Crickets, Doctors, and the Beautiful Khmer People

I'm here! I cannot remember if I'd sent another update, but I arrived Sunday night with my team and another team led by team leader Mark, an older man who's been teaching in China for awhile.  We stayed at a nice place built and run by a local Khmer (Cambodian) pastor for the first two nights.  I ate a couple crickets (and even caught one in my mouth), enjoyed Khmer pizza at three different meals, rode around the city of Phnom Penh in a tuk tuk (look up a picture on Google!) They're pretty sweet! We met about 30 Cambodian male college students, enjoyed a meal and fun games with them.  About half or more of them are brothers of ours; the rest have yet to know Christ personally.  They all live in the upper floors of a brothel turned CHURCH shepherded by the same pastor letting us stay in his guest house.

Yesterday we explored a Khmer village.  I learned (quickly!) how to use a squatty potty, became a patient at my first Cambodian hospital and got stocked up with four different pills to take all week.  Yesterday we also saw part of the river front near Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital) and enjoyed breakfast at Vandenn's home.  Vandenn is the ELIC country leader for Cambodia.

Today (Wednesday), we spent five hours in two big white vans traveling north across Cambodia to Siem Reap, home of the famous Angkor Wat.  We enjoyed delicious Khmer food, snapped some pictures of elephants, saw parts of Angkor Wat, and swam in the hotel's awesome pool.  Several Khmer university students and one ELIC teacher are traveling with our two teams.

It's been a busy but FAST three days in Cambodia.  I cannot believe how fast time has flown! We fly back to Hong Kong for debriefing on Saturday afternoon, and I'm hoping to spend some time visiting some of my students one last time.

Today, I really enjoyed looking out the windows and embracing God's creation while reading through the Psalms while everyone around me slept! Every part of God's creation simply echoes that HE IS GLORIOUS! Even the variety of laughs our teams have, the variety of homes around, and the beautiful rice fields.  The sad thing is, no matter how awesome, intricate, and gorgeous God's creation is, we still forget about His glory! Cambodia's been reminding me day by day, and I hope and pray that I can continue seeing that everything reflects God's glory because it was all created for us to enjoy and glorify Him through that enjoyment!  

Since most of you are just starting your day now, take some time to look around you, bask in His glorious creation, and thank Him for His details, intricacy, variety, and simply gorgeously creative blessings that surround us!

I miss you all! It's so hard to believe I'll be back in less than a week! I'm looking forward to seeing you all--whether at home, college, church, or elsewhere.

Prayer concerns:

-God's glory to be continuously marveled at

-Teammate Candy's mother--she's caught up in drugs and worse back home in Denver

-the Khmer people--85+ percent of the population is Buddhist and less than 10% is Christian

-continued safety traveling around Cambodia--we head back to Phnom Penh on Friday morning

-financial support for Vandenn and ELIC's work at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh.  Teachers here teach mostly first-year university students English

-for other teams in Shi'an (China), Laos, and Vietnam

Because God loved me first and unconditionally forever, I am excited to be able to say I love you! to all of you! Have a wonderful Wednesday :)

Kristin

And I'm off!

Well, in the morning I'm off.. to Cambodia that is! We leave campus around 8 am Sunday morning.  

The last day of classes went incredibly well. I have never laughed so hard or so often along with my students.  We finished up the lesson book, played many games, wrote letters, and did other "end of camp" activities.  The kids were their wonderfully weird selves.  They laughed at my accidental sarcasm for the first time ever, wrote me sweet letters, FINALLY let me take pictures of them, and even insisted on a "jumping" picture at the end of the morning session.

In the afternoon, I walked with my class in the pouring rain to a nearby school for our closing ceremony program.  I'm glad to hear HK sent some rain to IA, by the way!  On the way, I shared my umbrella with a student I don't get to talk one-on-one with very often, so that was great! At the closing ceremonies, each class presented a small program or skit.  My class has improved tremendously in their English skills, but they are still quite shy in front of a stage, so we decided to create a video.  I videoed each student and compiled many pictures from class into a video and attached music to the video.  When it was our class's turn to present, I hooked up my laptop and the class sat on the stage looking at the big screen.

