June 30, 2005
I was reading this random blog b/c I am trying to stay awake. I kept thinking that she was saying exactly what I would say. Then I’m reading that she is from PA. Yeah, PA! She plays the clarinet, is harassed by strange e-pals from foreign countries and she put a picture of her dog in one of the posts, and he looks exactly like my dog. So weird…
I know that the above mentioned is not that much to have in common with someone, but to just click on a random blog and find connections like that seemed interesting. It’s a small world after all…
Tonight begins my pretending-it-is-China-time adjustment. I will be going to bed around 12noon EST tomorrow and getting up around 6:30pm EST. It should be interesting…From past experiences with insomnia I know that there is nothing on at 2am besides infomercials. I’m having my sister tape some daytime stuff for me to watch if I get bored in the middle of the night. I’m going to enjoy having some time to myself though before I go to China. I’m sure I won’t get much of that over there, and it is something I really need to stay sane.
June 29, 2005
My brother Tim thought I should share this with you.
“Stop! You gotta hold it from a bottomer [AKA lower]shelf, or I can’t do it.”
–sleep-deprived, frustrated Joanna (5′2″)trying to carry a bookshelf accross the school with Tim (6′4″)
Now that I can cross China off my list of places to visit, these are the next five places I hope to visit at some point.
1. Ireland
2. Brazil
3. Italy
4. Kenya
5. Japan
Monday through Friday
8 a.m.—Breakfast (on your own)
8:30 a.m.—Team meeting
9 a.m.—Noon—Teach in classrooms
Noon–1 p.m.—Lunch (ILTC)
1–5 p.m.—Various activities with our pupils or host
5–6 p.m.—Dinner in Chengdu
6–10 p.m.—Activities with students and preparation for the next day
11 p.m. – Curfew
Weekends: Flexibility
June 28, 2005
Another trip to good ol’ Walmart brings me one step closer to being ready to leave. I think I am pretty much packed except for things I need between now and then and my photo album which I am still working on. I bought a ginormous (my brother hates when I use that word, which obviously only encourages me to use it as much as humanly possible) bottle of hand sanitizer and a bunch of other stuff I had forgotten to buy.
I can’t believe I’m actually going to be in China this time next week. I’m still not sure whether I’m more excited or scared at this point; but it is a fabulous opportunity, and I’ll actually have something exciting to share when I return.
June 27, 2005
“Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success.”
Hudson Taylor
I would have the whole of my experience one continued sense - first, of my nothingness, and dependence on God; second, of my guiltiness and desert before Him; third, of my obligations to redeeming love, as utterly overwhelming me with its incomprehensible extent and grandeur. –Charles Simeon
The essence of temptation is the invitation to live independently of God. –Neil Anderson
June 26, 2005
He refused to smile because he wanted to “Look natural”
June 25, 2005
“The greatest faith of all, and the most effective, is to live day by day trusting Him. It is trusting Him so much that we look at every problem as an opportunity to see His work in our life. It is not worrying, but rather trusting and abiding in the peace of God that will crush anything that Satan tries to do to us.” –Rick Joyner
“Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting. ” –Elizabeth Bibesco
June 24, 2005
Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment; but trust in GOD, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity. –Dwight L. Moody
“Here I was worrying about my journey, while God was helping me all the way. It made me realize that I am very weak; my courage is only borrowed from Him, but, oh, the peace that flooded my soul…because I know that he never faileth. I would not, if I could, turn back now, because I believe that God is going to reveal Himself in a wonderful way. “–Gladys Aylward
My other best friend, Jess, (I know…is it really possible to have two best friends?) is going to be having a baby as well. I am so excited! She is due in January. I hate that so many of my friends live so far away now though. I wish I had the money to see all of you in Texas, Montana, Virginia, Colorado, South Carolina, California, Hawaii, Chicago (more likely than the others)…
Jess and I have been friends since I was four. We went through Kindergarten-12th grade together. We played basketball and softball together. She was the one that talked me into playing the clarinet when I wanted to be a flute player. The funniest was when we went through our “I love country music” and “I hate country music” phases together. We had our off times, but we always cared about each other enough to work through our hard times and work out our differences. We each did some really stupid and hurtful things throughout the years, but we never let it hurt our long-term friendship. Even though we are in different stages in our lives right now, whenever we talk, we always pick up right where we left off like nothing ever changed. I know we will be friends for life.
June 23, 2005
“Weakness with watchfulness will stand, when strength with too much confidence fails. Weakness, with acknowledgment of it, is the fittest seat and subject for God to perfect His strength in; for consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of ourselves to Him in whom our strength lies. ” –Richard Sibbes
“God has wisely kept us in the dark concerning future events and reserved for himself the knowledge of them, that he may train us up in a dependence upon himself and a continued readiness for every event. ” –Matthew Henry
I had to memorize Colossians 3 (in the good ol’ authorized version though) for Camp and for my China trip. I enjoyed studying it during camp and look forward to studying more over the month of July. Here is part of it:
12Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
“How rare and wonderful is that flash in the moment when we realize we have discovered a friend.” - William Rotsler
Don’t worry. I wasn’t so bored that I needed to photograph my house. I’m working on my scrapbook for China. Better late than never right? Days til China: 10
Tonight was interesting. I was at prayer meeting minding my own business, when suddenly I hear my name. I was confused. I did not know I was going to be saying anything in church. The highschool principal here was in charge of prayer meeting while the pastoral staff is at the IBFNA conference. He apparently decided that it would be an appropriate time for me to talk about my trip. Surprise! I am not a big fan of surprises good or bad. He at least didn’t make me come up to the platform. Apparently I sounded a lot more confident then I felt. That’s a big-time praise. I know flexibility is a big part of teaching, but I just hate public speaking. I don’t consider teaching to be public speaking. If they asked me to stand up in the church and talk about Lit or something maybe I wouldn’t be so nervous. Not that I’m not passionate about going to China, it is just not something I’m used to doing. We all know what happened last time I had to speak in public about China. (I got the whole talking thing down that time it was the walking back to my seat that got me.) Oh well…such is life. I was glad for the opportunity. I just wish I would have know I was going to have it. I would have chosen my words better.
Amy: “Did you have fun?”
Lauren: “I ate a hotdog and a pretzel!”
Maxine: “There’s something for your journal.”
Every individual believer is precious in the sight of the Lord, a shepherd would not lose one sheep, nor a jeweller one diamond, nor a mother one child, nor a man one limb of his body, nor will the Lord lose one of His redeemed people. However little we may be, if we are the Lord’s, we may rejoice that we are preserved in Christ Jesus. –from Streams in the Desert
June 22, 2005
The summer showers are falling. The poet stands by the window watching them. They are beating and buffeting the earth with their fierce downpour. But the poet sees in his imaginings more than the showers which are falling before his eyes. He sees myriads of lovely flowers which shall be soon breaking forth from the watered earth, filling it with matchless beauty and fragrance. –from Streams in the Desert
June 21, 2005
