Coming Home...For a Visit

12:55pm Thursday, July 19th, 2007 (QZ time)

To all our friends and family,

You may be wondering about the subject line, but in many ways, that is how we feel about coming home. Neither one of us wants to leave here, at least for very long. We are torn, now, between two places. One has our family and many wonderful friends and the other has many new friends and we have found many new family members (the believers) as well. Enduring the heat, the sweat, communication gaps, and barely surviving rides in the pedicabs and taxis has been more than worth it. I think we can honestly say, we have found our new home! Unfortunately, many of the students we have been getting to know will be off to the universities and colleges and we will be saying goodbye to them knowing we will most likely never see them again. We have been touched by their generous giving of themselves in taking us places, helping us order food and for our "laugh sessions" while we try to pronounce Chinese words. We will forever be touched by the little bit of time we have had with them. Today we will go on our final "outing" with them and I hope the Father has allowed us to have touched them in some way.

We head back home tomorrow excited to be able to share with you our experience here. We have many pictures and several interesting stories to share. But mostly, we hope to share the work that is being done here and the desire to return quickly to participate in this work. There is work to be done everywhere in this world, but we now know more than ever before that this is where the Father wants us to be!

Please be talking to the Father to give us a safe trip home and that we are rested enough to enjoy our eager reunion with our boys. Thank you for your many thoughts for their safety and blessings with the friends they have stayed with. The Father has heard you and answered you in bigger ways than we could've ever imagined! We look forward to seeing many of you soon!

Blessings and our thoughts are always with you,

Paul &Kim

Busy in QZ

July 15th, Sunday, 4:20pm (QZ time)
Greetings!

It has been several days since I have had time to sit down and write you all an update on our trip, but we have been that busy! On Thursday, we visited the market and bought some fruit for our apartment. May not sound that big, but everything is new here. I would like to tell you all the stories about being grossed out by all the things we saw, but really we weren't. I really feel the L has prepared our hearts in many ways and haven't really been shell shocked about anything here. The only thing that may come close is the traffic. The rule is, if you make eye contact while walking, you are responsible for making way for the bike, scooter, pedi cab, motor cycle, car or bus. Otherwise, you just walk and they are responsible to work around you and I mean around you, maybe giving you a couple of inches!! So we have made a practice of crossing busy intersections next to other bikes and people. I don't think I can adequately explain our experiences in taxi's or pedicabs. It is beyond words, I tell ya!

I guess the funny story of the day would be that while we were together with other friends today to talk about the word, Paul flung a huge cockroach off of his chest. That was proceeded by, "don't let it get away...kill it" and people running to try to stomp on it. The stomping was referred to the likes of being back in dance class because the cockroaches are not cooperative in letting us stomp on them!!

Friday, we were taken on a pryr walk to the local temple, mosque and then to the earliest Budha of QZ. It is disheartening to see the people searching so earnestly after the wrong thing. It breaks your heart for the people here who follow their g's mostly out of fear. They so desperately need to know the truth and be free from such oppression. But as we know, they must be exposed to the truth before they can even be aware of something different. The Budha that we visited was on the outskirts of town and we started the climb about 11am. When we reached the top, we were pretty much dripping wet and I really mean dripping. It has been around 100 with the "feels like temp" being around 15 degrees hotter. One day, it only got to 95 degrees in the shade! Our purpose for visiting such sites is to pry for the people who are searching and who come to such sites to worship their gods. I think one reason why the tour we get taken on happens at this time of day, "crazy" as the money taker put it, is so there are not many people there. At a somewhat lower point, we could see the whole city, well sort of. We couldn't see much of it due to it being so hazy.

We have mostly been observing different level of english classes given here at the center. Today, Paul and I each had a topic class to teach and will teach the same classes again tomorrow night. What we don't want to miss out on sharing is our experience attending the government church. It was a little hard because we didn't know what they were saying, but a friend from the center that went with us is a member of the worship team and she tried hard to translate things throughout the evening. Again, it is hard to put this experience into words, but imagine being in a room of about 1500 chinese friends singing Amazing Grace in their native tongue. There are no words that can explain the overwhelming emotions of hearing friends from half way around the world sing to the same Father and it didn't matter if we knew there words but our hearts were the same.

