La Cacaloteña

Blast from the Past

2012-01-21T01:49:00.002-06:00

Imagine stepping back in time 1300 years ago to Hahoemaul (pronounced hah-ho-eh-mah-uhl) Village , to a time when life was simpler, the work harder, and family bonds closer. Imagine walking the narrow streets that have been used for generations by the same clan, the Ryu clan. The Ryu clan has been living in this particular village for over 600 hundred years and still do to present day. This village was the home of two famous brothers, one of which was a famous Confucian scholar and the other prime minister during the Japanese invasion during the 1500s.

The historic village has preserved some aspects of daily Korean life. The name of the village itself Hahoe comes from the geographic nature of this village. Ha means river and hoe means turn around. As you can see from the picture of the village the river literally turns around on itself and the village is nestled in the crook of the riverbend.

This is one of the homes in this village. A family actually still lives here.

A traditional roof tile

This tree is on the highest point of the village and supposedly houses the a goddess, Samsin. The pieces of paper you see tied around the tree are wishes of all the visitors that have come to make homage to the tree.
Queen Elizabeth made a trip to this village back in the 90s. She planted a tree which is the pine below which is supposed to be symbolic of the korean people, "the spirit of an iron hand in a velvet glove." It is symbolic of how the korean people have preserved in harsh climates just as this species of pine endures harsh climates in the Korean mountains.

This is my uncle in a traditional Korean swing.
There was this random telephone pole about 10 feet off the ground at the traditional korean playground.

This is me on a nol-ttwiggi, a korean see-saw, you can jump up crazy high. Leave it to koreans to make see-saws an extreme sport.

Check out this video:

This house was facing the Nakdong river and surrounding mountains. It had one of the best views in the entire town.

It was a really amazing day in Hahoemaeul. Definitely a must if you are ever in Korea.

South Korea: the sights!!

2012-01-12T05:23:00.010-06:00

I thought I would break the blogsilence and share about my travels in Korea. I arrived at the Incheon International airport on January 5 after two days of traveling (missed my connection in San Francisco and had to spend the night). My paternal side of the family came to pick me up at the airport and took me sight seeing before dropping me off in the town where my mother’s side of the family lives. We traveled to Pohang, which is on the eastern coast of South Korea.

a photo of my cousin and I, she was my official translator for my time with my paternal side of the family.

A picture of Pohang Beach…

We also hit up the famous Lighthouse museum and surrounding sights. Thousands of Koreans from all over Korea come to this spot to bring in the new year at sunrise since this is the eastern coast. Its claim to fame is that it is the eastern most part of Korea and the sunrise here first. There are huge bronze hand sculptures called "The Hands of Harmony."

While there we had a great bowl of fresh SASHIMI!!!

I was also taken to see two of the most famous pagados in Korea at the Bulguksa Temple. Possibly the most impressive temple in Korea. It is regarded as a masterpiece of Buddhist art, and was built in the 8th century during the Silla Kingdom period.

In front of the main prayer hall, there stand two famous stone pagodas. They are both National Treasures. Dabotap means the pagoda of many treasures. Standing on the right of the courtyard facing the main hall, it shows the artistic beauty of Silla culture. In comparison to the simple Seokgatap, it is highly decorative. It was so delicately carved that they say ‘Silla masons managed stones like clay.’

Seokgatap means the pagoda of Buddha. It stands on the left of the courtyard facing the main hall. This three story pagoda is admired for its simple and dignified design. It is considered Korea’s most typical stone pagoda

We then took a 20 minute curvy, car-sickness producing ride to Seokguram Grotto.

At the main gain it is a 5 or 6 minute brisk walk to the main temple. Outside the main temple there was this water fountain PICTURE.

According to legend this water has healing properties. It was incredibly cold and tasted awesome. I silently prayed that the curing properties were not mistaken laxative properties caused by amoebaes or giardia. It was hard not to draw the parallel with Christian beliefs that Jesus is the water of Life and how Buddhism is merely a counterfeit of the Gospel.

After my trepidatious drink, we then trekked up the well worn path along with many other Buddhist belivers to see a seated Buddha protected by two sets of 12 royal guards (just as God is surrounded by 24 elders as described in the book of Revelations. On the soltice the third-eye of the Buddha is hit by a ray of the sun coming through the dome above his head. The light from the third eye is said to shine South-south-East, in the direction of an ancient temple in the valley below, destroyed by Mongols in the 13th century. The line continues and points exactly to the tomb of King Mum-Mu in the East Sea, 3km father South-south-East. This was said to protect Korea from Japan.

After seeing the impressive Buddha we descended to the fully functioning temple where a Buddhist monk was offering prayers and incense to Buddha. As we drew near the musky scent of incense and murmured prayers of the faithful Buddhists, I fought back tears as I watched a young boy kow-towing to the serene faced Buddha. My heart ached as I saw the passionate devotion this young boy earnestly offered to a long dead mere-mortal that could no longer hear his urgent prayers or receive his fervent reverence. I looked around at all of the Buddha faithful that with out Jesus were destined to the same destruction and judgement as their revered god. Again I was faced with my inadequacy of communication. I couldn’t even tell them that Jesus loved them and died for them. God Lord I could even tell them that Jesus was love. As I trekked down from the temple and even further away from those peole I knew would be destined to go to hell I was frustrated but challenged to not only learn Korean but to pray for the many who follow Buddha that the light of the Gospel would shine on them and their understanding would be opened to the knowledge of Christ Jesus and his Gospel. That they would find true enlightenment. May that be all of our prayers as well, for those of us who call ourselves followers of the true Way, disciples of the one and only Teacher and Master.

here is the link if you want to see the rest of my photos from this time. Facebook photos I will try to blog at least every couple of days or as things come up. Happy blogging!!

A sad farewell and a Rainbow

2011-07-27T23:19:00.002-05:00

Today I drove three and a half hours one way to attend a funeral in an obscure Mixteco village. The funeral was for the mother of two very dear friends. Their mother was accompanying their father (he is the pastor of their church) to a hospital (in Mexico City) because of a serious illness, when she contracted pneumonia. Two weeks later she passed away because of complications of pneumonia. As soon as I found out my heart wrenched inside of me for my friends' loss. During the long drive to arrive to their small village, I could not keep my mind from imagining all that the family was going through; which would cause me to lift up prayers on their behalf. Compassion welled up inside of me for the loss of this family, because I know too well the anguish that a mother's death and subsequent absence can cause.

What words can adequately express the sympathy and compassion I felt for my two friends during this and tragic event. What words can convey the message of, "I know that you are hurting and possibly questioning God's plan in all of this," or "I know what it feels like to lose a mother." Everything that I was feeling, thinking, and wanting to say seemed some how not enough. And instead all I said to them was, "We are here." And then I embraced them. It is inconceivable how the thousands of things that I wanted to say to ease their pain was all trumped by the simply non-verbal gesture of merely hugging them. In that embrace I imparted the compassion and sympathy that words could not express, and in some small way for those few moments they were comforted.

Prior to the funeral service, there was a viewing of the body to give people an opportunity to pay their last respects. I had just sat down to rest when I saw my friend (daughter of the deceased) come in. I rushed over to hug her, she thanked me for coming, and together we walked into the room where the coffin was being kept. We walked over hand in hand and she began talking to me about her precious last moments with her mother. Her mother had told her to take care of herself and the house and not to worry because she would be coming home as soon as she could. She never would have dreamt that her mother would be returning home to her like this.

As I left the room it began to rain heavily. It was almost as if the heavens were taking it share in the grief that all present were feeling today. I wondered if she felt remorse at not having embraced her mother a few moments longer, or told her mom how much she loved her just one more time, and kissed her sweet cheek. I prayed for my friends as I remembered how bitter it was to think about the fact that my mother would never see me off on my first date or prom. How she would never see me graduate from high school or university. She would not be there on my wedding day to help me get ready or be there for the birth of her first grandchild. She would never know the kind of woman I would grow to be. My mother would be painfully absent from all these precious and pivotal moments in my life.

During the burial as I looked upon the anguished faces of my friends and their family, the grief of my mother's death tried to wash over me. As my friends closed the coffin and bid their dear mother farewell and wept openly, I wept with them knowing how terrible the separation of mother and child is, and how the dull ache seems to linger for what seems an eternity.

But the minister's rich baritone voice swept over each mourner like warm waves of the ocean. Those words were not merely words of sympathy and condolences but they were words of life and peace, the kind that passes all human understanding. As his voice rang out clear and true with each verse, it was like God applying the healing balm of Gilead over our sorrow-laden souls. It was at this moment as the minister gave an altar call that I lifted my tear-stained face to the sky to see the rain letting up and through the mist and cloudy sky a rainbow had appeared. It was a reminder to all that no matter the storms and dark clouds that ever encroach upon our lives, God's faithfulness to us. Our God is a God of promise, a God of covenant. Just when we think the rains and storms have come to stay, he sends the rainbow to remind us that never will he allow the rains of circumstance and storms of tragedy destroy us. God is sovereign and he is in control even when it does not seem or feel like it. He is our rainbow-sender. He is our comforter. He is our peace-speaker, the peace-giver. He is our covenant-keeper. Today, where ever and whoever you are be comforted.

Answered prayers and throwing-up a worm

2011-06-05T17:54:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I was with a team from James River Assembly, from Springfield, MO. This was a great team and there were quite a few "firsts" on this trip.

We partnered with a local church to go to a Zapoteco village called Tierra Blanca. It was my first opportunity to minister in a Zapoteco village. It is about 8 hours from our mission base. We were scheduled to do a children's outreach to celebrate the Mexican national holiday, "Dia de los Niños" or "Children's Day." There were approximately 400 children that were in attendance which did not include parents. So there were probably a good 500-600 people in attedance. Almost all of the children responded during the altar call.

During the event there was a torrential downpour. So we had to delay the event to re-setup the area to be sheltered from the rain. The Mexican team prayed for the rain to stop, while the U.S. team-members re-setup up chairs and speakers in another area. But it started raining harder and thundered and there were lightning flashes. So the Mexican team-members restarted the program under the shelter while the U.S. team-members began praying for the rain to stop. (This group comes from a church that has a huge Independence Day event every year and begins interceding for the weather to be nice for the concert and firework display a month prior to the event. For the past 10 years or more, July 4th has had good weather even when the surrounding communities have rain or storms. So their faith to pray for weather is something that they are known for in the community) Within less than five minutes the rain stopped and the sun came out from behind the clouds and began drying up the rain. The Mexicans were so blessed and impacted by this answered prayer.

Earlier in the day, the U.S. team-members had prayed for a young girl that had a low grade-fever and was throwing up, and she stopped throwing up but still was not feeling well. So during one of the times that the U.S. team-members were helping in a distribution, several of the Mexican team-members began to pray for the same girl. After a few moments the girl vomitted and writhing in the still warm vomit was the culprit, a 5-6 inch round worm the width of a cooked spaghetti noodle. One of the young team members stepped on it, in a show of taking dominion over the enemy. But comically enough the now dominated worm was hopelessly stuck in the treads of his shoe. It was hilarious watching as he was praying fervently for the continued healing of the little girl while wagging his foot around trying to unlodge the squished worm.

So both teams were impacted by the faith of the other and there was a spiritual cross pollination of faith. Seeing the faith for stopping the rain and the healing of the little girl when she vomitted out the worm really caused both teams faith to be built up to believe God for more and to realize that he was an answerer of prayers.

We then had a brief church service in which several new people came for the first time to church because of the outreach (the church has a regular membership of about 15-18) I had the opportunity to share my testimony about my trip to Korea (if you don't know about my trip read my previoius blogs from January and February). And I used it as an illustration of how the Devil lies to us to tell us our Heavenly father does not want us when indeed he is waiting for us to return home and receive all of his love. There were 8 people that responded to the altar call and got saved and came home to their heavenly father as I came home to my earthly one.

Just like in Xalitla, it was amazing to be probably some of the first missionaries to offer up prayers and worship to our loving God, I realized that the same thing was happening for the first time in the history of Tierra Blanca. We were quite possibly the first foreigners or missionaries to arrive to this small village and for the first time worship and prayer was going up to God in English from this hunble church. What an awesome privilege!!!

Encounter with Quetzalcoatl... the feathered serpent

2011-05-26T14:20:00.004-05:00

Quetzalcoatl, feathered-serpent god.

In my previous blog I mentioned that I would be apart of a team of missionaries heading to the village, Xalitla (Sha-lit-la), in the state of Guerrero. It is a village that pertains to the Nahuatl indigenous group. The drive to reach this particular village is about 9 hours from the missionary base, Roca Blanca. The main industry or means of income of this town is the painting of ceramic pots or on amate (rustic parchment made from bark). Many of the paintings have depictments of the ancient Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered-serpent. Currently there is no established church in this particular village.

After the ardeous 9 hour drive, we alighted from our vehicles into the scorching heat of Xalitla. We were definitely not mentally prepared for the 110 degree weather that we encountered. I remember distinctly walking from the vehicle to the house we were to be staying at and thinking that heat was radianting up from the ground and it felt like we were walking around in an oven. The thought occured to me that we would easily convince the village of their need for salvation with the fact that hell was even hotter than Xalitla and the afterlife with out Jesus would be to suffer eternally in the heat of Hades. But as it turns out, the message of the Jesus' love and redemption was more than sufficient for the task at hand.

