What a week!

This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind.  Where to start...

We had to say goodbye to a good friend and coworker at the end of June, so last week was the first week we had without her at our center.  She did a lot of work, so trying to figure out exactly how to do her job took a while, but I think that we made it through the most difficult part...in addition to being the first week without her, it was also the beginning of the term, which involved keeping track of payments and student schedules.  It wasn't a huge deal, but last week was just very busy.

So on Wednesday, I was scrambling to get my house ready to have guests from Taiwan!  They arrived on Thursday and left on Sunday.  I was so happy to have them come, and it was honestly fun to have roommates for a few days--even if it was 6 of them!  There were so many, and though all of them had some knowledge of English, one spoke fluently, a few spoke a little less than that, and the rest were beginners.  However, it was great for me to practice my Mandarin.  As I believe I posted a few posts ago, I've just recently become confident enough to talk to people other than my coworkers and teacher in Mandarin, even if they speak English.  They were a joy to host, and they did some wonderful things at our center!  It was so great to have them here, and I thank God for their willingness to do evangelism here!

On Saturday while the team was working at the center, I was entertaining!  I had a few friends come over for supper. I made lasagna and apple pie, and we played Uno and Yahtzee!  It was a lot of fun. Most of them liked the lasagna--some didn't but I don't take offense to that. It's their first time to eat something like that!  The noodles fascinated some of them! :)  The apple pie was a big hit too.  I said, "You don't get much more American than Apple Pie!"

Sunday after the team left, I was able to spend some time with a friend who I haven't spend one on one time with yet. It was a lot of fun! We went to dinner and then walked around Macau in search of green!  We found a park where we saw a badminton court, and we made loose plans to play badminton in the future :)  We also went to the water reservoir to escape the sounds of the city for a while and look at the large open area where the water is kept.

After that, I went to a friend's place where I had a midnight snack with 2 old friends and 2 new friends!  We had some great conversation that led to worship!  We sang a Chinese song.  I sang the characters that I new and hummed the rest.  I did a lot of humming ;)

Monday, I went hiking with 2 of the friends from the previous night.  We got a little sun burnt, but it was worth it!  After hiking, we met up with another GEO from a sister center who came to Macau for the day, and we went out for dim sum where I met 2 students.  It was really busy, and they had just finished eating, so  they gave us their table.  After dim sum, we went shopping, and then to a park, and then out for a drink.  On our way to get some coffee/tea, we ran into another student of mine.  I ended up ordering an almond milk.  It was really good.  I got a white syrupy liquid filled glass, and a small metal creamer cup full of...something brown.  Probably the liquefied almond powder.  I mixed them together, and it was delicious.  I will probably order it again!


After drinking tea, we parted ways, and 2 of us went to a show called the House of Dancing Waters.  It was amazing.  The way that people move around and dive into the water and so on is just amazing.  The technical elements are amazing also.  The stage moves as if by itself in a beautiful, quick, and fluid way where it sometimes completely covers the pool, and sometimes half way covers it, and sometimes leaves it completely open for divers to dive from what seems to be 3 stories high! It was amazing to watch.


After that, I went home to rinse off and to get some ingredients, then I went to the store on the way to a friend's house, and cooked dinner for 2 friends.  (I know I'm ambiguous with the word 'friend', but I want to protect the privacy of my friends, and I'd prefer not to mention their names as this is on the Internet).  It was a delicious dinner.  We had dumplings, black pepper chicken, and a Chinese vegetable that I don't actually know the English name for.  After doing the dishes, we relaxed on the couch and watched House on Pearl TV (Hong Kong's English TV station).  It was a lot of fun, though it was a very busy day!


I was talking with Serena, and we decided that it's because I'm leaving.  I've been craving having this time with friends for so long, and now that I'm leaving, it's finally starting.  So hopefully it will still come together like this when I get back in August!


Today has been less eventful, but it still involved a half an hour conversation with a friend who works across the street from me.  It was great :)  I've just been having more conversations and hang-out sessions with friends lately, and I feel very blessed :)  Many of the people who I spent time with are Christian, and I think that during all of the times, the conversation naturally flowed to Faith in one way or another.  I was able to share some things and encouragements to those who are not Christian, and to give and receive encouragement from those who are!


