We woke up Friday morning in Bangkok, not knowing where we were going. Only that our check out time was at 12. About 1030ish we started looking at places. It looked like Krabi was the cheap, friendly place. The place to get tickets was the bus station, (off from every other part of the city) only one bus went there, the 507. Our hostel owner wrote it down in Thai for us and we went to wait at the stop. Buses came and went. 30 min past. Is this where were supposed to go? I saw thr 507 on the other side of the street. Ok. I'll take that. 45 min past. I Asked it'd really be nice to talk with someone in Enhlish to make sure this is right. 2 min later- where are you going? A man said ih yes the 507 is the only way.
Man on bus said last stop then walked us to the ticket counter to help us get tickets. He would point at part of it and we would thank him then move on. He would catch up to us and take us further along and repeated it until we got to the counter. We told him tHank you and G bless you and he jerked a little either by surprise or the same sentiment.
As we waited in the bus station we sat down in the massage chairs until they kicked us out and sat down next to a middle eastern woman with her sleeping child. I smiled and said he's cute. She responded with "thank you." Her husband showed up and so I got up to offer him my seat. He refused, but I just went on a little walk so he would sit down. When I got back I switched Jordan seats and my new friend offered me chips until I accepted them. Turns out his name is Arif from Pakistan who worked for BP and spoke good English. They were there on a two day training in Bangkok then spending a week in Puket (a family friendly island off the mainland). He asked where we were going we said Krabi "oh, which part?" he responded. We don't know. "Oh you should go to Phi Phi. It's the 4th most beautiful island in the world. " Sounds nice...but expensive. He broke out a 50 page packet of times charts prices for nearly every island in thialand. "wow you're organized." "well, it's because I have a family now and have to be." I felt as if our time was appointed, but we didn't get to share anything.
Sweet lady on bus told us, "get off. There's free rice" in the middle of the night so we scrambled off and got food.
Pr for direction when we got here because were showing up to a hub of islands and beaches with no plan at 6am in the Morning and the driver pulls up and they tell the two foreigners this is our stop. Ok sure. He stops and it's right infront of a travel angency. Nice.
I used the bathroom and when I got out, we found out there was 400 baht to get a taxi to the ferry and the ferry to the island, Phi Phi. We could get a small ferry to the back of the island where it was cheap and away from all the people. Sweet! So we realized he was lining things up, we should go. The taxi left at 8 and the ferry to the island at 9. So we signed up and met a girl named Laura from Germany whose about our age studying Business Administration in ShangHai going go about the same place.
We got to this fantastic island and became bombarded by taxis and boat offers and etc. We walked down the beach by all the boats looking for the 50 baht one promised by our travel lady and found the cheapest price at 150 a person up to 400. We kept walking. At the help of an Australian dive guy he pointed out an area of cheaper accommodations. We were shooting for and budgeted for 300 baht a night. We hiked for about 10 min and found The Rock- a backpackers hostel that a few had mentioned. 300 a night but horrible conditions. There were probably babies made there and smoking and drinking all around. We ate lunch then headed out.
We walked through a barrage of shops and stores randomly asking questions about the other side of he island, if it was expensive, if there were places to eat and such. The prices of local ones were either topping 2000 or were full. The few cheap places were booked and looked like party places. It was hot and we were still trekking around our huge backpacking packs. Laura gave in after about an hour or so as we were leaving civilization. She said, "I want to be back in Germany" and went back to the Rock.
We decided we should probably just stop and pr again as we had been going at it and the only free spots were over 3500. Our options were: walk back through, try the other side, the Rock, or sleep outside. We decided to trek over to the other side. It seemed as if He had lead us here and navigated us to this spot and was signaling us over, so we went. Singing. "I don't think I'm in enough shape to sing and hike" o complained. Jordan responded with "oh come on. Paul and Silas were beaten and could still sing." so off we went with "Here is our King" by David Crowder echoing through the forrest.
We took a few stops along the way, asked the very few people that drove by, many if them were clueless as to the city on the other side and even more bumfuzzled about if this road we were on lead us there. So again we stopped and asked for directions.