The video wouldn't work.  The school's tech person even came and tried to fix the problem, but we were unable to show our video.  I was devastated.  The program I used to make the video crashed twice without saving, so I had stayed up until 2 am making the video the night before.  When I looked at my students while the tech guy worked with my computer, they looked pretty bummed.  When my toughest student gave me a sad look, tears began rolling down my face.  Knowing the video wouldn't work, Team Leader Amanda dismissed the students, the crowd still applauded, and I went backstage to prevent myself from losing it.  I didn't, and my class and I enjoyed watching the other seven classes perform, but I still ended the camp feeling like I had really let my students down.

After school, Rachel, Joy, and two of our students--Candy and Karen--went to movie in the theater together, and I was able to enjoy my FIRST 3D movie with them! Today (Saturday), my students, Karen and Vincent, joined me and all of the ELIC teachers for a youth rally in the morning, then we met with some other students and teachers for lunch, shopping, and ice skating! At the end of the day, Karen and Vincent both asked me if I would like to go biking next weekend when we're back in Hong Kong for two days, so I'm hoping we can find a time that will work! Vincent wants to get more students from class, too, so I'm looking forward to this!


......


Tonight we had our last team devotions in Hong Kong since Cambodia is TOMORROW.  It still hasn't sunk in that I'm leaving this city and going to an entirely different country and culture tomorrow.  We'll be in Cambodia until Saturday, then fly back to Hong Kong for two days, and leave for HOME on Monday morning.  It's so hard to believe that I'll also be home in a little more than one week. Time has FLOWN by, and it's going to be full of more sad goodbyes, especially with my teammates!


I'm not sure about internet access in Cambodia, but I should be able to send at least one update!

Love you all!
Kristin

Twas the night before saying goodbye...

...and Miss Teacha Kristin is hurting.


Tonight is the final "night before class in the morning" that I'll experience in Hong Kong.  I know that might be a little crazy of a "last" to begin talking about, but as I spend way too much time trying to finish putting together a final slideshow for my students reminiscing our time together, I'm realizing how much I (and they) have grown through this entire thing.

A week ago, I was wishing and hoping and begging God to make time move faster.  Now I just want to be able to spend more hours, days, and weeks with my beautiful students, who I am also proud to call my dear friends! At the same time, I asked my team leader if I could just take them all home with me in my suitcase.  She said that she won't be traveling back to the U.S. with me and won't be in charge of me anymore, so I can do what I want.  Who knows.. maybe you will all meet a few of my new Chinese friends on Sunday morning.  Dad and Mom-- the spare bedroom is open, right? ;)

But in all seriousness, I can't believe I didn't more openly pour my love into these kids earlier.  I've seen so many of them begin to flourish already, and all I want is to be walking alongside them as they do.  I've had one convinced we're going to date (he's 15--yikes!) because he is a Christian and I am a Christian and all Christians should just quickly date and marry.  Yes, that was a fun request to answer :) But he's also one of my favorite students, so I was still able to encourage him to wait for a great Christian girl his own age who isn't leaving for America in a week and a half ;)

...........

So anyways, here I am, shedding tears as I make this video and picture collage and look through all the memories we've had together.  Today was THE BEST DAY I've had since leaving Iowa.  It was full of more laughter and "Miss Kristin, you're crazy"'s than I've heard during the entire three weeks of teaching.  I just told my roommate that it can't be real that this is ending. I feel like I'm just getting to know my students, and all I want to do is love them and love them and love them.  Tomorrow, I'll be walking out of their lives for what might be forever physically.  I pray, I'm praying continuously that I may be able to see them all again one day in Heaven, but I know this reality is completely out of hands, so trusting is what I'll have to do.