What do you feel blessed about lately?  How's God working in your life?

Friends and Apple Pie!

I am having the most terrible time sleeping, so I will just blog!

The apple pie that I made from scratch today!

It's been a really encouraging week so far.  A friend/student was baptized this week!  His family attends a local church, and he is the last of the family to convert to Christianity.  We are so happy for him, and I was blessed to be able to attend the baptism!  It was really encouraging to see so many Christians gathered in one area, and for them to sing loud and proud praise to God!  It was even a special service: at 8pm on a Monday, and there were tons of people!

I also was able to reconnect with some friends this week.  In addition to seeing some that I have not seen in ages, I was able to somehow convince some of my friends to come to my house on Saturday.  We're gonna have supper and play some games.  I even baked an apple pie!  I just hope that the crust doesn't get soggy in 3 days.  It is so delicious though. I'm excited to eat it!

3 CUW grads!  Elliot is married to CEC staff member Serena,
and Bob was here as a short-termer: he left on July 2.

We have a team from Taiwan coming to help out our center.  The team has about 14 people, not including the vicar and his family from HK who is leading them.  7 of them will be staying with me for 4 nights. They arrive tomorrow (well, since it's 5am I guess that is today!), and will stay 'til Sunday.  My house is super clean.  I took all of the storage out of the small bedroom and put it into my bedroom so that they wouldn't feel like they were sleeping in a closet.  I hope they are comfortable.  I only have 4 beds, but 2 of them are large enough for 2 people, and I also have a couch.  I also have mats that we can put on the ground to provide a slightly more comfortable sleeping environment than sleeping on the hard wood floor.

I hear it's been quite hot in America.  The heat doesn't really match here, but it sure is humid!  I have been emptying my dehumidifiers quite often...about once a day, now...and their water capacity is about 2 gallons.  That's a lot of water coming out of the air every day!  4 gallons total from my apartment!

The view from a park that I walk though to get home.

I have uploaded my most recent newsletter.  Feel free to check it out by clicking on the link in the column on the left.  Enjoy!

For now, I think it's soon time to go back to bed.  I don't know what it is.  Maybe I just got to excited with all of the cleaning of my house and baking apple pie that I can't sleep.  At least I don't have to be up until 11 or 12, though!

Stay safe tonight with the fireworks!  Happy 4th of July! :)

Video

Just in case you haven't seen it yet, here is the video that I made!  

Besides this post, you can also find it on the Macau Facts page!

Mid-June Updates

An unusual view of Macau: from the top of the lighthouse
which is often closed to the public.

It is already past mid-June.  That went fast!  The count is down, and there are 3 weeks and 5.5 days until my departure to the states!  I hope that those of you who are graciously hosting me are eagerly anticipating seeing me and hearing about Macau this summer, because I am eagerly anticipating sharing about it!

This month has been so busy.  I worked on creating a video to send out to the summer camp that I worked with for a long time, and that was a lot of fun.  I just have 2 things to edit, and I can then send the video out to everyone :)  I might get some help from my brother at home, as he's an editing major, and it could look much better than my amateur work!  (I'll upload the video to the internet soon.  I seem to have misplaced the file, and it took a LONG time for it to upload to the blog, so I aborted and left work.)

A roller coaster that I was able to ride!

I also had a few Skype presentations.  If I am not able to see you or your church or group when I am at home, please consider scheduling a time with me to present via Skype!  Also, there are a few other missionaries that I could possibly send your way who would love to share, and who are in need of funding for next year!

Last Friday during our free class, I was able to talk about Pentecost. (Yes, I know..we're a little behind in the calendar!)  We had fun putting flames of fire on our heads, and creating wind socks to catch the wind, and remind us of the Holy Spirit coming in a great wind!  We also sang the song "When the Spirit says sing you gotta sing!"  It was a fun, active song that helped get energy out, and also taught us to listen to the Holy Spirit!

