January 8, 2008
Let's all welcome our new SISTER, Sunny, into the family!

You may already recognize Sunny from many of my "Angel Choir" pictures. She was one of my special helpers in the choir - helping translate my words to the other students and helping me know what was going on each day. Seated behind her is her best friend, Ruby. Please keep our new sister in your daily thoughts as she begins this exciting journey. Please remember Ruby also, as she is not ready to set aside her other ideas and follow Dad, and Dad alone.      This was a wonderful day and I am rejoicing!!!!

Today was the first day of my weekly study with the students in my Angel Choir. I covered some very important basics today, and after our study I agreed to hang out with Sunny and try to hike up a nearby mountain. Sunny invited her friend, Ruby, to come along. We all had a great talk about the study and what they learned. Sunny said that she always thought that Dad was not real - only something people talked about but didn't really think was true. But today in the study she learned that Dad is really real, and she wants to be his daughter forever. We talked about many other things much more in depth, but that gives you the general idea.

Us three girls walked to a mountain near my apartment and hiked up the trail. When we got to the top Sunny and I wanted to keep going up higher, so we started climbing up the rock face of the mountain. (Sunny and I have very similar personalities) Ruby decided to sit on a rock and enjoy the view while Sunny and I climbed up high as we could get. When we got up really high, we sat and shouted out " I'm the king of the world!!! " for a while and then I talked to Sunny about "mountain top experiences". I told her she could go ahead and talk to Dad right here, on the top of this mountain, if she wants to. She said she was ready and really wanted to, so she had a life-changing conversation with Dad and came off that mountain truly changed. What a great day it has been! Let's thank Dad together for the way He loves us.

I have enjoyed hiking some of the mountains around my city recently. This past week has given us very nice weather in the high 60's. At the end of this week our temperature is expected to drop to the high 40's, so I am trying to be out in the warmth as much as I can before it's all gone. Last Friday I ran into a very tall girl in this land of short people. I am 170cm, and she is 178cm. Very impressive. We got to chatting while riding the bus last week, and she told me she doesn't have many friends because no one wants to hang out with such a tall girl. So I promised to call her. We went out the very next day and hiked up the tallest mountain in town. It was really fun and a great day to go. My city is extremely polluted, but this day was more clear than most, so we enjoyed the view! I told her all about the great story while we hiked and she agreed to talk about it more with me next time we hang out. Please remember her! Her English name is Angela.

   

   

   

   

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(below left) I did not ride these cable cars up - I promise!
(below right) I always try to climb to the highest point possible. Here I am posed at the top. Next to me is a sign I can't read, but my friend told me it said something like... "extreme danger, be careful, don't climb" or something like that....
   
There were a couple of shrines and little temples for Buddha on the mountain.   

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January 13, 2008
I just got home from a really fun traveling weekend. I had a great time with my roommate as we headed out into the mountains to see some of the small villages that I discovered on the trip with my friend C.C. several weeks ago.  By a huge "coincidence" we met the hand full of people in these village that already know about, and follow, Dad. How cool is that? But unfortunately these fellow brothers and sisters don't have any concept of reading the Book or talking to Dad - except on Sundays. But the good news.... they want to LEARN! They were interested in the stories we told them, and said they would be happy to learn how to study if we would come back and teach them. Hmmm.... let me think about that.....      OKAY!

Before I take you through the cool pictures from my journey this weekend, I just want to update you on my teacher, and dear friend, Lucy. She continues to read the Book and told me she is enjoying it more and more every day. We often discuss the latest story she has read in the Book and it seems that she is on the brink of her big decision. Please remember her all the time as you talk to Dad. She and I have grown to be good friends as we spend so much time sharing our lives with each other.
      

...and now for my weekend adventure...