Somehow about an hour in we found the reservoir and the water bottle filling factory. A man on a scooter wizard by and asked where we were going, we told him the city on the other side. He said we were on the wrong road. We took a wrong turn that we didnt even see. He said the roAd we were on lead to Long Beach. We asked for cheap accommodations and he said Long Beach is better. He said 3-400! In our price range! He also suggested Long Beach Resort would have it. Smart man. His name...Solomon. No lie.
After a few more turns we saw the opening of the beach! So beautiful. We Asked for more directions and about 2 min later a man walked through confirming the way we were going. We saw parts of the island that only a few locals will ever see. So incredibly beautiful. Literally, the more we sang, the prettier the sights got. We passed a field of buterflies.
Jordans foot was hurting (from 2 hours of hiking with a 30-40lb pack on) and the recovery from surgery. We were talkin about how Good He had been to us and how impossible all of this had been apart from Him. We stopped again to thank Him. Then, as obvious as it seemed, "wanna pr for your foot?" "yeah!" so we did. RecogniZing it was all by His power hat we were where we were, hiking on a remote trail on he 4th most beautiful island on the world, pretty much by accident. Then we asked Him to complete His testimony by taking away the pain in Jordans foot...and He did. "oh man! It feels really good right now" Jordan sId as he took a few steps. "praise G."
Finally, we made it to the bottom of the hill and onto the beach. (I remembered when i used to ask that i would be following Him so much that He would take me to places that if He didn't come through I was screwed. ...I pretty much found it. Homeless without really a place to stay on a party island without knowing where we really were. And not enough money exchanged to be able to pay for anything too expensive. But i laughed because i knew he was going to come through.) We looked for the Long Beach Resort (even though it sounded expensive- that's what the messenger said and that's what we looked for.) we showed up and asked of they had any rooms. Just 1000 and 1200. The other 400 rooms were full. One lady sitting nearby stated they were leaving tomorrow and theirs would be free. So we took the 1000 baht one which turns out is for the room and not a piece like the other ones. So it's only a little more and we reserved he 400 one for the rest of the nights so it balances out to less than 300. Plus, it's on the beach, and we asked the lady next door with scuba equipment and there's a reef 100 yards off the shore with supposedly sharks there that we can go swim with.
We are so over blessed and so overwhelmed. We listened and sought Him. We took stupid acts of f8th, asked for help alot, became very humble, praised Him alot, prayed even more, were very blessed.
I mean you know this isn't us based on the fact that we couldn't make up our mind when leaving the hostel yesterday, to the fact that we took a 2.5 hour hike over the mountain to end up a 30 min walk down the beach. He has been very good to us. Very very good. This trip is an example of His goodness and how He treats His servants. It's all Him. All about Him.
I'll leave you with this quote:
A vacation does not mean a break from being a light, it means you don't have to do work and all you have to do is get to love people and focus on being a light and truth to them.
My life in China: Teaching. Learning. Pursuing. Surrendering. Being Loved. Loving.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Homeless in the Xi'an Airport
We've made it to Thailand and now have Internet access on my iPod touch so I wanted it share one story of our journey so far and how He's taken care of us. I wrote it on my iPod so the formatting may be off and there are probably more typos, but enjoy!::
Turns out if you get up at 4:15am to make it to the airport in time
for your flight, and you find out your flight doesn't leave until the
next day, they still won't let you get on the plane. Yes, ...somehow
that happened to us. All of our plans were written down and based off
of this one schedule, but somehow when we made the schedule the date
was wrong. Our hostel is booked for the next city. Haha. So we got our
flight changed to instead of 7:30 am to 6:20 pm. So today we lived as
homeless guys in the Xi'an airport.
It started off by finding nice cozy massage chairs to sleep in until
they woke us up and pretty much said pay or leave 15 min into our nap.
We went exploring to find a seat or some breakfast and somehow ended
up at the staff only cafeteria. We realized it as we were watching
them all pay with cards and suddenly realized they all had a uniform
of some sort on. We thought, "eh, what's the worst case...we lose some
face? We'll give it a try." So we motioned to one lady if we could pay
with cash? She relied no, but then bought us pourage with her card and
ended up getting us a full Chinese breakfast. Super sweet Chinese
Angel. (I got a picture with her and he other ladies).