One of the things that I remember most about our arrival was that within twenty minutes on of the other missionaries had brought a guitar and proceeded to play several worship songs while the other missionaries joined in during the process of unpacking. From what we learned from the villagers, we might possibly have been the first group of foreign missionaries to have come to Xalitla. So how exciting it was to be counted among the first to offer up songs of praise and worship to the God of all creation in thi remote village.

During our time in this Nahuatl village, we broke up into pairs and went to do home visits and to invite children and their parents to the children's outreach we were organizing in the evening. The living condition of the villagers was considerably below the national poverty level of Mexico. The homes were were invited into were very humble. There were dirt floors, outside kitchen and bathroom facilities. But the generousity and hospitality that we encountered, made one think that we were being received into the greatest mansions and sitting rooms Mexico had to offer.

The pinnacle of our time in Xalitla, undoubtedly was in the afternoon during the children's event. Approximately 250-300 people were in attendance. The children's minister that organized and lead the outreach did a stellar job of presenting the gospel in a way that both child and adult alike were able to fully grasp and ultimately repond to. A vast majority of the children and several adults responded to the call of salvation and gave their lives to Jesus that day. After the teaching, craft time, and altar call, we were able to pass out approximately 200 giftboxes from the Samaritan's Purse organization. We are looking into sending a second time in the very near future. As the Lord brings to your mind this village please intercede that the town of Xalitla will continue to be open to the Gospel and that a church will be able to be planted there. Xatlitla is nestled in the rugged mountains of southern Mexico is essentially the doorway, we believe, that will lead us to even more remote Nahuatl villages.

Easter Sermon, bus accident, and Graduation

2011-04-27T10:37:00.003-05:00

I have now been officially back in Mexico for about a month now and it has definitely been extremely busy.

My first Sunday back I had to privilege of accompanying one of the missionaries to the first graduation of a Bible school in the town of Amuzgos. For the past two years, every Saturday 10 faithful brothers and sisters in Christ have been faithfully attending Bible school. That Sunday morning was the culmination of two years of study for these precious 10. It was a wonderful blessing to be apart of the graduation ceremony and pray for the launching of these loyal church members. There was a middle-aged woman, mother of 4, that really touched me. The life of an average Mexican housewife is rigourous and very demanding. Seeing her walking up to the podium to receive her degree to me was the epitomy of the virtuos woman of Proverbs 31.

During my second week on Friday, I had my first accident here in Mexico. I had borrowed a truck from a fellow missionary to move my belongings to my new house. In route (less than a 2 minute drive) to move my things, I came upon a tour bus stopped in the middle of the road. I was going to be impatient and go around but decided to exercise patience and wait for it to continue on. I noticed the bus rolling back a bit but I did not see that its lights were on to signal that it was actually driving in reverse or hear the usually back up beeping that most large vehicles have. When I realized that it was reversing I began to simultaneously check behind me, honk the horn, and try to put the car into reverse. I was not quick enough and the ginormous bus crunched the front of the car. Between the car being pushed by the bus and me going in reverse the car moved back several feet. I was about to hop out and take a look at the damage when I realized the bus was not stopping and hit the car the second time. By this time the bus saw me and stopped backing up and I jumped out of the car to take a look at the damage and confront the bus driver. I got pretty upset and yelled at him (after I cooled down I apologized). He kept telling me to calm down and was about to put his hand on my shoulder when I yelled at him "Calm yourself, this car is borrowed, and don't even touch me!!!" I then took a gander at the damage and realized how bad it was I tore my hat of my head and slammed it on the ground and proceeded to yell at him and scold him about his carelessness. Long story short, he had an insurance card that was expired and his company begged us not to take it to the authorities. They will be paying out of pocket for the damages.

After my very eventful Friday we left for a small town called Pinotepa, where I had the opportunity to share with the youth about purity and share my testimony in the church service there in Pinotepa. We then drove another hour and half away to a Mixteco town called Jamiltepec where I was able to share my testimony about my journey to Korea and finding my family. I got to pray for a lady that wanted to get pregnant and another lady that was pregnant but wanted prayer because she had suffered a miscarriage prior to her current pregnancy

During the week of Easter we had our annual youth conference. About 1,500 youth were in attendence. I was apart of the altar ministry team and baptism team. During the conference around 150 youth were baptized and several hundred gave their lives to Jesus for the first time or renewed the commitment to the Lord. It was such an amazing experience to baptize new believers and be apart of such a precious event that will forever mark the lives of many of the youth that took the step of faith to bury the old man and be ressurected to new life with Jesus. The youth were split into two tents, one for the fellas and one for the chicas. I was able to minister during one of the breakout sessions. I shared on purity and had an altar call specifically for young ladies that have been abused.

This type of ministry is such that no girl wanted to respond to the altar call initially. So I had everyone shut their eyes and was looking out into the crowd looking for at least one girl. I encouraged them to not be afraid or ashamed because I knew that God was present and wanted to heal them. As I was looking for that one girl, there was one girl with her eyes open and weeping. I looked straight into her eyes and continued to speak to the crowd but knew the words God was giving me was going straight into her heart. I said something to the effect

"You do not have to be afraid or ashamed anymore. You do not have to hide what happened to you and suffer in silence. Today God is here to heal your pain and erase the memory and set you free. Do you want to be free?"

She shook her head and that is when I said "then come". As soon as she stood up a sob broke out from her, that audible lament broke something and other girls started pouring to the front. There was a ministry team that helped me with the girls that came up. There was even two older ladies in thei 50's or so that came up to get ministry. They had never told anyone until that day what had happened to them. God's presence and tenderness was so present it was palpable. I later hugged the girl, that was the first to stand, and I thanked her for being brave and that God was healing her and because of her bravery other girls were encouraged to come get healed as well. From what I was later told she is planning on coming to the Bible school next year. All in all, about 20-25 females were set free from these burden that they have silently been carrying and suffering through.

More recently, I was invited to preach for the first time in a main church service. It is a small church in Rio Grande. It has a regular attendence of 30 adults and 20 or children. I preached about how we have an anchor of our soul, the promise we have in Jesus. And how in order to be connected to this anchor we have to have three spiritual disiciplines in our lives that form a three-fold cord that cannot be easily broken; prayer, giving, and fasting. What was really awesome and was a sign to the pastor that invited me and to me that my being there was of God, was the fact that that Sunday, which was Easter Sunday, the church was having a special time of fasting, prayer, and collecting a special end of the month offering. The church and I left the service that day feeling extremely blessed. It is validating to know that I was connected with the flow of God that day and ministering his heart to his people.

This Friday please keep me in your prayers. We will be going as a missionary base to a new town called Shalitla. Which is in the next state over. It is the first time we will be going there and we will be doing a children's outreach, with the hope that the doors will be open for other outreaches in the future. It is also a new people group that we are going to be ministering to, so if you would be in prayer for us. It is a 9 hour drive. We will leave this Friday and return on Monday. Pictures and posts to come.

The photos from this trip can be seen on my facebook page, just click here.

Foster's Beer and a dead bird

2011-04-01T09:12:00.000-06:00

During the time I attended Bible school in Tulsa, I had a bi-polar, schizophrenic female neighbor (whose name for the moment escapes me but for this blog I shall dub her Sheila). You could always tell when Sheila was not on her medication because she adopted a faux-Australian accent and wear a tight spandex cycling get up complete with unnecessary cup/jock strap. Whenever she was like that I tried to avoid her at all costs.

But one very sad and unfortunate day a bird died and was lying stiff as a board near the bushes by our apartment unit. For one reason or another Sheila was moved with compassion and soon filled with righteous indignation for the untimely “murder” of this bird. She promptly came to my door, because I guess Koreans have a reputation for random avian genocide, and shoved the carcass of bird and asked me with her fake Australian accent, and very accusingly I might add, “do you know who killed this bird and gouged its eyes out?” The poor deceased bird was missing its eyes. With as many of the fruits of the spirit I could muster, I told her that I had no idea but it could have died of natural causes and insects probably ate the eyes. Then with bulging eyes and spittle launching out of her mouth she accused me of the defenseless birds demise.

Thus being depleted of the little patience I had left I told her I would not have wasted my time killing the dumb little bird and closed the door on her bugged-eyed face. Not very nice, but who likes to be called a murderer. But the shutting of my front door on psycho Sheila’s face was only the beginning of many episodes of weirdness to come.

The next day Sheila built a small altar for her dead bird and placed it on the banister, so I had to look at it every time I went to my car. It's festering, rotting body was offensive on many fronts. Since she had been so bold to knock on my door, I repaid her the favor and knocked on her door to demand she put the voodoo-ish altar and dead bird in her house. Dumb-Dumb decision number 2. Begrudingly she hurled the altar and rotting bird into her house.

But the hits just kept on rolling. She threw corn flakes on my car and my roommate’s car not too long after our visit. I guess so the birds would come and eat it, thus scratching our cars and giving the birds opportunity to defecate on the hoods to add insult to injury. I asked her what her problem was, to which she promptly replied something to the effect that I was a bird killer or some such non-sense.

The last straw came when I was getting into my car to leave and she was standing outside her house in full cycling spandex regalia complete with jock strap drapped with the Australian flag over her shoulders like a cape and nursing the biggest can of Fosters beer I have ever seen. Yup she was giving me the stank-eye. If looks could kill I would have been as dead as her enshrined bird. Psycho Sheila then put her Australian flag under the tires of my car. I asked her to move it or I would be forced to roll over it. She refused and when I was pulling out she said “Hai-yah!!” and kicked my passenger side door with her big old boot and left a huge dent. I hopped out of my car and asked the obvious, “is you crazy?!!!” I told her I was calling the police and dared her to leave. Sheila snatched the cell out of my hand and got up in my face. I really wanted to knock in her front teeth but decided to get my roommates cell phone and told her to get out of my face, when she pushed me down the stairs. With out thinking I screamed for my roommate and my cousins. I must have screamed like someone was killing me because they came pouring out of the apartment like it was on fire. I quickly told them what happened and that she pushed me down the steps. Sheila quickly ran into her house to get her bike and the five of us tried to restrain her from leaving before the cops got there. With the strength of what seemed like two or three full grown men she pulled at her bike. When all of a sudden everyone just let go of her and the bike and she half hurled down the steps and was up like a cat and off on her bike to flee the scene.

The Tulsa cops FINALLY showed up. I explained to them what happened and said that basically it was my word against hers. They did not do a single thing, typical. They advised me that next time to make sure no one was around and punch her lights out. The cop told me that once she had grabbed his rear-end and told him he had a nice back-side (that was a clean up of the vulgarity she used in actuality). He got offended and told her to back off, after which she began taunting him and asking if he was a homosexual. I returned to my house steaming and frustrated waiting for what the next psychotic episode that I was sure was to come.

Thus concludes my infamous Psycho Sheila story. Consequently, she did get back on her medicine and came to my door to apologize and offer an prehistoric computer as payment for the damages. I told her to forget about it and just to stay on her meds. She moved out two weeks later.

Lost in Translation

2011-03-12T14:51:00.004-06:00

It has been over a month since I returned from my life changing trip to Korea. As I have been reflecting over my trip the last several weeks I laughed out loud several times as I remembered different awkward moments brought on because of my lack of Korean speaking skills. So here are my top 4 moments.... Drum roll please......

1)
I was at a cousin's house in Seoul, and could not find my toothpaste. I grabbed a tube of what looked like tooth paste (it had Korean writing on it) in a cup with toothbrushes and proceeded to give my teeth a good scrubbing when my tongue felt kind of numb and the foam was really frothy when I looked down at the tube to read the fine print in English that said it was facial scrub to whiten skin. It took forever to get that taste out of my mouth.

2)
I hate using public bathrooms. But I just could not hold it an longer. I felt like the geiser old faithful and was going to lose it at any second. So I ran to the nearest bathroom only to discover waiting for me behind door number one:

That's right folks a SQUATTIE POTTIE!! Best thigh workout in the world!!!!

3)
I usually knock when I go into rooms that do not belong to me. So when I was in Korea I would knock before entering but since I did not understand the response anyway I had no idea when I walked through the door of a room at my family's house I would walk in to see my Uncle in his tightie whities... uuuhhhh yeah awkward.

4)
I went with my Auntie to a Korean bathhouse right outside of Seoul. The Lonely Planet travel guide said that this was a must. So I requested my auntie take me to one only to find out the bathhouse was like Roman style, so everyone bathed communally in their birthday suit. Thankfully, men and women were separate. There was an open shower area where you had to shower off just like at the pool. And then there were huge pools that you soaked. There was a red tea scented hot tube, green tea, white tea, and barley tea hot tube you could soak in. And also a tube with tepid water with different water fall like areas that you stood under to get a massage of sorts. There was a walking tub where you could walk back and forth in this huge tube with lanes to get exercise. For an additional 3 to 5 dollars you could get a professional scrubbing from head to toe by one of the attendants. Yeah... so I opted to scrub my self at the self-serve scrubbing station where you scrubbed off what seemed to be the first layer of dermis and showered off one final time and thus concluded my cultural experience at the bathhouse. After this experience I felt raw and pink and squeaky clean. Definitely a must while in Korea.

