Spring Break Part 4

I just got back from a Spring Break that I will never forget! I feel that I have made new best friends and have grown closer to God and have found out a little bit more of myself. This is for memories and for people I want to show gratitude for how amazing they are. I am going to go backwards though… cause I want to and it’s my blog!

Beau and I made it to Tempe! We left San Diego around noon so we didn’t have to hit any bad traffic there or in Phoenix. I am sitting in the passenger seat playing some Pokemon Yellow. I was rockin it hardcore, not going to lie…. and it also helps that I have a walking guide in the driver seat… Beau I feel like has lived in the Pokemon world and knows the in and out of it. Plus it kept us both busy.

For some reason when we left San Diego and were in the desert, I wasn’t feeling too good…. which sucked…. cause we’re in the desert. Amen though, god provided… I made it! We get back on the road and We were at the closest, 100 feet from the border to Mexico. I have never been there, so it was cool to be able to see it, which again I would have only known only by the border cause it is all a bunch of nothing…

So we drive for about 4 hours from San Diego to Chandler, Arizona. We get to Brandon’s house and just chill for a bit. The funny thing is that we made it for another midweek! And the sad thing is that Brandon works all 3 days we are in Arizona and he works 12 hour shifts…. so yeah, 6am to 6pm=no seeing him. But I was very grateful for his heart to serve Beau and I and let us stay in his house.

So we ended up meeting up with Chris and we got to go and see him and Amy and Aiden and Pepper!!! I am not going to lie though, I made Pepper pee in the house when I saw her….  :) Oops…. But I love her anyway….

Amy and the baby were ill, but we got to eat some dinner with them and catch up a tad….. then it was off to Campus Midweek! We headed off to ASU which is a Campus of 55,000 students! It was sooooo great to meet all these new disciples that I have never met before! I forget a lot of peoples names so please forgive me, but these are the ones that I can remember…. Jasmine, Erica, Emily, Pat, Shawn, Curtis, Chris J., Jon, Kisha, Luis, Jeremy, and Evan. Sorry for everyone else… I love you… just didn’t hang out that much…? And going to confess I am the worst with names. I think I just realized I have no short term Memory…. that will be fun when I am older….

So Midweek was on an apologetic class going over proving that Science is in sync with God’s creation with the world and that it’s not disproving it, but making it a stronger case that really happened. Now, I am not going to go into detail now, but if you are curious, I will try to answer your questions, but we talked mostly about Genesis 1 and the creation.

After Midweek, Pat, Emily, and Erica said they were going to go to a Dashboard Confessional concert. The funny thing is that I was looking for a concert to go to either in LA or Phoenix. Well, nothing popped up until they mentioned the concert. I was down. i knew one of their songs. This isn’t the only concert where I only knew one song. I got to talk with Pat a lot more and I feel like we instantly became best friends. Awesome guy and hung out with him basically the whole time I was in Arizona and am super grateful for our friendship and relationship. Miss ya already and can’t wait to see you in ICMC.

But we went to drop off David (oooooooo! Another person!) at his job. Then we Pat and I got to talk a lot more and got to find out how we both came to God. We got lost, so it was an awesome long conversation.  We finally made it to Jasmine and Emily’s place. We just hung out and played Ukulele and guitar and played YouTube videos. Very productive and fun. Also got back into words with friends. Add me! lilbiggy.

The next day Beau slept in because he was still getting over his illness and he had only 7 hours of sleep and over 1000 miles of driving. I think it was well deserved.

I went and hung out with Chris. I got to ride my long board to the nearest Best Buy and got to check it out. That is where Chris met up with me. He got lost…. not going to lie…. anyway, we went on campus and met up with some brothers and got into a bible study with this one guy…. and I forgot his name… but yeah, i am going to still pray for him.

I got to hang out with Shawn for a little bit getting to know him. AWESOME BROTHER! Then we got to go long board around campus. It was awesome!! It was so cool to see this huge campus whose 1/3 dorms equal the size of SOU. Crazy!

I got to meet up with Pat and go pick up the tickets to the concert. He took me a back way to get to his car and wanted to show me the coolest backyard. I am not going to lie, it was pretty tight. I went to go to my camera on my phone to take a picture and Pat told me that there was someone in the back looking at us. Right when I was going to take the photo, the man looked at us and we went off awkwardly laughing.

So we get to the car and decide to make plans on what we were going to do. We picked up the tickets and then met up with Erica. We headed off to Fat Burger and waited for Emily. Now, Fat Burger is unique for what they put in its burgers. You can get plain, or, do what I did. 2 patties, lettuce, mayo, bacon, egg, chili, pickles, and some other good stuff in there. I ate it all! It was delicious!

We went on from there to the concert and got in! We waited on the floor for the concert to start. I was glad we did that because by the end, I was in pain even with the 45 minute sit down.

The concert starts and people get fired up. Some interesting openers like usual. One guy who sounded like a mix of Jason Mraz and the singer of Nickelback. The other opener was folk so I thought immediately of Mumford and Suns.

Dashboard was awesome though. I got to hear the one song I knew, but it was funny because I loved all the other songs. So I bought all his music….. and it’s awesome. I am actually currently listening to it now (Don’y Wait).

We got done with the concert and our throats were gone! We met up with Kisha and got some soda and Paranormal Activity 2 and met up with Beau and watched it! It was awesome! I love scary movies!!! Kisha and I realized we were twins. I was a brotha from another motha… I agreed.

The next day was a day of awesomeness…. not saying the other days weren’t, but this was epic. Beau and I woke up and had a quiet time with Jeremy and Pat. It was awesome. We all read one passage from Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. It was convicting for sure! Then we headed off to meet with a sister for lunch. We went to Slices, which was an awesome pizza restaraunt! I had Hawaiian, of course. Beau had I think Pepperoni, and Pat had BBQ. They were all delicious.

Then Beau and I headed off to a Mariners vs. Cubs game! We showed up late, but the Mariners were winning. By the end though… they lost…. lame….. It was cool though because neither of us had been to a preseason game/spring training. And I haven’t seen the Mariners play in a while, so that was good.

We then met up with Chris to go to the Phoenix Suns game! That was tight! We took the Light Rail. A nice 45 minute ride to downtown Phoenix to the US Airways Arena. We meet up with this football player for ASU and get into the game. Now the coolest part about it is that we got all you can eat hot dogs, popcorn, nachos, and soda! And a free t-shirt…. which by the way, the lady handing them about said to me, ” This is only for adults….” that was messed up… Anyway…

So we watch the game, eating up our free food and drank. We meet up with some other disciples and talk. We take photos and send them to James and my Dad. We did the same thing for the Mariners and Cubs game too.

