Life of A Nobody

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Ms. 紀貴平 Ellen Giebel's Mission Flyer from Hualien, Taiwan 1971

玉山聖經學院

背山依水，湖光十色。

Ms. Ellen Giebel, 5th right behind the 1st row

玉山聖經學院前合影

Ms. Ellen Giebel, 2nd right in the 2nd row

That was the look of college students in our time.

His jacket resembles our Taita uniform.

Orchid Island is 蘭嶼 Lan-Yu.

花蓮當年一支獨秀的亞士都大飯店。

Friday, March 20, 2015

125 Years Old Taroko Tribal Man on Giebel's Mission Flyer 1967

Without a doubt, his natural living beats out our modern civilized city living

both in the spirit and in the flesh !

Front side (above)

Back side (below)

紀貴平Giebel's Mission Letter Sent from Hong Kong Feb - May 1951

That year was the great withdraw of China Inland Mission missionaries. Isobel Kuhn described in detail how she climbed over snow-covered mountains after mountains to enter Burma from Yunna. She mentioned her husband was also experiencing difficulties in exiting China. Isobel authored the book "Green Leaf in Drought Time" to depict the touching story of the suffering Arthur and Wilda Mathews, and their one-year-old daughter, Lilah who were trapped in China for a lengthy period of time (below).
Green Leaf in Drought Time: Isobel Kuhn Backstory and Book Review by LINDA JO MARTIN on FEBRUARY 27, 2014
http://lindajomartin.com/2014/02/27/green-leaf-drought-time-isobel-kuhn-backstory-book-review/

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Art of Coffee Roasting and Brewing

French pan Vietnamese sea salt roasted Ethiopian coffee beans

Tea draining style (French press equivalent) filter paper less brewed coffee

in a Japanese coffee cup

3-19-2015

I should not doubt this Ethiopian way of pan roasting and will try it out just to evaluate my sea salt roasting process. Looks like a chemical engineering project, haha, definitely!

http://lostdutchmancoffee.com/Newsletters/index.html

Pan Coffee Roasting from an Expert

There have been several well-written articles about pan roasting of coffee. It seems everyone who has tried this has his or her own little tricks that come only with experience. Here at The Dutchman, we have tried many different ways, only to find that it is somewhat difficult and requires a certain amount of physical exertion (rocking a heavy frying pan back and forth over a stove burner set to high heat) and close attention to keep from scorching the beans. Then we met an immigrant from Ethiopia named Tsege.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Life Is Full of Miracle

Life is full of miracle - only many of which we take for granted.

On Feb. 17, 2015, right after my reading of Our Daily Bread, I decided to, on my 3rd attempt, try calling Ms. Ellen Giebel (Ji Laoshi). Just before I almost wanted to give up, the phone was picked up on the other end. I was so glad to hear Ji Laoshi's voice once again. I said, "I am so and so" and she said, "I know you". I said frankly that I was worried she may have checked into hospital because no one answered the phone. She told me she was visiting home. She further clarified it was Amherst, MA, where she was teaching and helping out Chinese student in the nearby university. Immediately

she asked if I was visiting her. With extreme sadness, I apologized to her that I had kept putting off my trip to pay a visit. In English and in Taiwanese, we talked for more than 40 some minutes (I did not want to wear her down even though she did not show any sign of fatigue). A week later on 2-25-2015, my cousin Jane sent this note to me, "Shean, Just to let you know our beloved Ellen Giebel went to the Lord of Glory this morning around 8:25 (2-25). My sister went to visit her around New Year and she was in the hospice at that time. ..."

Helen's message on Feb. 17 coincided with the miracle Ji Laoshi picked up my call a week before she passed away. As far as I am concerned, nothing is coincidental. God is in total control of all things. He makes miracles.

My sister happened to have this collection of Helen Steiner's wisdom of words,

so she gave it to me.

