Embracing Your Season (Erin Lee)

Because one of our ladies was sick, I was able to stay in town an extra night with her just in case I needed to take her to the clinic.  This afforded me the opportunity to listen to a New Philadelphia Church sermon by our awesome woman of God, Erin Lee.  And this was the most timely sermon I have every received, especially in my current season of physical discomfort in the bush of Cambodia.

We started by reading Ecclesiastes 3 where is talks about a season for everything.  And it was addressed that you need to know your season and live according to that season.  Picture yourself in summer but you were prepared for winter, so you just wear that big feather-filled jacket anyway.  You set yourself up to be miserable if you don't live according to the season you are in.

Then we were given some don'ts:

• DON'T FOCUS ON THE LOSS BUT FOCUS ON WHAT GOD IS CALLING YOU TO ENJOY. It's natural to be sad about our loss and daydream about a time when we had or a time we will have again, but that is not healthy.  We rob ourselves of joy at that point.
• Application for me:  Stop thinking about how little I have in the bush...chocolate and coffee will be in the world when I get back.  I don't have AirCon, or a Bed, or Comfort...but I have sunrises, coal-stoves, puppies, and intentional time with my team.
• DON'T LONG FOR THE NEXT SEASON BUT BE PRESENT WHERE YOU ARE NOW.  you can get yourself in a very bad cycle...the enemy will always make you look forward and rob you of the now.  That makes you ineffective, trains you to be discontent, and makes you want to change your season.  But you can't can't control your season and that can only frustrate you. (and if you saw the inappropriate movie "Click" then you know that you don't want to fast forward life)
• Application for me:  I have a history of either looking forward or looking back.  I seem to struggle with contentment in the moment, which I recently discovered is a cyclical mentality, that I have to choose to break (taking every thought captive).  I can't afford to focus forward to Korea or Belize or America or I will lose out now.
• DON'T WASTE YOUR SEASON.  Your season could very well be an answer to past prayers...so don't you forget that.  Each season has its purpose and sometimes we will NEVER understand (don't ask "why" instead trust).  We can't let ourselves long for the future without paralyzing our current work.  It's a fight, but if you faithfully sow into this season, you will reap in the next.
• Application for me:  I am not sure what this looks like for me yet, since I truly don't know what season this is for me.  I do know that I am not open to learning how to use this season as long as I ask, "why?" and I know that if I can learn to be content and trust Him, then there will be quite the harvest.

And as I head back into the bush of Cambodia, and find myself covered in flies and sweat, with no relief from heat and no comfortable place to rest...I must keep this in mind.  I must be open to my season and live accordingly, then I will find contentment.

Musings and Random Quotes from the week:

“Sometimes I picture myself in a sweater dress, jeggings, and my fake uggs…then I tear up.”

“I have a wall that only coffee can break down.”

 “We shouldn’t cry when the grace of the old season is lifted, we don’t want last season’s fruit anyway…”

 “Pain is contextualized by the Victory!”

“There are too many Spanish names on this paper to cite it in APA.”

 “I could have fit a piglet in my bag…”

“We are never more weary than we are near the finish-line.  But we are closer to the finish-line than we were when we felt good at the start.”

“There is a progression to our pain/struggle and we are in a process. That's a revelation right there! One of Satan's lies is that if we are struggling then we are failing. But, no! We are growing. Maturity in Christ doesn't mean we will not struggle. We will struggle till we die if we are doing it right.”

“Baloney, craft cheese square, and Mayo on white bread… I want it so bad!  I would give my left pinky toenail for it!”

“It’s been two weeks since I showered…and the water came back on for a minute.  We learned about this is Undergrad.  It’s the ‘tragedy of the commons’…there’s a limited resource…so Imma get it!”

“We were told to bring carry-ons…and I am going to show up to my field study in my 55 liter pack, and budging daypack with my Ukulele shouting, ‘LET’S HAVE AN ADVENTURE!’…yeah someone will stand out in all the photos.”

“Confession isn’t because God needs to hear it, it’s because we do.  What we bring to the light cannot remain dark.”

