East Asia || Day 5

7/16/12 4:10 p.m. - All of the Campers have come and I am so excited! We have a total of 5 campers in our room, plus me, Misty, and Karen, so it’s a full room. Some of them are not used to the heat, so they are struggling a little bit, but I pray it would not hold them back. I am very excited and I think they are eager to learn! One of my roommates, Sunny, just gave me some M&M’s J So exciting. She is from Mongolia & is not doing very well with the heat, but hopefully she will adjust. CoCo is our other roommate. She is very sweet & her English is very good. The other girls in the suite seem very nice and I am excited to get to know them & meet the boys in our group! One of the girls, Grace, told me “Oh! You look so nice! I love blonde and blue!” J Blonde hair, blue eyes (I guess blue is close enough to green ;) )

7/16/12 – 10:33 p.m. - We just finished the first day & wow! What a great time. I love the students in my group & they are so excited to learn. They all tell me I am beautiful because of my blonde hair! If any American is feeling a little down in the dumps, I sincerely suggest coming here! They will tell you how beautiful you are all day! They are teaching me a lot of the language and say that I am very good at pronunciation. But the most exciting thing so far is that CoCo told me she can see the Peace that I have! She said she has never seen a person who could be so happy in front of everyone and not go home and cry at night. I pray that she would continue to see this and that a door would be opened to talk to her.

Psalm 4:

"6 Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?”

    Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.

7 You have filled my heart with greater joy 

    than when their grain and new wine abound.

8 I will lie down and sleep in peace, 

    for you alone, O Lord,
    make me dwell in safety."

East Asia || Days 3 & 4

7/15/12 – 9:06 p.m. - Yesterday & today we have had training for the coaches. It is for all of the Americans, and all of the local students who will be helping with coaching. I didn’t sign up to be a coach, but when I got here, I had been assigned that role. I was very excited, because I think it is such an important role and I am honored to get to be one! My co-coaches are Misty, Peter, and Karen. Misty and Peter are locals, but Karen is also American and is from California.

The training has been very helpful & informative, but I am excited for the campers to get here tomorrow! I have noticed that the local students are really good at encouraging others. When they think someone or something is good, they clap for them. It is so exciting and it warms my heart! Another great things is hearing them sing “You are my Sunshine” and “Joy to the World” (AKA Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog, not the Christmas song) or “God Is So Good” which has for obvious reasons been switched to “You Are So Good”. The theme for the camp this year is Joy and Gratitude. It so great and uplifting to hear them speak about Joy! Everyone is so friendly and wants to learn from each other. I am excited to see how the campers will enjoy the camp. They arrive tomorrow! It is so great to wake up on a Sunday morning and here the students sing about Joy! I just can’t get enough. We had a culture training session today and it was very interesting to see the difference between the two cultures. Also, tonight we heard from the camp speakers and they gave us an overview of their lessons so that we could be better prepared for the group discussions. One of the speakers, Paul Stanley Sr. said, “wouldn’t you like to lay down at night and hear a voice in your heart say ‘Well done my good and faithful servant?’” All of the students thought that was so neat! It brought tears to my eyes – just like when they sing about joy. It makes me so happy! I pray that one day they will hear that voice. He also told a story about his English teacher in middle school or high school who encouraged him to write even though he was a C-student.  He then said that 15 years ago he wrote his first book and tried to call the teacher that had encouraged him, but she had died the previous year. The students all clapped. It was like they were clapping for her in her honor. So cool and so nice. I love when they clap for people! I can’t wait for the campers to get here! Also, it’s kind of weird to think that the first service is just now starting at church back in Texas J

One more thought I had today is that this culture is old. 5,000 years. But the awesome thing is that God has been around for much longer and has been at work here and will continue to be at work here long after we leave.

Reminded how great God is:

^{Deuteronomy 4: "32} Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? ³³ Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? ³⁴ Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things theLord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?"

