From Lawrance’s View:
One day, I was browsing Facebook when I clicked on a picture of a normal American lady in my friend’s friend list. The lady is Amanda whose information box at her Facebook showed she was going to be the teacher of Southern Taiwan University (STU) where I was studying at. Moreover, I found on her Flickr pictures some people I knew—Karen and Christine–my favorite teacher’s (Corrina) daughters. For this reason, I left a message and added her as my friend.
From Amanda’s View:
I had told my neighbor Corrina (my friend of about six years and new
neighbor) about this student from STUT adding me to his Facebook. She knew who it was because he (Lawrance) had told her that he’d seen her
girls on my Facebook. She hinted that she had thought before that we might make a good match. But, I didn’t know anything about him other than that he had added me to his Facebook and was a student at STUT.
From Lawrance’s View:
Days passed, then I got a call from a Christan friend from STUT asking me for a favor. He wanted me go with him to show Amanda how to get from her apartment to STU because his English was poor. Well, when my friend and I got to Amanda’s place I saw she had Gilby with her. At that time I thought this lady must like dogs a lot.
From Amanda’s View:
As we were driving to the school, I kinda “tested” Lawrance by answering all his questions in Chinese. I was wanting to see if he cared more about relationships or practicing English. Needless to say, he passed. He very quickly moved to Chinese only (probably our only “only Chinese” day yet).
{Update: Friends and family in America have been confused by this test . . . so let me explain real quick. In Taiwan, many people want foreign friends simply to practice English–not because they really care about the “foreign friend.” So, I was “testing” this guy to see (a) did he care about me as a person or as a way to study and (b) did he care more about practicing English or relationships (remember, the other guy with us spoke no English).}
He showed me and Gilby around campus, pointing out all kinds of things about the school. Then we sat in a dorm lobby, and he shared his heart with me telling me his desire to share the gospel with Taiwanese college students. He was asking me to help out with the campus’ Christian club, but I was hearing the heart of a man whose heart was so like mine own.
So, I began watching Lawrance . . . to see what kind of man he really was. I liked what I saw.
From Lawrance’s View:
When three of us arrived at the campus, I showed her some important buildings and shared some information about STU with her. In the beginning I spoke in English to her but she replied to me in Chinese. This made me feel relieved but surprised! I didn’t know her Chinese was so good that she would be able understand most of what I said.
I remember I shared a lot of things about Christians at STU and tried to invite her to join the Christian fellowship on campus. I don’t remember how long I talked with her. I guess it might have been around 30 minutes, crazy huh!?
Well . . . at that time I did not think there was any possibility between Amanda and I. Only Heaven knew we would become a couple and would eventually become husband and wife!