Images from X-Life

Below I have put a photo blog from my time in a Karen Hilltribe Village.  The family stole my heart, and I wish to never forget them.  I pray we were at least 1/2 the blessing to them, that they were to us.  Enjoy the photos, and check out my mission blog for more on the village.

OUR LITTLE FARM HOUSE

ONE OF MANY OF THE WALKS WE TOOK

RICE FIELDS FOR DAYS

SWEEPING AWAY THE BUG WINGS EVERY MORNING

PLANTING YAMS WITH OUR HOUSE DAD

OUR LITTLE 4-DAY-OLD PIGLETS

SHELLING PEANUTS TO PLANT

Also, we learned a Karen recipe when we were helping cook one night.  I put it below since everyone needs to know it.  It is quite delicious.

PORK SQUASH SOUP

Heat oil and garlic in a pot.

Add chopped pork and brown.

Add squash cut small and mix.

Add water to make it soup (keep some on hand for evaporation)

Add salt and bouillon to taste.

Let cook for 20mins or until squash is soft. (covered)

Add Yellow Curry toward the end.

Serve with rice. (wild rice is most similar to Karen Rice)

My Life is a Joke...

Today I was participating in the "Monk Chat" ministry.  I enjoyed getting to talk with the monk I like to call "My friend from Mumbai".  He has been practicing his English by using a really old joke book.  We took a peek inside and saw that most jokes don't translate culturally.  He then asked us for a joke.

I told him one I found quite humorous about a pirate with a hook, bird poop, and an eye patch.  All together it is a funny joke...I think.  But after the punch line gets me tickled I look up from laughing to see my monk friend looking a little too sober for my liking.

On the walk home, my teammate and I talked about how odd our lives are.  I mean, really...we just spent the last fifteen minutes telling jokes to a monk and finally got him to laugh.  

At that point, I told my teammate that our lives are jokes right now.  Using the slurred words of the drunk American who wouldn't leave us alone during bar ministry, and shifting them into joke form when combined with our dear bartender's words: "Two religious fanatics and a Canadian walked into a Ladyboy Bar....(insert some joke story here)....and the bartender says, "I traded my lemons for coconuts!)  [THIS IS ALL BASED ON WHAT WAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED THAT NIGHT...no words are originally mine...man life is crazy!]

It just makes me think, what other things have happened that make my life seem like an intro to a joke.  I can't even remember.  Something about chickens eating Cheetos in our Haitian Church.  Basically everything about transportation in Africa.  Anything that happened in the oxygen deprived area above 16,000 ft in Bolivia.  Rounding up cattle to loud Indian music and a moped, and the time I went to the market for ice cream and came back with a packet of hair weave instead.  And pretty much anything that happened on a bus could probably be a joke in itself.  

The best part is all the odd and amazing people we have met.  I have cringed at all the awkward moments, but now I have laughter for years.  I will end my blog this way, "One more time for Kris Jenna!"

To see how you can pray this month, check out my prayer newsletter at the link here.

New Ministry

Our Ministry this month is quite interesting!  We are only one day in on a three day orientation, but I can already tell, it is going to be a good month.  We are in Chiang Mai working with Lighthouse in Action.  They have three main ministries to work with, and we will also be helping around the complex as needed.  I might get to paint a little this month if I am lucky.

The three main ministries are as follows:
Love Acts: This ministry comes down to showing God's love to people through relationships.

• Bar ministry- making friends with the working girls in the bars, showing the love of Christ, being a listening ear, and a lot of praying and interceding.
• Monk Chat- going to temples just to talk with monks.  Listening to them, asking questions, sharing our beliefs as well, and overall, just building relationships.
• Slum Ministry-  I am going to request of my team that I can spend quite a bit of time with this one.  Usually it is playing with the kids in the nearby slums...they are hard affected by the Red Light District and need time to just be a kid again.  But two days before we came, a huge fire ravaged the slums.  They lost everything!  And so we are trying to raise money to get them some food and clothes and the like.