So when all the dust cleared and 2 free tacos later, the Suns ended up losing 100-106 against the Hornets after having a 6 point lead most of the game…. The ironic thing is that both times I said that the opposite team was getting crushed…. they ended up winning… Anyway….

We also got to go on the court and get our photo taken there. That was awesome! Seeing th stadium from down below is an experience.

So we ended up leaving early because the last train home was 11:15pm and it was about 11…. so we headed back.

I won’t go into detail, but I am grateful I have *ahem* mature friends to hang out with… I am not at all saying I am… but…. very mature campus ministers and friends….. awesome. We gave Buck Estes a call and made plans to meet up with him on our way back to Ashland. Chris got to catch up with him too, which I know is something he wanted to do. It was awesome.

So we get dropped off 45 minutes later. The whole time Chris was trying to make me get off on the wrong stop by getting up and heading toward the door. Fooled him!! I knew what he was doing after the 4th time…..

He then starts throwing a water cup at me that has been on the ground…. very sanitary…. then starts chasing me around the parking lot. Then he starts trying to whip me with a t-shirt and chasing me in a parking lot and I almost get hit by a car…. Thanks Chris…

We get in the car and start playing with the Flarp. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the best $2 creation ever! We play with that and a whoopie cushion. And Beau has himself…. So we come up with a plan to play an amazing prank on the sisters.

We get to Chris’ house where there are 5 women having a girls night. We walk in and see the chick flick movies and just start a conversation. Then I let it go! the Flarp made some awesome sounds! Then Chris starts using the Whoopie cushion and Beau goes behind a wall and starts doing what he does. The girls were laughing, so we kept doing it. Their reactions were priceless! Thanks ladies for an awesome time in Tempe!

Chris, Beau and I go out and pray and say our goodbyes. Beau goes and drives me to Shawn’s place and we hung out for a bit watching a recent episode of The Office. Beau left to go get some sleep because he was driving the whole time back to Ashland.

After the Office, I was telling the guys we should do something epic since it was my last night. It was Shawn, Chris, Pat, and I. We decided to go to one of Chris’ favorite prayer spots. I was down. Shawn had to wake up early so he stayed back, which was OK. I definitely had an awesome time with him long boarding and getting to know him and where he came from. I love you bro and can’t wait to see you at ICMC!

So we head off. We drive for about an hour at least, getting food at McDonald’s and trying to find places to turn off at. We were on a highway in the middle of nowhere and some ares looked a little sketch. Almost went on Butcher Road….. glad we didn’t do that. We also stopped in a place that looked like ax murderers lived there. So we decided to drive a little farther….

We get to an on/off ramp and go to a little loop area, almost going to a dirt road…. again… another sketch choice, but we decided to not to….

We get out and just look up at the stars and are amazed by God’s infinite creation. There are no words to describe the awe we were in and the praise, worship, and prayer that we did. All I know is that Chris and Pat are some of my closest friends and am so grateful for their friendship, sacrifice, love, and brotherhood. It was such an encouraging and moving time to be with them, crying out to God. God is amazing and I am glad I got to share that awe moment with them. Love you guys!

We drive back to Brandon’s place (with another stop at McDonalds… which by the way had a fountain at its drive thru that just looked so out of place. It was hilarious.

I get back to Brandon’s house and get into bed and right when my head hits the pillow, Beau’s alarm goes off…. we are leaving in 30 minutes back to home…. The best part though is that I got to see Brandon before I left and tell him how grateful I was for letting us stay at his place even though we saw him at the beginning and the end of our trip.

Beau and I pack up and head off. Nothing like a good ol’ 530am departure time for us. We take off, get some coffee and McDonald’s and head off. Since someone didn’t get any sleep….. I slept for a couple hours. I wake up to violent shaking in the car. We are in the MOST WINDIEST PASS EVER!!! I wake up and we are already in California. There were so many power wind things on the sides of the road. At least a thousand that I could see. So I am now awake for a little bit. I give Buck an update on where we are. We meet up with him in Burbank for some coffee!! Yay Starbucks! It was so good seeing him again and catching up with him and seeing how God is using him in Hollywood! It encouraged me so much and can’t wait to see what God has in store for you!!!

Beau and I head out and get some In-and-Out Burger!!! Which is delicious!!! And we head off. I call my dad to let him know where we are. We were on the Grapevine I believe when I called him. I eat and go into a food coma for a couple of hours. While that happens, I guess we hit a flash flood. I was asleep the whole time so I didn’t know. I was fine….. Good driving Beau!

We end up getting to Redding and filling up for gas. It is now 9pm and we are almost home. Let’s just hope we don’t hit the same weather on the pass that we did when we left for our trip. We listen to the Pure in Heart Series on our way back and get convicted! We say a prayer and thank God for the safe trip home!! God is so great!

 

I do want to say thanks again for Chris, Amy, Aiden, and Pepper for being such awesome people, baby, and Dog. Just letting me get into a bible study, feeding us, hosting us, and just the great work they are doing in Tempe and the ASU campus! God is going to bless all you do! You guys are an inspiration and some of my closest friends! Thanks guys! See you at ICMC.

PAT!!!! BRO!!!!! I am so thankful for all you did for Beau and I while we were down there. You showed true servitude and took care of us! Getting lost, getting to places, driving me around, going to concerts, intense prayer times! Bro, I am so grateful to have you as a brother in Christ and a best friend! It was only three days! Hearing where you have come from and seeing God really working through you and just the growth you want is inspiring. I pray you go for it an become a mighty man for God! Love ya bro!!! Can’t wait to see you again!

Shawn! Thanks bro just for your friendship and sharing your life with me! It was awesome to get to long board with you around the campus and giving me the tour. Also letting me into your home and hanging out. Hearing all the ways you are serving the ministry and your family encourages my soul and shows an awesome act of servitude! Keep it up! Share your life with those guys studying and people will be impacted by it!

Brandon! Again!!!! Thank you so much for letting us stay with you! We never saw you, yet you opened your home! I am grateful for that heart! I know you are busy. Again, thanks again man. I miss you tons not being in the northwest, but I know God has some great plans for you in Tempe! Love ya bro.

Chris! I got to hang out with you for a little bit, but man, hearing your cries out to God were inspiring and just showed how much you love him and want to be more like him! Keep it up bro!!!

Kisha!!! You are my twin!!!! Thanks so much for the tour of Monti’s and letting us hang out at your house and watch an amazing scary movie! It was so awesome to get to know you and to hang out with you! You are an inspiration to me and a huge help for the brothers and sisters in Tempe! Can’t wait to see you in ICMC!!! Cause you’re going! No if and’s or buts missy!