Knowing where you come from...

2011-02-09T02:14:00.006-06:00

helps you get to where you are going...

I tried to savor every day I had left before I would head back to the States. I wrung every drop of joy and happiness from the last hours and minutes I was given to spend with my very precious family. I tried to etch in to heart and mind every detail of every moment. I came to the realization that my lost moments here with my grandmother could very well be the last time I see her alive. Because of my lack of korean, I showed her everyday I was there I loved her by serving her in whatever minute way I could think of. On Lunar New Years I performed a ceremonial bow to her dressed in the traditional dress (a hanbok) and wished her a blessed new year in Korea. (Saehae bok manee badusseyo)

My aunties insisted that I pack my bags and helped me to shove and tamp down all of the gifts that they had bought for me. They even put together a farewell dinner party for me. We had grilled Kobestyle Beef,

which is a special cut of beef, that has a very unique marbling effect, which can only be achieved by a very special diet and massaging the cattles rump. We also had a seafood tofu soup, which had a whole octopus, clams, mussels, shrimp, and crabs.

It was incredibly tasty.

This was a very special dinner party indeed because for the first time in over two decades I saw my father.

I had mentioned in previous blogs that I finally knew his name and a little about him. But on February 5 at 2:36pm Korean Standard Time I met Jung Geun Pyo (Jung is his last name) my biological father. The first words out of his mouth were, "Omo (a korean explicative akin to oh my) you look exactly like your mother."

My aunt, Jung (she is a born-again Christian), called my biological father a week after my arrival to let him know I had come to Korea. He has not seen my since I was a toddler. Now because I never knew the reason of why he had not married my mother I just assumed that he did not want me either. So in my ignorance of these vital facts which caused wrong assumptions, I was afraid that he would not want to meet me, so I had asked my aunts for just a photo of him. When I talked to my English-speaking cousin later about my fears, my aunt went ahead and contacted Geun Pyo. My uncle, understanding Korean culture from a male's perspective, understood that meeting me could put in him in a precarious situation, since my father had married and had two daughters with his wife. He wanted to prepare me for the possibility of my father not wanting to see me because of the strain that it would cause to his current family.

But upon hearing the news of my arrival he was very anxious to meet me and was not satisfied with merely sending a picture of himself. My aunt cautioned him that meeting me could have adverse consequences with his current family. In addition to that, she warned him that meeting me could possibly cause him anguish in the fact that I was merely visiting. She asked would he be strong enough to allow me into his life only to possibly walk back out and not see him again for a very long time. So she advised him that he needed to really think through all the possible consequences. He reluctantly agreed to thinking about it though he was still anxious to see me and said he would contact her when he was ready.

In the meantime I went on my worldwind tour of Seoul and was visiting all the tourist hotspots, when a very determined Korean man made his was toward a Christian run restaurant in Sangju (2 hour away) to see his daugher whom he had not seen in over twenty years. My mother's side of the family was very surprised by this unannounced visitor who came bearing gifts; a ginormous 25lb bag of Korean pears, apples, and tangerines. To his chagrin, I was no where to be found and my family gently suggested he call next time. After eating several of the fruits my Aunt put on her serious face and asked me if I wanted to meet my biological father because he was very anxious to meet me.

I cannot begin to describe to you all the emotions I felt as we waited at the station to pick him up. As he climbed into the car, I just kept thinking, this is really happening, he is really sitting here looking at me like he was looking at a ghost, saying how I was the spitting image of my mother. After the awkwardness slowly ebbed away he began to ask for forgiveness and thank me for allowing him to come and see me. He apoligized again and again and explained to me that even though things had not worked out with my mother he never stopped loving me and thinking about me, so much so that when he married and had another daughter, he named her after me, Da Woon (which was my first name my parents had picked out for me before they broke up and my mother changed my name). (a picture of Da Woon during her teen years)

He asked my mother to let him have me, but the cords of maternal bonding being too strong, it was with a heavy heart he let his first daughter go to the States. After several years of living in the U.S. my family went back to Korea to visit family. During this visit my mother arranged for Geun Pyo to see me again. During this visit he learned that my momma had changed my name to Kim Dan Bi. Never would he have imagined that it would be the last time he saw my mother alive, and the last time he would see his daughter for the next 22 years. He named his second daughter Dan Bi in memory of the daughter he thought he would never see again.

Shortly after our departure for the States, my father had a terrible motorcycle accident and was laid up in a hospital bed for the next four years. He sustained severe neck injuries and was nearly paralyzed. It would be years before he would even be able to walk or work again. A lady that he was acquainted through work began caring for him during his rehabilitation. Her support and tender devotion lead to more and they were married in June of 1985.

He still has a pronounced limp and favors his left leg. His left hand has a continual twitch and he often loses tensile strength as well. During some point in time his mother and father both died of sudden illnesses. Yet with determination and the support of his wife he would walk again as well as to return to his former job of construction.

On the 6th of February, on the car ride to the train station my father abruptly changed his plans to return to his town and instead accompanied me back to Seoul where I would catch my return flight on the 7th. I was only aware of the fact of switch, because he called his sister and began to sob into the phone and tell her how pretty I had become and smart and he wanted her to pick us up at the station in Seoul. He told me repeatedly how proud he was of the woman I had grown into. I had my mother's looks and brains, and many of her talents, he mused to himself what I had inherited from him. He laughed to himself and said that at least I had inherited his ears and nose. [My original plan was to to go Seoul go to church at the largest church in the world (Pastor Yon E Cho's church) and to stay the night in a traditional Korean Hanok or guesthouse and take a taxi to the airport. But it would seem God had other things in mind].

Upon arriving to the train station in Seoul, my father's oldest sister (she is the only daughter)came to pick us up in a blue work truck. The first thing she said was that I looked just like my mother. She took us to a fancy oyster restaurant for brunch and back to her home to rest. Geun Pyo asked for my photo. The only ones I had were of when I was younger. Divine providence would have that I gave to him a photo which I thought was of myself and my cousin on my mother's side. After he looked down at the photo he gasped when he realized that it was not my mother's niece looking up at him from the photo but his very own niece. He asked where I had gotten the photo from and I explained my mother made an album for me of all my pictures from Korea and this was one of them. I cry as I think about the fact that God would orchestrate that of the several hundreds of pictures I have of my childhood I bought the only one that was of his niece, my cousin.
(my cousin in her wedding dress, and my aunt on my fathe's side in the blue korean dress)

Again God orchestrated that my cousin, from the picture, had recently moved back from the U.S. where her husband had been studying. She spoke a great deal of English. She acted as the interpreter for conversations with my father during my last day in Korea. My aunt and uncle (my father's sister and brother in law) explained to me that they had liked my mother and was very sorry for my loss. During the last final hours together through the help of my cousin, Gee Ah, Geun Pyo and I exchanged the last 22 years of life that we had both missed out on.

It was with a heavy heart that we rode to the airport. All the while, Geun Pyo was anxious about the future and if I was willing to be apart of his life after walking back into his life. I promised to write and to visit in the future and also promised I would learn more Korean. Geun Pyo his sister and her husband all accompanied me to the airport and with crocodile tears we hugged and bid each other farewell. I bowed once to my aunt and uncle, and lastly to my father.

I walked through the sliding glass doors and onto my gate and later onto the plane that would bring me back to the states. I slid down into the uncomfortable airplane seat and closed my eyes and I held back my tears and swallowed the lump in my throat as I remembered the tears my father shed, while with quivering voice he read out loud the simple words that I had written to him in a thank you card [in Korean]:

Dear Father,

Thank you so very much for your visit. I had a wonderful time. It has been a very long time, but I forgive you. I hope to see you again. Please send my regards to your family. with love,

Dan Bi

As he lifted his tear stained face I stood before him in my Korean dress, perfomed the ceremonial bow and said, "I wish you a very blessed new year, honored father."

(if you would like to see the photos of my last week in Korea please follow this link: facebookphotos ) I am currently back in WV but there will be more blogs in the weeks to come as I process through all that has happened in the last three weeks. Thanks for having accompanied me on this incredible journey and for your prayers.

Happy Lunar New Year!!

2011-02-04T17:38:00.004-06:00

Picture of my Uncle Chong Ho's medal during his service in the Korean Military

Yesterday, I went with my cousin, Churri-Oppa and his mother and his son to visit my uncle's (his father) grave and pay our respects. He is not buried in our home town but in the National Cemetary in Daejan, because he served in the Korean army during the Korean War. He even received a medal for some act of courage he performed during his service. But prior to our leaving for the cemetary 2 hours away we had a time of Bible study and prayer, which was precluded with a Korean hymn. Churri-oppa lead the Bible study and hymn as well. My 2nd aunt lead the time of prayer, and I was able to pick up that she prayed for me and that I would be comforted today as I remembered my mother. When we opened our eyes, I watched both of my aunts quickly dash away tears from their eyes as we continued on with the last hymn before breakfasting. We then shared the traditional Lunar New Year meal of tteok-guk, rice cake soup.

Traffic was crazy getting into the cemetary because we were one family of thousands who were visiting their decesased loved ones. As we drew near, the tombstones were all the same and very simple and in very straight and orderly rows. We passed by hundreds of tombstones with families clositered around them. When we finally reached my uncle's tombstone we waited for the rest of the family to arrive.

As I surveyed the cemetary I noticed several families brought food and liquor bottles and were hunched around the tombstones eating and some where bowing, while others were pouring cups of the liquor around the tombstones in memory of their loved ones.

When my family arrived, we all gathered around my uncle's tombstone and set out all the food, replaced the flowers with fresh ones, and each took their turn pouring out a cup of my uncle's favorite liquor around the perimeter of his grave.

After our visit at my uncle's grave was done, we drove back to Sangju and Churris' sister Mi Hwang came with her husband and son to have dinner with me at my 2nd aunt's restaurant. We had seafood tofu soup (with octupus, clams, muscles, shrimp, and some unidentified shellfish (the shells looked like tubes with tongues sticking out of them), rice cakes, steamed rice, and banchan (korean side dishes). We also had a dish that was ground raw beef with seasoning and sesame seeds and sliced korean pears, I do not know what it was called but I imagine it was the korean version of Beef Wellington. In any case it was not bad, and I did not make me sick.

At the end of our Lunar New Year's day, my grandmother asked me to put on my hanbok, that my aunt purchased for me as a gift and I performed the traditional bow and wished her a very blessed new year. I am sure it was the clumsiest bow ever witnessed in the history of Korea but she appreciated it all the same. Thus concluded my first Korean Lunar New Year celebration.

To see the rest of the photos I have recently uploaded click on this link: facebookphotos. There are also photos of my grandfather. My trip here to korea was the first time I have ever laid eyes on him.

Whirlwind tour of Seoul Part 2

2011-02-01T02:31:00.008-06:00

I had the chance to go to Gyeongbokgung Palace, "the palace of shining happiness." This palace was destroyed during the Japanese invasion and has only in recent years been reconstructed. It is very typical of the Joseon dynasty. To see more pictures from the palace please click here: facebookphotos. During our visit, the guards to traditional armor and uniforms took their stations at the entrances of the palace. On the palace grounds there is also the National Folk Musuem. I can not explain to you how it felt to see the richness of Korean history, culture, and arts. After seeing all the exhibits, there was some extent of pride that I felt at having such a rich heritage to claim as my own. The strangest things I saw were moderately sized erns that were for the Royals' placentas. Two words, eeewwww spppeeewwwww. I am sure that was not very culturally appropriate but the that is kind of gross, you must agree even just a little.

The next site was the Namsan tower, which is around 250m talls and over looks the city. It took several minutes to reach the observatory deck. The deck itself is circular as you can see from the picture above, and is glass enclosed. Several of the glass panes have the names of several major world cities facing their respective directions.

Our next stop was the Odusan Reunification observatory. It overlooks the Han River and North Korea just beyond the shores of the Han. There were exhibits of North Korean products, some which you were able to purchase, classroom, and typical N. Korean interior of a house. There was a short video that explained the tragedy of a group of people sharing the same language, culture, and until 50 years ago rich history. As I looked through the binoculars to the other side, I thought about the sad plight of fellow Koreans as they endure hardship under the communist regime of Kim Il Jong. There was also a wish room with thousands of paper cranes (which is an Asian custom, that if you make a thousand cranes you will receive a wish). I took the opportunity to write down my wish that Korea will once again be one nation and one people. The wishes of the Odusan Reunification Observatory will be displayed in a special room once Korea is unified again.

In Seoul there are several gates, one in each direction. I was fortunate enough to see two of the four:

Namdaemun: (south gate): There is also a near by ginormous street market area, that I would have spent all day in, had my face and extremities threatened to freeze and fall clean off.

Dongdaemun: (east gate)

And to satisfy my artsy-fartsy side we stopped in the Insadong area which is the artisan district. There were several art galleries, hand pottery expos, antique shops, and a huge instrument mall complex. We stopped and had lunch in a restaurant that is in the Hanok style.

