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.