Next it was upstairs to sleep on a bench for 10-15 min at a time.
Went on a walk, found a nearby KFC and we took our homeless selves
there for a bit. But we got some good G time in and went on a little
walk. Jordan and I got to spend some time clearing up somethings and
pr-ing together so it worked well. After a 4 hours or so we went back
and finally checked in...to find our flight delayed another 40 min.
Good news was when we went back to our gate at the new time there was
a huge commotion and arguments over who knows what. I checked the
angry peoples tickets and thankfully they had a different flight
number.
At the same time there was a shoving match going on for the freshly
delivered meals (I suppose due to the delays- I don't know but we
pushed our way in and got one too. It was like bringing
food/shoes/anything out in Africa, people just went crazy. But some
Chinese student helped us get some, so we were blessed with our second
free meal of the day.
Finally getting on our plane (which was delayed another 30min) and I
saw one guy over on the side sitting down with his head on his knees.
I felt like I should go check on him (who knew if he spoke English,
but I've used that as an excuse too much lately) so I sucked it up,
got out of line and went to talk to him. No reply at first, he just
blinked. Then blinked again the second time I patted him on the
shoulder, he jerked up and yelled "thank you" in Chinese and ran off
to board the plane. Dude was out like light bulb, had fallen asleep
while waiting.
The flight happened, found our bus to yet city center. From there we
tried to hail a taxi, to no avail, then got directions and advice from
a random girl about taking the subway instead (found out later she was
drunk but yet she still gave good directions and had impressive
English.) Subway stopped 7 min before we got there so we headed for a
bus stop.
There we met 2 really nice guys who tried to help, one spoke Chinese
and the other came to help when he realized we didn't. Another man
pitched in to help and got much more involved when he called his
friend/girlfriend to talk with us in English to ask if we wanted to
take a taxi with him. Long story and more confusion but the man (Alax
- an insurance salesman for New York Life) and Edward (the second guy
to kick in in English - whose also a pharmesutical rep) decided they
would walk us to our hostel which was bear where they lived. Turns out
to be a 30 min walk with one pit stop at a McDees for one of our
friends who had perhaps a bit too much to drink. They walked us all
the way to the door (at 11:30pm) and then made plans for lunch or
dinner tomorrow...maybe with his company (I think the New York Life
company anniversary -but we don't have dress clothes)... and/or dinner
at his house... I dont know really. We'll see what He has in store for
tomorrow.
Finally, into our hostel mixed room with a girl named Emily who is
studying art and film and another guy Lou3 yuan4 who is just visiting,
and a guy from Mylasia. We also met another American in our hostel
whose teaching English in the south.
Needless to say, we finally made it to ChengDu, He has blessed our
ignorance over and over again and is setting up some really cook
opportunities to share Him and Love His (soon to be) people. It's
amazing. I can hardly wait for tomorrow...or stay awake. But I just
thought I'd share another adventure in China.
Abram
Abram
Turns out if you get up at 4:15am to make it to the airport in time
for your flight, and you find out your flight doesn't leave until the
next day, they still won't let you get on the plane. Yes, ...somehow
that happened to us. All of our plans were written down and based off
of this one schedule, but somehow when we made the schedule the date
was wrong. Our hostel is booked for the next city. Haha. So we got our
flight changed to instead of 7:30 am to 6:20 pm. So today we lived as
homeless guys in the Xi'an airport.
It started off by finding nice cozy massage chairs to sleep in until
they woke us up and pretty much said pay or leave 15 min into our nap.
We went exploring to find a seat or some breakfast and somehow ended
up at the staff only cafeteria. We realized it as we were watching
them all pay with cards and suddenly realized they all had a uniform
of some sort on. We thought, "eh, what's the worst case...we lose some
face? We'll give it a try." So we motioned to one lady if we could pay
with cash? She relied no, but then bought us pourage with her card and
ended up getting us a full Chinese breakfast. Super sweet Chinese
Angel. (I got a picture with her and he other ladies).