Today is Feb. 2, and it is part of the Lunar calender's New Year's celebration. Families all over Korea will be traveling to their hometowns to pay homage to parents and deceased beloved ones. As well as showing respect by bowing to their parents and wishing that they may be blessed in the new year, upon which the parents will give their children money. Traditionally parents would give their children rice-cakes and fruit. I spent the day helping one of my aunts preparing traditional dumplings, called Mandu. To fill my days and work of the 6 lbs I have gained, I have been hiking in the woods behind my Aunts restaurant. I almost wet my pants from fright because a deer jumped through the bushes and high-tailed it up the mountain. Yes, I found a sturdy stick and continued on with my hike. Pretty sure the deer beat it because it heard of what I do to snakes, yup my reputation proceeds me even though it scared the mess out of me.

GOOOOOOD Morning SEOOOUUL!

2011-01-31T07:37:00.002-06:00

For the past week I have had the opportunity to visit amazing tourist sites in Seoul!!! My relatives have been quite worried about me being bored. And truthfully I have only been bored one day, when I did not have any of my stuff with me (IPOD, korean english dictionary, clothes, journal etc.) But other than that I have had plenty to do. I have been studying Korean, taking photos, sitting with my grandmother, eating, eating, and more eating, journaling, and planning and thinking about the future. So in short, boredom is merely the product of idleness and lack of creativity.

With that having been said my 2nd Uncle and his wife took me to Seoul to go site seeing. Since I was not able to blog about it during my time there I will blog about each day during my last seven days here.

On the 26th my 2nd Aunt woke me up for breakfast and informed me that my 2nd Uncle and his wife were taking me to Seoul. I breakfasted quickly, showered, got dressed quickly and packed my trusty backpack to set out for our trip. When my family saw my back pack the said it was too big but for a week in Seoul I had packed relatively light. But I still went ahead and took out another 2.5kilos of stuff. My 2nd aunt and uncle dropped us off at the train station and we took the Ko-Rail to Suwon, which is right out side of Seoul.

Seeing all the cities and towns whizzing by in the light of day was certainly more interesting than by night. As we approached closer to our final destination the skyline became more and more dense with the buildings and office complexes and businesses. Because there are so many people in Seoul around 12 million, towering apartment complexes and condos line the city skyline. With such a mass of humanity to house the only direction available these days is vertical and no longer horizontal.

Upon arrival to Suwon we bused over to 2nd uncle's youngest daughter's condo. We rested, ate dinner, and picked up a rather old and dubious looking Hyundai work truck. Our next stop was to see my 1st Aunt Jung Hwa, at her home in Incheon which is to the west of central Seoul. I cannot begin to describe the traffic, the ebb and flow of cars, taxis, and delivery trucks dodging in and out of our lane was pure insanity. But in a city akin to New York City, my uncle driving 20kph under the speed limit would ve driven me mad as well.

But finally after much excitement driving through Seoul we arrived and I was able to see for the first time my 1st Aunt and her eldest son and his family.

(here is the link to that photo photo of Kyong Do and family and photo of my 1st Aunt)

Today on the 31st my 2nd Aunt took me into Sangju to pick up my traditional Korean dress (hanbok) that I had a fitting for last week. (photo of hanboks) The lady in the hanbok was the epitomy of korean feminity. And for some reason or other she took a liking to me in all my American brashness and threw in several traditional korean gifts free of charge. She showed me how to put it on because there are special pantlets, socks, a petticoat and liner for the jacket the skirt, the outer jacket and even shoes that have a upturning point. She explained that the hanbok was the model of Confucian feminie modesty, the women would bind their breasts and would appear almost flatchested (not that most of us Korean females need help in that department) and walk with the shoulders hunche forward as not to draw attention to their bust (or the lack their of). After my fitting was complete, to see my self in the full length mirror, for just a half a second I saw my mother looking back at me. I have never really thought I much resemble my mom until today.

This evening my 2nd aunt and her husband went to pick up their youngest son who is home for to celebrate the Lunar new year with family. He understands some English but does not speak much. It is funny how there are somethings that defy language barriers: food and music. At around 12am after my cousin's arrival I sat down to what was my fifth meal of the day with my cousin. We showed each other photos, (my photos of family and his of his girlfriend, who happens to be very pretty, and he said in Korean (with his chest and head inflated), something to the effect "yea I m the man." Then I asked to see his guitar. I played a few songs, in hindsight, I wish I would not have, because my cousin is crazy good at playing. He played several pieces for me, Jimmy Hendrix Little Wing, several blues pieces, a neo classical piece, some Eric Clapton, and a few other rock pieces I did not recognize. Then we both played some of our favorite artist. He has been playing for several years 8 to be exact, so I got 5 years to catch up at least. So thus concluded my evening. I hope God will understand why I have been so glutonous as of late. When I have an aunt with her smile and doting giving me food, and my talkative doting grandmother giving me her portion, and cousins offering me food all out of love, how can you say no.

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God!"

1st Corinthians 10:31

Healing past hurts

2011-01-23T13:39:00.004-06:00

When I stand before thee at the day's end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing.”

After the 45 minute drive (through rural communities and farm land, the drive reminds me of the highways from the airport in Huatulco Mexico to the mission base just with tons of snow) from the train station to my family's home town we came upon a very modern looking one story building with a beautiful rolling mountainside as the backdrop. My aunt told me that my grandmother was waiting inside. With bated breath I walked quickly through the snow and up through the sliding glass door entrance to the room where my grandmother, Kim Oak Mae, was waiting to see me. She was born on March 23, 1923, which makes her 87 years old. She bore 6 children, three boys and three girls, and my mother was her youngest child. She has survived a war, Japanese invasion and subsequent subjugation, the death of her husband 26 years ago, the death of her youngest child 15 years ago, and most recently the death of her eldest son just last year.

I was really close to my grandmother because several times through our childhood she came to live with us to help take care of us, In West Germany before the unification, and then in Texas. I honestly cannot believe she is still alive. She has several missing teeth, tremors in her hands, is hard of hearing, and has really poor eyesight. But she is very mentally sharp yet, and upon seeing me was able to recall the times we lived together. She told me I looked so much like my mom and that I was very pretty. We than sat down to a meal and through my cousin Ami (who resides in New Zealand) we began to share about our lives over the past 18 years.

They also told me that before my mother married my dad, Degore Sr, she was in a relationship with another man, Jeung Khum Pyo and that he was my biological beginning. According to my aunts, he was a hard worker and worked along side my uncles in their construction business and he was kind and handsome. They told me that when I was younger I looked alot like him but now that I have grown up I resemble my mother. Through different circumstances my parents broke up but Khum Pyo was still apart of my life. He came to my birthday parties and even asked if my mother, who was about to go to the states because she was marrying my dad, if he could have me. While they were together, my name was actually Jeung Da Woon, which has a korean meaning and chinese meaning. In Korean it means the girl that is friendly and personable, and in Chinese it means the girl with many dreams. But when they broke up she changed my name to Kim Dan Bi. He is now married and has children and lives the next province over. When my aunts called to tell hm our mother had died, he cried and was very sad to hear the news.

After all these years of thinking that I was unwanted by my biological father and that he was a dead-beat father I was moved to tears. The healing of past hurts and rejections were slowing seeping into heart, soul, and mind all catalyzed by this liberating truth that from the beginning God had surrounded me by those who loved and cherished me.The lie that had pervaded my life that if my own biological father did not love me enough to stay or want me than I was unlovable and unworthy. Because of this wrong perspective I thought I was doomed to spend the rest of my life working hard to try to please those around me to earn the love that I erroneously thought was denied me. Yet all along the paternal affirmation I sought had always been there but my deceased mother was unable to confere this truth of my past. So after after all these years of not knowing, God has allowed the light to shine on this area of my life that was shrouded with hurt, rejection, and the unknown. Wow God is truly GOOD!!!!

FAMILY REUNITED

2011-01-21T02:08:00.002-06:00

Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]-- Ephesians 3:20 Amplified Version

As I stepped on to the plane bound for Seoul South Korea I can not begin to describe to you the clamourous emotions that were rolling around inside of me. If you would have told me the way things were to unfurl as they have I would have been incredulous to say the least.

On the 18th of January at 7:30pm Korean Standard Time my foot alighted onto Korean soil for the first time in over 18 years. I was met at the airport by a Brother Hwang and his wife and taken to the condo of my host family with the understanding that Brother Hwang would return for me in the afternoon to begin my search for my family. During the course of conversation with my host family I had documents in Korean that my dad, Degore Sr., had given to me to aid me in my search. Because they were in Korean I was not sure of what they were. To my surprise they were actually the equivalent of my birth certificate and my mother's birth certificate, which included our korean social security numbers. They explained to me the providence of having brought these documents would expediate my search substantially. So with a new found hope we set out the next day to the municipal building of the suburb were I was born, were a database of census registries are kept.

The administrator of the municipal office was a former student of Brother Hwang and he was much obliged to help any friend of his esteemed professor. After handing over the documents, an immediate search began to locate my family members. After pulling a lot of strings and cutting through red tape, within a matter of minutes they located the family registries and printed them off. One by one they read to me the family history that I had missed out on, deaths, births, and marriages. And after an hour I was speaking with my mother's youngest brother and he invited me to come stay at his home. His English was limited but he spoke with Brother Hwang and explained that the family had moved from Seoul and were living outside of the city of Sangju and they would very much like to see me and for me to take the bus the next morning for the four hour ride the next state over to be with them. After congratulations and thanks were liberally passed around, I was being taken back to my host family's home. During the car ride my cousin, Ami, who studied abroad in New Zealand, and speaks English called me. She was overjoyed at my return visit to korea. Then the sweetest news of all, my cousin and her immediate family are born again Christians!! So were are double joined by blood and faith. After this wonderful call my aunt, Ami's mother, called to ask if I would consider coming on the train that night to see the family. I agreed whole heartedly, raced back to the condo profusely thanked my hosts and packed my bags and set out for the journey to my family's ancestral home.

Brother Hwang and his honorable father Mr Hwang took me to the train station purchased my train ticket, brought me an amazing dinner, helped me on to the train, had a lady on the train to alert me when my stop was coming up. So with anticipation I chugged on towards Yeong Dong train station where my family was to be waiting for me.

Before I could even step on to the train platform my aunts and uncles came rushing toward me with open arms smiles and tears and a welcome sign in English. The reunion that took place (after less than 24 hours of my search) at 10:55pm January 19 is something I will remember until the day I go on to meet Jesus. And when I see my savior I will give him thanks and praise for the miracle he worked to be able to find my family.

All the fears of being rejected and forgotten melted away in the outpouring of love and affection that washed over me as we cried and hugged. HAHA! I can not tell you exactly what they were saying but their love was palpable and spoke decibels louder than any intelligible word could have expressed.

At this point my fingers are just about frozen, so this will have to be the first installment of many on this amazing journey. There is still so much more to tell and pictures. Please follow along as this story continues to unfurl.

...Shall find me unafraid

2011-01-16T19:13:00.003-06:00

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

- William Ernest Henley

Tomorrow at 6am I embark upon the trip a decade in the making. I will be heading to Seoul South Korea.

Quite honestly 24 hours ago I was crazy afraid, simply because of the unknown, of rejection, of not being able to speak korean at all. But today I began meditating on God's word and His promises for me, and I was prayed for yesterday by a precious church body. They spoke over me words of wisdom and of encouragement.

Then I remembered the words of the poem of above, from a recent movie. This was the poem that Nelson Mandel memorized and meditated on during his long and injust imprisonment.

So tomorrow as I step foot on to the airplane that will carry me on a journey of healing, peace, and answers I remember these words... "And yet the menace of the years finds, and shall find, me unafraid..."

I invite you as my family member, friend, or brother or sister in the Lord to follow me as I traverse this incredible journey. I will be updating this blog every couple of days so please keep up with me and pray for me as the Lord brings it to your mind.

"We have surmounted all the perils and endured all the agonies of the past. We shall provide against and thus prevail over the dangers and problems of the future, withhold no sacrifice, grudge no toil, seek no sordid gain, fear no foe. All will be well. We have, I believe, within us the life-strength and guiding light by which the tormented world around us may find the harbour of safety, after a storm-beaten voyage." Winston Churchhill

Korea or bust

2010-12-13T14:36:00.006-06:00

All right yall here is the skinny on my Korea trip. Man!! I just don't know if Seoul is ready for me. But if you didnt know already, KIM DAN BI, is getting in touch with her roots and heading to Korea to find my maternal side of the family and possibly my biological father if things go well or at least find out his name. In anycase, I would like to purchase the ticket this week but I wanted to see if anybody knew of a contact that would be able to either:

*pick me up from the airport and drop me off at the hotel where I plan on making reservations

*act as a translator while I go down to the family registrar to investigate where my current family lives

*or help me make a phone call to an old phone number I have in Seoul of my Aunt (I would reimburse whatever the calling charges maybe)

*help me check out the area where I am wanting to book my hotel, make sure it is a safe area

*host me in their house if possible (not necessary but would be nice)

If you could help me in one of these areas or know someone that can please email me back or call me if you have my number. My cell # is posted on Facebook. If you aren't able to help out in one of these ways, I understand. But I would appreciate your prayers. I have probably not picked the very best time to go, but again there is probably never a best time to go to Korea during the age we live in anyways. Ok thank you and look forward to hearing from you.

