SE Asia 2011: Church

I've been trying to go in order somewhat. Let's face it though, I"m never going to say everything I wanted to say about the trip in this blog. I admit defeat. It's been over a year. Maybe every now and then I'll still do a post about it but it's just not going to be like I wanted it to be, like I did for South Africa. I do have this post though!

In our second location, Emily and I, got the opportunity to go to a house church. I'm writing about this now without looking at any pictures or journals so details of the night may be sparse. To get to this house church we drove over bumpy roads and if I'm not mistaken I think we drove over a dried up river or creek. Maybe I'm exaggerating that bit, but I seem to remember a wide expanse perpendicular to the road and I'm pretty sure there were puddles still in it.

The church was at someone's house. Everyone crammed inside one dimly lit room. There were no chairs; we all sat on the floor. I believe there was music. Emily and I each gave our testimonies. There was a worker there who was able to translate for us. After we gave our testimonies the preacher talked about baptism (I think, that's what came to my mind, but I really should look that one up). He had handouts for everyone. So even though Emily and I couldn't understand anything that was being spoken, and it was far too much to be translated, we were still able to follow along. The handout had the scripture references so we were still able to follow along to an extent and read the same scripture they were studying.

What amazed me was how long church lasted. Now I couldn't tell you how long it was, but there was no set time. Here, at home, church has a start time and a finish time. No, it might not be an official finish time but it always gets done about the same time. Sermons are always about the same length, prayers are relatively short.

But there, there were no constraints. People shared prayer requests, what was going on in their lives spiritually, and the prayer. I don't know how long it was, but it wasn't just a minute or two, I know that much.

I know this post is seeming rather dull and uninformative since I don't really remember much but here is the meat of it, what I took away from the experience. We, as Americans, in a country free to worship as we please, don't appreciate that freedom. We don't realize how fortunate we are. We also are in a sense over-churched. (Was that the term I used them?). We have "church" available to us 24/7 pretty much. You can turn on a tv at almost anytime and find a church service. You can turn on any radio and find a Christian music station. Go to a library or bookstore, you can find an abundance of church books. Church is so available we tend not to fully appreciate it as much as we could. But in SE Asia, that time once a week, might be all they have. They can read the Bible on their own, sure. And yes, they can pray anytime. That one time a week at house church is the only time they get to fellowship with other believers and really have their faith challenged and have an opportunity to learn more and have spiritual growth.

I don't know what else to say. This is kind of a failure of a post but I tried.

Missions Night at the BCM

Last night at TNT was missions night. It was a bit unconventional. We sat on the floor and were divided guys and girls. Instead of a message being spoken out loud it was silent, displayed on powerpoint slides.

Sitting on the floor reminded me of an experience in SouthEast Asia. You can read about that here.  The silence makes since because there are many countries all over the world that don't have the freedom to speak about Christ, and they have to meet in secret. I didn't understand why really we were separated into guys and girls until I began typing this post. That's when I remembered going to church in Louisvalweg in South Africa. The men sat on the right and the women on the left.

After the silent message students gave testimonies about where and what they did this past summer. It was different not going anywhere this summer. I've realized I've learned a lot though, and experienced immense spiritual growth this summer. And recently I've also been thinking about what missions looks like at home, or what it should look like. I'll leave those for other posts.

Long Day

Thursdays for me are long, very long. They are also kind of like a roller coaster. Actually, now that I type that I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean. I understand how people typically use it, meaning whatever they are talking about has its ups and downs, but is the up part of a roller coaster really the good part or is the down part, where you're safe again, the good part. This is what Thursdays do to me. My exhausted brain continues to over think stuff.

Thursdays begin with 3 hours of preschool clinic. I like kids children (my maw-maw was watching the news and they kept saying kids and she asked, "why do they always say kids instead of children? kids are baby goats."), but I am not too good with children. I can take care of them. Have fun with them. The challenge with the preschool is that things have to be said in certain ways. No command, no yes/no questions. Everything is done in a way to facilitate language and it is challenging. Today was only my first day doing it though so I'm sure I will get better, I certainly hope I will. With the preschool I know what's going on though, and we are given clear direction on what's happening.

After preschool I have an hour break. In that hour I have to cleanup at the preschool, eat lunch, and go to Hatcher to get ready for my next clinic.

Then I have my Accent Modification Clinic for 1 hour. There's not much direction given on it, and going in to it I feel like I have no idea what's happening. I'm just winging it. But it has gone so well. I even have fun with it. The supervisor said she thought I would be like a shrinking violet, but I really come out of it and she has given me good comments. Let's hope I can keep that up!  I don't want to say too much more because I don't want to accidently cross any HIPAA boundaries, so I'll just leave it at I really enjoy AMT.

After the AMT clinic I have a 2 hour break. That break is filled with meeting with the AMT supervisor, figuring out what just happened, doing paperwork, and a little bit of free time.

Then it's class time for 3 hours. By the time I get to class I've lost all my energy. It's a bit of a rough three hours. As soon as class is over though I make like a banana and split. (Yes, I just found that phrase because I had used another one but wasn't actually sure the meaning of it so I googled it. Found out I used it wrong but found this fun one instead. And also, yes, I had to sing the Gwen Stefanie song to correctly spell banana).

I head over to the BCM. The power walk to my car, then drive, then walk to the BCM energizes me again. I get there and I'm full of energy and excitement to be there. Then about halfway through it hits me how tired I am, and then I feel ready to just crash.