Erica! I was encouraged to hang out with you and Pat! I will be praying for your relationship. And I know how hard those questions were on facebook when you added me as a friend. I am glad it’s official!

Emily! Thanks for inviting me to the concert! I had so much fun getting to know you and seeing a lot that we have in common! And also chowing down that FatBurger! I will be praying for you on your goals and what you are wanting to do for your life! Thanks for your hospitality on Wednesday night letting us hang out at your place.

Luis! Stay strong brother! It was awesome hearing how God had been working in your life since you were 5! I pray God will bless you and will keep you safe and strong!

Jeremy and Evan! You guys are rockin the Phoenix Ministry!!! Keep it up bro! God is using both of you in many great ways!!!! I can’t wait to hear all about it!

Thanks again for anyone I forgot! Keep the Lord on your mind and never stop doing what is good!

Romans 12

Living Sacrifices

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual^[a] act of worship. ² Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. ⁴ Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his^[b] faith. ⁷ If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ⁸ if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Love

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹² Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³ Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.^[c] Do not be conceited.

¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. ¹⁸ If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”^[d] says the Lord. ²⁰ On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”^[e]

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 

 

Campus Retreat/ICMC Friday-Sunday

Wow!!! What a trip! I just got back from the campus retreat and while being there, I saw a completely different side of Indonesia! I have the pictures uploaded on Facebook, I hope you are dncouraged by them! I also took pictures of today as well, Sunday, but they are on Jenny’s camera, so she will upload them unless she gives the pictures to me and I will have them uploaded tonight. OK…..

Thursday, we woke up super early. Ok, we have been doing this for the past 3 days! We would go to bed extremely late and wake up extremely early! This was not good especially heading off to a campus retreat where you are supposed to be constantly fired up and encouraging people!!!! I will get to more of that later….

We were supposed to leave Mandy’s house by 6am to head off to Bandung. Well, we didn’t wake up till 5:15….. oops…..

So none of us take a shower. We are all rushing to get packed and ready for this excursion and rushing to get to Mandy’s place. So we leave at 5:55 and pray that they weren’t going to come pick us up from our place. None of us are talking to each other. We are like zombies trying to get to Mandy’s as fast as walking with bags will let us.

We get there and no one is awake…..well….. that’s funny…. Haha…..So we sit and lay down and wait for everyone else to get ready….. Grandma and Grandpa…omma and ompa right?…..anyway, they show up and have some breakfast, which none of us were in the mood to eat. All we could think about was sleep and more sleep…..We are very tired. So we don’t even leave till about 7:30. In my mind, I always look at how much more sleep I could have had during that time. Haha…. If you know me, you know that is usually the first thing I mention.

So we all head out to Bandung!!! This is where they have all the factory retail stores! Literally…. SUPER CHEAP CLOTHES!!!!! It takes about 2 hours to get there. We listen to a sleep mix I made, which consists of Coldplay and Jason Mraz I would like to add, and yet, none of us can fall asleep now… weird. So we listen to Till Kingdom Come 5 million times on the way, literally, it was on repeat. Peter threw on his headphones. Haha…. not a big Coldplay fan. We talk a little bit, mostly Would you rather questions and random questions we like to ask one another and see what the answers would be.  I got some snacks for the roadtrip to Bandung. If you have roadtripped with me, you know how I role when I am on a roadtrip….

So yeah, we get to Bandung and stop at a mall and go looking around. We go to a pretzel place and get some. I got garlic, which was great. And it came with some lemonade as well. Austin was trying to be encouraging to someone and so he leaned back in his chair and completely took a tumble. And the funny part about it is that it was in complete slow motion. I think someone might have been able to help him, but he seemed to have everything in control…. until he fell. Haha…

So we get some Starbucks, which I still have not had since I have been here. It is the same expensive american price. I don’t know how they get business here, but I have heard that U.S Starbucks is better…

So we meet up with Linda’s Sister and nephew who is the cutest kid ever, and we hung out with them for a little bit.

We then went to the first factory outlet! These stores consist of everything….Aeropostale, A&F, Hollister, AE, Hugo Boss, etc… It had a lot! I was conservative in what I bought. I was going to buy about 3 shirts, then brought it down to 1 long sleeve shirt. It cost about $75,000! What a deal!!! I liked it anyway…

So after some shopping, we all went and had some traditional Indonesian food! It was good for the most part. I loved the rice….. For some reason, I love the shrimp here, even from the raw. The legs and shell is still on it. I still like it. It’s great.

So after that, we headed off to one more outlet mall. It was about the same. I found a pair of jeans that actually fit me! It was a great victory. Now I don’t need to buy jeans for the next 5 years! Oh yeah, They are Hugo Boss i believe and I only got them for $200,000! I have never bought a nice pair of jeans for so cheap! I think I did get some other things, but I will need to go find where they are, but they are good We had Peter and Austin do a fashion show for the girls, which was funny to see. They ended up buying the clothes though…..

But on our way off to the car to depart to the retreat, we have an art vendor come up to us. I remember my brother saying something about beinging back some Indonesian art for him! So I was very excited and got some art! Hope you like it Bryce! I almost spent 75,000 on it, but I got it talked down to about 30,000.

So off to the retreat we went! It was great. We slept the whole way! We stopped and got some snacky foods in case we didn’t like what was being served. We all got the same snack, which was strawberry wafers, and we ended up finding out that they were all stale!!! And we all got the same kind! Haha… We thought that was pretty funny. So we are heading off to the place and our driver, Yadi, stops in the middle of the freeway, well, off to the side, and leaves the car and asks for directions on where to go…. Haha….. I was scared, but yet, I am having a mindset I shouldn’t. I am slowly repenting from. But we asked for directions a couple of times and finally we called Moses and he came and we followed him the rest of the way. I really hope you enjoy the pictures that are posted. It was truly a marvelous sight that I cannot put into words. The place we were at was in the middle of tea fields! Mountains of tea fields!!!!

So we get our things settled in for the night and start to talk with the Brothers and Sisters that are already there getting things set up. We buy our shirts, which was $28,000, so I bought a couple to take back home! But they are all Mediums. And medium in Indonesia is a small….. Sorry…..

So we get some food for dinner and start to talk with the people there, building up the relationships with them, getting to know the people there. Frisco is singing for Friday, so I got to go and hear them practice. They had some english songs and Indonesian songs. Shout to the Lord. That was the only one. We hear it a lot. I played some chess with Frisco and someone else… I forget names! I am so sorry!!! I don’t mean to leave people out, I am just really bad with names….. forgive me!!! So yeah, after some chess, all of us head off to bed!!! It was 10:30pm……..