Please keep up with me as I go on this journey through facebook and this blog.

"breaking the silence..."

2010-11-14T19:37:00.003-06:00

I chose today to break the two and a half month of blogger silence. So I have been back to the states for about three months now. I have been working as a seasonal hire for AMAZON.COM the most "customercentric" company out there, from home, here in Charleston, WV.

During these past couple of months I have been struggling about not being out on the "mission field." Now if you are reading this and have been on any of the missions teams that I have had any part in leading, you have probably heard these words come out of my mouth, "Missions is not one week out of your summer in a foreign country, it is reaching those who God has placed in your sphere or realm of influence, regardless of geographical location." HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I SAID SOMETHING LIKE THAT IN THE PREVIOUS 4 YEARS? But now, not being on a foreign mission field, I am living what I have preached.

A great friend and mentor, once told me, "Danbi... regardless of where God takes you... ministry is in you." During the months that I have been on furlough I remember his words and I cherish them and attempt to live them out, even if rather feebly sometimes.

This past weekend I had to opportunity to minister alongside a group of Godly, mighty women at a women's conference. We ministered to a group of women that were hungry for the things of God yet broken, bound-up, and jaded because of church as usual. A few weeks before that I was as a prayer counselor in Judgement House (which is like a Christian outreach that shows different scenes including heaven and hell scenes meant to bring people to a decision to follow Christ). And most recently, I volunteered in the nursery at church today. Now to you these three events may seem insignificant and not hold much weight. But to me, a Christ-follower that has "ministry in me" it was like water that quenches thirst, it was like sustenance alleviate hunger. It helped me to live up to what I have been so flippantly telling countless people who have passed through the gates of Roca Blanca as they return to the U.S. to do all these years, not necessarily understanding fully what they come back to face; business, taking care of families, working jobs and helping out in ministries at their churches, complacency or apathy of fellow Christians, and the list could go on.

I will close on this note, prior to going through Judgement House, I had a very wise man tell me I should go through it first. Initially, I did not want to, because I did not want to lose time and wanted to get started praying with people. But, trusting his better judgement I went through it. The thing that impacted me the most was the heaven scene. Jesus was played buy the junior high school pastor and he did a phenomenal job. As he was going to each person to hug them, I was contemplating man... "When I get to heaven, will I hear those words... well done my good and faithful servant." I began to wonder if all the things I had done in my life would be enough to hear those much desired words, "well done." Just as I was thinking those things, "Jesus" came to hug me and whispered in my ear, "My daughter, I know the things you have done and my reward is great for you and I am pleased."

As tears began to roll down my cheek, I was humbled by the fact that God, despite my mistakes and failures and insecurities, still chose to speak directly to me when my heart was questioning. Because what it all boils down to is the fact that as His daughter, my heart's desire and the driving force behind the many sacrifices I have made has all be for one piece of divine affirmation, "WELL DONE!"

As I sit here writing this, it is my desire to hear those words at the end of my life, knowing it will be the culmination of all my efforts, my obedience, my sweat, blood and tears. And that in that I will be able to accomplish no matter how great or how small all the things God has set out for me, which is essentially winning souls for the kingdom and make disciples of Christ out of them. I sincerely hope that it will become or is the principal focus and intent of your life.

Dawning Day

2010-09-01T22:22:00.016-05:00

Christian, the morn breaks sweetly o'er thee,
And all the midnight shadows flee;
Tinged are the distant skies with glory,
A beacon light hangs out for thee.
Arise! arise! the light breaks o'er thee,
Bright from thy everlasting home;
Soon shalt thou reach thy goal of glory,
Soon shalt thou share thy Saviour's throne.
Lift up thy head; the day breaks o'er thee;
Bright is the promised shining way!
Light from heav'n is streaming for thee;
Lo! 'tis the dawn of perfect day.
Rejoice! rejoice! in hope of glory,
Counting all else but vanity:
Precious this truth; O seek and hold it,
And send it forth that all may see.

As the golden sun breaks the horizon, heralding the beginning of a new day, it is a constant reminder that the coming of dawn brings new grace and mercy. Yet with the gifts of grace and mercy there are situations which will pull upon our reserves of grace and mercy. With the dawning of a new day there are new opportunities and corresponding challenges. Though the night of trials and tests may come we rest assured in the knowledge that morning will bring the glorious rays of the rising sun. I guess I have been reflecting on all of that, because today I will have completed 28 incredible years of life.

Realization hit me today that in two years I will be the big 3-0, and though there have been moments of nervous sweating and anxiety, I have focused on this thought,

the dawning day.

The first week of August I packed up all of the belongings I have collected over the four and a half years I have been serving in the Roca Blanca Mission Base. And on August 9th at 4:30am I drove off the Roca Blanca Mission base headed for the US. It was by far one of the saddest moments I have faced in a long while. During that last week, I was coming back with a teen mission trip from their free day, and I looked out the window over the terrain I had come to cherish.

I saw the gentle rolling mountains that over look the billowing sea,

the small farms and ranches that dot the coastal plain,

villages tucked away in the heart of the Sierra Madre mountains,

and the many beautiful brown faces that have welcomed me into heart and home.

I sat amongst a group of strangers on the verge of tears as it hit me!! This was the last time for an uncertain amount of time that I would be driving along that road, it was my last day in the place I had called home for almost five years. I had sweat and toiled, bleed and cried, served and given myself to this wonderful place called Mexico for one thousand six hundred forty two days and never regretted a minute of it. Well there was that one time waiting in line in the bank for 3.5 hours, that I did regret for a half second, but besides that, I have never regretted a minute of being in Mexico.

As the dawning of my day is arising I set my face towards new things and healing past hurts. I am taking a furlough for the next couple of months to set out in search of my maternal side of the the family and quite possibly my biological father. I have not seen or heard from my mother's side of the family in over 17 years and have never met my biological father. After my mother's death we lost contact. It was not until this past April that I realized my dad had my uncle and grandmother's old addresses and phone numbers. So in the next couple of months I plan on making contact if possible and seeing them in Korea. If not, I will fly to Korea and spend a few weeks there looking for my family, and consequently the answers to so many things I have not be courageous enough to face.

So during this time if you could keep me in your prayers as I embark upon this journey, I would greatly appreciate it.

Here are some prayer points:

-Finances to be able to go: finding a job quickly to be able to raise the finances to be able to go as soon as possible

-Learning Korean (I don't speak harldy any at all, I have not spoken Korean since I was a very small child)

-Legal Issues: visas & getting new birth certificate in Korea (mine was destroyed in a fire in our home several years ago)

-Divine connections and appointments: translator (to help me communicate with family once I locate them), place to stay, local church to attend during my time there

-Finding my family

-Grandmother: that my Korean Grandmother would still be alive (she is the only one I was really close to of all of my family)

-Directon for the future

To say that I am excited, would be a gross understatement. You might even ask if I am scared, and I would tell you, "Yup, scared spitless..." But I know that God is the orchestrator of all things and situations. I have been wanting to do this for a long time but because of fear have not been ready to. I even thought well let me get married first and then I will go, at least that way I have a husband to hide behind. But I now know that is not the way that I am going to have to do this. And one scripture has given me a ginormous amount of peace, "...and we know that all things work for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose."

Yet peace, my heart! and hush, my tongue!
Be calm my troubled breast!
Each passing hour prepares thee more
For everlasting rest.
Thou knowest well, the time thy God
Appoints for thee is best.
The morning star already shines;
The glow is in the east.

The dawning day comes!

Thank you Mr. Frost

2010-07-10T21:08:00.001-05:00

Today I was reflecting back to the 8th grade, when my English teacher Mrs. Keyes made us memorize Frost's poem, The Road not taken.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I,I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

How many times do we come to that fork in the road wondering which one we are to take? With the eyes of experience; our past failures and our past victories; with the eyes of our understanding and rationale; and with the eyes of our hearts we peer down both ways wondering how it will all come out.

Should I take that job or that one? Should I go to school there or here? Should I marry Joe Blow or John Doe? Should I move here or there? In one word, TRANSITION. Merriam-Webster defines it as passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another; change; a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another.

That ten letter word, sometimes seems like the a four letter word. Even in the stoutest of hearts that one word can cause fear and trepedidation. It can cause your knees to wobble and legs to go wonky. But at the same time it can be the best thing that ever happened to you. Transition is so much like love sometimes. You can be impulsive about it, you can take your time, you can just walk away, you can get cold feet. But what it all comes down to is what ole' Bobbie Frost says,

and I,I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

So watchout transition here I come!

GENESIS: "A coming into being"

2010-06-14T22:05:00.011-05:00

(Genesis Team in Mision Victoria Rio Grande church... yes there are 33 team members not including the church members)

Once in a very great while you get the opportunity to work along side a group of people that are just phenomenal. In these rare occasions you have to stop and give people their proper dues. So I have to take a minute and give a huge thank you to the Genesis team that was just here during this past week.

For many of them this was their first mission trip. So for them this was the "coming into being" of their passion for missions. The first day, one of the missionaries here at the base shared with them the four seeds of missions: sacrifice, compassion, intercession, and sharing the good news of the gospel. Each day of their trip focused on each of the seeds. If we do not experience sacrifice, the dying to self, we will not be able to effectually sow the other three seeds. The other three seeds are sown for the impact of others or rather what God wants to do through us, where as the seed of sacrifice is what God wants to do in us.

To sum up what they did in the 8 days they were here would be an incredible feat. But just to give you a glimpse of what they did I have a few pictures that I have borrowed from them from facebook... and here we go...

Sunday, we ministered in the service to the youth group. It turned out to be a really special time as the worship team from the local church and Genesis' worship team joined up and did worship together. It was absolutely beautiful to hear believers united by one faith in our one God worshipping in different languages but together in one accord. It really hit home for me when we sang, "people from every nation and tongue, from generation to generation... we worship you hallelujah hallelujah!!" Mexicans, Americans, African-American, and Korean all were singing under one roof to bring glory and joy to our father. Truly for me there was no sight more incredible to behold than to watch this little peace of heaven come to earth as we gathered to worship together. So this experience pretty much set the tone for the rest of the week.

The seed of intercession: Monday, we had a time of intercession and prayer with the pastor and his youth group about several prayer points for the community of Rio Grande. We then divided up into five teams to go into the neighborhood to prayer walk and invite children to the afternoon VBS program.

The seed of sacrifice: Tuesday, we painted the children's sunday school rooms, installed four ceiling fans, and installed plumbing to bring running water to the churches kitchen.

Then in the afternoon we went to a village called Manialtepec, where we invaded the town square and did a children's and youth outreach. The team performed skits and presented the gospel and held an altar call. Many made decisions for the lord. During the altar there was a man, that was known as the town drunk he came forward to rededicate his life and the Lord moved mightily in his life that day. The team also ministered to a guy that was in the town jail, gave him some water and food and a bible.

The seed of compassion: Wednesday, we divided into teams to pass out grocery bags and to do community service. The team that I lead, had the opportunity to to serve a lady that looked like she had cancer and had diabetes. She was emaciated and very weak. So I rallied my team to clean her house, do the dishes, wash some clothes, and rake the yard. While we were serving her, our guide from the church lead her and her children to the Lord that day. We visited and prayed for several families in their home that day. We passed out approximately 80 bags of grocieries and prayed and served approximately 60-70 families.

In the afternoon we went to a drug rehab center in Puerto Escondido. There are really no words the adequately describe the ministry that took place. We had a time of worship, that was lead by the director's son. It was a little off key and struggling a bit, but as I listened to the words of the song,

I do not know where I would be if I did not have you

If I had not come to know a God that loves me

Jesus I love you Jesus I love

I began to feel the compassion of the Lord for these men, both young and old, as I meditated on God's love and grace. One of the leaders of this group and his two brothers told his testimony of how his parents turned the back on their addiction and looked to Christ for the strength to do so. Every man and teen came to the front during the altar call, saying that they too wanted to make the decision to follow Christ and say no to drugs for themselves and their families. After the men of our team prayed for the men of the rehab center, the then turned around and began to pray for the Genesis team that they could also choose every day to follow Jesus. It was a really precious moment. Best ministry site of the year for me personally. This particular center rellies solely upon donations for food. So we wanted to bless the men, who rarely have a good meal, by serving them a very traditional and delicisious Mexican meal, grilled steak and sausage with black beans, fresh salsa, hand made tortillas, and refreshing traditional drinks (horchata and jamaica flower juice).

Seed of the gospel: Thursday, this team started out the day by making over 100 sandbags (each weighing about 100 pounds or so if no more) as part of our flood damage prevention. Each year during rainy season the base floods terribly. So in order to reduce flood damage we make between 200-300 sand bags. In less than three hours, this team made 100 sandbags and moved them to strategic locations around the base. Essentially they moved over 10,000 pounds of sand that day. The ladies of their team were a huge blessing in the fact that they painted several rooms in the clinic here at the base.

