Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Reclaiming Home

Dear Family and Friends,

After a long absence, I am making an attempt to explain the big changes that occurred in the past 2 1/2 weeks. As many of you know through our emails, Elizabeth and I decided to return to Colorado from Taiwan. We left Taiwan on December 26th, the day after celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas morning mass with two different congregations in Taipei.

Our decision largely revolves around a need to reclaim joy, love, and a supportive community. Our time in Taiwan was marked by an extreme period of growth for our marriage, our understanding of Episcopal mission work, and our appreciation for Chinese, Chinese tea, Taiwanese customs, and the Taiwan Episcopal Church.

As can probably be assumed by our early return (we were scheduled to return in August), not all of our experiences were life giving or sustaining. However, we learned more in 5 months about ourselves and our relationship with God and our need for open communication, love, and support than in any previous church, class, or work experience. Our time in Taiwan was life-changing, in many ways we have yet to process and do not have ways to verbalize.

In the coming months I hope to continue updating our supporters along the "reclaiming" theme. The end goal (I think for life, not just for this phase in life) is to verbalize feelings of "reclaiming love." To this end, all of our supporters, readers, emailers, and gift-givers have been invaluable. I pray we can continue to maintain communication and sift through all of the life giving and growth-giving experiences that will unfold from the past 5 months of experiences.

Your communication and questions are always welcome. But please, be gentle. We will respond in kind. Speaking the truth in love is the goal.

For now, I would like to leave you with two pictures from our last week in Taiwan. The first is the wonderful Christmas Eve service at St. John's Cathedral, featuring Bishop Lai and Dean Lin. The second is the Christmas Eve aftermath, Elizabeth and Victor enjoying a nap at the National Palace Museum. Really, they just needed a "little" breather. Celebration and Exhaustion!

Peace (and more to come),

Seth