Friday

We awaken at 11:30am. That was sooooo nice to get some sleep! But the bad thing was that we were tired from sleeping in!!!! How can we win this battle against tiredness!!!!???? People weren’t showing up till about 3, so we had some time to wake up!!! I went praying with Mandy! We went to this amazing view of the tea plantation! It was a very inspiring place to pray.

After that, we went and waited. Waited for everyone to show up!

I need to go get ready to head to the Single’s Talent Show and Bible Bowl, but hopefully I will be able to come back tonight for me, morning for you, and finish off the weekend. Love you all!

Sunday-Wednesday Part 3

Ok, wow…. sorry for such a delay. I am going to have to rush these days because I really need to catch up to tonight so that the next time I blog, I will be able to type it all out and have everything make sense…..

Sunday

We had church, which was awesome because Austin and Megan gave the communion message, which was awesome. It was on Romans 5:5-8. Pretty impacting on them. Then during the passing of the offering, I got to perform with the teen disciples in singing Never Let Me Go by The Planetshakers. Pretty good song. Check it out!

After that, We had some lunch downstairs, and it wasn’t good. Haha…. I had like something that looked like a beef steak, but was not….. and some rice. yeah….. I am losing my adventurous touch…..

After that was a goodbye party for Andrew, who is a teen here, because we was going to be going to school in North Virgina. He is excited and can’t wait to see what God has in store for him there! Just from the conversations I have had with him, he is going to do amazing things on his campus! Good luck Andrew! I will be praying for you! I will see you when you go and visit Sammy!

After the party, we went and had a little meeting with the teen disciples seeing what what going on in their ministry, what they wanted to see, and how they can make it happen. It was a great meeting for us to get to know what was going on in the teen ministry, but also a good wake up call for them to see what was going on with their ministry and to find solutions to make it even better! It was awesome….

After that was some down time… playing hearts and apples to apples and having McDonald’s Delivered to the house!!!! I hadn’t eatin much all day and so I ordered a Big Mac and Fries…. which is a #4 here…. interesting… I Think a #1 is like fish or chicken or something….. Anyway, there are some pics of that on Facebook if you would like to check out….

Monday

We had a leaders meeting today. I guess during the good news sharing, we looked a little tired, so they actually sent us home early. Haha…. But before that,

Harlem, the lead evangelist, and Vania sat with us for lunch and told us amazing stories about the church here and how God has worked tremendously here. How the church began, the threats against it, and how God has continued to work in the church. I will not forget, but I am not going into detail in the blog because it is only a personal way to explain the experiences. They seem so unbelievable at times, yet so real because they are here today! Thanks be to God!

But I had raw shrimp for lunch…. I didn’t know that you had to peel a layer off of them in order to get to the meat….. yeah, that was sketch…. yet tasty! I won’t lie! And no, I didn’t get sick this time…. Thanks God!

Sadly, that was all that really is mentionable for this day.

Tuesday

Another 4am wake up for school! We head off and get to teachin! I gave a devotional to the kids…. Meaning I went over some activities they did on respect and went a little deeper into it. The kids know what respect is, but they do not apply it. So I tried to help them apply it. After that was basketball time!!!! We all had some quiet times and prayers together. They were great. We also went and taught a real 8th grade class some English! We had no idea what to do, so they gave me the stuff and watched. Haha…. It was good though. I am glad for the support! We did end up finding who had a bigger wrist out of me, Austin, Jenny, and Megan. Austin won….

Then we were supposed to get some training from Harlem and Vania, but other things came up, which was totally cool. We know they are busy people and were grateful that they were going to train us! Thanks for all you guys do!!!

So we played cards all night!!!!!! We played Spades!!! And now they are addicting! We are trying to beat Austin and Peter (which by the way, they have won at least 3 games, but in the game right now, they are negative and we are very positive but not bragging of course, just being informative… ). And the sisters encouraged the brothers by watching a scary movie with us! I was encouraged while they were there. Thanks for toughing it out! Lots of love!!!! Now I feel like I will get my ultimate punishment of watching Twilight……

Wednesday

Today was harder to wake up. Austin went to bed with a fever. I went to bed with a tummy ache. Peter went to bed with a kind of tummy ache. But I was ok when I woke up. I think all of us were ok. But it was a later start than usual. I think I finally got up at 5:40am. We left 10 minutes later.

We get to the school and I do my lesson with the kids. I asked them to write down what they wanted to learn for the rest of the time while I was there and something in their character that they wanted to grow in. Those kids are real, honest, and sincere. I pray now that God can show them how to start actually make an initiative to do it. We sang some songs. We sang all the ones I taught them…. I now owe a bunch of kids quarters!!! We did Sea of Galilee, Building up the Kingdom, and Couldn’t keep it to Myself. They did really well. They love to SHOUT about it. We got a group picture with the class and had recess. We ended getting to go into Jenny’s classroom and helping her show her 1st graders how to show respect and what are good and bad examples. It helped remind me who I was when I was a kid. I was very disrespectful and apologize to all who I have been that way, especially mom and dad and Trish…. I pray that you will continue to be patient and have mercy on me when I still struggle with it and continue to help me when I am struggling with it…… Sorry for the confession time….

So yeah, we ate at an ITALIAN restaurant!!!!! YAY!!! PIZZA!!!! It was an awesome meal. I had Ice Tea, with free refills!!! Which is a rarity here by the way. Then some garlic bread that was 1/4 eaten by me…….ahem…… and I had some Bali Pizza!!!! It was awesome! It was chicken and Pinneapple… which is the closest I will get to Hawaiian.

SO after that, We went and took a nap at the house and I got to get on the computer for a bit. My stupid screen is going black so I couldn’t see anything. I got locked out of my room because Peter was supposed to come down with me, and decided to take a nap….. Thanks! I love ya Peter.

Then I was supposed to hang out with Holly at 4!!!!! I get to Mandy’s house and await for a call…… and I didn’t get it till 4:10 We had Wonderful Wednesday tonight and so we were cutting in on time….. But I get to the mall and she still hasn’t left her house. Haha…  this was a scary moment. A short white man walking around a mall being stared at by everyone…… how about I call her and talk to her while she is on her way…. sounds good. So I chat with her on the phone while she is stuck in traffic! She was literally 2 minutes away and didn’t get to the mall 30 minutes later….. She showed up around 5:30. Haha…. but that was ok. We caught up a little bit and chatted on the phone before that. We ate some Hot Shots Burgers and talked with Holly for the remaining minutes before I was picked up.

So we went to WW and we went over Ephesians 6. The armor of God!!!!! Then we learned the National Anthem of Indonesia!!!!! That was pretty tight. I had no idea what I was singing, but it was nice. I think I am going to film people singing it…..