During the evening after recooperating from all their hard work, we went to the town park in Rio Grande and had an open air evangelistic outreach. We had over 200 people show up and around 30 responded to the altar call that night. The Genesis band played several worship songs in English and Spanish. The team performed several dramas, there was a raffle drawing for sevearl prizes, and of course we did my version of the boot scoot and boogie (you can check it out on my facebook profile).

Friday, we wrapped up the week by having a free day. We went into Puerto Escondido, to shop, snorkel, and eat. We came back to the base to debrief and had a bonfire and pizza.

All in all it was a great week and an even greater team. So this is my shout out to GENESIS Mexcio TEAM!!!

좋은 하나님 Cham joh-eun-shin Hananim!

2010-05-21T16:37:00.003-05:00

"God is so good, God is so good, he's so good to me..."

A Korean team from Houston, Texas came this week for a medical/vacation bible school outreach. There were 10 members in this particular team. The oldest person was 80 years old and the youngest was 49 years old. This time was a little more advanced in years than the majority of teams and yet they went to one of the hardest areas (physically, psychologically, and spiritually) in our region.

There is just this immense feeling of comfort when I see this group come every year. They bring me Korean food and with each year teach me something new about Korean culture and shed alot of light on my personality which tends to be very KOREAN sometimes.

We spent the week in the Mixtexo region. In the villages Ixtayutla, Pueblo Viejo, and El Mosco. Over 60 men, women, and children came to know the Lord; around 150 patients were attended and given medicine, and around 80 or more people received hair cuts. It was truly a wonderful trip full of blessings.

We also saw the protection of the Lord. A young boy slipped and fell under one of our trucks but his mother was able to run out in time to snatch him up right before the back wheel rolled over him. PRAISE the LORD!!

*to take a peek at my photos from this trip... you'll have to check out my facebook

On your marks…get set…Go!!!

2010-05-12T00:35:00.012-05:00

All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step!! 1 Corinthians 9:25-26

This past weekend I had the opportunity to minister at a women’s conference in Juquila!!

The town of Juquila has a Catholic Icon of the Virgin Mary that is especially venerated here in the south of Mexico, some even call her the Queen of the south. Sadly, there are certain practices that are deviant from what the Gospels and Jesus preach.

For example, over 100,000 zealous parishioners will leave offerings of fake money, food, or plastic animals as sacrifices or burn candles and incense in her honor. In addition to the offerings, parishioners will dig out clay from the surrounding hills to make clay figurines of different things there are petitioning the Virgin of Juquila for and place it on offering tables.

The women’s conference was hosted in a local church pastored by Carmelita. She has been pastoring this church for the past several years. This particular town has been difficult to establish a Protestant church in because of the strong presence of the Virgin of Juquila. Pastor Carmelita and her family have suffered years of persecution. Several times during their church services huge rocks would come careening through their tile roof. Pastor Carmelita’s grandmother, one of the first Protestant converts in this area, used to collect the rocks and write the perpetrator’s name on it and keep them in a box under her bed to be able to remember to pray for the person, and some day give the rock back as a remainder of God’s grace and mercy to save.

The day that we arrived to begin the conference, for over an hour, the pastor gave testimony to God’s faithfulness and all the hardships she endured, not only as a pastor but as a single female pastor in a very male-dominated, “macho” society. When we get to heaven I know that there will be a slew of unsung heroes of the faith, and after hearing this pastor’s testimony, I am sure she is bound to be one of them.

Her church is over 130 members strong. They have a thriving youth group, which can only be described as having a servant’s heart. During the special mother’s day luncheon they served and waited tables with such excellence that we were all very blessed. This church has a bible school, which recently sent its students on a mission trip to reach another people group, called the Mixtecos. They passionately shared how God had stirred in their hearts passion for missions and how they promised to give better offerings for missions and not just 50 cents or a dollar but at least 10 dollars or more which is about a full day’s wages here. They shared the vision to do food and clothing drives and raise money for a wheelchair for a crippled woman that they had ministered to. I was so stirred and moved to see them so on-fire to make a difference outside their own sphere of influence.
During the women’s meeting there were 50 women present, which did not include teens and children. I was there as apart of the all female worship team and preached about being a ‘Redeemed Woman’. Several woman dedicated their lives to the Lord and were ministered to. After the conference, the women were given the opportunity to receive one-on-one counseling sessions by the worship team. I counseled with a woman who had recently been saved and was needing reassuring of her faith. It was a really precious time. The next morning for Sunday service, we lead worship again and our praise and worship leader shared the message. We prayed for the men of the church who have a weekly prayer vigil from 11pm on Saturday to 4am Sunday to pray for protection over the church service from attacks from hostile townspeople. There was a time of spontaneous praise and worship were many people were touched by God’s presence.

Truly God is doing wonderful things in this part of Mexico, and will continue to do so. Next month we will be doing constructions projects and bringing a medical team to Juquila. Please be praying for our safety and for municipalities to put a lot of red tape on these outreaches but that we would have favor to proceed ahead.

WAKE UP!!!

2010-04-25T22:16:00.003-05:00

This morning at five o'clock I was awakened by the sound of a crying baby. Now for those of yall that know me, know I sleep like a ROCK and have been known to sleep through just about anything, vacuuming, loud conversation, you name it. I recently told my cousin that I was worried that when I become a mom I would sleep through my kiddo's crying through the night.

Which is why I was really surprised, when his soft crying instantly woke me up. I laid their for a second thinking his momma would hear him. So after a little bit I went in and picked him up to walk and rock him back to sleep. I decided I wanted to give her a break and let her sleep in a little longer and laid on the couch with my little nephew. Savoring this special early morning time loving with my precious nephew. As he was laying there on my chest and I could feel his breathing even out and felt his little heart thumping close to mine. I thought so this is what it is like... I started thinking how my little niece follows me around every where and puts on make up when I get mine on, how she runs into her room to put on shorts when I put mine on, and how someday my children are going to follow my example and want to be just like their momma.
Someday I thought, I will have little Korean babies calling me momma, waking me up in the middle of the night, learning to walk and talk, and then eventually follow my example. So, all the good things in me, my children will either inherently do or will learn. But on the other hand, I am sobered by the fact that all of my hang ups, insecurities, and issues will also be passed on to my children.

Tonight as I thought about all of these things, I now not only desire to change and become more like Jesus and ultimately be a better person for me personally and for those I will some how have an impact on but I want to grow into the full stature of Jesus Christ for my children so that they will follow me as I follow Christ. I do not want my sons and daughters to feel the sharp pains of fear of rejection, to not feel safe to cry or express their hearts. Essentially, I want them to be better versions of me and my future husband. I want them to be stronger, brighter, wiser, friendlier, godlier, more empowered men and women of God. I want them to be like the arrows in my quiver that the Word of God talks about that fly true and straight and hit the mark, of what ever God has called them to. What a huge responsibility and task, what a huge honor. That God would trust jacked-up, imperfect, sometimes spiritually or emotionally stunted beings to impart and shape and mold a future generation, either for his Kingdom or the kingdom of this world.

While my nephew lay peacefully dreaming, with out knowing it, he helped me to realize the need for spiritual growth and the potentially devastating effects of spiritual regression and stagnation. Change and growth are possible and obtainable. It is not some distant shore that we can never dare or hope to reach. The journey of growing into the full stature of Christ is made one step at a time, one right decision at a time until we reach our intended course's end. This amazing journey, fortunately, is not some unknown mysterious uncharted course. This is a trail that was first blazed by the feet of our Lord and Savior, and then has become well worn through the ages by the countless men and women who faithfully have taken up their cross and followed after Him. My challenge to myself and for the rest of us is to do the very same. Follow them as they have followed Christ. Follow Christ as leads us on the narrow path that leads to his kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy.

OH He Loves me oh how he loves...

2010-03-18T19:30:00.007-06:00

I love this song that Kim Walker sings. And this just so happens to be the theme song for the trip I had the beginning of March with a college group (Mary Washington) from Fredericksburg VA.

I had the pleasure of taking them to San Pedro. A bilingual town that speaks Spanish and a dialect called Amuzgos. During the days that we were there on our mission trip, we passed out groceries, prayed for sick people, witnessed to people, lead some people to the Lord, and a basketball tournament. This team also brought several dozen pairs of flip flops, which we were able to give out during our home visitations.

This little lady was about 75, and had been suffering from a terrible cold and felt that no one cared for her. She was not very hospitable when we first came but she did not want to be rude so invited us to come into her house. When we explained what we were doing and the fact that we wanted to give her a pair of flip flops, the scowl she had melted away and began to smile and thank us for coming to visit her.

There are many times where I am really thankful for being in good shape. During this week I was especially thankful for the fact as we were trekking through the hills and trails to get to houses that were on the sides of mountains or hills. I also participated in a basketball tournament, which around 200 people showed up the two nights of the tournament. Before the awards ceremony we presented two dramas, testimonies, and presented the Gospel.

During one of the home visits about 25 children on recess showed up to the house where we were witnessing. So I did an impromptu bible story and lesson for the children. I passed out some bracelets and the rest of the flip flops. When recess was over they all ran back to school only to return to ask for a bracelet for their teacher. She had sent them to ask for a bracelet for her.

It is always so rewarding to do the home visits. For me there is just an exhilarating feeling as I am listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in trying to share with them the Good news of Jesus Christ. Great team, great minister, great time.

Billy Graham or Old McDonald?

2010-02-09T21:55:00.002-06:00

(I took these girls to the beach, had breakfast and lunch together, went on a jetski to look at coral reef and fish, and window shopped in a resort town they had never had the chance to go to, taught them how to swim, great day!)

When I was a youngin’ and had recent given my life to the Lord, there was always that desire to want to minister to the multitudes, like some kind of female Billy Graham. You know stadiums packed with tons of people, with passion uncontrollably burning in their heart to respond to God’s message of love and salvation spoken through me. Several years have passed now since that initial youthful vision of grandeur. And time and maturity has brought another desire that I have just recently seen come to full fruition.

For the past four year I have been discipling four young girls. Maybe you are asking yourself what that exactly means. I heard a very wise lady from Charleston, South Carolina, say it best, “discipling is doing life with people.” To me disciple-making has been a lot like farming. I sought direction from the Lord where to sow the seeds of the word, my time, my prayers, and sometimes resources. I worked the soil of their hearts to receive these precious seeds I was willing to sow by cultivating friendships and trust. Then came the time to release from my hand and cast out and sow the seeds. It was more than just preaching mini-sermons or banging them over the head with the Bible. It was practicing what I preached, it was breaking the word down for them and applying them in a meaningful and relevant way, it was buying them something that their parents did not have the funds to buy that was necessary, buying them gifts that were definitely not necessary but something every girls wants, it was spending time to talk about boy problems, or family problems, or future plans and aspirations.

There are two girls in particular that I have toiled over, and spent extra attention on. They come from tough family situations and life, well life has not been easy or all that joyful for them. Here recently, because of certain bad situations and poor decisions they had been making it was like it shook them and caused them to awaken spiritually. In their conversations about their relationship with the Lord it has been a night and day difference. Where as before the Christian life was more a mundane obligation, it has now become to them a passionate commitment. After years of planting and watering and fertilizing and cultivating relationships, during this time I have seen the first shoots of what promises to be a wonderful harvest. One of these girls has hopes of becoming a doctor; she will be the first professional to graduate from her family. Get this, she is fascinated by trigonometry and biochemistry. She wants to work in medical missions someday. Listening to her talk about plans for the future and her service for the Lord brought such joy and such satisfaction to my heart. I imagined it is just a sliver of what God must feel when we his children walk in His perfect will and plan for our lives.

Discipleship, costly in so many ways, but definitely definitely worth it. So I will repeat a wonderful little nugget that I heard last night during the chapel service here at the base, “if you are a disciple of Jesus, you should be discipling and Christianity with out discipleship is Christianity with out Christ.”

"Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations..." Matthew 28:19

The transforming power of the gospel!!

2010-02-05T12:06:00.002-06:00

This is part of an email I recently received about the history of a people group that up until 1993 had not been reached with the Gospel. It is the evidence of the transforming power of the Gospel and how it forever changed the Chatino people group. As I was reading over it, I felt it was something that needed to be shared with those who have the flame of missions burning in their heart. It was written by the co-founder of the mission base where I am currently serving in Southern Mexico.

"Chatino women...I am not an expert but these are my observations after being in the area for some years:

The Chatino people in general are an aggressive mountain people. They live high in the Sierra Madre Mountains. The women work hard to feed their families. They are scrapers in the sense that if it's there to be found they'll find it, if it's there to be had they'll make sure they get it. Perhaps that aggressiveness makes for being vulnerable to using witchcraft to get what they want or need, but to me it seems that a high percentage of Chatino families have a history of witchcraft. There is lots of controlling and getting vengeance. There has been lots of violence and death over land and coffee, and in the last two decades, drugs. The youth seem to be particularly vulnerable to gang life. Many of the youth bear the tattoos of their gang pacts...even children of believing families. There has been a major exodus to the "North" of men and youth looking for work with this aggressiveness then being linked with street life on the bad side and finding good hard work that pays well on the positive side. Basically they are a short people who make their way one way or another. Very witty.