God has had me crying tears of sorrow because I wanted to go home so badly.  He's had me sobbing for friends back home and crying myself to sleep because of the brokenness and dangers in this city.  And now, He has me in tears for news reasons.  I want to be with these kids every day for the rest of my life.  They bring me joy.  They bring me so much innocent, hilarious happiness.  I want them forever and ever, but even more than that, I want them to have the Hope and Trust that lasts forever that I've been freely given and freely received. I want to wake up exhausted every single day; walk in ten minutes of intense humidity, cram into a subway train full of smelly, angry, busy people; and arrive at school dripping with sweat only so that I can spend all day laughing with, learning from, and loving these beautiful young people.  I don't know what this means for my life right now because I can't stay here right now.  Many of these kids didn't even know each other before camp and may not even see each other in Hong Kong ever again, but I don't even have any plans to return to Hong Kong in the near future.  

For those of you who know I've been wavering in whether or not teaching was for me, it's been confirmed.  I'm not sure how I'll ever say goodbye to students after years of teaching them, but these are the feelings I love.  The classroom is a place I feel so comfortable in.  Young students like all of mine in Hong Kong are the beautiful lives I want to serve and love for the rest of my life.  I have never felt so confident in my calling to teach than I do now, and I rejoice in that reality and truth God's brought before me.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all SO VERY MUCH for all of your prayers, words of encouragement, and great comments on all of my Facebook updates. Although I still have no idea whether or not God may lead me into serving Him through overseas teaching in the future, this amazing opportunity has confirmed the gift of teaching and passion for children that I desire to continue to develop and deepen.

I'll be home in one week and four days.  I cannot wait.  I also wish tomorrow would last for years. God is good. His timing and plans in my life (and yours) are perfect! PRAISE THE LORD!

Typhoons and Unconditional Love

Due to a Level 10 typhoon (the highest possible level) in Hong Kong, all of the schools were cancelled today.  The typhoon began yesterday morning (Monday) already and reached a Level 8 by 5 pm on Monday.  Our team waited in line to catch a taxi, but since no one else wanted to walk in the rain either, the line was incredibly long and we waited for 40 minutes before deciding to simply walk the 10-15 minute walk in the rain!  We arrived back at our dorms soaked, but I kicked off my shoes, embraced God's powerful storm and LOVED running through the downpour and insane winds with a couple teammates! Plus, I'm not sure there's going to be another time that I can say I ran across Hong Kong barefoot during a typhoon! 


Later that night, the storm reached a Level 10.  We woke up the next morning (Tuesday) around 6:30 to find out that the storms were cancelled and several windows of our building had been blown out.  All of the ELIC teams are on floors 15-17 (I'm on 17) of the building, and we're all safe! It still rained for most of the day, and the typhoon stayed at a Level 3 all day until tonight when it changed to a Level 1.


Today was a wonderful day off! As much as I wished I could be at school with my students, several of them ended up chatting with me one-on-one via facebook, I was able to post some photos from back during training week (you should be able to check them out here--https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3864838657683.2155997.1179990101&type=1), and I was able to spend a large part of my day in God's Word and prayer for several different things going on in my life.  I've read through tons of the Psalms today and last night, and I'd recommend Psalm 148-150 to you all especially!


Tomorrow we begin our third to last day of classes, and it's amazing how fast time has flown! I've been loving on my students and getting to know them, their joys, and their sorrows so much lately! These Chinese children are SO HUNGRY for Truth.  They are SO HUNGRY for anything that can answer their questions, calm their fears, and take away their sorrows. I'm praying continuously that God will provide me with opportunities to share the Truth I know with them in these last few days.  Please join me in praying for that and opening their minds and hearts to hear the Great Truth!


The Lord is GOOD. He is GOOD To all.  


"The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made."


My dear brothers and sisters whom I love SO much, rejoice in that truth. Pray for this city.  Pray fervently for these children.  And keep seeking Him, trusting Him, and experiencing the Truth He alone is able to give us.




Some individual needs--

Vincent is a 15-year-old Christian.  I've heard him be openly mocked by some of his classmates for believing in Jesus. He's smart, so smart, but he can also lean towards breaking the rules and following the wrong leaders.  He desires to learn English and become a doctor so that he can share of the Good News with others in Hong Kong. He'd love to study in America someday, but in order to pass the test to become a doctor in HK, he must learn better English.