In 2008, Ms. Ellen Giebel sent me some ten sentences of encouraging words written by Helen Steiner Rice, which she copied from some publication (below). 2008 was my very difficult year when comforting words would help a great deal.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Friday, March 6, 2015

Story of Ms. Ellen Giebel by Susan Tseng

"My friend Miss Ellen Giebel"
written by Susan (Ah-shin) Tseng June, 2013
(edited by me 3-6-2015)

- A Testimony Showing God Is In Control

We met Miss Giebel about 53 years ago through a pastor whom we had known for a long time. Miss Giebel was looking for an apartment to rent on a short term. She found it hard to find a decent place for her budget. The pastor came to talk to my husband about it because he knew we had another which was next to the one we were living in. The house was actually for sale. The pastor suggested to my husband since the market was kind of slow we might as well rent it out for 4 months. My husband agreed. Ms. Giebel was so happy that she moved in right away. However, the house was sold a month later out of blue. The buyer was eager to occupy the house immediately and we had no choice but to let the transaction go through as scheduled.

As such, my husband had his construction company employee work day and night for one and a half week to remodel the room on the 3rd floor of our house to accommodate Ms. Geibel. She was very touched for what my husband had done for her. At the time, my children were all very young, so they became frequent intruders in Giebel's living space. Ms. Giebel had them read the Bible and told them religious stories. Since I was very shy, I had never spoke to Ms. Giebel till 3 days before she was homebound for the States. I cooked some rice noodle soup (米粉汤) and asked my kids to bring to her one bowl of it. Ms. Giebel was exceedingly pleased because she had been only eating ice cream from across the street for 3 days in a roll. The next day I cooked curry chicken and invited her over for dinner. The following day Ms. Giebel was leaving for US. My whole family sent her off at the airport and my husband gave her a "red envelope" (红包) that had NT$1000. On our return trip home, the pastor told us that Ms. Giebel had only NT$300 with her. She asked him to sell her old camera for NT$1000, but he could not do it. God provides. Ms. Giebel got exactly what she needed.

Ms. Giebel returned to Hualien when her one year furlough came to an end. She rented a house in town somewhere, but she did not quite liked it. Naturally we welcomed her back to live in her old quarters on the 3rd floor. A similar scenario occurred again. A few months later my husband decided to move us to a beautiful country-look area called Mei-lun美崙 (beautiful hill) on the other side of town. Since Ms. Giebel had quickly became almost a member of our family, she opted to move with us even though our new house in Mei-lun was just a small wooden two-story house. We heard confirming comments from our country folk that the American lady is just like a member of our family; when we move, she moves. Grace was just born and she essentially became Ms. Giebel's adopted daughter. Mei-lun was an undeveloped area, but it had beautiful scenery with the mountain on one side and the ocean on the other side. Still some folk could not understood why we left behind a big house in the busy center of town to settle in a rural primitive countryside. Ms. Giebel lived and ate with us for 15 years. In 1978, my family emigrated to California. As Grace grew up speaking English to Ms. Giebel, she was the only one that had no language issue in the States. When Ms. Giebel returned to the States on furlough, she always asked if spoke only English to Grace. Ms. Giebel lived in Massachusetts after she retired from her missionary work in Taiwan. We talked on the phone every week and she used to visit us in Moraga, CA once a year till a few years ago she experienced some travelling difficulties. I sent her frozen fried rice noodle (炒米粉) from time to time because I know she liked it.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Treasurable Thing Bearing the Name of Missionary Ellen Giebel 紀貴平傳教士

Ms. Ellen Giebel's life blossoms like this flower. Ms. Giebel (Ji Laoshi 紀老師 as we used to call her) was born (to be a good soldier of Jesus) in Cheefoo, China. The modern name of Cheefoo is Yantai 煙台, a prefecture-level city in northeastern Shandong province. When one year old, she moved to America. She returned to Cheefoo in 1948. She said, in Shanghai, China, she met the daughter of famous Isobel Kuhn, missionary to Lisu people in Yunnan, China. They were studying Mandarin. In 1951, Ms. Giebel began serving with Overseas Missionary Fellowship in Taiwan. Stationed in Taitung, the east-south part of Taiwan, she from time to time met 彭蒙惠 Doris Brougham, who were stationed in Hualien, Taiwan. As Ms. Giebel put it, both of them were pretty lonely during their early missionary years in Taiwan.