They were an unreached people with the Gospel until 1993. There was a Wycliff translator couple working for 35 years before 1993 to translate the NT to Chatino and develop a written language and alphabet, but they determined not to evangelize the people until they finished the translation, sensing the importance of having the scripture to disciple converts. One man, Juventino, from the town of Panixtlahuaca, where we will be visiting, met the Lord in the coastal town of San Jose del Progreso where we had helped start an evangelical work. For several years as we would visit the work in San Jose del Progreso he would speak of the desire to return to his village with the gospel. One year (probably 1988) we were able to connect him with a Korean Baptist work in Houston, TX who were willing to sponsor him. It was tough going, he was run out of town but found refuge in the coffee fields (cafetal) of Raymundo Garcia. There he was able to get Raymundo's attention turned to the Lord. I believe Raymundo's wife first prayed and finally he did. Now they spent time talking about the Lord and in the process Juventino gave him a tape of Brother Duane Kershner preaching. Duane shared about getting to know God the Holy Spirit and Raymundo was intrigued. One day not too long after that, Duane and I were visiting in a village @ six hours walk from Panix and met Raymundo. He heard we were coming and waited four days for us because he wanted to know God the Holy Spirit. God met him with a powerful baptism of His Holy Spirit. Great weeping and joy filled his heart. Soon after he appeared at the Roca Blanca Base one day pleading for us to come to his village with medicine because there were many sick people. We committed to go. Duane, Laura Pratt, and a Mission Intern, Tim Murfield made the 12 hour trip in rain and tremendous mud. They determined to not give out medicine until after they shared what Jesus did when he took the stripes for our sicknesses and then hung on the cross to pay for our sins. There was a crowd of people around Raymundo's home when they arrived. Duane shared the Gospel as they had determined. And then the power of God came to heal. Forty people got instant healing and then they got saved. It was wonderful. Then they treated a bunch of people with medicine as well. The night was short. Next morning they were planning to take the Jeep to a woman's home who had a serious case of breast cancer to take her the 13 hours to the hospital. The Jeep wouldn't start. Dead. The village had no mechanics, because it had only one vehicle. The atmosphere of the town was getting rather tense. Duane had to move. He caught a ride with the health department truck to Juquila and from there several rides until he arrived home in the middle of the night. He roused our mechanic and returned the 12 hour drive. Laura had been treating patients throughout the day, but there was growing animosity in the town. Evening was upon them again. The new believers were crowded into Raymundo's home. Duane knew he should preach, but what does one preach when everyone is brand new? Maybe about the second coming? He started that way but his words fell to the floor. Raymundo, his translator, said, let's pray. The moment they asked the Lord for his word He said, "They will face persecution, they need the power of the Holy Spirit." So they opened the Word to Acts 1 and began to preach. The power of the Lord interrupted the message and the people began speaking in tongues and weeping in repentance. One after another five people prophesied (Raymundo translated for Duane) the Lord's message that they should have the same attitude that he had toward his enemies and not strike back. Several had visions of the Lord.

Next morning the mechanic worked on the Jeep, to no avail. Tim, the intern, says "maybe we should take it out of 4 wheel drive." Duane, "That's got nothing to do with it starting Tim." But, they tried and it started. So, they brought the very sick woman to the hospital. The persecution began immediately. Brother Juventino, the first missionary, was shot five times as they were digging the foundation for the first church. He died on the way to the hospital, those 13 hours, but the Lord sent him back as he was on the hospital gurney with the sheet over him. He is alive and well to this day and still testifying of the grace of Jesus. But for several years we couldn't go in or out without specific timing instructions from the Lord. The time we left when we were ready to leave we got robbed at gun point on the road. (I, Sue, was in on that one.)

Back to the Wycliff translators. They left Panixtlahuaca in 1992 for their home in England to print the first New Testaments in Chatino. In 1993 or 94 when they returned with the Bibles they couldn't believe what they found. The biggest rebels of the town were now believers, preaching believers!

So, the ministry of the Word of God has been very important for this town and the Chatino people group. Learning to deal with life's challenges as Jesus would do is directly opposite from the way the powers of witchcraft deal with challenges. According to estimates of Pastor Alfredo, witchcraft activity has been diminished by @ 80%. There remains a strong witch in the town government who has caused many good men to fall into immorality and drunkenness with her sorceress. We lost two pastors to her...temporarily.

At least 20 believers have been trained in our Bible School from Panix. Now, I believe they also have their own Bible School on Saturdays. They are evangelizing neighboring towns on their own as well as work with our medical outreaches into Chatino towns. The other three towns whose pastors will be with us on Wednesday also have large congregations and many Bible School graduates on their leadership teams.

The oppression of witchcraft puts despair in the place of hope. It makes one do desperate things looking for help. The Gospel gives one the patience and hope to work through trials legitimately. Jesus paid the full price. He can give life to us because He first of all made us, and then he bought life again for us by paying the price of our sin. Now we can give life to others because we have freely received from Him. We have a well of salvation from which to draw living water. He calls us to the same transparency that He embraced as He hung exposed with our sins before the mocking world with a forgiving heart."

Future joys of parenthood

2010-02-04T09:35:00.002-06:00

Once I heard a sermon about how the fall of Adam caused something to become horribly broken in children to no longer cause them to sleep length-wise in bed but perpendicular to the bed. This terrible defect is only heightened when they sleep in their parent’s bed.

On Tuesday I experienced first hand the horrible consequences of the fall of man in this particular arena. Since I have not yet had the privilege of having children of my own I merely assumed that this was a gross exaggeration on the part of nagging parents. How foolish I was in my assumption.

I recently went to a village to plan a trip for one of the missionaries who is bringing a team there. So while I was there one of my good friends invited me to spend the night over at her house with her and her kiddos because her husband was away on a business trip. We ended up watching a movie, The boy in stripped pajamas, which by the way was extrememly depressing and sad. During the movie her son fell asleep at the head of the bed, but like I mentioned earlier, he was sleeping perpendicular to the bed.

To not disturb him I scooched down a little bit from the head of the bed and fell asleep. All was well until the middle of the night, when unbeknownst to me a flying little heel comes crashing into my left eye. It scared the poopies out of me and I was disoriented for a minute and could not remember where I was and how it was that someone was attacking me in the middle of the night. When I remembered where I was at that my alleged attacker was just two years old I settled back to sleep moving further away from the little wannabe Mexican karate kid.

All was well until 15 seconds later, I again felt his little foot tapping me. His mom woke up and told me that he uses his foot like a little heat sensor to find a cool spot in the bed and worms his way over to settle back to sleep in his now cool spot. So all night long he kept rooting with his foot all over the bed looking to resettle. I finally got to the point of desperation and held his foot down, which immediately woke him up. That must have been what his mother does too, because he woke up and grabbed my arm and was looking in my face. The look on his face was priceless, it said, “Why is this random korean lady in the bed and where is my momma?” He looked at me and looked all around and saw his mom and nestled closer to her and I was finally able to sleep the rest of the night that was ahead of me, a whopping hour and half. Aaaahhhh the future joys of parenthood that await me.

Mexican Buses & EREF (extreme rear-end fatigue)

2009-12-30T23:30:00.006-06:00

I left the small fishing village of Cacalote at around 3pm on the 22nd of December heading home for the first time in three years for Christmas. I bused from my village to Acapulco, which took about 7.5hours on a bus that seemed to stop in every podunk little town on the 100 mile stretch. I was praying fervently that my bus would get there on time to be able to make my connecting bus to Mexico City. When I finally got to Acapulco, by which time I was sweating profusely because I was worried I was not going to find a ticket, I hopped in a taxi and headed for the connecting bus station only to find out the bus terminal was sold out until 2:30am in the morning and my flight was an early morning flight 6 hours away in Mexico City. Luckily, I unknowingly bribed someone and got onto a luxury line bus for 150 pesos cheaper and was able to make it into Mexico City in time. I say unknowingly because the told me to go straight to the driver and pay him when I got on the bus and bypass the ticket counter. So as I am pulling my money out he said to wait and used a Spanish word I did not know and told me and collected from me after everyone else loaded the bus and I got on. But throughout the entire 14 hour ordeal, I would randomly catch myself singing random Christmas songs and it would help the extreme REF (rear-end fatigue) I was suffering.

This Christmas was going to be very special. First, I had not been home for Christmas in several years for different reasons for being on the mission field. This will be the last Christmas in an indefinite amount of time that my cousins and their families and I will all be together because my cousin and his wife are planning on going full time to the mission field in Bolivia.

I can not even begin to describe to you the childish excitement that began to mount as I was flying over Charleston, and looking at the snow covered mountains. Opening presents with my family and especially getting to watch my little niece get crazy excited about all the presents was a very special memory. We even took a family photo, which has a slight resemblance to a United Nations summit.

There is probably one thing that pretty much can sum up our christmas, laughter. Between my two cousins, their two wives, and two kids; we were cracking up the entire time. Usually when some families gets together over holidays there can tend to be drama or issues, but I love my Aunt Ladybug's policy of no drama during family time during the holiday season.

After the gifts were unwrapped and words of thanks and hugs of grattitude were generously given and received the typical "let down" of christmas that other people who are caught up in the materialism and vanity of Christmas day experience was definitely not felt in this household. After opening up presents and stocking stuffers, we enjoyed each other's company, talked, and laughed. So for this household, the bond and unity of love was not only spoken, or displayed through the gifts but was active as we joked or told funny stories or helped clean up the wrapping paper mess. Needless to say, my Christmas was incredible and something I will treasure for a long time to come. I hope as you read this you too shared a very special Christmas with your loved ones. Since this will be the last post of 2009 I want to thank God for all of the blessings of 2009 and for the year of 2010 to come. I also want to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. Blessings!!!

Old post: White throne judgement

2009-12-10T13:55:00.000-06:00

White throne" judgement
Now if you have ever been on a mission trip, you know about the "white throne" judgement. No I am not referring to the end times judgement, I am talking about the white throne in your bathroom. I recently was in the States, everytime I go home my stomach always feels a little... special. I get all bloated and look three months pregnant, I feel naseuated, and suffer from loss of appetite. If I did not know any better one would think I am pregnant, which I am most certainly am not.
So this time coming back from the States was no different. I think it is just from the change of environment and different food and different eating schedule. But, this particular time, coupled with this condition and something I think I must have eaten since arriving in Mexico, I got really sick yesterday.
There I was sitting in a staff meeting translating for a couple that do not understand much spanish when a wave of stomach cramps hits me. It was so bad I forgot that I was supposed to be translating. I could hardly concentrate on translating for all the gut wrenching pains shooting through my midsection. I thought I was going to pass out from the pain of the cramps. I then got hot flashes and felt cold all at the same time. I tried to endure for as long as I could until I could not take it any longer. I bolted to my room just "in the knick of time.": As I was sitting on the white throne, I thought about when I used to pour salt on slugs and watch them turn inside out and dissolve. I irrationally thought this was judgement for my sadistic childhood games. I vowed never to do it again. While I was repenting for torturing many a slug I thought I was going to pass out and got really weak. There I sat, literally praying for God to have mercy on my and help. It was quite pitiful and sad.
After the judgement had passed, I laid on my bed sweating, weak, and shaky only to pass out into blissful unconsciousness and then only to dream about dissolving slugs and me passing out repeatedly in my dreams. After a four hour nap, my stomach was still feeling terrible but I no longer felt the weakness that had been there earlier. All I can say is yay for PEPTOBISMOL and IMMODIUM.

old post: Starring into the eyes of fear

2009-12-10T13:53:00.000-06:00

Last night was the first time in my life, I thought that someone was going to die in my arms. Let me back track a little.
Last night around 9 pm I was sitting in the general dining hall finishing up dinner when I saw a group of high school boys escorting one of the girls down from the dinner hall. As I looked into her face you could tell she was in distress. I assumed she was not feeling well, and that the boys would help her back to her room.
I am not sure what possessed me to turn back around but as I turned to catch one last glimpse of Dulce, the girl in question, I no longer saw her anywhere in sight just the same boys in a cluster on their haunches in the middle of the street. I heard someone say in spanish "She fainted!" I jumped up and ran over to her with the medical student intern hot on my heels.
As I bounded over the bushes to push through the onlookers milled around her, I began shouting simultaneously to the boys that were putting her in the car to take her to the clinic in spanish and yelling to the medical student in English to hightail it to the clinic to receive her. I then made a mad sprint for the clinic, arriving justs seconds after the car breathless but relieved by the sight of the boys carrying her into the consultation room.
But to my horror, Dulce, was crying and incoherently muttering something in spanish as she began what looked like a seizure and arching her back to the point that I thought she was sure to break it. No real doctor was anywhere on the base and we found out through the boys that she had been stung by a bee earlier and seen by the clinic doctor who was now 35 minutes away in the next town over. There was no chart on record of what he treated her for or with what and Dulce was hardly able to speak except to tell us through her crying and gasping and seizure like throws that she was not able to breath. The med student Matt, had to make a decision, he diagnosed that she was having an anaphylactic shock usually caused by allergic reactions to venom or insect poison. He administered epinephrine, but it did not seem to be taking effect. So there we all stood breathlessly waiting for the attacks and gasping to stop, but they did not. The grew progressively worse.
After thirty minutes, at our wits end, we decided to take her to a 24 hour clinic in a town 15 minutes away. We grabbed some more epinephrine just in case and bolted for the car. The gasping would go on intensely for about 15 -20 seconds and then she would quit breathing for close to a minute to minute and half and then start gasping and convulsing all over again.
By this time I began to pray and I did not even care that it was not in Spanish. I prayed until I thought I was going to explode and interceding and confessing Gods word over Dulce. I have never been so afraid in my life. As she was laid up in my arms I literally thought for a second that she was going to die. She had quit breathing for about two minutes and I was praying against fear and that God would open her air passage (which is what happens in anaphylactic shock, the air ways close up). After a few seconds which seemed like an eternity she began gasping again, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. The med student administered the last of the epinephrine he had and could safely give her and he said, "well all that there is left to do is wait until we get there and pray," and pray we did. We finally arrived at the clinic and the peace of God just washed over me and I then knew everything was going to be okay.
We came just in the knick of time because the doc was actually heading home. I translated what the medical student was telling the doc and he started an iv of fluids and some medicine and we waited for the gasping to come and go until finally after another 30 to 40 minutes she began to breath normally. But she was still not coherent. She finally came to and was coherent. Praise God, we later found out that this doctor was the only doctor of 10 in Rio Grande that had the kind of medicine that she needed. God did many miracles last night. We got home around 11:30, relieved but completely exhausted from the emotional strain of the nights happenings. All I can say is God is faithful and he was most certainly with us last night guiding our each step.

