Taiwan Brit

I traded in my mountain bike for a skinny-tyred road bike In January and, rather foolishly / bravely (delete as appropriate) decided to ride it around Taiwan during the Chinese New Year holiday. On paper, it looked pretty straightforward: start in Taipei, head down the west coast (fairly flat), around the bottom tip and then up the east coast and back to Taipei. I had ridden the new bike a bit, but had hardly been in training... Got as far as Hsinchu County on the first day. I'd stopped at the side of the road for a 'breather' and a man passing by stopped and started chatting to me. Long story short, he invited me to the family home for a cup of tea. Tea quickly became a meal (it was Chinese New Year's Eve) and, the sky having darkened, he and his family provided me with a bed for the night. An early start the next day, and I was on my way. Made it down to Changhua, pretty tired and pretty clueless about where I was going to stay the night. So I did what any sensible pe...

For most of 2002/3, it was a case of 'more of the same'. I decided to carry on teaching at Shane English School in Lujou for another year. Church life was going well, and I'd got involved with a few things at Evergreen Fellowship... Added to which, I didn't have a clue what to do if I repacked the suitcase and returned to the UK. Thanks to Chinese classes and (mainly) the help of new church friend, my Chinese was steadily improving. I did, however, travel back to the UK for Christmas 2002 - a great opportunity to see the family after a year and a bit away. Alpha? Having done the Alpha Course at university, I'd experienced first-hand how effective it was at explaining Christianity to unbelievers, fringe believers, confused believers or people like me (back in 2000) who couldn't decide which category they fitted into! I explained, rather tentatively, to leaders at church that I was interested in starting a course and they were very supportive. Rather oddly, money ...

Coming out to Taiwan was a big step, but one I was fairly relaxed about. Having spent a month of 1998 in St. Petersburg, Russia and my third year of university in St. Petersburg and Yaroslavl, I was used to living outside the UK. Russia had been quite a culture shock, not so much from a language point of view but because it was clear how hard life was for most Russians. In 1998, in particular, the rouble had been devalued and the shelves in the local supermarket were pretty bare. Buying a postage stamp required a pocket full of lose change in itself! Oh, and the language was pretty tricky too... I knew a little of the 'difficulties' between Taiwan and China (Beijing firing missiles into the Taiwan Straight during the 1996 presidential elections, for example); apart from that, I knew Taiwan had a strong, manufacturing-based economy and, thanks to the video I was shown at my interview in London, had typhoons in the summer. That was about it. Lujou in Taipei County was to be my de...

On 6th September 2001, I arrived in Taiwan for the very first time, knowing next to nothing about the place or how fundamentally it would shape my life. My intention back then was to spend a year teaching English / buying time while I worked out what to do with my life, then return to the UK. Well, I'm writing this in Taipei 8 years later, and my first few blogs are going to paint a picture of how I got here. I find it pretty hard to believe myself - I have gone from spiritually-confused 'singledom' to a being a married father of one, strengthened and inspired by my faith in Jesus.

Amongst the first people I met when I started going to GBC. Paul was the 'enforcer' for the after-service meal and turned out to be an excellent chap as well. My biggest memory of Paul is disagreeing with him over politics. We had all been round at (Pastor) Dave Brown's house to celebrate someone's birthday and Paul came out with something that just seemed so narrow-minded. I got wound up and left in a huff. The problem was, I couldn't find my shoes amongst the mass outside the door, so I started walking to the MRT station in my socks. At some point, I realized just how ridiculous this was, so turned around and went back. I sort of apologized to Paul, but I left (much more politely this time!) not too long afterwards. When I arrived home, I was still upset. I tried praying about it, but struggled to get any sort of breakthrough. The next day, there was an email in my inbox from Paul, which contained a very humble apology. This, for me, spoke volumes about what sort...

Having followed politics for a long time, and seen how the 2000 US presidential election unfolded, I've always had a bit of an 'issue' with Americans. Despite having American cousins, listening to American music and so on, I've seen the country as arrogant, insular and narrow-minded. Christianity in the USA certainly plays a much bigger role in politics than in the UK. High profile Christian leaders in the US always seemed to align themselves with the Republicans when I instinctively sympathized with the Democrats. So when I became a Christian and first started attending Grace Baptist Church (GBC), led by an American, some of my inbuilt preconceptions / prejudices began to be challenged. First of all, Dave Brown didn't seem to fit the mould I had prepared for him! He was open, honest, humble and much more open to the world than I had expected. His sermons were very practical and inspirational, and not full of an American / Republican world view. As it turned out...

He was due to arrive on 15th October 2008, but Joelle developed preeclampsia and the doctor recommended induced labour 3 weeks early. Long story short, our first child Samuel Chi-en Keith Jackson was born at 11.19pm on Wednesday 24th September! His Name: It might seem long, but each part is important: SAMUEL: His first name was the hardest part to decide, but I liked it and Joelle thought it was OK so it 'passed'! I really wanted to give him a Biblical name that was prophetic and came across these verses in 1 Samuel 3:19-20: 'The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD' These verses certainly reflect our hopes for him, that he would grow up honouring God and that he would be a prophetic voice to Taiwan, the UK or wherever else he might be living. The Bible notes also say that Samuel sounds like the Hebrew for heard of God . CHI-EN...