Next it was upstairs to sleep on a bench for 10-15 min at a time.
Went on a walk, found a nearby KFC and we took our homeless selves
there for a bit. But we got some good G time in and went on a little
walk. Jordan and I got to spend some time clearing up somethings and
pr-ing together so it worked well. After a 4 hours or so we went back
and finally checked in...to find our flight delayed another 40 min.
Good news was when we went back to our gate at the new time there was
a huge commotion and arguments over who knows what. I checked the
angry peoples tickets and thankfully they had a different flight
number.
At the same time there was a shoving match going on for the freshly
delivered meals (I suppose due to the delays- I don't know but we
pushed our way in and got one too. It was like bringing
food/shoes/anything out in Africa, people just went crazy. But some
Chinese student helped us get some, so we were blessed with our second
free meal of the day.
Finally getting on our plane (which was delayed another 30min) and I
saw one guy over on the side sitting down with his head on his knees.
I felt like I should go check on him (who knew if he spoke English,
but I've used that as an excuse too much lately) so I sucked it up,
got out of line and went to talk to him. No reply at first, he just
blinked. Then blinked again the second time I patted him on the
shoulder, he jerked up and yelled "thank you" in Chinese and ran off
to board the plane. Dude was out like light bulb, had fallen asleep
while waiting.
The flight happened, found our bus to yet city center. From there we
tried to hail a taxi, to no avail, then got directions and advice from
a random girl about taking the subway instead (found out later she was
drunk but yet she still gave good directions and had impressive
English.) Subway stopped 7 min before we got there so we headed for a
bus stop.
There we met 2 really nice guys who tried to help, one spoke Chinese
and the other came to help when he realized we didn't. Another man
pitched in to help and got much more involved when he called his
friend/girlfriend to talk with us in English to ask if we wanted to
take a taxi with him. Long story and more confusion but the man (Alax
- an insurance salesman for New York Life) and Edward (the second guy
to kick in in English - whose also a pharmesutical rep) decided they
would walk us to our hostel which was bear where they lived. Turns out
to be a 30 min walk with one pit stop at a McDees for one of our
friends who had perhaps a bit too much to drink. They walked us all
the way to the door (at 11:30pm) and then made plans for lunch or
dinner tomorrow...maybe with his company (I think the New York Life
company anniversary -but we don't have dress clothes)... and/or dinner
at his house... I dont know really. We'll see what He has in store for
tomorrow.
Finally, into our hostel mixed room with a girl named Emily who is
studying art and film and another guy Lou3 yuan4 who is just visiting,
and a guy from Mylasia. We also met another American in our hostel
whose teaching English in the south.
Needless to say, we finally made it to ChengDu, He has blessed our
ignorance over and over again and is setting up some really cook
opportunities to share Him and Love His (soon to be) people. It's
amazing. I can hardly wait for tomorrow...or stay awake. But I just
thought I'd share another adventure in China.
Abram
Abram
Sunday, January 16, 2011
I love you but I won't be back for a while.
Ironically, enough that's kind of what He said.
We officially started our break last week and all the students finished leaving on Friday. With all the students gone and teachers gone or leaving too, we have the opportunity to take in some more of the culture and language.
Each year our organization has a conference for professional and also supernatural development and rejuvenation in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Our conference is in the middle of February, so we have from now until then to get there or do whatever we want. We have a travel allowance for us to get to the conference and combined with some of our own savings over the year, we're going to travel a little bit.
My teammate Jordan and I are leaving in about an hour to head out. We're going to Xi'an first (home of the terracotta warriors) then after a few days, we'll move onto ChengDu (famous for the pandas) and after that we'll go to Kunming (the "spring city" - as it's supposed to be 70 all year round). It's kind of exciting to hear about spring as we've been dancing between single and double digit negative's for the last few weeks. We'll end up going to Thailand and spending a few days in Bangkok (hopefully we can find a place to serve and help out there for a few days) before we take a train north to Chiang Mai.