So yeah, I am caught up! I am going to be leaving for Bandung at 6am….. so it is 11:50pm right now and I am waking up at 4… another day. I am glad I am going to be on a 3 hour trip. It will be nice. We are going to be at the campus retreat (ICMC) for Jakarta! I will have lots of pictures and hoepfully meeting lots of people!!!!! I will write in a journal about the time and will blog it when I get back. Love you guys!!!! You’re awesome Thanks again for reading! God bless your weekend…..

Leaving?

I am leaving for ICMC! Bondune!!! That is where we are going! Don’t worry! It’s going to be awesome and full of Disciples!!!! Sorry for the no update from the past couple of days, but….. I will do it this morning before I leave, which is 7am my time so….. yeah…. Love you all! Sleep well!

Thursday-Sunday part 2

So we get ready for the wedding. We then head to the wedding. I think they know us…. but i am not too sure if we know them…. We have met a lot of people, we love everyone! So we get there and we wee the bride and groom walk in. They were cute. Then people share about them. Then there is an awesome prayer done and then FOOD!!! Yay! So we all ate, which the chicken teriyaki was awesome right Megan? Haha….. It was good though. Our little group ate all the desserts. Haha. I didn’t. I am not liking the sweets here. I don’t know why…. I miss Sour Patch kids….. :’( Sorry…. I had a moment….

So  yeah, after eating was the dancing!!!! Yay!!!!! except for one thing…. All the Americans were dancing and no one else! Haha. We were laughing at ourselves. But the singers were telling us to dance! So we had to!It was great. Rhia sang which was great. And there was a group of women that I guess are pretty popular here in Indonesia that were singing at the wedding. They sounded great. Then we met this upcoming star named Jimmy. He is a really nice guy who has an amazing voice! I was totally impressed. He speaks very good english and was a riot to hang around!

So after that, I found Holly!!! It was so encouraging to see her here safely! I go to talk with her a little bit. She went and got some food to eat and talked with some people she had met the last time she was here. So while I was talking with her, they were doing the thing where the bride throws the flowers and the whole tradition is the person that catches them is going to be the next one getting married. And out of ALL the people, guess who catches it? Yes….. you guessed! No wait…… not me…. come on…. I was talking with Holly! It was BOTH Jenny and Megan! Out of ALL the people! Haha. So yeah, for some reason in the back of my head I was thinking how funny it would have been if one of them catching it. Jenny was the one that went on stage and said a few words….. Haha! This was awesome. Then everyone part of the church went up for some pictures. That was great. Then the real fun began! We all did a conga line to Holy Day!!! Holy Holy Holy Holy Day! Oh Holy Day!! Haha… I might have to find that song cause it was hilarious!!!!

So yeah, after the amazing conga line, we decided to go home and get some rest…. after a long day of doing the conga!

Ok, now I am tired, but I will update tomorrow….hopefully. I don’t like being behind! And I need to finsh talking with Madre so I may go to bed!!!!

Thursday- Saturday

Before I start, just letting people know that Holly has made it over safely. And random fact…. I might try to do this more often….. There are four topics that I have mentioned everyday while I am here….. Coldplay, Durian, Puma, and PIZZA!!!! Those are the four things that are on my mind throughout the day constantly. Durian is tossed around like a nothing joke. Eh, it’s ok Everyone needs a little encouragement to see someone suffer like I am…. POISON!!!!

Anyway, Sorry for the late update. I thought I would be doing it more, but we had a guys night and then we had a late night, and here we are now…. Sorry

So, Thursday…..right. So it was just Peter, Austin, Mandy, and I that went and did things today. Haha. We went and got pizza hut!!! YAY!!!! They discontinued pineapple on their pizzas!!!!! I was super discouraged!! Sure, let’s put fish and brains and stuff on our pizza’s, but not healthy yummy fruit! So we got a meat lovers! It was good. I had freshed squeezed watermelon juice. It was delicious!  After that, we went shopping for food just for us at our apartment. Of course, me being me, I spent the most. Which was about $150,000!!! It was worth it though. I found some Durian flavored candies to bring home for people to try to see what I have gone through!!!!! I encourage everyone to try.

After that, we dropped Peter off to get a haircut! Haha… There are some pictures on facebook with a before and after of it…. he doesn’t look the same. But we went back to Mandy’s house and were talking about Scary Movies with the girls! It was great. I loved it. I wouldn’t say they were too encouraged, but all in all…. Just for the record, they did say they would watch it. That’s as far as I am going… So anyway,\

Peter came back  and then we all went out to dinner. We went to get “clean street food.” Yeah, that didn’t settle well with me, so Austin, Mandy, Megan, Jenny, and I went into a hooka lounge and had pita bread. The pita bread and hummus was amazing I do have to say. We also had an awesome discussion about smoking. That is a fun topic to study out I recommend everyone to study it out.

So after that, we went back to the house to talk with the campus leaders. It was such an awesome meeting because we got to find out their goals of what they are doing with the campus ministry and what they are doing to make it suceed and how we can even help. It was awesome to see their hearts for the ministry and wanting to help out the campus as much as they can. So yeah, we played a celebrity 20 questions game, which was awesome. I am Marilyn Monroe. Thanks guys. And the end of another day….

Friday….. a nice sleep in day….. we walked to the girls house and decided to hang out with Jeremy today. He was getting lunch with some friends, so we decided to travel the EX mall and the Indonesian Plaza. This was also the day that G.I. Joe came out. We decided to watch it in the premiere theaters. Haha. And it was just as I thought…. a flop. But I have to support my homie Joesoph Gordon-Levitt. By the way…. 500 Days of Summer was awesome. Off topic….

SO we went looking around the mall and waited for Jeremy to get done with hanging out with people. there is a Hard Rock Cafe in this mall. Actually, it is the only one in Indonesia I heard…. Everywhere we go, we hear Michael Jackson playing. EVERYWHERE!!! We went into a music store, and sure, I can see that. but we went into the movie theatre and sure enough, I have my ears being soothed to You Are Not Alone, with the music video of him and his shirt in the wind on a stage…. wow Michael was white. but I love him all the same.

So we meet up with Jeremy and we go eat….right after he just got done eating….. yeah…. Haha. So we find a burger joint in the Indonesian Plaza…. right? Right… sorry. Anyway,  we go to this Japanese fine burger and coffee place. I think the burgers are called Moss Burgers. It was interesting, but all the same, a great burger never hurt anyone. So we went and ate. We also had some toast with a big stick of butter in between the bread and MAN!!! So much better than I thought. I wouldn’t say as healthy, but it was awesome. I am going to see if I can remember that.