X-Life: This ministry involves going to the rural parts of Northern Thailand to work with a build relationships with the poorer families.  The more we can help them and give them options and opportunities, the less likely they will be to sell their children for food money.  We come with the Good News.  I am not certain if our team will be able to go into the rural areas, but I sure hope we do.

Zion Cafe:  Unfortunately the cafe is currently under construction.  But it is a place where rescued working girls can learn a trade in a safe environment.  Even though the cafe is closed, we still have four new ladies starting their second week here.  They cook and clean, earning a pay, until the cafe re-opens in June.  We will provide English language classes for them in the afternoons as well.

Continue to pray for our ministry this month, and please see my World Race Blog to hear more about things that are happening; debrief, ministry, person revelations, and our team Salt N Light.

Going to Penang

Part I:  Breakfast in Chinatown

With a long bus ride to Penang ahead, and the first decent night’s sleep in a long time behind me, I left the soft covers of my hostel bed to buy “bus snacks” at the 7-11.  After noticing that I was near the part of Chinatown where I last bought the steamed dumplings that I call “soft pillows of heaven”, I decided that breakfast was in order.  But upon rounding the corner, I found that the dumpling stand wasn’t open at this hour of the morning.  Cue Momentary Frowny face.

If you know me, then you know that I hate doubling back.  Whenever I hike or walk or run or bike, I find that turning back the way you came feels like undoing all the work that you just did.  So I chose to circle around in a way that was new to me but sort of lead in the right direction. 

Next thing I know, I am in the market.  The real market; passing tables that hold the entire half of a pig.  Walking cautiously to avoid hooves and mystery puddles of liquid on the ground, I began to make my way around still in search of breakfast.  My thoughts breakdown into two thought patterns in moments like this:  First,  I am the only white person here.  Second, oh that icky smell…and something about the movie “Contagion” thanks to Kai and our Peru experience.

I find myself turning out of that market and being called over to some plastic tables by an older Chinese woman who wants me to eat some traditional porridge for breakfast.  It seems harmless enough so she prepares the “8 hidden treasures” rice porridge.  I find when it comes to me that it is not entirely unlike the mush that Neo eats in the real world on the Matrix.  Inside my snotty looking substance in the bowl is found 8 different things.  Chicken, Pork, Red-bean, “Crispy Pork Inners”, Century Egg, Green Onion, and Lord knows what the other two were.  Century Egg concerned me the most (I have had enough animal intestine at this point that I don’t care when something is labeled “inners”).  What concerns me the most is that I am pretty sure that it is just a fancy name for a rotten egg.  I don’t truly think the thing is 100 years old, but I think that eggs shouldn’t be that color…and surely not that flavor.  After two bites of egg, I decided to push it to the side and just around it.  The porridge, as texturally unpleasing as it was, warmed my belly.

Part II: The Angry Driver

All Packed and Ready for Another Bus

Then I was off to the hostel to pack and catch the bus.  Let me tell you a little about this bus.  I am actually typing on it right now.  I was sitting behind a “young hoodlum” as my nana would say.  Sunglasses on, hat to the side, no observation of the world around him…you know the type, they live around the world.  The bus was late, and once we got on it, it continued to be late as we sat waiting for our driver to sort out all the things that seemed to be upsetting him.  At the moment that I was drifting off, it was something about tickets.

I was almost to sleep land and the seat in front of me smacks my knees.  This kid just reclined as far as he could to make himself at home.  I re-adjust and think that that is that.  Drifting slowly as the bus begins to move and to my surprise, the seat he is in can go further back.  Ouch, and no!  He has now pinned the neck of my Uke to the arm rest.  I wiggle it out and toss it into the overhead storage.  I don’t think pleasant thoughts of the young man, because really, it’s a five hour ride, you don’t need to be horizontal.

Slowly drifting again…and I awake to shouting.  The driver has been informed that the young man in front of me is eating.  And since he doesn’t seem to want to put it away, the driver continuing his rant pulls the bus over and storms down the aisle.  The boy quickly hides the goods and promises not to touch them. (At least that is my take on the situation…it was all in Malay and Chinese).  The driver paces the aisle a couple more times lecturing the bus and occasionally throwing in the English, “No Eating, No Drinking.”  I think about the chocolate filled doughnut I bought on impulse at the station and how it sits in my purse begging me to eat it.