I don't want to make this too long, but Paul and I seem to be doing quite fine with the food, water, getting around (somewhat). This city is big with many people and though I have never been there before, I assume it has to be similar to New York. I wish we were able to share pictures along the way to give you a better perspective and maybe we will have that chance before we leave but maybe not. Please just continue to keep us in your thoughts as we consider where we could possibly live when we return here. Also, be thinking that the work here ontinues in great ways!

Getting Oriented

Hello to everyone from QZ,
Paul and I made it through another two airplane rides without any problems. Then we endured a hour and a half car ride that we weren't quite sure how we survived. I don't think we will ever try to conquer the skill, or the lack thereof, of driving here in this country. Once we arrived, we were taken to our apartment that we are sharing with a young man from Louisiana. He is here for the whole summer teaching english at the center. We will try to send some pictures at a later time since we cannot figure out how to make the broadband in the apartment work for our computer. So our email is limited to the center right now.

After resting for a little bit and taking a much needed cold shower, we were escorted to dinner with 20 other people. The food was good and I only had to chase off one cockroach from the table! Once we had some time touring the center and orientation, we were beat and ready for bed. Nothing, not the hard bed, the constant traffic and honking noises, nor the persistant sweating, could keep us from getting a somewhat decent night of sleep. This morning, we had the opportunity to be part of a "Topic Lesson" class which is geared towards giving students practice of using what they already know. It was alot of fun participating with the students and trying ourselves to interact with them. The staff and students here are absolutely wonderful in greeting us and being happy to see us. After Paul and I had another time of orientation, we went to lunch with our room mate. We were perfectly content with our meal that only cost us about $1.70 US, and that is paying for the three of us.

We will be going to our apartment for a rest (since we have been awake since 5am) and coming back to the center to observe/participate in another topic lesson, then to dinner and then another class before we head off to bed for the night. Maybe Paul will leave the airconditioning on ALL night this time instead of thinking we need to get use to the heat the first night!! Thanks for all the notes and thoughts coming our way.

In Transit - Taipei

It is currently Tuesday, July 10th, 5:30am (Mon. July 9th, 2:37pm PST) in Taipei, Taiwan and it is already 77 degrees. We are now sitting at our next gate waiting for our flight to Hong Kong, set to depart at 8:20am. For those who like this sort of thing or don't have anything better to do...our flight number is EVA Air, BR 851 (flightview.com)
Our flight went really well. It was on time on both ends and it was a smooth ride. We were packed into the 747 like sardines and it took us 3 movies for us to figure out how to listen to them in English! We are anxious to get to Hong Kong, our second of four destinations, before we can say we have officially landed.
We met another group of m's from the Seattle area. They are on a trip very similar to ours. It was encouraging to meet other friends that have the same purpose we do.
Please continue to keep us all in your thoughts and pryrs while we are gone. The boys went to their temporary homes Sunday without any hitches and we know they will have a great time where they are.
We would love to receive notes from you while we are here but please remember to not use trigger words in corresponding back to us. We will try to give updates as often as possible. Remember to check out our blogsite as well.

Only 3 Days!

There are only 3 days between now and when we leave and we are excited to leave! The stress level has been high trying to work on the house, put out a newsletter and prepare a family of 5 to go to 4 different places for 2 weeks! But, Lord willing, we will get all the things that need to be done, done. And, we are so thankful for the good people God has placed in our lives to help us during this time!

We will most likely be on the plane or close to it before everyone gets it, but our newsletter will be in the mail today. I can't wait to get on that plane and go and be with Paul. I am looking forward to being able to talk to him about other things other than what needs to be done, hello and goodbye! I am not looking forward to the weather there, but that is a minor thing. I am a little nervous about teaching a class, but again, it is in the Lord's hands as to what comes out of my mouth. The boys are excited about going to their families, which is always a good thing to have. We will pass off Joshua and Matthew after church on Sunday. Paul and Andrew will be in a Youth Mission Trip Training on Sunday from 2 pm until 9 pm and we will head to the airport about 11, 11:30 pm. Our flight leaves at 2:10 am!!

