It's Been a While

Long time no post.

So much has been happening, and I'm kind of dreading writing this post. But I'll just have to bite the bullet and do it. I have been writing in my sweet leather, old-world-map-with-Psalm 24-written-on-it Journal. So I have been writing in there, which makes the chances of blogging a lot slimmer. So let's see, what has been happening lately:

*I leave a month from Tuesday
I'm really quite confused about how I feel really. I'm excited to see family and friends, but I will miss all of my new family and friends that I have made here. It's extremely bittersweet, so I'm trying not to focus on it too much so that I just use my time wisely. I'm actually a tad nervous about readjustment. I tend to get emo and try to bring everything back with me when I leave a place (like, pretend I'm still there almost and try to still live there in my mind). That last statement may make sense, and it may not. But that's all the explanation I'm going to give.

*Last week was the much anticipated holiday in Thailand
I was able to go to Thailand with Mike/Melissa/Izzy on their family vacation. It was a great time to hang out with them, soak up some rays (I went from milk chocolate to dark chocolate), swim, explore a little bit, and eat DQ!!! We ate at DQ three times, AND bought an ice cream cake. It was magnificent. Now if only I could find a Taco Bell... It was Sangkor, Thai New Year and the Water Festival at the time we were there. It was the third New Years of 2007 that I've celebrated. And I think this was my favorite. It's a country wide water war, and people have buckets of water in the back of their trucks and someone will sit in there and splash people. And if you were walking by someone with a hose, WATCH OUT! It was great. The Thai people are so laid back, friendly, and they are not bound by social classes as I see here and elsewhere. (At least, not to my knowledge...which isn't too much.) The world was proven to be quite small again: The place we stayed at was run by a woman from MN, there was a family from Iowa there who are currently living in Bangkok, and there was another guy from Bangkok who is from Virginia. It made me laugh, especially the Iowan family. Who knew they could be so adventurous!? Hahaha. Izzy enjoyed her time by the pool and was in that thing every second she could be. I was trying to get her to say, "Hannah" by the end of the vacation, but for some reason, she associates me with cookies and so every time we tried to get her to say my name, she would say, "cookie". It was cute, and I do slightly resemble a triple chocolate chip cookie.

*Today: It was kind of a crazy Sunday. The youth worship team played and I also spoke to another youth group immediately afterward. The worship team hardly got to practice this month, so I was really worried that we might bomb this morning. But I know it was totally God answering my prayer, because, it went great, in my opinion, one of the best. Man, if the "He is strong when we are weak" works this way, maybe we should cancel all practices. Completely kidding there! I've known about this talk at HKMBC for quite a while, but, as I tend to do, I procrastinate a bit, and I wrote it this week. (HKMBC is a Mandarin speaking church with an English speaking youth group that has their service on Sunday.) When I wrote it all out, it was OK, and by the end I was pleased with it, but when I got up to speak, I had a few jolts and pauses. Although, I feel like my speaking isn't as forced as it used to be. It's just remembering where I'm going. I seriously don't think that my brain works independently while I'm speaking publicly. It's kind of like I'm speaking to get through it. I mean, I believe what I'm saying, but I don't quite enjoy it totally while I'm doing it. I think that will change as I do it more. However, I am grateful for the practice and learning, and I think that a few kids may have been tracking with me. So that was good, and the experiment/example that I used a volunteer for seemed to go over well. So after that, I took the MTR a ways, then took a bus to Sai Kung for a youth event we did today. It was wakeboarding/tubing day. A parent has a boat here, so he was nice enough to agree to taking the youth group out. We had close to 20 people too. So while half the group was boating, the other half explored the cute town of Sai Kung. Today I finally got up on the wakeboard for more than 10 seconds. It was great. And it was cool that a lot of kids who wouldn't normally do fun things like this, got out and did it. Afterward, we all went for pizza, the typical and most vital component to any youth gathering. J/K.

*Well, that's about it for now, I'll try to write more in my last days...a few prayer requests though:
-Pray for Pastor Mike and Melissa, they have been given the opportunity to move into a bigger flat at a better location. However, there are two flats to chose from and both locations are wonderful, and the owners of the flats particularly like them, and are giving them a choice. Pray for them as they are in this quandary and are considering all the options for both areas.
-Pray for me as I try to get back into school: There are a lot of things to register for, fill out, etc. to get back into Northwestern. I'm finding it particularly difficult and frustrating to do thousands of miles away. Also, pray for me as I finish up the my distance ed courses! Finals week is coming up and I have a LOT left to do! Thanks!