Before I forget though, the girls were invited to a fashion show one of these days and i guess there was less fashion and more talk…. Haha….something about plastic surgery…..

Anyway, so we then went to the movie and it was bad. But so worth $50,000! but we then left for home to go get ready for a wedding!!!! Yay!

I will explain more on the wedding later since I have a party pooper going to bed at 10:10pm!! Love you guys….

Ok, now you should all be caught up after this….Sunday-Wednesday

Good morning…..errr…..evening. We have finally caught up on sleep and hopefully we are becoming more healthier from it. Some of us have been getting tiny bugs, but nothing too serious. I am the worst so no one worry. I am almost 100%, just needing some antacid. I guess my mind when it comes to spicy is loving it and wanting more, yet some other parts of me are crying out for me to stop…. So now I am being more cautious of what I eat. They Jeremy, Mandy’s brother, keeps on trying to make us eat. He ALWAYS asks us while we are eating a 3-course meal anyway, and he keeps wondering why we don’t want to. Haha. So last night (Wednesday we made a date for him to take us somewhere instead of a sporadic right after a big meal time. Love ya Jeremy.

Ok, Sunday. The night before we get a text saying If we could be at Mandy’s house by 5:30, that would be great….. thanks Mandy! So we wake up at 4am to have a quiet time and to get ready for the day. We arrive at around 5am because we need to be at the Walk-A-Thon at 6am because it “starts” at 6:30. Well, we get there and Mandy’s mom and dad are awake and….. wait a bit….. where are the girls?!  Yeah, so we end up getting to go there with the parents. Haha. We get there around 6:20 and are ready! But wait again….. they were not ready to start the Walk-A-Thon! I guess that something that is traditional for Indonesians is timing…..6:30 means 7…..hmmmmm…..reminds me of something back home…..

So we finally end up seeing the girls about 10 minutes before the race and of course giving them a hard time. Of course we love them still. So the atmosphere was crazy! Many people from HOPE and many people that are from the school we are teaching at and others that are there to do some walking! It was great to see many people from church that I remember! I keep on forgetting people who are there and things like that, but I still love seeing the people there. So groups of kids are ahead of us and the walking begins! It was a 5K walk, which is funny because I am used to running a 5K. We start and we immediately get Edit Post ‹ Lilbiggy’s Blog — WordPressseperated from the girls. Haha. So I search for them and try to stick with them because I have a fear of being lost in this country with no people speaking English. Haha. So I find them and we sing Song Book songs…which I find out later that it was a very bold move since we weren’t around all christians and we were in the middle of downtown Jakarta. Like literally, the heart of the city…..yeah… but no worries because I am now typing this blog We started the Indonesia’s National Monument, which is gold plated…pretty tight…. and we went to the heart of downtown and came back! We were walking in the street, which you would think would be pretty dangerous….but they closed off a couple of lanes to let us walk in. There were so many vendors when we were down there trying to sell us water and food. Of course we said no. Street vendors are sometimes sketch, so we watch out for all of them.

We finish the walk-a-thon and there is now a carnival! We were all handed coupons to get ice cream and water and some bread after the walk, but Peter and I forgot ours in the car. I also forgot my camera, so it was all around not a good thing. But I did take pictures which are up on facebook. I will try to send the link because they aren’t on mine, but Jenny Blenko’s. They are good. So we walk around and see what is poppin at the carnival. There is many food vendors, that are good, and a booth for HOPE Worldwide so I checked it out and got some stuff there. All of us ended up selling balloons for $5000 each to children. Having 3 white boys selling balloons didn’t seem possible here. Well, for the other two it was a struggle, but someone ended up selling all of his and even made an extra $3000 I won’t give away who it was, but John did very well.   I guess there were some famous people at the walk-a-thon as well, I just don’t remember who. Haha. They did some concerts and activities with all the kids, so it was great.

So after that we went and hung out with the campus! And we played a very familiar game….. MAFIA!!! It was pretty tight. I won’t say who, but I was the first one out every game we played…thanks Austin….so I was after him for the rest of the game. And he died…every game…..because of me. The dead have such a great influence

So after playing that with the campus, we headed back to Mandy’s to go swimming in her pool! It was awesome! We jumped from a platform and the pool wasn’t that deep. But it was still fun. We were glad we finally went swimming though, even though Washington State might be needing it more.

After swimming, we went and saw Up at the Premiere movie theater. which was awesome….again. Then after the movie we had a family devotional with the Widjaja’s. That was very encouraging. A lot of good advice and things that were brought up along with scripture. Helping us grow in our fellowship with one another and the church.

After the devotional, we talked a little more with the family about our time here and how and what we are growing in and what we wanted to accomplish and a little about our stories on how we became christians. It was very encouraging to hear others tell about their stories and how God has changed their lives.

So the end of another day and a new day comes around the bend…..

Monday comes. Today is the leader’s meeting. I wake up not feeling too hot, yet it was better than last monday for sure. I go feeling weary on how my stomach is going to be, but I am sure I am going to be fine. So we head off and we were the first ones there! YAY Bulle! Haha… So we fellowship with the leaders. We played would you rather which we are all weird when when we play that. Asking questions that are very interesting. But the answers are great.

So Austin and I head off to the Book Store in the church and we get some pretty cool journals and Hope things. We talked with the people who work in there a little bit. All the books in the store were in Bahasa, so it would not be beneficial at all if we bought them, but some of them looked pretty good. Very convicting of course.

So the leader’s meeting starts. We have been there since 10:30am and get out around 4:30pm. But it doesn’t seem that long. Harlem led it and man, powerful brother. That’s all I can say. He had great tools to work with that I am going to take back for sure to Spokane.

So we pick up Priscilla and Jeremy and head back to the house. We had some dinner and went to Pacific Place which is a place to get some American Products. Austin and I have been CRAVING Dr. Pepper for so long and the rumor was that it was here! So we get there and immediately head straight towards the soda aisle. Mandy beat me there and was hiding it from me. BUT I FOUND IT! It was $10,000 though!!! I was in SHOCK! But then again, it was imported… We still bought 2 cans each though. We buy them and right when we leave someone starts cutting POISON (DURIAN)!!!! That oddly affected my stomach really bad. It was really discouraging, but I got over it. We did though have the world’s most expensive coffee! If you have seen the bucket list, then you would know what I am talking about. It was only $20,000 because Indonesia is the source of where they get it. Minus the fact on how it is made, it IS the best coffee I have ever had. And, it is cheaper than Starbucks here I believe…..

