Introducing...........

Our new sweet baby boy Deacon!! We will travel to get him in a couple of months. He is almost 18 months and is from the People's Republic of China. We are very excited, and can't wait to go and pick him up. He is a precious little boy who was born with cleft lip and palate. This will be a long road as far as repair is concerned, but we are so excited the Lord has given him to us. We will keep you posted when we get our travel approval.

Heading West....

Hallelujah!!! On our journey back home we stayed in Nanning for a night, and made a stop at Pizza Hut. I do believe that was some of the BEST pizza I have had in my life!! After 8 days of Chinese food, I was ready for something a little different. This is my good friend N. She was also excited about eating there. :) These lovely ladies were standing outside of a hotel/restaurant. O and M thought it would be fun to take a picture with them. :)
Our group the last night in Hong Kong. They do a light show on all of the buildings. It was really cool! It was also remarkably clear that night so you could actually see the buildings. Usually it is so smoggy you can't see it all. Notice the newspaper I am holding has roaches all over it. :) They were doing a story on their roach problem. We encountered a GIANT one at one of the restaurants we ate it. I'll spare you that picture. ha ha! The food was really good though. :) You've just got to eat it and go on, otherwise I'm afraid you would starve! ha! :)

Would you eat a fish head for 20 Kuai?

One night at dinner we ordered fish, and of course it came FULL fish. Head and everything. :) So M was kidding around that he was going to eat it. We then told him we would pay him if he would eat it. (He is trying to save up money to buy a new gameboy. He left his in a hotel Thailand and when he went back to get it, it was already gone.) So he will do just about anything to make money. :) We also bought some "art" from them. :) They were so cute. They set up a store for us to buy their color pages. Of course we bought them out. :)Anyway he was successful in getting the fish head down, and we had to pay up. He earned 20 kuai which came to about $2.56 USD. I was quite impressed that he actually swallowed it. He was proud of himself. :) Way to go M!!



Thinking about it......

In the mouth.....
Swallowing..................QUICK!!!

Massag-EE and "Bathing"

Once we got home from the village we got together with the guys and talked about our experiences. They guys got to meet with an incredible family and help to disciple them. After that we decided it was time to go and get a massage or massag-eee is how they pronounced it. :) N and I opted for just a foot massage and T and Connie wanted a back massage. Let me just tell you that these massages are NOT like what you get in the states. They were PAINFUL!!! T thought he was going to cry several times. My foot massage was not too bad except for that the water they had you place your feet in was boiling hot! (I had to have them add some cold water. I'm sure they thought I was a wuss.) My calves were also very sore from "running" up the pagoda stairs a few days before. It felt good, but it also hurt. The whole experience cost us 38 kuai, which comes to about $5.50 USD. I also developed a HUGE bruise on the side of my knee from the massage. They push really hard on your pressure points. It has finally gone away. :)

After we returned from the massageeee's we were in for a real treat. The son from the family that T had met with that afternoon had brought a friend over to be baptized. :) This young man has led so many to the Lord. He is an encouragement to me, and also some one I look up to. He has only been a believer for about 11 months, and has had the opportunity to lead many to the Lord. What's his secret? He's actually sharing with people how Christ has changed his life!! This was so cool to be able to be apart of. After they were finished we all sang in our own language....I have decided to follow Jesus.


Here is a list of questions that they ask them before they are baptized.
The questions are:
Have you put your trust in Jesus who died on the cross for your sins and on the third day rose again?
Do you know that Jesus has forgiven all of your sins?
Are you telling everyone here that you will follow Jesus and never turn back?
Will you keep following Jesus even when they curse you, hit you, arrest and imprison you and threaten to kill you?



What would you say?











This is a video of us singing. You can't really see anything because the bathroom was so dark, but you can hear us singing. Quite a powerful experience!

Out in the Village.

On Saturday morning all the girls piled in a van and headed out to a village. Luckily we did not have to eat in this village. I'll save that for another post.:) We were able to break into groups and do some prayer walking around the village. It was so neat to be able to pray out loud for people walking right next to you, and they had absolutely no idea what you were saying. :) Very cool experience! On the way home we flagged down a "bus" to ride home in. Those people drive ALL over the road. I just had to not pay attention. ha!


A hospital in the village. You mainly just get IV's here. Most of the patients, about 90% were small children, they had diarreah. They believe that when a child gets diarreah that you stop feeding them. Then they become dehydrated so they need an IV. Most of them also have malnourishment problems.
Inside the hospital.
A primary school.

Everybody needs a waterbuffalo. Mine is fast, but yours is slow. :) This was the "beef" that we ate. It was ok, just a little tough.
People selling fruits and vegetables on the main street of the village. Isn't she precious?
Chickens/Ducks
These women can carry some serious weight in these baskets.
Just on old truck sitting in the road. They thought it would be funny if I got in it. :)

Squat-Tay Pott-Tay VS. The Western Toilet!