Do I crash though? No. I come home and blog about the long day, thus making it even longer. You know why? It's because after a long day like today I really haven't gotten to talk to people much and so I'm busting at the seams with things to say to anyone who will listen. I don't really ever get that much of a chance on Thursdays to share any of those things with anyone. Bummer.

There was one more thought to go with all this. Tonight at TNT while we sang You Never Let Go my first thought was this song. It's a great song but for it and How He Loves in my opinion got used way too much and I'm just kind of sick of them and would be okay with not singing them again for a very, very long time. I did have a positive thought while singing You Never Let Go. It may seem silly but "There will be an end to these troubles but until that day comes I'll live to know you here on the earth," made me think of all the "troubles" school is causing right now. They aren't so much troubles but just a lot to do and it's overwhelming. I thought though that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. When I graduate that will be the end of these troubles. But even now as I have this overwhelming "troubles" God is still good. I still have overwhelming joy in knowing Him and that makes it all okay.

It Overwhelms and Satisfies my Soul

Lately I have found such joy in the Lord. This is something I'm not sure I fully understood before. I could try and explain it or what I mean, or I can just accept it and leave you with a brief summary. I choose the latter. 

Experiencing the peace the Lord gives was great, is great, but it can't just stay at that. Something else needs to evolve from it, some sort of growth. There are only two options, you're either growing or dying. Stagnation may seem like a third option, but it's not. It is a lack of growth, therefore, dying. Well, that peace has turned into something. 

It has turned into joy. I am happy, I crave spending time with the Lord, I'm genuinely excited about the Lord's work, and I have so much I want to share with others about the Lord and what I have learned or am learning. 

Start of Grad School

Grad school has started! My schedule is all kinds of crazy. Okay, maybe it's not that crazy, but no day is the same. Mondays I have 3 hour class, Tuesdays' 2 clinics, Wednesdays' a 3 3 hour class, Thursdays' 2 clinics and a 3 hour class, and Fridays' CES (no clue what it stands for) class 6 times this semester.

So far it has been overwhelming and it's only the beginning, the very beginning. It's been two days, I still haven't been to two classes at all yet, and there is so much information and stuff to do that it's just overload. 

I'm excited though. I love what I'm studying, speech language pathology. I don't know what I ultimately hope to do with it, what I want to focus on, because I'm so excited and want to know/do it all! I guess after experience in clinics with such varieties I'll be able to narrow it down. My two clinics this semester are Preschool and Accent Modification. 

One of my classmates, I just learned, lives in my neighborhood and has lived here her entire life. It's crazy. I can't believe we never met before. We even managed to do our undergrad together and still never met until last week. 

Story time about today. Parking is still craziness so I parked farther than I'll have to the rest of the semester. Once people stop going to class over the next few weeks hopefully it'll get better. I parked and was walking to the preschool. The preschool is on one side of campus and the building I end in is on the opposite side. I parked nearer the building I end in though because when I'm done I want to be able to just leave, not walk all the way across campus to get to my car. So anyway, I got to the Design Building, about a 6 minute walk from where I was parked and realized I forgot my lunch in the car. It wasn't worth going back to get. So for lunch today I had a handful of popcorn and a mystery cookie at the preschool, two chocolate chip cookies and a brownie at the BCM, and a granola bar I had in my backpack. Delicious and nutritious! Well the former, not so much the latter. Story doesn't end there though. I went outside at the BCM and set my alarm on my phone for 1:10 so I would be able to leave and have enough time to walk to where I needed to go and I didn't have to keep constantly checking the time. I hear the bells and look at my phone to see the time because I know the bells ring every 15 minutes. It's 1:15! Oh crap, I got to hurry! I check my alarm and I had it set for 11:10. Oops! Luckily, I made it on time with a few minutes to spare. And my big sister in the COMD program left a chocolate bar in my mailbox! Story time over. 

Originally when my class times got changed I wasn't very happy about it. Now,except for the Thursday 4:30-7:30 class, I think I actually like the changes. My plan is to use the time on Mondays and Wednesdays before class as designated study time. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a 1 hour break between clinics. This schedule also gives me chances to for sure have a devotional time everyday because face it my plan to do that every night before bed never lasts more than a few days. I'm thinking M and W before studying in the Design courtyard or whatever it's called, and T and Th the Greek amphitheater during lunch. I'd never been in the Design building (except for once with Kallie to get food) or courtyard until we did our orientation in the auditorium. It's a nice little place. So,I'm pretty excited about this plan! I just need to work on discipline to make sure it happens. I don't think that word, discipline, is really in my vocabulary though. 

This is unrelated to grad school but I thought I'd throw it in anyway. Today a friend retweeted a tweet from Skeptical Africa. I thought it was kinda funny and retweeted it too. It was "So you're telling me...they have to stamp a date on your food so you dont forget to eat it before it goes bad?" Then I was reading more of them and yes some of them are silly but then I read this one, " So you're telling me while I live in a house made of mud you have small houses for your cars called garages??" and I felt a little convicted. And I don't even have a garage. I mean I've seen the small houses in other countries; I've stayed in those small houses. Then there I was today touring the preschool, which is located in an old house, thinking about how much I love old houses and how I love how big the bedrooms were. I do really love old houses! 

Oh my,  Let me end this before I ramble on more.