Thailand!

Happy New Year everyone! 2009 ended with a bang for me, as I was blessed to be able to spend the last couple weeks of the year in Thailand traveling around with a friend. The trip turned out to be one of refreshment, reflection, perspective, time with the Lord, and lots of fun and laughs.

Our trip started out with a trip to the northeast of Thailand to visit about 30 teenage girls. We spent an early Christmas with them and we were totally blessed by their worship service. It was a celebration unlike any that I have ever seen before. All of the kids came up with their own dances and drama to express their hearts to God regarding the birth of the Messiah. Intermingled between all of the dances and drama were testimonies of lives changed. It was truly a moving experience that was centered on Christ, and it got me thinking as to how to do a celebration like this in the future!

One of my favorite memories from the northeast was when my traveling buddy walked into a room where I was eating some fruit with the house mother and she said, "are you eating the seeds?" I replied, "yes." To which she quickly said, "you might die." I thought that she was kidding, but she wasn't. Now, before this story goes too far... I asked if you could eat the seeds and the person that I was eating it with said that she does all of the time, so you can imagine my shock when I heard about my impending death. Apparently there is some rumor that these seeds can get lodged in your spleen or something, but I assure you that I have had no side effects of eating the fruit. However, I did not eat any more! After this experience I had a talk with my friend to let her know that she might think about a more tactful way to bring about news of warning. We had some good laughs.

From the northeast we took an overnight bus to Chiang Mai. Travel in another country is always an adventure, but this trip was quite special. There were a few times when I thought my friend was going to go relieve the driver of his duties. Also, our bus left at 8:30pm and arrived at 11 am the next day. One would think that these would be prime sleeping hours in which one does not really need any food. Not the case. Our bus stopped at midnight and 4am to eat meals. Who eats at that time?

Chiang Mai was great. Here is a picture of what was awaiting us as we woke up in the morning.

Chiang Mai was great because we got to spend time with the girls that live at the Remember Nhu houses there. I have been praying for these girls and this ministry for quite some time, so it was great to spend time with them. We celebrated Christmas with them, and had a great time watching them decorate a Christmas tree for the first time.

Christmas morning was spent worshipping with the girls, followed by a time where they got to open their Christmas gifts from their sponsor parents. It was very fun to watch their eyes light up by what was inside their gift bags.

The day after Christmas we took an overnight train back to Bangkok in order to begin a few days of rest and relaxation! Once we were back in Bangkok we quickly made reservations at a resort in Koh Chang (Elephant Island) and boarded a bus, followed by a ferry to get there as soon as possible. We were not disappointed when we got to the resort after a long day of traveling! It was absolutely gorgeous. We put our stuff down and headed to the beach where there was a wonderful seafood bbq.

The next few days were spent at the spa, snorkeling, playing Phase 10, people watching, spending time reflecting on the year, and looking forward to the next. It was a very refreshing time, and I am so thankful for the buddy that God provided to spend it with.

As I sat down yesterday to go through my pictures I realized that I had far less pictures than I normally do. Part of me was a little sad about this, but also I realized that so much of the trip I was experiencing and taking part in the moment and enjoying every bit of it that I forgot take pictures. Of course taking a few pictures for me is still several hundred... here are a few of my favorites from the beach:

This was our beach entertainment on our last evening in Paradise (that was actually the name of our resort)
My buddy :)

We were brought to this beach to eat our lunch on our snorkeling adventure. The water was soooo beautiful. The morning started out a bit wet, but it turned out to be gorgeous!

And now I am back in Jordan! I hope that your Christmas and New Years was a wonderful time with family and friends. I missed my family a TON, but at the same time I had an unforgettable time.

Merry Christmas

Hello family and friends!

I can't believe that it is December 17th already! 8 days until Christmas! This Christmas season has been like no other Christmas season I have had before. Obviously I am celebrating in a place that I have never previously celebrated, but it is so much more than that. Without all of the crazy consumerism my heart has been awakened to grand statement that God made when He sent Jesus to earth. But even more than that, I have noticed Mary's response to the craziness happening inside her body. Her soul responds in magnifying the Lord! As I sit and reflect about Christ's first coming, and the glorious news of reconciliation, my heart longs for my friends here to have the response to Jesus that Mary did.

On another note, even though I am having a wonderful time here in Jordan, I am still missing all of the fun family and friend functions. It was difficult to be away from home for thanksgiving, and I am anticipating Christmas to be all the more difficult. I actually kind of like that I feel my heart is in this dynamic tension. Every day I am reminded how much family and friends mean, and how I could not be doing what I am doing without their love, support, and prayers. However, at the same time I couldn't be more excited about the work that is going on here. God is so good, and I am so thankful to be serving in this part of the world in this season of my life. This Christmas I will be celebrating in a very unique way, and I will share about it on the flip side.