Here is one of my most favorite parts about China-The squatty potty! Oh the fun this entails. If you can't squat then you would be in trouble. Luckily I only had to use one of these the whole time I was there. I strategically decided when to drink and when not to drink so I wouldn't have to use one. :) ha! Actually it is not that bad if you can squat and hold your breath at the same time. :) The one at the school was pretty brutal, but when nature calls you can't ignore it. :) Also you have to carry your own toilet paper around, because there isn't any in any of the public restrooms. Thank you Lord for the Western Toilet. Actually, I guess it's all in what you are use to. They have trouble keeping the westen toilet from breaking, because all those use to the squatty try to climb up on it and squat. :)


Squatties in the girls bathroom at the schools we taught in.
Closer look at the squatty. There is no flushing mechanism. :) I do believe it has a slant to it though. ha!
This is a squatty in a restaurant. You all eat in one big room, and this is also in the room. With a door of course. :)

Intentional!

The song I have added really emulates what Christ is doing in my life right now. (You will have to click play on the Music Player to hear it.) It reigns true here in the states and all around the world. I pray that as you listen to it, you will see the faces in this blog and faces around you everyday that are in desperate need of a Savior. Sometimes it seems like a mountain would need to be moved in order for that person to even be able to know about God or acknowledge there is a God, but that's what He is in the business of doing. Let Him use you, and be INTENTIONAL about sharing him and living your life for Him. That's the one word that sticks with me from this whole trip. INTENTIONAL

SHINE YOUR LIGHT!!!! Have faith the He can and will move the mountains!


Matthew 17:20 Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

Implied is that the presence of faith is more important than the amount of faith. If faith is there, however small, it is enough to remove mountains of difficulty.

"Mighty To Save" by Hillsong

When everyone needs compassion,And love that never fails,Let mercy fall on meWhen everyone needs forgiveness,Kindness of the SaviourThe Hope of the nation

(Chorus:)Saviour, He can move the mountains,My God is mighty to save,He is mighty to saveForever author of salvation,He rose and conquered the graveJesus conquered the grave

So take me as you find meAll my fears and failuresFill my life againI give my life to followEverything that i believe inNow i surrender (and i surrender)(Chorusx2)

(Bridge:)Shine a light in and let the whole world seeSinging, for the glory of the risen kingJesus, Shine a light and let the whole world seeSinging for the glory of the risen king

More classroom time....

Kayla and T eating in the school cafeteria. This food was horrible, but worth our time that we spent with these students.
Connie sharing the love of the Father with these students. It was a neat experience. Even a language barrier cannot separate the love of sharing the Father!
Connie teaching and telling about her family. She has an incredible story of heartbreak and joy-losing two of five children and her husband, but also sharing the joy that she still has because of her relationship with the Father. On a funny note they would gasp every time she would add another child to her family. They thought it was wild that she had 5 children. Most of them are the only child in the home.
Me teaching Jesus loves me. There is power in the name!
Kids watching us walk onto their campus. They were everywhere!

The second day that we went back we were able to share a little more. We had lunch with some students in their cafeteria. It was an experience. I'm not real sure what was on top of my rice, but I dug down to the bottom to be able to just eat the rice. :) I survived, and it was worth it. We sat in there for about 2 hours laughing and talking with several of the students. They were teaching us Chinese and they were asking us about our culture. Of course Christmas came up, and Connie just happened to have some pictures illustrating why we celebrate Christmas. :) We shared as best we could with those girls. I do believe they understood some, because later that night. Our friend was able to share with them in chinese and 14 of them accepted the Father. It was so AWESOME!!!

This is a video of us singing with the students. Note- this is not me singing. I would have done even worse than her. :) Just goes to show that you can be used regardless of ablility, just willingness. :)

Back in China.......In the Classroom.

OK I am going to get serious about finishing up my China trip. I may post several blogs in a row. We have VBS next week, so I need to get this finished. :)

After our Pagoda run we headed back for a rest. :) Needless to say my calves hurt for the next 3 days. We then headed out for a quick bite to eat before going to the schools for the first time. We were going in for their evening classes. They start at 7:30 in the morning and go until 10:00 pm. They do have two big breaks during the day. We got there during their free time. All of the kids either play basketball, table tennis (ping pong), badmitton, or just hang out.

We had three girls that were basketball players that jumped in and play with them. They quickly drew a crowd! I struck up a game of badmitton with some girls. I wasn't very good at first, but quickly got the hang of it.

After that we headed to the classrooms. We taught two classes the first night. I was a little nervous and did not know exactly what to expect. These kids had been studying English for several years. They read and write it, but have not had much practice actually speaking. So they were thrilled to get to talk to foreigners. We went in the classrooms and you would have thought we were rockstars! They would clap and yell for us. We told a little about our families, and then worked on simple english with them. Things such as colors, days of the week, months of the year, antonyms (which they were really good at), tongue twisters, etc. One of their favorite things was learning colors with starbursts. :) What cracked us up was the way they pronounced orange. They would all say Orang-E. So we taught them that the e was silent. They always wanted to know if we could speak Chinese. We learned a little, and of course they would laugh at us when we would try to speak. It was fun! We were able to teach in the schools for 5 days.