But yeah, I guess the girls saw the lost famous celeb in Indonesia at the mall while we were looking around in the mall. That was cool for them. So we went back to our place and had a guy discipling time. It was good. Digging deeper into why we are here, goals, and how we can accomplish them. It was a very good time.

So Tuesday! Almost caught up! We wake up at 4am to get ready for school! Yay for kids and devotionals! we get to the girls house and have some breakfast. We then drive off to school! Today is just the devotional and not the CARE lesson. That is ok to deal with! I guess my lesson though was actually not appropriate and I don’t want to talk about it because it is bad that I didn’t really think through on what I was reading…. If you want to know, ask me, but all I can say is that it was not what I thought it was.

So we play basketball with the kids and make sure that the kids aren’t killing each other, which they are never. They are pretty well behaved. We have been getting a lot of compliments on us being there which is very encouraging by the teachers and parents so that has been really good to hear. After school, we went to Senyan City (a mall) and had steak and crepes, which was great steak for the price. They put the meat and veggies in this hot pan and you basically made your meal yourself, cooking it and stuff. It was awesome. The girls bought some interesting crepes though. I think there was a spicy chicken and a pizza one. there was one that had Nutella though, which wasn’t that bad at all. Side note: I had never had Nutella until I got here! And it is awesome and addicting. Just throwing that out there. Everyone should try it. It can be found in Walgreens I believe…

After that we had a d-time with the girls talking about what we talked about the night before with each other. They actually had a more formal discussion then we had, so we let them take over. Haha. It was good to see all the goals and plans to achieve them for the campus, youth, and each other. The hearts are strong!

Anyway, after that, we hung out at the house until we went to the Campus leader’s meeting. It was good as well. It was in Bahasa most of the time. Like about 90% so we had a translator. Darwin does a great job and we continually thank him for all his efforts in translating. We got to teach them an american song book song, Couldn’t Keep it to Myself and then we sang I will Call Upon the Lord in Bahasa and English! It was awesome! So we got plans for something we are putting together in 2 weeks and hope that everything works out. I will update when it happens.

So after the leader’s meeting, we headed back home and went to bed.

And here we are…. Wednesday….. I have finally caught up to the day before today. Haha. Thanks for your patience and I will now continue to try to update everyday.

So, we wake up at 4am…again. We get our quiet time and prayer going, which it is so nice to do on our balcony just looking out into the city and seeing God’s beauty all around us. Love it! So we head off to the girls house and eat breakfast!

We leave the house and head off to school. Today we do devotionals and the CARE lesson. I am teaching the kids another song, Building up the Kingdom, which they loved. Then after that, I taught a more appropriate lesson this time…. It was on respect. The activity had 4 sheets of paper that one said God, another, Family, another Teacher, and another friends. I asked them what ways they can respect each one of those groups and that there are at least 10 for each of them. They looked at me in shock! Haha. But it got done. They did really well on finding out how they can respect all those people, yet now they need application…. That will be another task…..

After school, we went and hung out with the campus, Bina Nusantara University. It is a well known school in Indonesia. Before that though, Austin and I had a headache, so we rested in the car on the way. We really needed that. So we get to campus and meeting the disciples there and go and check the school a little bit. We go check out a campus cantina. It was scary since all the people there were staring at all 3 of us guys wondering why we even thought of coming down there. So we decided to go to A&W instead. Everyone else was going “fishing” and we just hung out with each other in the restaurant. People came in and out visiting us, seeing how we were doing. We had some good conversation with Rico and some of the campus brothers. After that, we headed off too Senyan City and we were getting together with some disciples there to get to know them a little more and to hang out since we have a nice little break. We hung out with Kristian and Steven. We got to check out a robotics education  in the mall. That was pretty tight as well. We got to have an awesome conversation with them on their lives and things they are interested in and how God is working in their lives. I was encouraged the whole time. They are awesome!

So after the hang out, Austin, Peter and I, along with Jeremy went to Sammy’s house and had dinner with his family. By the way, Sammy is going to be moving to Vancouver B.C. to go to school so I can’t wait to see more of that brother! Anyway, His family is awesome! We got to talk with them and see how they are doing in the kingdom. We had a Japanese Dinner, which was amazing. It was chicken and fish. We had some of the best wine in the world. It was imported from New Zealand. It was a white wine that was a le blanc I think. I will find out, but it was amazing!!!!!

So after that, Jeremy wanted to take us out to more food, which we completely were against, so he said just a “drink.” Haha…. Oh Jeremy. Anyway, we ended up not doing that, so we just went home anyway. Haha. We skyped Katelynn Sortino even though we could see her, but she couldn’t see us…. Haha. She was getting ready for ICMC!!! And she was driving…. which even she wasn’t ok with, so say a quick prayer for that car. But yes, so here we are at the end of Wednesday, we went to sleep and all woke up to our Thursday, which you are an hour and a half away from being there as well. We woke up and found the ladies down here skyping family. Thursday’s are our days off so if you would like to skype or chat on facebook, usually 8-11pm is good for us. Anyway, today Peter and I are going to a barber and getting shaved! Finally! There is no shaving cream over here and I am dying!!!!! We are getting together with The Campus Leaders and talking with them about Campus. And I think eating with Jeremy tonight. Pray for no illness. Love you guys! Have a good night and a good morning! I will update tonight!

Friday-Saturday….Sorry

I am alive….. Don’t worry. I have been super busy with things. Meaning, I am never near my computer…. And when I am, I am DEAD tired! Anyway, let’s start, shall we?

So, we go to go check out the other school we were going to be helping out at! We are doing assemblies on fridays. Kinda of like leadership assemblies, talking about a topic of what the kids are focusing on. This month they are working on generosity. I am leading this one, so we are so doing songs and a skit! That’s what happens when you put me in charge of things. It’s going to be a musical. lol. Not really. But this school was a very tall one and is actually the one that Holly Crawford is going to be teaching at! It’s a beautiful campus and so I know she is going to love it. She will have lots of people supporting her and helping her in her time here! There is also a pool here as well! I would have loved a pool at my school… But I live in the inland northwest and have 4 seasons while indonesia only has 2 Hot and Hotter

So after that we got to check out the school Linda started! It was super encouraging! There are pictures of our visit on facebook. I am going to try to put up a link to all pics on a seperate blog so you don’t have to continually search for it. Anyway, it was awesome to see what she had done with the school, her reasons for doing it, and the impact it is having on the kids and also the faculty. She treats everyone fairly and nicely. All I can say is she is a strong servant in the Lord. Sorry for the sappiness. Anyway, we check out what she had been doing, the classrooms, the library, and the mini town!!!! We all loved that one. The school also had a pool which was pretty tight, especially since this is a school for basically preschoolers!