All of this sounds wonderful, as I plan and expect it to be, but it's also a little scary as neither Jordan or I speak Chinese. We've got our hostels lined out at places they all speak English and are going to semi-touristy locations where English will be more common. I was a little freaked out yesterday before I remembered that He sent them out by 2's without an extra pair of shoes or coat and He's blessed us with backpacking backpacks and some warm clothes. haha. Part of that's a joke, part of that is serious. We're really forced even more to count on Him over these next 6 weeks and I'm very excited to see how He shows up and how we are lead to serve and really soak Him in. I'm looking forward to a little break and the rest He is going to provide in this process. I look forward to draw closer to Him.
All of this to let you know that I won't be blogging over the next few weeks. I'm not taking my computer for safety reasons, but I should have internet access at the hostels I'll stay at. My brother got me an ipod touch for a Christmas present before I left and it's quite handy. I've loaded books, Chinese dictionaries, some Chinese lessons, and music onto it for our trip. I can use it with wireless to check my email if you want to email me, but I'll probably be even slower than normal in responding to it.
I wanted to let you know and ask for your Thoughts as we head off. For strength, for patience, for wisdom and discernment, for increased language ability, and for obedience and opportunities to Shine if He see's fit.
I thank you all very much and look forward to sharing stories when I get back.
We officially started our break last week and all the students finished leaving on Friday. With all the students gone and teachers gone or leaving too, we have the opportunity to take in some more of the culture and language.
Each year our organization has a conference for professional and also supernatural development and rejuvenation in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Our conference is in the middle of February, so we have from now until then to get there or do whatever we want. We have a travel allowance for us to get to the conference and combined with some of our own savings over the year, we're going to travel a little bit.
My teammate Jordan and I are leaving in about an hour to head out. We're going to Xi'an first (home of the terracotta warriors) then after a few days, we'll move onto ChengDu (famous for the pandas) and after that we'll go to Kunming (the "spring city" - as it's supposed to be 70 all year round). It's kind of exciting to hear about spring as we've been dancing between single and double digit negative's for the last few weeks. We'll end up going to Thailand and spending a few days in Bangkok (hopefully we can find a place to serve and help out there for a few days) before we take a train north to Chiang Mai.
All of this sounds wonderful, as I plan and expect it to be, but it's also a little scary as neither Jordan or I speak Chinese. We've got our hostels lined out at places they all speak English and are going to semi-touristy locations where English will be more common. I was a little freaked out yesterday before I remembered that He sent them out by 2's without an extra pair of shoes or coat and He's blessed us with backpacking backpacks and some warm clothes. haha. Part of that's a joke, part of that is serious. We're really forced even more to count on Him over these next 6 weeks and I'm very excited to see how He shows up and how we are lead to serve and really soak Him in. I'm looking forward to a little break and the rest He is going to provide in this process. I look forward to draw closer to Him.
All of this to let you know that I won't be blogging over the next few weeks. I'm not taking my computer for safety reasons, but I should have internet access at the hostels I'll stay at. My brother got me an ipod touch for a Christmas present before I left and it's quite handy. I've loaded books, Chinese dictionaries, some Chinese lessons, and music onto it for our trip. I can use it with wireless to check my email if you want to email me, but I'll probably be even slower than normal in responding to it.
I wanted to let you know and ask for your Thoughts as we head off. For strength, for patience, for wisdom and discernment, for increased language ability, and for obedience and opportunities to Shine if He see's fit.
I thank you all very much and look forward to sharing stories when I get back.
I wonder if Gabriel was a communications major?
Here's some thoughts from Christmas time I thought I'd share.
Every year we read the Luke 2. It’s a tradition. We start out the morning by reading it and pr--ing. But I started thinking about how many times I’ve read over so many words that are packed full of information, of life, of details in my half-sleepy stupor? How many details did I skim over while my eyes were also skimming over the presents? How many sermons did I just halfheartedly listen to because I had heard the story so many times before?
It’s not until this year that I began to realize it. As I prepared to tell my students about it in simpler English words, I started re-reading the stories and processing it out. I wrote the little script/play for my students and it went well. As I was walking my first class through the stories, I realized how much of the story is missing when you just look at Luke 2.
