Bi-monthly newsletter update for Matt & Holly Smucker — January 15, 2007

“Once they were told, ‘You are not my people.’ But . . . they will be

called children of the living God.” –Romans 9:26 (CEV) Matt and Holly Smucker matt_smucker@yahoo.com

holly_smucker@yahoo.com

Taiwan Address: Hsui Ping Rd.

Lane 84; No. 85; 11F

Dashe Hsiang 81541

Kaohsiung County

TAIWAN, R.O.C.

Phone: (07) 354-4991

From the U.S., dial 011-

886-7-354-4991

U.S. Address: 30010 Heather Oak Dr.

Junction City, OR 97448

Website: www.geocities.com/

smuckersintaiwan

Skype Name: mhsmucker

OMF U.S. Headquarters

10 W. Dry Creek Circle

Littleton, CO 80120

www.us.omf.org

I remember the first time I saw this lit-tle girl. Shy as could be, a jumper and sweater on, her little black hair slicked back perfectly into two pigtails, clearly the lov-ing touch of a doting mother. That day, she was doing the same thing as me: riding the tourist-style school bus for the very first time on the first day of school.

I offered her a snack from my bag that day (teachers, I think, are always ready for a

snack), which she politely refused. Come to find out, she doesn’t actually like candy or other sweets. She’s satisfied with fruit; strawberries, to be exact.

“What a fabulous little girl!” I thought. “I hope I get to know her more.”

Fortunately, I have had the chance to get to know her more every week. She did, in fact, end up being a student in my first

(Continued on page 3)

The best Christmas gift of all

Here we are with Holly’s family and our friends Bill and Cathleen (Cathleen is taking the photo) eating Hakka food. Delicious! This photo only shows about half the food we were served that night. The Hakka people have a distinct culture within Taiwan, which includes great food. A large group of Hakka people live in a city near us in Kaohsiung County.

We had many U.S. visitors in the last two months. One of Matt’s seminary professors and his wife were in Taiwan in November and we were able to visit with them, and Holly’s family came for a two-week visit during Christmastime. It was great to see so many peo-ple. See more photos from the Adelmans’ visit on page two.

Page 2

Above: Matt, Pat (Holly’s dad), Kathy and Melissa (Holly’s sisters), Holly, and Janice (Holly’s mom) on a delightful excursion to Taiwan’s marine science center and museum.

Left: Holly and her mom standing on the southernmost tip of Taiwan just after sunrise. The weather was windy, but not bad other-wise. Two days later, the earthquake was centered about 15 miles from here.

Below: We spent Christmas week-end in Kenting, the beach town in southern Taiwan. This photo is taken at a youth center that offers tradi-tional style housing and food.

Photos of Holly’s family’s visit to

Taiwan.

On December 26th,

there was an earthquake

in Taiwan. Its epicen-

ter was about 50 miles

southeast of where we

live.

The initial shock and

first aftershock

(which was stronger

where we live) were

estimated at about

6.4-7.2, depending on

which country took the

measurement.

It was the last night

before Holly’s family re-

turned to the U.S. For-

tunately, no one was

at our apartment,

which probably

swayed more than the

third floor of the church

where we were during the first

two hits. (We had just finished

watching a Jesus movie with an

earthquake scene—all-too-real

when you have an actual earth-

quake after the movie!) We felt

two more significant aftershocks,

one later that night and one the

next day at school.

Damage throughout Taiwan

was minimal. Our biggest damage

was our bookshelf, pictured here.

Still, the whole experience—as

our first big earthquake—gave us

quite the shake up.

Page 3

What is Christmas?

Matt asked some of his stu-dents to answer the question “What is Christmas?” as a class assignment Here are some of the responses (unedited): christmas is snow! christmas is christmas christmas is santaclaus

christmas is have some pre-sent! christmas is santaclaus! Christmas is singular pronouns!

the christmas is Jesus’s birth-day, and is the america’s new year. christmas is you can have a small geft or a big geft day. christmas is very-body need sing a song day. The christmas is everybody need to buy a tree.

X’mas is Jesus’s birthday. In a small contry, there has a Santa, he is a good old man. That contry’s kids is very pool, they are sad. Santa want to made kids happy. So he pay gift and gave the kids. All the kid are like him.