East Asia || Day 2

7/13/12 – 10:01 p.m. - Wow. So much has happened. I can’t even describe it any other way than humble. Oh, but humble now means using a shower that is also your toilet and is on a balcony and has no hook to hang anything on and has to be operated by a card – and when you get out of it you will instantly sweat again, plus you will immediately have to cover yourself in bug spray. BUT, I LOVE IT HERE. It is so amazing! Here’s a list of everything I have done since I got here:

1. Made it through customs
2. Let strange men take my luggage away from me & promise to take it to my hotel (they did J )
3. Went to Wild Goose Pagaoda and touched a super old Buddha statue with Emma
4. Left the rest of my luggage on a bus where another man promised to take care of it – he did!
5. Stayed in a hotel!
6. Went to a night market!
7. Ate dumplings on the 5^th floor of a restaurant after they shoved us in an elevator without telling us what was happening!
8. Bargained with street vendors!
9. Saw the terra-cotta warriors!
10. Ate lunch at a local restaurant!
11. Ate a small bite of some unidentifiable meat that Jacob bought from a street vendor! It was really good! But definitely not “beef” like they said it was.
12. Stayed in a dorm at a university!
13. Ate duck
14.  Used a squatty potty
15. Took a shower with water that came from about a ¾” pipe with no shower head

First day here recap: we got off the plane at 10:40 and were relieved to find that all of our luggage had made it to China! Praise the Lord! We exchanged our money (it’s really nice to give the lady $60 and get 311 in return!) and then met our tour guide! Best guy ever! I knew I would like him the minute I saw he was even smaller than me and that he had little khaki Capri’s on with plaid cuffs J.

He told us to leave our bags on one bus so they could take them to our hotel and then get on another bus so we could go on our tour. Everything in me and all of my culture/travel training was like “don’t do it”, but what else were we gonna do? So we said some prayers and parted ways with our bags. We went on our first day of touring where he took us to a museum and told us a lot of history about all of the dynasties! He also told Emma she looked like a movie star and gave Jacob his new name: Jake-a-bob. None of the people we met could say his name right, and they all said it this way! We got to see a lot of relics and artifacts. Next we went to a subway (like the restaurant) so that the group could get some lunch. I didn’t eat there, but just had a protein bar, I wasn’t very hungry.

After lunch we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda & got to see the temple there. It is 7 stories tall! It was so nice to learn about their history and culture, but sad to see the children worshipping the statues and then looking to their parents and grandparents for approval. Our tour guide got us a free painting demonstration at the gift shop area so we got to see how they painted with the calligraphy brushes. That was really fun! After that we went to our hotel (our bags were waiting for us J ) where we showered, slept for about 30 minutes, and then went out to the night market! SO FUN! We ate at a restaurant there. When we got there they shoved us into an elevator, pressed a button and then the door closed. We thought for sure we would all be dead soon, but it opened on the 5^th floor - which was really nice and much quieter. We ate some dumplings (really good) and chicken, which Jacob made me eat, since I had been passing up that opportunity – didn’t want to deal with the bones, but it was really tasty. After dinner we did some shopping and then met went back to our hotel for some much needed rest! We went to sleep about 11:30 and then woke up the next morning about 7:30 and checked out of our hotel then met up with our tour guide and got ready for our next day of touring!

We went to the terra-cotta warriors! It was so pretty in that area and exciting to see the warriors! Never did I think I would be seeing those in real life! Once again our tour guide got us some good deals and we got a free tea demonstration at the tea house on the property! It was so good! And we all got to sample different types of tea. Next we walked to a nearby restaurant where we got chicken, beef, rice, noodles, and cucumber. All delicious! We also ordered a shrimp dish that came with fried tea leaves! SO GOOD! I don’t eat shrimp, and these ones were whole so I couldn’t bring myself to eat them, but the fried tea lives were absolutely delicious. They were kind of like less greasy potato chips, but tasted much better!

After that, we traveled for about 2 hours to the university. On the way there we spent a lot of time talking with our tour guide. He was so nice to everyone and we all showed him pictures of our family! I was showing him things I had sewn and he told me that if I found a man to marry me it would be like he won the lottery because I have good wife skills haha. He said so many great things to everyone and a lot of funny things, that were really only funny because of the translation difference. For example “people say I have a young baby heart” instead of saying he was youthful, and “couples go over there and talk love” haha.

We got a little lost as we got closer to it because it is farther from the city and there are a lot of country roads. Eventually we made it there! Once we arrived everyone was so nice and extremely helpful! But it was so humbling. It is a very nice university! But it’s about the same temperature as Texas and they don’t have air conditioning, elevators, or separate shower/toilet/sink areas. It just makes you realize how much easier things are – also, you can’t throw toilet paper in the toilet. So you just put it in the trashcan. Everyone is so nice and curious about Americans. It’s such a great culture!