What makes that night so monumental if you have no idea of what happened before? When the angels showed up to the shepherds in the field that night and said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today I the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is C the [Ruler]…” I thought about it from my students perspective, “Great a savior… saving from what?” When He’s called “C” or Messiah (which was a vocabulary word for the day) what does that mean. This Messiah is an “expected deliverer” (translated into my English class – It’s a hero, someone to save them that they have been waiting on for a long long time.) I went onto think about and elaborate about this in class. The shepherds must have been flipping out. They had to be in shell-shock. This is the one they’ve heard about their whole lives that would come one day. This is the one their parents talked about, the one their grandparents talked about, the one their great grandparents talked about, the one their great great great great grandparents talked about. That one day, He would come. I wonder if at this point it was almost like a legend of, “one day he will come…but we’re not really expecting him” until BAM! The skies light up brighter than the 4th of July at the White House. They’re probably freaking out cause they’ve never seen really anything but a torch or small fire at night with their sheep and suddenly there’s this thing up in the air lighting up the sky saying, “that thing that you’ve heard about, that your ancestors talked about and kept looking for and waiting for, that hero that you’re waiting on, that deliverer, that savior, that messiah, yeah, Him. Yeah, He’s here. Now. The tide has just changed, the chorus of human history just entered into a new realm. There’s been a shift in human history, in time, in everything that you know what to function about, it’s beginning to change. The music that is played before the King shows up in all His glory, is starting to play. Wake up, get your clothes, on suit up. It’s happening now. It just happened. (which this in itself would have been the most fanatic news they’ve ever heard in their life, let alone how they saw it, but then to help them poop their pants if they hadn’t already they add in this part.) He is here now. What’s more? He’s in that city over there. The one that you’re close to. He’s in there. The future King. The future Savior of the entire human population is in that city that lights up the horizon over there. He’s in there. Right now, He’s a baby. You can go see Him. This is how you know it’s Him, when you find this baby, He’ll be wrapped in clothes (death clothes to be exact) and He will be lying in a feed trough. (which the shepherds may have wanted to laugh or question them at this point, that the future King is wrapped up in rags and He’s lying where cows slobber and horses chomp their food – but considering the fact there was an Angel telling them this – they could probably suppress their laughter) . Then the sky is filled with these beings (that’d be better than the African Children’s Choir showing up and singing a song with their sway on to you and everyone you know.) How could they not drop everything and book it to that city nearby? I wonder if they were out of breath when they got there because they ran to see Him?
I got to the end of the story as the wise men went home and I realized… this is just the pre-chorus. This is not the end of the story. This isn’t even the best part. I’m stuck here. I just built all of this up and there’s no point in having a baby like Him born to just have Him grow up. There’s no point in Christmas if there’s not an Easter. Why in the world would this baby be born? We talked all this time about the Hero coming to save these people, but not only the people in this itty-bitty little country called Israel, but also the rest of the world. For the Mega-Giants like China with millions of more people, or America with also millions of people, but not nearly as much – even these people. When the Angel proclaimed GREAT JO Y! to all people, all American, Jews, Israelis, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, Australian, Haitian, Moroccan, Muslim, South African, German, Russian,…. That this Joy (not happiness, but JOY) would be to ALLLLLLLL PEOPLE! This infatuation and throbbing Joy would pulsate through their veins is being told tonight! So how would He save them? What would He do? What would He say? What would this little Baby grow up to be? It’s almost frustrating, how much we “know” but don’t really know. I started to just go off in class and tell them the rest of the story and break down into the whole Good News and just overflowing out of joy and excitement about what is happening and what happened and go on… but I didn’t. I wasn’t sure how much I could have/should have… but one thing is for sure. I am definitely pumped for Easter!
After the Shepherds possibly busted through this wooden gate leading into the barn and saw Mary exhausted and laying back in the hay with her newborn baby in the feed trough next to her, and Joseph standing nearby looking with Love and awe at his wife and the new Baby Hero, after they came in and saw all of this, then THEY WERE FILLED with JOY and ran off telling everyone what they had seen and heard. “All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them” – They went out with first hand experiences with Him and told them all that they saw and heard – they gave their eye witness testimony Him. – Ironically enough, it’s the same thing that that Baby later told us to do before He left. You’ll be my witnesses (eyes witness accounts, to go tell what you’ve seen and heard) It’s such a beautiful thing.