I am hoping to be able to update this while we are gone, but there are some sites, like this one, that are not available (banned) where we are going. If so, we will try to communicate in other ways or give big updates when we return! Thank you for your prayers for our family! We are thankful for each and every one of you!

Vision Trip: On our way...

The tickets are purchased!! We will be departing our nice, cool Seattle area at 2:10am on July 9th. We will then travel for 12 hours to point B and then have a 3 hr 10 min layover. It will take 1 hr 40 to get from point B to point C and will wait another 2 hrs 20 min for the next flight to point D. The flight from point C to point D will only take 1 hr where we will be picked up for the 2 hr car ride to our final destination. Our final arrival time will be approximately 12:20am, July 10th (our time) and will be 5:20pm, July 10th there time. This totals up to 22 hrs of travel time provided everything goes as planned! Yikes!

Now I know many of you have traveled overseas and know what it is like to endure such things but this is all new to us. I will be interesting to see how I manage my air sickness for that long and not be passed out due to the side effects of Dramamine the whole time!! =D We have been given lots of good advice and we will be sure to try every single one of them!

July is the hottest part of the year for the location we will be traveling to. It’s going to be HOT and HUMID there. By that I mean 90+ C and 90% humidity. We might even experience a typhoon while we are there since July is the typhoon season. Ugh...I am a red-headed, freckled, lily white, Pacific Northwest lady! What in the world am I going to do with that kind of weather??? Paul spent his younger years in Cincinnati, so he has some idea of what it can be like so pray we can withstand the weather well and be productive while we are there. Our return is scheduled for the evening of July 20th.

We are extremely thankful for the 3 families our boys will be spending the two weeks with while we are away. We know they will not only enjoy where they are staying but we are hoping they will be a blessing to the families as well.

Prayer Requests:

• Financial - for the Lord to provide for our needs with both the home front costs as well as the costs of the trip. If you would like to financially contribute to this particular trip, please go to online donation link to the left or go to www.mup.org/OnlineGivingMain.htm. Please make a note that it is specifically for our trip in July.
• Preparations - there are many details to tend to when traveling overseas (documents, medical, etc) and settling our kids down with other families. We need to not be fretting over unnecessary things but be diligent to the things that are truly important.
• Travel - pray for safe travel with the ability to rest on the flights so we can arrive with the least amount of effects. Pray for timely flight schedules.
• Trip - Pray for the Lord to prepare the location in which we will be staying. Pray we will get a clear picture of what the Lord wants us to be doing with our time and for us to start the groundwork of beginning new relationships with the hosts and people.
• Kids - we ask for safety so the hosting families don't have to deal with an emergency situation while we are gone. =)

Perspectives & A Vision Trip

Paul and I are celebrating this week because we have turned in our last piece of class work to complete our Perspectives class. This class work kicked us around quite a bit but it also challenged our thinking in many ways as well. So, 3 hour lectures once a week for 15 weeks with a quiz each week, 5 response papers and an (at least) 6 page Integrative Report paper are done! Yeah!

What are we going to do now that we are done? Well, we aren't going to Disneyland, but, we are making our plans to go overseas for a two week trip. Many have been praying for Paul to be able to get all the time off of work in order for us to take this trip, be home for a few days and then have Paul leave again for the Idaho/Montana Youth Mission trip with our oldest son Andrew for a week. The Lord has answered that prayer and even made it so we really only need to cover 6 days off of work out of the month he is taking off...we are praising God for that. Isn't He awesome??

We are hoping to purchase tickets this weekend for a trip leaving around the 8th of July. It seems like there should be many things to take care of, but honestly, the Lord has been so faithful in putting into place what has needed to be put into place, that we don't worry about any of it. We will keep you up to date on what happens.

Being a parent, your mind begins to think of all the "things" on the list that need to be done before we go and it can be somewhat overwhelming. So, please be in prayer that we continue to be looking to God for direction and not get caught up in the "to do's" forgeting that He is the one in control.

Thank you!