Our quick dinner before heading to the schools.
Katie thought it would be funny to eat the chicken head. She put it in her mouth, but quickly spit it back out- Chicken!!
Katie going for a lay up.

T shooting for three. The would cheer everytime one of us made a basket.


Dream (his english name), Kayla, Connie, and Me. Dream was talking to us and then all of a sudden ran out of the office. Before we knew it he was back with bags of corn for us. I guess he thought we were hungry. It was super hot, but really good. He was overwhelmed that we spoke english, and was so excited to get to talk to us.

Pagoda Run

Sorry about yesterdays blog. I should have given you some kind of warning. :) It was pretty gross, but part of the experience. I had to share. :)

I think we climbed around 500 steps. Great work out!
Connie, Will, and Tiffany on their way up.
The other Pagoda on the next mountain. The make the roof to curve up so that when the evil spirits come down they will not be able to come all the way down, but hit those curves and go back up. This culture believes very much in spirits and ancestory worship.
The River.
PingGou. The City. This is just a small section, but the mountains in the distance were breath taking.

After we left the market, we headed up to the Pagoda. N thought we needed some morning exercise. Actually she and the kids climb this several times a week. It wouldn't be too bad once you got your body use to it. It was a long way up. I did ok at first, but then had to stop and rest several times on the way up. :) Guess I should start working out again. ha! Once we got up there it was incredible. You could see the whole city. The mountains are unlike anything you see here. They are all covered in green. Really pretty. We sat up there for a while, and then took some time to pr'y over the city. That was a neat experience. We would have people come up to look at the foreigners while we were pr'ying out loud, but they had no idea what we were saying. :) When we first were led to this county, there were no known believers. Our "club" decided to adopt it and we send teams several times a year to go over and work. As of four years later there are over 200. Father is really working.

If you do not understand some of what I am talking about email me and I will let you know. I am using certain terms for security reasons.

How do you like your meat?

Just pick what you want! :) We are not sure exactly what it is. They yellow flowers they also cook and eat. They say there are really good.
Pig heads
Goat heads with bottles of blood for sale. They use the blood for cooking. One of our team members had those flavor packets you can add to your water bottle. Well, hers was bright red, so I told her that the locals were going to think that she enjoyed drinking the goats blood.

Greens/Vegetables These were REALLY good!


This is where you go to buy your meat and vegetables. N thought it would be fun to tour this right after we ate our breakfast. :) EVERYONE shops here, this IS your local Wal-Mart. :) The smell was a bit strong and there was blood all over the floor, but you get used to it I am sure. Some of our girls were real smart and wore their flip flops to the market. One of my favorite things was when we would sit down in a restaurant to order, if they did not have it they would run to the market and get it to fix for us.

Headed to mainland China.

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been sleeping. :)


Our hotel.
Our room. Don't let these plush looking beds decieve you. There is a piece of plywood just below the surface. :) It wasn't too bad. You get use to it. Our bathroom. We did have a western toilet. More on that later. :)
The shower floor. Looks very cool, but hurts to stand on. We had to wear flip flops. The rocks jutting up is supposed to be theraputic.

N, Me, and Katie in the motorcycle taxi. I really enjoyed riding in these things. Plus it was SUPER cheap. 3 kuai for all of us= 40 cents.
Our view inside the taxi.

Our first meal together. I was really worried about the food, but found several things that I really liked. The fried rice of course, some sweet potato cakes, fried potatoes, green beans, and corn. T's favorite then was the "swan tien pie goo" (this is not how you spell it, but how it sounds phonetically to me). Translation sweet and sour pork. He learned to say it just in case N was not around to order for him. We also drank a lot of schwey bee (again phonetically spelled) AKA Sprite.
After dinner we headed over to the square where I believe the whole town had gathered. They have something going on every night. It is HUGE. There were people line dancing, there were others dancing together, you could feed fish, play basketball, or just hang out. It was fun until we started to draw a crowd. I never felt comfortable with people following us and staring at us.

We were in Hong Kong for two days and then headed into mainland China. It has a completely different feel to it than Hong Kong. We flew into Nanning to meet our friend N. I was so excited to see her! It had been two years since we had seen them. Once we got there we exchanged our Hong Kong money into Kuai and then hopped on a van that took us to the train station. We then had a 1 1/2 to 2 hour ride into PingGuo. We were lucky enough to have seats. They will sell as many tickets as they want to. If they run out of seats then you just stand in the aisle. There was a girl sitting in one of our seats so N made her move so we could all sit together and catch up. This girl was not happy and gave us dirty looks the whole way. The train made one stop and she looked at N and told her it was our stop. N informed her it was not. She wasn't too happy. I don't know why she was so mad. Once we got into PingGuo we flagged down some motorcycle (3 wheel) taxis to take us to our hotel. We got to stay at a brand new hotel. It was not completly finished, but the 8th floor was. So that was where we stayed. Of course everyone knew where the foreigners were staying.