Hercules is a broken, angry, and stressed out 14-year-old.  He's done much of the mocking of Vincent.  He's an intelligent boy.  Some of the vocabulary he uses are words I don't even use! However, he is also SO in need of the Truth and Light.  His life is too full of sadness and darkness for a young boy to experience.

Angel is probably my quietest and shyest girl.  She's also only 12 in a class dominated by 14 and 15-year-old boys.  We were told that we'd all have shy students because speaking English to a native English speaker is often quite intimidating.  I figured this was simply Angel's problem.  She told me early on in her journals that she is a Christian and loves that God loves her and that she is able to love Him back.  However, I was reading her journal today.  In response to the prompt, "What do you fear?", she replied, "When my mother punishes me, I feel afraid.  She punishes me very loudly.  Also, she beats me." Pray for this brokenness and her pain.  Pray for me to have the words to share with Angel and love her unconditionally.

Finally, Iris is a 13-year-old girl with the attitude of a 16-year-old drama queen.  When I asked the class how much they would probably spend on various things in order to determine and learn more about what we valued and what we should value, she replied, "I don't buy things.  My daddy just buys me whatever I need to make me happy."  Iris and I haven't exactly clicked.  No matter how hard I try to love on her, she just seems to test my patience, roll her eyes at me, and whisper secrets to the girls next to her.  Her attitude even reminds me a little of my own high school self, but I simply can't figure out how to get through to her.  From her journals, it sounds like Iris's idea of love is a love that is bought with nice things, not a love that is patient, kind, and everything else 1 Corinthians says it is.  Pray that I might be able to show Iris the depth of real love, a love given in response to undeserved love from my Savior.


Love,
Kristin, the teacher of some wonderful 12-15-year-old Chinese students, Jackson, Wilson, Oliver, Peter, Hercules, Edmund, Vincent, Tom, Stephen, Steven, Mike, Justin, Hayes, Candy, Sindy, Katie, Katy, Angel, Iris, Karen, and Alice.

The Lord's Day in HK

Today was the third Sunday in Hong Kong and the fourth Sunday since I've been home.  For the third Sunday in a row, I attended Watermark Community Church on Hong Kong Island with most of the other ELIC summer teachers in Hong Kong.  The church is an international church plant.  While at church, I've heard in a German accent, singing in British accents, kids with thick Chinese accents, and visited with an Australian accented woman around my same age today.

This morning, I was blessed to be able to serve in the kids' ministry and help teach the 3 and 4-year-old Sunday school class today.  If you know of my own home church involvement, you'll know that I taught this same age group this past year.  Teaching the adorable Chinese, American, and European kids about the Resurrection really made me miss you all--Braelynn, Taylor, Dakota, Jackson, and Everett.

After church, we all headed to Watermark's Community Center--about a 20 minute bus ride from the church.  We ate pizza together, then awaited the arrival of several of our students from across Hong Kong.  This afternoon, we hosted any of them who wanted to come from 2-4 pm for games, English activities and practice, food, and drinks.  One of my students (Karen) showed up with one of my teammate's (Joy's) students (Candy), so Joy and I spent the entire two hours learning new card games and teaching Karen and Candy our American card games.  I have a GREAT new one that I absolutely love just in case any of you want to learn a new one when I get back! :)

From L-R--- Me, Karen (my student), Candy (Joy's student), and teammate Joy from North Carolina

Karen, Candy, and I about ready to leave after all of our card-playing.

 During the first week and a half of English camp, Karen was quiet and knew only my two most mischievous boys because she had been in their same class and school during the year.  I mistakenly judged her as a student who didn't care to be there and would probably cause problems.  Looking back, Karen has caused no problems and always participates eagerly in class.  She's such a loving, beautiful creation.  However, she also doesn't attend church on Sundays, and neither does her mother--whom I met.  Keep Karen and her family in your prayers.  Pray that God would open doors and hearts in this family.  She is such a joy and priceless gem.

After those two hours, we walked to the bus station with Candy and Karen, met Karen's mom--a kind Chinese woman who didn't speak any English--and all traveled back on the MTR together.  Karen's mom took us the long way back because they were on the opposite side of Hong Kong than us, but Joy, Candy, and I enjoyed our 45 minute MTR ride across the city!