Tell me about your Christmas tree There's no such thing for me.

I've never heard No not such a word

of such festivity. Tell me about your Christmas Lights

Shining in every room. I've no light here

It's dark and drear in my December gloom.

Tell me about your Christmas Gifts There are so many there

All scattered o'er Your bedroom floor - my floor is

cold and bare. Tell me, oh tell

what Christmas means That's what I need to know.

Did God above In His great love Reach down to us below? Was I included when God sent His angels to proclaim The Blessed birth To all the earth? May I call on His name? Tell me, oh yes I need to know That Christmas was for me So that I too Along with you May live eternally. -Edward D. Hughes - Winnipeg 2006 Taken from prayerlink newsletter (Bibleforchildren.org) Volume 4, Issue 8, December 2006

grade class, which has been one of my favorite classes to teach.

This Christmas I was able to share some things about the holiday with these first graders. Our school celebrated the season—in a cliché overly red and green sort of way. Classic secular Christmas songs played in the halls for over a month. We were encouraged to teach our students about the spirit of giving and to encourage them to be kind and thankful to friends and fam-ily. Some of the students under-stand. Others, even some of my first graders, may never under-stand how to be truly thankful for all of the thinks that fill their lives.

Our students, in general, come from wealthier-than-average families. They dress in the latest fashions, have all of

(Continued from page 1) the newest toys (many of which end up confiscated in my office for a day), bring cell phones and more cash to school than I handle in a week. Their parents sometimes send them to live in the dorms, as is the case for several of my first and sec-ond grade students. For one student, his father works as a doctor in Japan and only sees him on holidays. Some parents are overly busy university professors who let their children tag along to Hawaii, Thailand, and more

countries than I’ve ever visited while the parents present research papers.

Does their social status mean they can’t understand true thanksgiving? Certainly not. A focus on the material-ism that surrounds their lives, though, is contagious. I wonder, sometimes, if my students will miss out on the greatest gift of all that is absolutely free—the love of Jesus.

For Christmas, I gave each of my first grade students a simple gift—a

(Continued on page 4)

This is Holly’s first grade class. They have a lot of energy, as is seen in this picture.

www.geocities.com/smuckersintaiwan

Check it out for prayer updates and more photos of our lives in Taiwan.

Smucker

30010 Heather Oak Dr.

Junction City, OR 97448

To:

Prayer & Praise Prayer & Praise Prayer & Praise • Joe, a senior in college, has re-

cently chosen to follow Jesus. Please pray that he will find encouragement and support as he grows as a new Christian. He has been attending our Eng-lish Bible study, our church’s services in Chinese, and meet-ing with our pastor each week. Please also pray for him as he prepares for his graduate school entrance exams.

• We plan to continue working in Taiwan this fall, though our exact job situations are still undecided. Please pray for pa-tience and wisdom for the vari-ous decisions being made.

• As the Chinese New Year ap-proaches, pray for a true time of rest for the people of Taiwan and students as they take final exams and return home to visit their families.

candy cane, a personalized note, and a bilingual primary-focused coloring book of Bible stories.

They giggled, of course, at the picture of Adam and Eve hiding be-hind the bushes. Beyond that, though, they began to enjoy coloring the pictures in their free time in class.

Several days later, I was riding the bus home with my first-grade friend. I began asking her what she was doing during the earthquake the night before (see the sidebar on page 2). She said she had been read-ing a book with her mom and told me to guess which one.

“Goodnight, Moon,” I guessed. “No,” she giggled. After several

more guesses, she gave me a hint. “Remember the book you gave 101 [our class]?”

“You were reading the book I gave you with your mom?” I asked.

(Continued from page 3) “Yes!” she grinned her toothless smile.

I smiled to myself. Of any book to read during an earthquake, one about Jesus would certainly make sense.

This student constantly reminds me how much of an impact a teacher can have on the lives of her students. Without her even knowing it, get-ting to know this precious student reminds me of how even the littlest people need to know about the free gift of love that Jesus has for them.

God’s gift is better than any-thing else these kids can ever get. Please pray that these students come to know and accept God’s gift of love—a gift that is free, doesn’t require endless hours of studying for exams, and is always there for them.

As 2007 begins, we wish you all the best for a blessed year. May you, too, be able to understand Jesus’ gift of life for you.

~Holly