East Asia || Day 6

7/17/12 1:48 p.m. – Thanks to my Japanese bracelet (it says Make Him Famous), I was able to talk to CoCo about who Jesus was. Not super in depth, but it’s a start J She is very into people’s connections & their spirits so I was glad to get to talk to her. She is in kind of a stressful point in life, so I pray she can find peace here and true joy. In our group this morning, we talked about life maps (where you’ve been in life and where your life is headed). One boy said he worked at an orphanage last summer as a teacher and he discovered that the kids turned out to be more of the teachers because they were so joyful and smiled all the time. We talked about what might’ve caused them to smile so much and eventually he said he thought it was probably because of the nice people from the church who helped to run the orphanage J Then Mike said that last summer he went to Bali. He said that he had never seen such beautiful scenery and that when he looked in the clear water and saw such a beautiful fish, he just instantly had a vision that everything in this world would die, and so it is better to have joy! Wow! I mean how amazing??  I hope that through this experience he can find truth & that God will reveal himself even further to Mike :)

7/17/12 10:36 p.m. – Have you ever used the excess water you ring out from your hair to clean your toilet? I have. For 4 days now. That’s just what you have to do when your toilet and shower are the same thing. Today I had hot water for the first time. It was so nice! Except that it’s kind of weird because this strange smoke comes out of the pipe (we don’t have a shower head in our room) & it spits out in random bursts. I can’t tell if the smoke is just steam from the hot water meeting the air, or if it’s some kind of problem, but either way, I’m showering in it.

I’m really missing home a lot today. It has been one week since we left (almost). We are 12 hours ahead here, so in 12 hours it will be one week. The days seem to go by very slow. I think the hardest part is having absolutely no contact whatsoever with people back home. I am reading through text messages on my phone that people sent before I left to keep my spirits up and I am so encouraged and blessed by all my dear friends and their words of encouragement. However, I am having a great time! And I am so excited to see how the rest of the week goes! It is so exciting to see all of the curiosity that they have! Today was the first day I have not really wanted to eat any of the food, but I think most of the Americans are down to the “rice only” phase, as everything else is a little different! J Also, my chacos tan is becoming very apparent since those are the only shoes I have worn since I’ve got here. And I still can’t get enough of the students singing about Joy!

^{John 16: "22} So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy."

"³³ “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”