In a few minutes, we have a team meeting to kick off our last full week of teaching.  After that, I plan on spending the rest of my night responding to my students' journals before class tomorrow and reading through parts of Ephesians, Psalms, and James.  A teammate suggested another sermon by John Piper, so I'll hopefully have some time to check that out, too. I miss my Sunday being sandwiched with morning and evening services.

Oh, and the picture below shows you my Sunday evening dinner.  Yes, even the college campus food service gets old and repetitive in Hong Kong! :)

Fortunately, with my lesson plans for the week finished, I'll hopefully get a good and full night of sleep tonight!

Sweating, exploring, sweating, getting lost, and always more sweating.

So it's hot here.. if you can't tell by the title of this post.  It's foggy OFTEN because of the crazy humidity.  The coolest times of the day are when it rains (which happens once every day or so), but as soon as the random downpours stop, the humidity gets even worse and the sun fries us all once again.  Needless to say, I've been taking quite a few buses and staying indoors as often as possible.  Often times I've broken a sweat before I've even ridden the 17 floors down on the elevator to leave my building.  On school days, our team is drenched before we even get to the MTR station.

And then four of us decided to hike a mountain on Friday when we had the day off of school.  And we proceeded to get lost and wander around for quite awhile.  Before even reaching a halfway point, our shirts were soaked through, sweat was running into our eyes and mouth, and our arms and legs were simply glistening as we chugged our water bottles dry and swatted away the bugs.

Joy, Rachel, and I all sweaty and exhausted in the middle of our hike.  Little did we know just how far we had yet to go.  Team leader Amanda joined us for the hike and took this great picture.

Finally, after two hours of hiking, sweating, bug sweating, water drinking, rest taking, and asking for directions, we made it to The Peak overlooking the city, harbor, and ocean... and the view was totally worth it...

The entire city of Hong Kong on one side...

And the beautiful expanse of the ocean on the other...

Later that night, we met up with the rest of our team.  We grabbed dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant, took the ferry across to Hong Kong Island and back, watched a light show on the city's buildings across the harbor, and toured the Avenue of Stars.

It was a great day off of teaching with a wonderful team!

Shouts of JOY!

“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!” Psalm 126:5 


I’m not sure of a Psalm that has better described my life at thepresent moment.  

Why?  Well, if you’ve beenkeeping up with my posts, you’ll know that Hong Kong has been nothing shy ofthe world’s largest rollercoaster of emotions.

From things as trivial as bug bite-covered legs and humidity far worsethan Iowa to things as emotionally taxing as frustrating students, evident spiritualdevastation in the city, and team frustrations, sometimes I’ve felt as if God’sbrought me to Hong Kong simply to teach me every single lesson He has plannedfor my life in these short six weeks.  Add to that theever-present homesickness I’ve been struggling with since the day I left, andmy emotions have been in the lowest of the lows lately.

Before you stop reading this because my past couple blogs have been allabout Hong Kong’s hardships making my life so miserable, know that this posthas a much happier ending.  Why?  Because God is faithful and today is now inthe running for having been the best dayin Hong Kong yet!

Week two of teaching started out Monday morning with Rachel’s alarmwaking us up at 6:30.  I laid in bedawhile, simply wanting to sleep all day. I wanted to do anything butteach.  After a full and exhausting weekwith such frustrating students, they were not who I wanted to spend another daywith, let alone another TWO WEEKS.  But,this is kind of like my job…and I know deep down I never would have skipped, soI left for school.  Plus, you all are a great encouragement, both through your prayers, but also accountability.  I would never have been able to write you all saying I skipped a day of teaching because I was frustrated.  So I left for school, still not wanting to go, but willing to at least show up and present the lesson I'd prepared.

And then English camp was awful. My students were silent when I wanted them to talk; they were talkative(in Cantonese, of course) when I wanted them to be quiet.  I had a headache by the end of the firsthour, had several students angry at me for making them do extra journaling, andspent most of my day trying to quiet the class down.  I struggled for control of my students.  I struggled to get any sort of answer out ofstudents.  They refused to talk withpartners.  They refused to do anything except speak in Cantonese whileI repeated directions three or four times. I even perfected my “I can wait” face. 