My roomie and I set out Friday night and stayed in the hotel in my favorite small town in the countryside. We got into town just in time to join BinBin's family for dinner. Her father was home in time to eat with us, which is always fun. He is a good dad and loves his kids. BinBin has one younger brother, DiDi, and also has a cousin that lives with their family. He is basically her older brother. The kids were really fussy when we got there, but getting out my camera brought out the smiles. The kids LOVE having their picture taken.
   

   
This was so cute. The cousin tried to get DiDi cooperate and pose for the picture. You can see him trying to hide so the picture is just of DiDi and BinBin (bottom right).
   

The next morning my roomie and I took a chicken bus into the mountains. We got to take the ferry again. I love traveling through the mountains when the road we're on runs along the side of a river.

Then we took another chicken bus deeper into the mountains. We came to a new village so we got off the bus and went exploring. We drew a crowd quickly, as usual. One of the first people to see us immediately invited us to her home to eat lunch.
   
It was fun to see the inside of her home. Her kitchen was like many kitchens in this area - at least for the people who have nice homes. It's a concrete surface, and below each cooking spot is a hole to place logs into and light a fire.

By the time the leftovers were heated up for our lunch (she had already eaten), word had spread to everyone in town that foreigners had entered the village. Many people started showing up at this woman's house to look at us. We went up on roof and got to take some fun pictures of the town. Several people walked through this woman's house and up onto her roof so they could meet us. It's common for people to open their homes up like this.
   

   
After eating lunch and getting to enjoy the view from her roof, we went back down to the main room of the home. Many people came by the look at us, and several of them stayed. We decided to take advantage of our captive audience by offering to sing them some songs. Of course they were thrilled at the idea. I played my guitar and we sang many songs (in their language) about Dad. We told them that we like to sing songs like this, and asked them if they know Dad. They all said "no" and weren't interested in knowing Him. So we just kept singing our songs and planting the seeds of truth for them to hear.
    
Our host invited us to stay the night at her house, but we decided to keep moving and meeting new people. After our stay at her home we felt like we had met pretty much all the people in this village; so we walked down the road to the next town which was only a mile or two away. We passed a graveyard (below left), which is a little different than the ones in America    The view was beautiful and we even saw some duck herders along the way!
   

    

   

We came to a town I had visited a few weeks ago, but decided to explore a nearby village first. The walk was so beautiful, we enjoyed taking more pictures as we went along.
   

  

When we arrived in this tiny village everyone just stared at us in shock and possibly fear. But once we started trying to talk to them, they all enjoyed yelling for their friends to come look at the foreigners. They dared each other to get close to us, or to say "Hello" to us. As much fun as it is to be a living, breathing freak show - (no, not really) - we decided to leave this village. When we left them, several little boys followed after us. One was so excited that he threw his dead pet rat at us! It hit my roommate's feet, but she was able to keep her composure and not scream in fear - which was great. I don't think I would have been that strong!

We went back across the river to the small town I visited a few weeks ago with C.C. and I showed my roomie the public toilet that was so incredibly disgusting that only someone truly "hardcore" would have the guts to go in there. I decided that it would make a really cool t-shirt if I combined a picture of this restroom and the words "are YOU hardcore?"
Please email me if you want to buy one. hahahaha.....

We met many old women who allowed me to take their picture, which was a real treat!
    

   

As we walked around this town, we had two women ask us to come to their home for a visit. It was a little awkward to decide which one to go with, but my roomie picked one and off we went. I really think Dad was guiding us through this whole day, because the woman we went with is a sister! We went into her home and visited with her, her daughter, the daughter's friend, and several little boys who were following us around. We sang songs for them and talked to them about Dad. They told us that they already know about Dad, and follow Him! That was exciting news to hear! After talking with them for quite a while, the woman took us to another home. She dropped us off with her friends and then left us there.
I didn't know what was going on, but enjoyed getting to meet some more friends in this little town. During the day the temperature dropped a LOT and by mid-afternoon on Saturday we were freezing! We got to sit around the fire pit in the living room and warm ourselves up. This was the main activity for the next three hours. The little fire pits that people have in their homes burn coal. They don't give off smoke and do a great job of heating up a room!
   