Just thought I'd share.
Every year we read the Luke 2. It’s a tradition. We start out the morning by reading it and pr--ing. But I started thinking about how many times I’ve read over so many words that are packed full of information, of life, of details in my half-sleepy stupor? How many details did I skim over while my eyes were also skimming over the presents? How many sermons did I just halfheartedly listen to because I had heard the story so many times before?
It’s not until this year that I began to realize it. As I prepared to tell my students about it in simpler English words, I started re-reading the stories and processing it out. I wrote the little script/play for my students and it went well. As I was walking my first class through the stories, I realized how much of the story is missing when you just look at Luke 2.
What makes that night so monumental if you have no idea of what happened before? When the angels showed up to the shepherds in the field that night and said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today I the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is C the [Ruler]…” I thought about it from my students perspective, “Great a savior… saving from what?” When He’s called “C” or Messiah (which was a vocabulary word for the day) what does that mean. This Messiah is an “expected deliverer” (translated into my English class – It’s a hero, someone to save them that they have been waiting on for a long long time.) I went onto think about and elaborate about this in class. The shepherds must have been flipping out. They had to be in shell-shock. This is the one they’ve heard about their whole lives that would come one day. This is the one their parents talked about, the one their grandparents talked about, the one their great grandparents talked about, the one their great great great great grandparents talked about. That one day, He would come. I wonder if at this point it was almost like a legend of, “one day he will come…but we’re not really expecting him” until BAM! The skies light up brighter than the 4th of July at the White House. They’re probably freaking out cause they’ve never seen really anything but a torch or small fire at night with their sheep and suddenly there’s this thing up in the air lighting up the sky saying, “that thing that you’ve heard about, that your ancestors talked about and kept looking for and waiting for, that hero that you’re waiting on, that deliverer, that savior, that messiah, yeah, Him. Yeah, He’s here. Now. The tide has just changed, the chorus of human history just entered into a new realm. There’s been a shift in human history, in time, in everything that you know what to function about, it’s beginning to change. The music that is played before the King shows up in all His glory, is starting to play. Wake up, get your clothes, on suit up. It’s happening now. It just happened. (which this in itself would have been the most fanatic news they’ve ever heard in their life, let alone how they saw it, but then to help them poop their pants if they hadn’t already they add in this part.) He is here now. What’s more? He’s in that city over there. The one that you’re close to. He’s in there. The future King. The future Savior of the entire human population is in that city that lights up the horizon over there. He’s in there. Right now, He’s a baby. You can go see Him. This is how you know it’s Him, when you find this baby, He’ll be wrapped in clothes (death clothes to be exact) and He will be lying in a feed trough. (which the shepherds may have wanted to laugh or question them at this point, that the future King is wrapped up in rags and He’s lying where cows slobber and horses chomp their food – but considering the fact there was an Angel telling them this – they could probably suppress their laughter) . Then the sky is filled with these beings (that’d be better than the African Children’s Choir showing up and singing a song with their sway on to you and everyone you know.) How could they not drop everything and book it to that city nearby? I wonder if they were out of breath when they got there because they ran to see Him?
I got to the end of the story as the wise men went home and I realized… this is just the pre-chorus. This is not the end of the story. This isn’t even the best part. I’m stuck here. I just built all of this up and there’s no point in having a baby like Him born to just have Him grow up. There’s no point in Christmas if there’s not an Easter. Why in the world would this baby be born? We talked all this time about the Hero coming to save these people, but not only the people in this itty-bitty little country called Israel, but also the rest of the world. For the Mega-Giants like China with millions of more people, or America with also millions of people, but not nearly as much – even these people. When the Angel proclaimed GREAT JO Y! to all people, all American, Jews, Israelis, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, Australian, Haitian, Moroccan, Muslim, South African, German, Russian,…. That this Joy (not happiness, but JOY) would be to ALLLLLLLL PEOPLE! This infatuation and throbbing Joy would pulsate through their veins is being told tonight! So how would He save them? What would He do? What would He say? What would this little Baby grow up to be? It’s almost frustrating, how much we “know” but don’t really know. I started to just go off in class and tell them the rest of the story and break down into the whole Good News and just overflowing out of joy and excitement about what is happening and what happened and go on… but I didn’t. I wasn’t sure how much I could have/should have… but one thing is for sure. I am definitely pumped for Easter!