Have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Tina G.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today has been a weird, emotional, introspective day for me so far, so I thought that I would blog about it! That sentence sort of sounds like I am depressed, but really I couldn’t be more the opposite right now. Allow me to try to explain myself.

This morning started out like many other mornings (except for the part where I didn’t get out of bed until 10!). I turned on my kindle (thank you Joyce) to read what Dietrich Bonhoeffer had to say for the day. Today was astounding. Here it is:

“When God casts the spell of His love, it binds us not only to Him, but also to His passion for our world… If God’s Word simply adds a bit of information to our knowledge, and if God’s love simply adds a bit more warmth and security to our lives, then we are hardly likely to make great changes and commitments in their wake. But where God’s Word challenges us to the very core of our being and God’s love radically transforms us, then great commitments and sacrifices can be expected. God does not charm us with His grace and love so that we will remain mesmerized by His presence, but so that we will serve Him freely and boldly in our world.”

Today as I reflected upon this I became very thankful. I am thankful that God has mesmerized me by his transforming love. I am also very thankful that I have a family at home that loves me so much as to accept that the repercussions of this transforming love is to be obedient and sometimes that means be TOO far away. So, as Thanksgiving Day is here I miss my family and friends deeply. However, in missing them I realize that the reason that I am not with them is far greater than my momentary discomfort, that His Name might be known among the nations.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hungry for God's Power

Hello All. It has been a great last week here in Amman. We had a women's breakfast at our center that turned out wonderful. The women that came enjoyed a wonderful meal and then heard some truth in Arabic from the pastor's wife at our church.

When the event was drawing to an end I asked one of my friends what the message was about. She told me that the lady spoke about a watch. It was a special watch and it stopped working. The person took it to many places to try and get it fixed and no one could figure out the problem. Finally the person took the watch to the man who made the watch. He was able to fix it quickly. He said that he knew what was wrong because he had made it. Then she continued to relay the message that our creator created us uniquely and we should go to him in all situations. I am not sure if that was actually what was said, but I thought it was a beautiful picture! We are having lunch together tomorrow and I am very excited to hang out with her.

After seeing the reactions that the women had to the message, and their pure joy in being invited to such an event, my heart is becoming desperate to see God work powerfully in their lives. :)

Today I spent time with another friend. We were doing some reading and she was prompted to tell me about her childhood. She is from Africa and grew up in an orphanage. In her country education is a huge privilege that not many have. She told me about many cases where people would just hold the bible in hopes of understanding, and in many cases they were able to read and understand the message. She has experience God in a way that is hard for me to imagine. Today I was encouraged in the miraculous.

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time there was a girl who was teaching english in a foreign country. She was on her way to class, but needed to run back up to the office for a second. She decided to take the elevator so that she could have a few last sips on her coffee during the trip. As soon as the elevator started to rise it suddenly got stuck. Yup. It sure did. Welcome to my morning! :) Today I am thanking the Lord for my cell phone! :)

Happy Birthday Blake!

Happy Birthday buddy! I can't believe that you are 7 years old already! STOP GROWING! I love you soooo much, and I am sorry that I am missing your birthday this year. I know that you will have a lot of fun skating with your friends. Just know that I love you and I wish that I could give you a big hug and go for a ride with you on your razor! Thanks for praying for me and sending me the great drawings. I love them. Keep playing the drums so that we can play together when I come home. Have a great day!

Awkward moment

I realize that I have been quite the slacker in updating my blog as of late. This is actually good news! It means that I have a life! :) It seems that when life gets too busy to accurately update the blog then I just shut down and decide that if people can't be accurately updated, then I will not update at all. I realize that this is not the correct attitude to have, but it is reality. HOWEVER, something quite funny happened today and so I thought that the blog was the perfect place to describe the situation in all its glory!

Once upon a time (today), in a land far far away (Jordan), there was a girl (me) who was calling on every dendrite and synapse within her brain to correctly conjugate her newly acquired verbs. In the midst of saying, "he left his big, green, new ball at home on the table" the arabic tutor stopped all aforementioned dendrite expansion when she said, "women in Jordan should shave their arms." All of this was said while pointing at said students hairy arms! The student sat quietly to take in every ounce of awkwardness in the small classroom and vowed to write a blog as soon as possible.

Good times! :)