Two hours of fitful sleep with my restricted leg room and my negative thoughts and we pull up to a rest stop.  The driver yells, “Four Minutes” and that is all.  So I run off to the bathroom, use it, and then run out so that I can have time with my doughnut.  I want to enjoy every chocolatey bite.  Two bites in and I see them unloading the bus. O.o

I walk over and the chocolate starts to go everywhere.  Apparently they are switching buses and just decided not to tell us.  As I try to down the pastry just to ride myself of the mess (meanwhile kicking myself because this is not how I wanted such a lovely doughnut to go) a teammate hops off the bus with my bag.  BUT ALAS, the Uke is still above the seat thanks to the hoodlum.  She runs on again since my mess of a melty chocolate nightmare is in no state to get it.  She’s a gem.

Upon loading the second bus they found that they couldn’t Tetris the under-bus storage like before and now two of our 60-80 liter packs are riding in seats.  The driver asked before we pulled out, “This bus is going directly to Penang.  Any bad words? OKAY!”  Whatever that means…But now I have leg room (and lap room!) so I am pleased.  And I got to type this blog up since the elderly man I am currently sitting behind has no need to crush the Americans so that he can feel like he is in a bus bed.  So yay!

Adventures in Singapore

Monday: After a Bus to Kuala Lumpur to catch the train to Singapore, I was tired…but couldn’t possibly go to bed and sacrifice those precious first hours in a new city.  I dragged a teammate outside to walk around the little mixture of Chinese and India shops and restaurants near our hostel.  And then when sleepiness got the best of me, I returned to a hot shower and cool bedroom (with a real bed!)

Tuesday: We woke and had continental breakfast (cereal and milk, possible toast) and headed down to the metro to find our way to the Marina Bay Sands structure.  That is the large building made of three towers supporting a ship on top.  We got ourselves up to the top for photo purposes, then split off into two groups.  We walked around the bay area for a bit before going into one of my old favorite coffee places from my time in Korea; “The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf”.  We found ourselves in the historic district after that to tour buildings and a fireman’s museum.  Our wanderings took us to the University, where I was more than happy to buy Kimchi Jjigae for “linner”.  We then rushed off to the Singapore Flyer, the tallest observation wheel in the world (The London Eye comes in 3^rd.)  However, it was closed temporarily for poor weather.  So to pass the time, we ate very delicious gelatos and got fish pedicures.  When that form of ticklish-torture was over, the flyer was running again.  While we were up it, we got to enjoy not only the sights of the city, but also the lightshow that takes place in the botanical garden.  Then it was time to wander back to the metro for our trip back to the hostel.

Wednesday: The theme of today was shopping!  Everyone in my little group bought a dress, or shoes, or shorts. But I did not. I have to be sold on something hardcore to buy it.  And there was only one object that did that for me…but it was too expensive for what it was.  From the shops at Orchard Rd., we went on to Sentosa Island and Boardwalk on our long walk to the beach.  I swam a bit, and hopped into a beachside pool for fun…but then the rains came.  With my beach nap put on hold, I split nachos with some of the girls and then we took off for our next little stop.  We were told by another guest at our hostel that the best views, better than the Flyer, could be found at Singapore’s (and possibly S.E. Asia’s) highest alfresco bar.  It was ladies night so they waved the $30 cover charge and we dressed in our finest clothes (missionary rags compared to the other’s in queue).  Unfortunately due to the weather, the rooftop was closed so they only took us to the 61^st level.  The view was good, but the music loud, the floor crowded, and the lights flashy, and we couldn’t spend more than 20 mins up there taking photos before we ran off to Starbucks.  That’s more my speed even if the view isn’t as good.  :-P

Overall, this was an expensive endeavor, but hopefully, this experience has given me a little bit of the comforts of home.  Good food, touring time, and getting to play in shopping malls…though I hope to actually buy something one day…

That was the adventure that was Singapore.  Now back to teaching.

Singapore at Night from the Flyer (highest observation tower in the world)