I left this first picture dark so you could see the room without my flash lighting it up.
   

As it got darker outside I started wondering where we were going to sleep that night. Surprisingly this little town has a hotel, from what our new friends told us. We never got to see it, though, because the people at this home insisted that we eat supper and spend the night with them. We gladly accepted their generosity and were happy to have a chance to talk and share with more people! I got out my guitar for the third time that day, and we gave them a concert full of songs about Dad. We told them that we love to sing songs about Dad and talk about how great He is. All the people in this home said they know Dad too! It was really exciting. We asked them how many people in this little town know Dad. They said about 30. How awesome that we met almost all 30 of the brothers and sisters in this town of 2,000!  Here we are, talking about Dad with the women of this family.
   

We didn't know what to say to them since they already know Dad. So my roomie asked them if they know how to study their Book. They told us they never talk to Dad or read their book, except for once a week when they all gather together. So we talked to them about that for quite a while. Later that night, as we continued to sit around the fire pit, my roomie told them several stories from the Book, which was a great way to spend an evening.

Dinner was something called fish hotpot. Hotpot is basically boiling water in the middle of the table, and they put a bunch of meat and vegetables into it, which cooks throughout the meal. People here just grab food out of the middle with their chopsticks and then have a bowl of rice for themselves. I don't mind eating hotpot depending on what is in it. Fish hotpot consists of a few recently killed fish which are chopped up into small pieced and dumped into the water with a bunch of spices and some tofu. So the ENTIRE fish is floating around in there. I'm really being stretched as far as letting go of my personal preferences in order to live here and be a grateful guest. Sometimes it's harder than others.
Just to give you an idea about homes here; they're usually one story high, they have several unconnected rooms, and are joined together by concrete walls. They aren't insulated or closed off from the cold or the wind, except by small un-fitted wooden doors which are only closed half the time. Here were are gathered for supper. My roommate is looking at the hotpot and trying to make a happy face of anticipation. I took these pictures from outside.
    

This family has 13 people living together - which includes 4 generations of the family. I loved seeing them all together - sharing their lives with each other and working so well together within such a small space.  I wonder how many of our families could do as well?
Here are some of the cousins in the youngest generation of this family.

When it was time for bed, they led my roomie and I back into the "dining room" to wash our faces, hands, and feet in hot water from the stove. It was so cold by this time that we were hesitant to take off our gloves, hats, and big boots in order to get wet. But I have to tell you that the hot water felt so good as I cleaned my feet from a day of walking on dusty roads. They speak a dialect of the language that is very difficult to understand - even for my roomie, who has been studying language here for over a year.
This picture shows how they gave us instructions.

They gave us one of their beds to sleep in, which we were grateful to share. We figured the extra body heat could only be a good thing. We slept in a room with the grandmother and one of the little grandsons. Here are some of the girls in the family helping to make sure we get tucked in properly. You can see the two full-size beds under the white sheets on the right. I slept in all my clothes, although I did take my green rain jacket off. Dude - it was a cold night!
    
Only a few people use mattresses in this country. Last night I got to experience the bed most people sleep on;     a wooden board and a few blankets on top for "padding."

In the morning we ate some food and sat around the fire for a while before they took us to wait for the bus to head back home. We were truly exhausted and I was happy to get home and turn up the HEAT! I can't believe I am so blessed as to get to live in an apartment with my own bedroom, running water, indoor toilet, doors that close, and heat!
I love this new group of friends I have made. They are all so generous and kind hearted. I look forward to going back to visit them often, and teach them some great things about Dad that they need to know! As I travel back there in the future, I will call their town "Hardcoreville" because of its legendary public restroom. Please keep the people here in your thoughts, as this small group of brothers and sisters have a great task ahead of them! It would be so cool if they started learning and telling their friends about Dad!