First 36 hours here!

7/13/12-10:48 p.m. - Prayed asking for a word of encouragement, opened directly to the first page of Matthew. Reminded that if He can be humble and born to a strange family situation in a barn, then surely I can be humble for 2 weeks.

Also, seeing the city wall earlier today reminded me of Nehemiah. It also brought to mind the ancient work here, and that we are not the first people in the body to come and do work here. He is with us.

My prayer for these people, that they would destroy the old ways in which their ancestors worshipped and confess their sins and come to know the on, true God:

Nehemiah 9: " ¹ On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. ² Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. ³ They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lordtheir God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. ⁴ Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani. They cried out with loud voices to the Lord their God. ⁵ And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”

“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. ⁶ You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you."

East Asia || Day 1

Written somewhere in the air over the Yellow Sea around 9:00 am Korean Time - At 2:45 p.m. (CST) we met at DFW airport to get our bags checked and go through security. Everything went smoothly and then we waited around until about 4:45 when we boarded our flight for LAX. ICE CUBE was on our plane to LA! I totally made eye contact with him while Emma giggled behind me from nervousness and Alex snapped a picture. That plane ride went fairly smooth. There was an Australian family behind me. There was also a Hispanic couple next to me that only spoke Spanish - I accidentally squirted my water bottle on them while I was trying to open it, but they were asleep so they didn’t notice, thank goodness. We flew over lots of deserts and mountains and combinations of the two. I had a window seat, so it was nice to look at. About 6:15 (PST) we arrived at LAX and made our way across the street to the international terminal. We ate some tacos (pretty good, but no Tex-Mex J ) and hung out for a while before going through security. Nearly everyone in our group got pulled aside to have their bags re-checked. Mine was because I had several books stacked up in my backpack, but I had a nice conversation with the TSA agent and then went on my way. Once we were all through security, we began the long wait for our flight, which didn’t leave until 11:50 p.m. (PST). The international terminal seemed like a wasteland. There were hardly any places to buy things and with all the internationals, it seemed like we were already in a different country. I sat in a little corner by a “restricted access” door for about an hour so I could charge my phone. Eventually, it was time to get on the plane! The plane was super nice, and fairly roomy – maybe not 12.5 hours later, but still way more room than the LA flight. Stacey switched seats with me so I had a window seat! It was night the whole time we were traveling, which really helped because it was somewhat easier to sleep. Although I probably only slept about 4 hours total. I had taken a Benadryl because I have a bit of a cold/allergies. That also helped me sleep, but mostly I would feel like I had been asleep for hours, only to wake up and see that only 30 minutes had passed. I watched several movies on the plane – each seat had it’s own screen with lots of movie choices! After what seemed like a very long time, we arrived in South Korea! We went through security once more (where my bag had to be screened twice – darn books!) and then waited for our flight to our final destination! We arrived at 4:25 a.m. on July 12, so we never had a July 11^th! The airport was pretty dead, but we walked around anyways – had to stretch after that long flight! We discovered that Korean airport bathrooms are really nice and classy – and kind of futuristic! Then we took advantage of the empty airport by stretching out and taking naps. We then got ready to board our last flight of the “day”! They served us a meal – which I wasn’t expecting, but it was really good! I had beef & noodles with snap peas & carrots. They also had something called “morning tofu”, which I did not eat despite its cute packaging. I also got some coffee in hopes of helping me not be so sleepy as we will be touring around this afternoon!

9:35 am (Korean Time) - Opened the airplane window and saw China for the first time. WOW! It was south of Beijing, somewhere around Baoding. Beautiful mountains. Instantly makes me think of Ancient China and all the people that have probably passed through those mountains. Makes me excited for China’s future. The whole time we were flying it was cloudy so I couldn’t see anything once we left Korea. Opened my window for a peak once we were over land again and WOW! I’m so tired, but just can’t stop looking!

^{Ephesians 6: "19} Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."

"Watch your life and doctrine closely, preserve in them, because if you do you will save both yourself and your hearers" - 1 Timothy 4:16.

This is my prayer and my journey as I try to seek and do the will of the Lord.