Most of my students took their exams last week, and some of them are done with school now.  (Some take exams before actually being done with the year).  I am excited for them, because this means that a major stress is gone!  Exams are taken very seriously here--more so than in the USA.  It is a lot of pressure, and it could bring a lot of shame on the student and possibly their family if they do poorly, so there is a tremendous amount of pressure.  I am so thankful that they all got through it, and now can have time to relax!

I am looking forward to the Dragon Boat Festival happening this coming Saturday.  There will be dragon boat races at one of the local lakes.  Also, I have a friend from college visiting that weekend, and it should be a fun time!

No, this does not dispense straws.  It's a
chop stick dispenser!! :)

My Mandarin is slowly improving.  I have classes every week, and every week I gain a little more confidence in my ability to speak some!  Today I learned how to say 'above', 'below', 'in front of', 'behind', 'inside', and 'outside'. These, though very simple, caused me a lot of stuttering in class haha!  It was fun, though!  "wo de shou ti dian nao zai tai zi shang mian!" (My computer is above the table!) "shui zai zhe ge bei li mian" (water is inside this cup).  It's great to be able to describe it!  I even attempted (and slightly failed, but still attempted almost successfully) to communicate the concept that I forgot my phone at home, and when I was riding the bus to work, I realized that I forgot it, so had to get off the bus, go back home, get my phone, and then go back to work.  It was a struggle, but I actually did a fist pump when I finished it.  And my teacher was proud of me! :)  It was a great day of 普通话课。 (Mandarin Class)

I think that's about it for my updates.  For those of you that I will see this summer, I look forward to seeing you!  For those that I will miss, I regret that I am only home for a short time, but I hope to catch you on Skype and/or next summer!  Please let me know if you are free when I am in your area (schedule found in the June newsletter).  Keep an eye out for one more newsletter before I leave for America!

God's Blessings!

Prayer Request

I want to put out a prayer request: on my way home from work today, I all of the sudden heard a scream on the bus: "A-HI!" which means "Auntie!" (a common term to describe any woman who's about an aunt's age).  I looked back, and I didn't see anything happen on the bus, but as I turned back around some blue lights caught my eyes.  There were 2 police motorcycles blocking off a portion of the road, and as I looked more closely, an "Oh my goodness" escaped my lips as I saw first a lady sitting on the ground on the other side of a motorcycle in obvious pain, and then my eyes found another lady laying on the ground with her hands over her head.  Thankfully that meant that she was alive. But I'm sure that neither is doing great at the moment.

Please say a prayer for those ladies.  I don't know any more information, as I just drove by on the bus.  They already had help, though, so I didn't think about getting off, since the language barrier would obviously prove troublesome, but I couldn't help feeling guilty about not thinking about them.

When I see someone in pain like that who I know is getting help, I still feel guilty for not doing anything.  I know that there was nothing that I could do that wasn't already being done, but I still feel like I should have done something.  Well, I guess that I can do something: PRAY, and ask God to help them!  So I'd like to ask you to join me in that.

Friday

Today was Friday.  We had our regular Friday Night Bible Study.  It was a fun day.  We learned about the Ascension of Jesus, and it was great!  I, as usual, had the little kids!

We sang the song "I've got the Joy Joy Joy Joy down in my heart!"  And then we sang "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in the morning, Jesus at the noontime, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus when the sun goes down!"  And learned the Bible verse: "Jesus said, 'I am with you always!'"

It was a fun Bible Study.  The new boy even came up and gave me a hug afterwards!  He's not really new, but hasn't come in a very long time.

Besides the Bible study, I had my classes as normal.  Half of my students have taken their exams already, and the other half have them coming up this week.  Please pray for all of the students in HK and Macau who are taking exams now.  They are so much more pressure here than they are in the States.  It's crazy how intense they are.  Please pray that they keep their sanity and that they are able to study well get good scores!

Do YOU have any prayer requests?  As our Bible verse says, Jesus is always with us!  He always listens to our prayers, and He promises to be with us in all that we do :)  Thank God for loving us, for being with us, and for answering our prayers!

Oh Baby!

My cousins just added another member to our family: They had a baby boy!  The name isn't decided yet, but this baby will probably have a J name, and is a cutie pie.  He's 2 months premature, so please pray that this baby would be strong and healthy and will be a boy who grows up into a God-fearing man!