Then we went and hung out with Linda’s Mom and Dad. I forgot how to say grandma and grandpa for Mandy, but whatever… They laughed at me when I posted the pictures. Haha. We got to see their house, which was also beautiful and try some fruit…… for some reason I don’t like the Indonesian fruit anymore….I think it’s from the poison (Durian)! Ugh! I am gagging while I am typing about it! X(

So we went out to lunch with Linda’s family, which was awesome. I had pizza….. I HAVE SUCH A HUGE CRAVING FOR PIZZA HERE! I mention it everyday, it’s so bad. But they have Pizza Huts!!! And McDonald’s Delivers Oh yeah, midnight snacks! Haha. Anyway…. again off topic….

Lunch was on the beach. It was beautiful. Don’t go swimming though. Haha. It was great though. The food was good and the service was great!

After lunch, Mandy and I had band practice. They are gratefully letting me sing with them in a performance for the church this sunday. I am so fired up for it. Everyone else went on the roof of the church and prayed and reflected. It was awesome I heard. Something I want to do. You see all of Jakarta! It’s a beautiful sight.

So after this, we were treated to a Buffet by Mandy’s parents, which was amazing! We ate so much!! It wasn’t even funny! And even after we were full, we ate more…..Thanks ladies….. And along with it came a suprise birthday for Austin!! It was a very joyous occasion. Haha…. Yeah, very funny. It is not at all his birthday. Haha…

So after that, we went back to our place and nodded off. Of course during these times me and the guys are bonding and getting to know each other more and more. It’s awesome.

Saturday!!!! This morning we Skyped people and checked our emails and facebooks and…. someone didn’t type in his blog…… oops….

It was good though, some of us getting a little homesick. Some of us missing The Family in the States…..

But we plan to head off to China town today. This was another side of Jakarta. Very eye opening and very real. People out on the street begging for money, some skin and bones….the place smelled so bad sometimes to the point of throwing up. Such a strong smell that I couldn’t imagine people honestly living in, yet people sitting there on the streets. Very Eye opening……

When we were done checking out some of the markets there, we headed back to the house to get ready for church. We had a 6pm service because we had a Walk-A-Thon for HOPE! It was very exciting to go and do that!

So we went off to church and hd an amazing service. Haha….it’s interesting having to get  a translator for me. We have a radio that they broadcast the english translation on it. Church was very convicting and really helped me with a lot of my convictions and made me even ask myself questions that he didn’t ask. He being Harlem, the lead evangelist for the Jakarta Church. Awesome guy. We saw a baptism as well, which was super encouraging to see. Her name is Cindy! She is a teen! It was so encouraging to see her family there and to see all the support that she had there and all the things that were talked about her. She sounds like an amazing sister and can’t wait to see what God is going to do for her!

So then again, we were pretty wiped out from church and realizing we needed to wake up at 4am to go the Walk-A-thon.

So i am ending because we need to go to a campus leaders meeting! But i am going to try to update more! Tomorrow because I have to wake up super early to go teach 6th graders! Love you guys!

Wonderful Wednesday with some shopping and food!

I am, for the first time, typing this in the morning and with my screen at a 90 degree angle. So this might be a little easier than all the rest.

So I am riding with the campus minister, Rico to church. It was cool to get to talk with him along the way. A little scary experience just with traffic, but he did very well. We talked a lot about the culture, Muslims, the church before and after, and cigarettes. That is a random thing to talk about, but it is such a huge export and they are super cheap here. haha. Just to give a comparison. I think cigarettes in America are averaged at about $6. Average for them here, $2. Anyway, fun fact for you. But we were driving and we came to the “river” that runs through the town. The river is all sewage. And it smelled. Now I know why people wear masks or cloths over their faces. It was a nausiating smell.

So we finally got to the church and parked our bikes. We all showed up around the same time. The brothers that played ERS walked with Rico and I to WW. We got up to the building and everyone was again, so loving and caring and genuine in their love! So the WW are used for training in speaking English right now. They went over a lesson by someone and it was more for a leadership thing, but WW are supposed to be done in all English. Words, writing, everything. And so while we were in watching the movie and trying to catch up with them, knowing exactly what we are doing, and talking about midgets….. we go back into the room and find out that we are going to be teaching THEM English! We were going to listen to them speak and correct them and help them with their grammar. It was fun because these guys and gals are trying the best they can to learn the english language and are giving it everything they can. We got to go to different groups and hear others speak and help.

Then Rico pulled out a fast one on the teachers. “Now the students become the Teachers!” ……ummm what? The disciples were going to teach us some of their language. Ok, not bad. So we got to choose the phrases that we wanted to learn. My favorite and obvious choice was Kenapa Durian tidak enak? Why is Durian so bad? They all thought that was pretty funny.

So we all go up front and said all our phrases. It was encouraging so see the support and laughter in their hearts. We got a big picture with everyone! It was awesome. I love it here…

So after that, we were sooooo hungry. I have been craving PIZZA for so long!!!! So we ended going to pizza hut. haha. It was pretty tight, minus the fact that they didn’t have Hawaiian!!!! They even had it, but it would have cost at least $150000 for all the stuff and so we just did straight up Cheese. It was suprisingly awesome. We were also so dead tired since we had been up since 5am.  It was a great successful day and can’t wait to see what Thursday brings.

WE SLEEP IN!!!! Thursday was our day off. So we decided to start off around 9am. We walked to the Widjaja Estate. We then headed off to Mangaa Dua Mall!!!! This was The place for cheap things. We somehow forgot our phone…… so we had to stay with the girls for most of the time….. yeah…… guys don’t do well with girls while shopping. But it was an experience of its own. The mall is never not full. We were walking in hallways and you were always touching someone. haha. Weird. But whatever. It was about 6  stories. They have ground floor (GF), then they start going into numbers. I bought some pretty tight stuff that I will not talk about until I get home or I will point it out in a picture. We had lunch at the place, which was not considered street food. I guess the difference between street food and other places is the don’t change their grease for weeks upon weeks so yeah….. I think I am going to skip that experience, especially since my illness already…. yeah. Plus I am already having a big struggle with grease in the US anyway, so yeah…. Austin will have to tell you about that experience. So we eat and shop a little more, which if you shop with me, you know I struggle!! C ause I wanna buy everything! But all was good. We had massage, then were again, pooped and off to bed.

Funny Story…..

So I found out that there is no way to get an extension on my visa. So I get to go to Singapore for a day!!!!! I’ll talk with ya later mom. Pictures are loaded on facebook. Hope everyone hhas a great day! I will add to my blog about 7:30pm Washington time. Love ya guys.