and we were happy to see all the people that came to celebrate with us. After spending a few days in Taipei with my parents who were visiting from the States, Alice and I traveled to Okinawa for our honeymoon. If you want to read more about that, I made a blog post about it which you can find here: Honeymoon Blog Post
A notable highlight of our marriage that I want to present before everything else has been Alice's attention to us being a healthy (and thrifty) couple in all things concerning food. At the start of our marriage we committed to a 24-day diet of no sugar, no gluten, and no (something else that I cant remember) and Alice and I slaved each day to prepare meals according to that plan for each and every day. It was hard work and in the end I did not see any noticeable difference in my body, but maybe we will do a different diet in year 2 and see how that goes ^_^
 |
| Chicken-bone soup for healthiness |
 |
| Celebrating the end of our first diet! |
As soon as we were hitched (married) and back home from our vacation, I sent in my paperwork to get my ARC (the card that lets me stay in Taiwan as long as Alice is alive) and thankfully it didn’t take long for me to get it in the mail! Now I can live and work in Taiwan without leaving every few months!
Something Alice and I have been doing since the beginning of our dating relationship has been reading the Bible together on a weekly basis. Now that we are together all the time, we get to read together more! Sometimes we have thoughts to share and sometimes we get into...heated discussions...about our differences of opinion. Either way we both believe that spending time together in the Word of God is integral to growing spiritually together.
Along those same lines, Alice and I were looking for a church that would work for both of us to attend. I found a church that was just 5 minutes away from our home and I began to visit there a couple times. Alice, however, had been attending the same church for more than 20 years and I felt a deep conviction in my heart to show deference to my wife and travel a couple hours each Sunday so that she could stay connected in the church she knows and loves. Three cheers for Tim! Tim, however, does not understand Chinese very well and so Alice has shown a great deal of flexibility and deference to attend the English service with me each week! Three cheers for Alice!
Although finding a good church was not hard, getting connected in a church can have its difficulties, especially for someone like me (Tim). For the first few months of our marriage, we both enjoyed a small group meeting based in another church (the first one I mentioned) near our home, but after a while the leaders of that group (Alice’s good friends) moved back to America so we had to find a new group :(
After testing the waters with a small group in the English congregation at the far-away-church, Alice and I settled in and have finally gotten to know some people there and attend regularly. God has allowed us both to find and fellowship with some awesome people at church through this small group.
On a similar note, we also have greatly enjoyed meeting and eating with a couple pairs of newlyweds like ourselves, enjoying meals and meaningful chats together. So far we have had 2 meetings and we will enjoy another one soon!
Something Alice and I have both been really enjoying has been to view great tv shows and movies together. After a certain popular American show season ended, Alice and I spent several weeks going through the Lord of the Rings movies, The Hobbit movies, and all the released Star Wars movies and we look forward to Star Wars episode VII this December!
We don’t just sit on our butts all day though! If you know Alice, you know she is very active and loves to get out and travel to new places. Alice has taken me...
hiking up Elephant Mountain
to visit a some art exhibitions,
and to visit some museums such as the miniature museum,
 |
| Different scenes from the Alice in Wonderland story! |
 |
| Can you see our faces in the mirror at the end? |
 |
| A lovely Victorian-era living room ^_^ |
 |
| The miniature Buckingham Palace |
And to visit some other fun local places,
 |
| A shipping-container food court near 101 |
 |
| Visiting a museum near CKS Memorial Hall |
 |
| Alice and I looking dopey at a Jazz show. |
 |
| Alice captivating people with some godly wisdom. |
And we have also done a bit of traveling around Taiwan, including, but not limited to, our trip to the 2017 VOICE Retreat.
On the note of our time together, Alice and I have fallen more in love with each other as the months pass by, but we have also learned what we hate about each other. It is true and the longer we are together the more we see that we don’t like, but the more opportunities we get to work through our differences and build stronger character in each other.
Many of these challenging differences have led to emotionally painful arguments and hateful words, but Alice and I have learned to always resolve issues as soon as possible and God has been helping us to grow more humble and loving towards each other. Alice is very patient in these times and I am learning to rely on God to help me make right choices and grow.
 |
| Co-teaching English to a group of students in 2016 |
Another challenge we have been through is the issue of finding work. Alice was able to quickly find a new position with a great Christian seminary here in Taipei. Although there seems to have been many challenges there, with prayer she has pushed through and finally been accepted as a full-time employee. As for me, I have found my love for teaching growing as I teach and tutor English in various part time positions, and I hope to get a full-time position as soon as I graduate from college in 2018!
Although I have been struggling this year with my university studies, I was blessed to fill my time with some tutoring jobs and ultimately with a cram school English teaching job which I am learning to love.
 |
| A story written and illustrated by a pair of sisters that I get to tutor! |
During free time Alice invests a lot with that far-away-church by helping with and teaching children’s Sunday-school classes and also volunteering with the church's children’s fellowship group.
In the spring and Summer of this year, I was blessed and challenged when I invested 6 separate days voluntarily teaching English at a local Juvenile Delinquent Center.
In the spring and Summer of this year, I was blessed and challenged when I invested 6 separate days voluntarily teaching English at a local Juvenile Delinquent Center.
Other Tim-happenings included meeting and doing language exchanges with people,
 |
| Tim and Kelvin |
making and investing in new friends, and being led by the Lord in witnessing to, being challenged by and praying for various people that I meet and interact with.
 |
| Tim and Bob |
So I hope that you can see that Alice and I have been pretty busy learning and growing and experiencing life together! In conclusion here are some other highlights of our first year, followed by some topics of things you can be praying for us about in the year to come.
 |
| Davina and Eric's wedding |
Attending a few weddings of close friends
 |
| Rachel and Michael's wedding |
Alice’s birthday celebration!
My battle with the insects!
And our trip to visit our good friends over the Mid-Autumn holiday.
Some things to be praying for as we move into next year are,
Christmas >:[
If you know me, you know that I don't like American Holidays very much. Perhaps its because of my felt misuse of the holidays in the states to push materialism, or perhaps its just the negative effects of redundant activities that weighs on my soul. Whatever the case is, please pray that this year I can find some patience, appreciation and the love of God for his son's birthday.
If you know me, you know that I don't like American Holidays very much. Perhaps its because of my felt misuse of the holidays in the states to push materialism, or perhaps its just the negative effects of redundant activities that weighs on my soul. Whatever the case is, please pray that this year I can find some patience, appreciation and the love of God for his son's birthday.
During Chinese New Year 2018 we will visit America for 10 days!
Please pray for safety for our travels and for a good time of fellowship with our (odd) family.
My current goal is to graduate in February 2018 so please pray that I can continue to pass classes this semester and next!!!
And
Please pray for us as we continue to seek God's will concerning making our family grow with some kids!
(Thanks for reading all the way to the end. We appreciate your love, friendship and prayers! See you in the next blog!)
(Thanks for reading all the way to the end. We appreciate your love, friendship and prayers! See you in the next blog!)