To top it all off, the rest of my team seemed to have the BEST DAY onMonday.  “My students were SO greattoday!” “Oh, I just love my students!” “My students want to take me out forlunch tomorrow.”  I heard it all, and itall stung.  Why couldn’t I have thosestudents?  Why weren’t my students thatawesome?  Why didn’t my students loveme?  I left school in tears and spent thenight eating puppy chow, watching a movie, and preparing lesson plans with myroommate.  I fell asleep praying that Godwould simply make the next day a little less miserable.  I prayed that He would allow my students to simply be alittle bit nicer to me.

Just like the Psalm says, I sowed in tears.  

But the Psalmist was also right when he wrote that I would reap withshouts of joy.

Tuesday morning.  (About 16 hoursago, actually.)  I woke up, took ashower, started getting ready, and realized that heavy, burdened heart wasn’tthere anymore.  I wouldn’t say I was excited forclass, but I wouldn’t say I was dreading it either. It was more like that same nervous anticipation I had for the first dayof camp.  What would my students be likethat day?  

Just before I was ready toleave for team devotions before heading to the school, a friend from homecalled me on Skype.  I ignored the callbecause I was in a hurry, but then decided to quickly call him back.  We only talked for a few minutes, but I canremember that one of the last things he told me after I expressed my frustrations and worries was to trust.  “Trust in the Lord,” he said. 

45 minutes later, as our team entered the school building, a teammate cameup to me and shared the same words with me. “Kristin,” he said, “I know your students are difficult to teach, but trust in theLord.”  The words echoed in my head as Ispent the day joyfully teaching.  For thefirst time, I was able to really, truly laugh while teaching.  I smiled at the quirky sayings and hilariousgrammar mistakes.  I got excited by theirvictories and their successes.  

And then something else began to happen.  THEY beganlaughing.  THEY began smiling.  THEY began clapping for each other andcheering one another on.  Today, for thefirst time, I was able to simply throw my head back and laugh along with my students because of somethingfunny I’d said or did.  We were able tolearn together and simply enjoy each others’ company.  We celebrated each others' victories and worked through struggles together.

I’m not saying my students and I are going to all be great every secondof every day.  I know we’re still goingto have rough days.  They probably won’tenjoy all of the activities I plan.  Iprobably won’t enjoy all of the purposefully incorrect or funny answers theygive.  However, today I began to love mystudents…not because I have to, but because I want to.  I began to love mystudents because they have awesome dimples I’ve never noticed, helpfulattitudes that finally came through, and even because I realized that I have a couple realgentlemen in my class.

Today I was reminded yet again that my students are not the enemy.  There is only ONE true enemy we arefighting.  My students are on OUR side,or at least they can be.  The war is won andforever will be, but it is still happening. My students need the Truth.  Theyneed to hear the Truth so that they can join our side in the great battle.  I have the Truth.  The Truth is in ME.  As their teacher and friend, my greatestprayer is that I can have the opportunity to share this beautiful Truth withthem.  And until I have that opportunity, I will keep fighting for it.  I will keep fighting because God loves me.  And because of His great and matchless love, I will love my students.  Because I love my students, I will fight for them.  I will fight for them.  I will fight for them.  

Today, I walked out of Ming Yin College with those “shouts of joy” thePsalmist so beautifully declared to come from sowing in tears.  There were only tears of joy shed today.  (Yes, my eyes did get watery several times during the wonderful times with my students this morning.)  So tomorrow, you better believe I’ll bewaking up refreshed, renewed, and shouting for joy to continue learning from,sharing with, and loving on my awesome students.

p.s. I was basically able to share the Good News with about 60 of theEnglish camp’s students today (unfortunately, not my own).  Praise the Lord for that! These kids arecurious.  They’re so hungry for truth ofsome sort.  More details about thatawesome opportunity will come in a later post. Pray that all of the Hong Kong students may be nourished with thebeautiful Truth you and I are filled with everyday.

Love and miss you all.  Keep on trusting, trusting, trusting.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." James 1:2-3

Kristin