After the Shepherds possibly busted through this wooden gate leading into the barn and saw Mary exhausted and laying back in the hay with her newborn baby in the feed trough next to her, and Joseph standing nearby looking with Love and awe at his wife and the new Baby Hero, after they came in and saw all of this, then THEY WERE FILLED with JOY and ran off telling everyone what they had seen and heard. “All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them” – They went out with first hand experiences with Him and told them all that they saw and heard – they gave their eye witness testimony Him. – Ironically enough, it’s the same thing that that Baby later told us to do before He left. You’ll be my witnesses (eyes witness accounts, to go tell what you’ve seen and heard) It’s such a beautiful thing.
Just thought I'd share.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Little Things...
So there's nothing great or overwhelming about this, but to me it's a trophy of excellence. After a long day of trying to go to the grocery story and only getting half of what I set out to get and find, I took a walk back to school the long way just listening to music and looking for Him. I felt like He was trying to point something out to me, but I couldn't find it. It's like I was wrong in listening, but I was looking and expecting and waiting for it and kept looking. I didn't quite find what I was looking for, but I walked into a ditch and into the river (of course it's frozen over after month or two of frozen over) He showed me this picture and so I'll pass it on. Most of the buildings around here look like modern buildings, but this one kinda stuck out. Hope you enjoy.
After a long walk back and after failing pretty well at the grocery store I came back to my apartment. I decided I was going to make dinner …for the first time. Tell you what I was quite tickled with the results. I did get some bread and eggs at the store and some juice and jelly. I didn’t have this planned but I just started to make hard-boiled eggs and it continued to grow. Then, I remembered that Mom and Dad sent me some instant bacon that you just microwave. Behold… the beauty of my first creation of the new year (also, the first time I cooked by myself in my apartment.). . . Behold the joy. . .
Oh the little things. :)
(p.s.don't drop the eggs into the boiling water when you try to hard-boil them. They crack and then start coming out of the shell while still becoming harder... like the third egg you see in the picture.)
(p.p.s. this was all on New Years Day. On New Years Eve, they invited all 500 or so of the teachers and administration of Hua Qiao (my school) to a big banquet celebration time and different teachers performed. Here's a video of our teams performance. We rocked out to a little "Lean On Me." Jordan on the guitar, I got to play some bongos (my teammates got me for Christmas) and the rest of our teams sang oh so beautifully...and danced. Click here and enjoy--> Lean On Me Performance Video
After a long walk back and after failing pretty well at the grocery store I came back to my apartment. I decided I was going to make dinner …for the first time. Tell you what I was quite tickled with the results. I did get some bread and eggs at the store and some juice and jelly. I didn’t have this planned but I just started to make hard-boiled eggs and it continued to grow. Then, I remembered that Mom and Dad sent me some instant bacon that you just microwave. Behold… the beauty of my first creation of the new year (also, the first time I cooked by myself in my apartment.). . . Behold the joy. . .
Oh the little things. :)
(p.s.don't drop the eggs into the boiling water when you try to hard-boil them. They crack and then start coming out of the shell while still becoming harder... like the third egg you see in the picture.)
(p.p.s. this was all on New Years Day. On New Years Eve, they invited all 500 or so of the teachers and administration of Hua Qiao (my school) to a big banquet celebration time and different teachers performed. Here's a video of our teams performance. We rocked out to a little "Lean On Me." Jordan on the guitar, I got to play some bongos (my teammates got me for Christmas) and the rest of our teams sang oh so beautifully...and danced. Click here and enjoy--> Lean On Me Performance Video
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)