Important lessons

2009-12-10T13:50:00.001-06:00

wanted to repost this blog from my myspace, made me laugh out loud and thought you might enjoy it too...

Through the transcourse of the past fews days I have learned invaluable lessons.
Lesson number...

1) One should not run on tile while one's feet are wet. story: I was running a little behind on Monday before chapel service and hopped into the shower and had to run to my room when I hit the tile in my room and both of my feet, which were extremely wet therefore highly slick, flew out from underneath me. I was airborn for 1.3 seconds when I came crashing down on the step down from my bathroom to my room only to land on my backside and hit my head. result: I had the breath knocked out of me and laid there on my floor in a panic thinking I had given myself a concusion or had amnesia. As I was reeling from the blinding pain my stupid step had inflicted upon me I tried to recall my address, and I said aloud 13235 Woodclimb Dr. San Antonio Texas, and panicked when I realized I lived at this particular addresss when I was seven. But I calmed myself because I quickly realized if I had amnesia I would not have the faculties to ask myself if I had amnesia. I also put my dress on inside out, probably because of the self-inflicted concusion.

2) Should not dance if you suspect you might have a concusion. story: After completing my self-evalution from before mentioned accident and declaring myself able to attend praise and worship, I ran to praise and worship chapel service and started dancing during the praise and worship and jumping around like a maniac. result: lost all feeling in my extremities, folllowed by shooting pains. Decided I should take it easy.

3) I am highly allergic to "chapolines" (fried, salted, lime flavored crickets. story: a girl from the city of Oaxaca gave us a taste of her crickets, which are a special snack. I liked them so much I made a huge taco out of them with tasty salsa. result: Around 12 pm I started getting really itchy on my scalp, then my face, and arms and legs. As the afternoon would progress I had terrible heartburn followed by hives. I thought the crickets were trying to come back up through my throat and exact their revenge. I had to drive to make an airport pickup of some big wigs from the Feed the Children program. The heartburn was so bad I just thought I would fix everything and just go ahead pull over and throw up the half-digested cricket rebellion. So there I am on the side of the road in Mexico and my way to pick up the Feed the Children guy puking up a cricket taco.

4) I am highly sensitive to medicine and therefore benadryl. story: I woke up early to pray and have my quiet time at five. The benadryl was still in my system and so I would close my eyes to pray and suddenly jerk myself awake to realize I was annointing my Bible with dribble from my half opened mouth. So I tried walking and praying and reading only to walk around my room like a drunk weaving back and forth and almost falling over twice, which would have only worsen my possible concussion from the day before.

Well kids hope you take it from me and apply these very important lessons in your life...

No Guts no Glory!

2009-11-18T12:06:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, one of the bulls that the base owns got fed up with life and took his life into his own hooves and hung himself.

We had to pay local village men to round up an ornery bull that had gone cow-hunting in an adjacent field. He would not let anyone come near him, let alone rope him. So we paid these fellas 30 bucks to muster up the courage to round up this wayward bull. The Cacalotians came, roped the bull after a brief struggle and tied the bull to a nearby tree, only to have him pull on his rope and die an hour later from self-strangulation. So I helped with the details late last night of the butchering of this bull.

I had been fasting yesterday so when the stench of blood, guts, and gore hit my nostrils, my stomach spontaneously and immediately wanted to revolt against the assault of this odious aroma. I watched in horrid fascination as they cut out the bulls tongue and hung various severed appendages from a rafter. The old saying waste not want not, became real last night as I watched every part imaginable being cleaned for later consumption, tongue, vital organs, and last but certainly not least the entrails of the poor beast. There were four city boys that got assigned to clean the intestines and scrap and salt them. You could smell the nasty labor clear across the field where they diligently and surprisingly very happily worked. They did not complain or anything but actually were cracking jokes and made a Bible school promo video of their nasty little job to “encourage” next year’s enrollment and recruitment and a re-enactment for a documentary on the function of the lower GI tract of the Bos Taurus (yup that is an image I won’t be forgetting soon). We made a special dinner for the fellas, delivered it and finally go to bed somewhere after midnight.

I recently went to a Chatino village called Atotonilco to lead worship for a children’s event. The journey is about 3 hours long and is full of crazy curves on the sides of mountains, potholes big enough to lose a small car, and hidden donkeys. There were about 150 in total that showed up for the children’s event that came from several surrounding villages. The theme was “Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth.” I was part of an all female praise and worship band; there are a couple of singers, bass guitarist, drummer, and two keyboardists. It was a really precious time and the children were really blessed.

As a missionary, there is just a joy and fullness that I get when I just spend time with people in the villages not necessarily preaching but just being with them living life with them. Which is why this blog is entitled no guts no glory. I was invited to help clean chickens.

I watched the ladies take machetes to 15 live, squawking, pecking hens. I watched them go from being gallinas (hens) to pollo (poultry). There were several that squirmed and girated before their headless bodies went completely stiff. They were then tossed over to me and I dipped the carcasses in hot boiling water and then began the process of plucking their feathers. Once that was done, the bald chicken carcasses were then carried to the river to gut, clean, and cut them into pieces.

We all tied up our skirt then stepped down into the river on a huge flat rock and began quartering and gutting the chicken. The ladies laughed and chattered in their dialect about my butchering of the chicken and told me maybe I would be better at skinning the chickens. One of the ladies took my freshly skinned skin and started to make the chicken do a little dance on the rock and said it was being frisky cause it was naked. After an hour and half of guts, gullets, and gore we dumped the chicken back into the ginormous pot and walked back to the event to start cooking.

During the last night of worship as I looked down from the platform, I saw the Spirit of God moving among the little children and thought about the scripture where Jesus rebuked his disciples and told them not to hinder the children from coming to him but that the kingdom of God belonged to such as them. I watched their faces filled with exuberance, admiration, love, and devotion. As they jumped, danced, and ran around praising the Lord I came to understand why Jesus said those words. In that moment of worship, they were not looking around concerned with what others thought; they whole-heartedly worshipped the God that created them, without shame or even pretense. The love and adoration they offered was pure, innocent, and lovely.

As God’s children regardless of age, we should all strive to worship God in the same way. We are spiritual beings wrapped in flesh. And we are beings of worship, and 24/7 we are worshipping, whether we realize it or not. The sad thing is that we are not always worshipping the one who created us to worship. Sadly, we as grown-ups began to worship other people, possessions, principles, and power. We might not physical bow down to worship but we bow our hearts to these second rate gods and use euphemisms so that our consciences do not convict us. Euphemisms like “driven” instead of workaholic, “relationships” instead of co-dependencies, “influence” instead of power-hungry. Millions of so called Christians go to church on Sunday and sometimes the really good ones go the extra mile and go Wednesday, but the rest of the week they faithfully attend and sit on the front rows of the churches of these second rate gods, the god of money, wrong-relationships, power, and possessions. But today as God’s children let us consciously live a life of worship to the only one worthy of worship, God.

New adventures!!

2009-10-30T09:37:00.007-06:00

The past three weeks have been a whirl-wind of activity. I helped to host a marriage retreat of over 46 people. They had conference meetings, praise and worship, a scavenger hunt, and beach activities. The day after this group left I had a medical mission team that came from Tulsa, OK.

The village I had originally organized for a medical outreach with this team canceled because the mayor of the village had been under pressure from local catholic church members that were opposed to our group coming in to do medical outreaches. So he declined our permission to hold the mobile clinic in the city hall. Luckily there was a nearby prison we choose as in alternate site. But on the way two of our three vehicles began having mechanical and brake problems. So we stopped on the side of the road on the side of the mountain to pray about whether we should turn back around or go on to the ministry site. After we prayed I really sensed that we should head back. Just as we were loading the cars 6 trucks with 6-8 military policemen raced by us. We all looked at one-another in astonishment and felt God confirming the decision I made.

I later found out there had been an altercation among the Taxi and Mototaxi drivers of the town where we were headed, and the military police were called upon to intervene and subsequently the only major road into this town had been closed. Had we gone on to the village as planned we could have been caught up in the violence or been forced to stay the night there until the road was re-opened.

The second village trip was a huge success we made over 100 pairs of glasses, one doctor attended over 90 patients, 2 dentists attended 27 dental patients and over 60 people accepted the Lord.

The third group was from Kansas and we held several children's programs in several villages. We had a crowd of about 100 kids over the several days of ministry, of which many responded to the altar call and prayed the salvation prayer.

A miracle that happened for this particular team was that one of the team members had to use glasses. He really had a sense that a particular gentleman was supposed to pray for him and that this man, Leon, prayed for his eyes to be opened. Well, Dwayne, thought that it was in a spiritual way. When he got on the plane to go home he realized that he could read clearly without his glasses. He had been restored to 20/20 vision.

One really exciting thing I got to do with this team was a three hour horse back riding tour through the mountains, through rivers, and finally we came to a natural hot spring. It was an amazing ride and we even had long stretches where we galloped.

Home again home again jiggity jig

2009-10-06T13:24:00.002-05:00

So after a little over a month of furlough in the US I made my way back down to Roca Blanca on the 12 of September. I have been back in Mexico about 3 1/2 weeks and let me just say its has been a really full three weeks.

Random things I have seen since being back that remind me I am back in Mexico:

1. A very old man (in his 70s) walking down the side of the road butt-naked with his cowboy hat on and his trusty machete.

2. Flamingos fishing in the river our in front the back of our house.

3. A guy surfing on a longboard but using an oar.

4. A woman breastfeeding her child with half her blouse around her waist

5. Men herding cows on high way on the way to the airport

6. State Police in full uniform including helmets and automatic rifles riding in the back of a pickup truck.

7. Pigs, chickens, goats, & turkeys running alongside or behind me or away from me on my daily afternoon runs in town.

8. a one ring circus complete with lion starring at me as I run by every afternoon with said animals behind me. It makes me wonder if he looks at us and thinks wow, looks its a buffet, poultry, pork, goats? (don't know what kind of meat they are), and a Korean all the basic food groups. yeah this circus was hilarious, the people that run this circus all came hobbling along in a beat up RV pulling thus said lion and other assortments of animals and their hitch for their tent. The thing that really had me cracking up with the last day there were in town and were trying to advertise and had the RV with huge speakers attached and a real live monkey strapped to the front hood and drove around blasting their announcements.

My biggest challenge coming back this time was the heat. In the three years that I have been here I have never been so hot and sweaty in my entire life. Consequently I change and bucket-bathe or shower about 3 times a day, no joke. I sweat through my undershirt and top shirt within a couple of hours of working or serving.

For those of you who keep up with me on facebook, you know I had been really sick this summer with walking pneumonia and amoebic dysentery (diarrhea brought on by amoebas). I am here to say that I am officially 100 normal and back to my healthy weight of 127lbs. I had dropped down to 120 during the height of my being ill. Thank the Lord.

The base once again was flooded. The day before the rains came down, the wind was blowing so fierce that it knocked down some power lines and we were in complete darkness for several hours and without fans it was crazy, sweating-buckets hot. There was standing water in some places about three feet deep not to mention in some areas there was actually a current.

Since this Monday and for the next three weeks I am hosting teams. We will be doing clinically out reaches, children's programs, and giving out customized reading glasses. We will be going into 4 or 5 different villages within our region.

This year, I will be mentoring some of the female students from our high school. I usually meet with them during their homework time and also during the evening after classes are done. We have done bible studies and had times of prayer and then sometimes I just listen to what is going on in their lives.

I will also be posting a video that I have put together about the mission base some time this week or next. The theme is igniting the mission flame.

I will also be posting the picture of the next couple of weeks in ministry.

Please email me or leave a comment, I would love to hear from everyone.

Gone Fishin'

2009-08-26T20:45:00.004-05:00

Growing up in West Virginia caused me to really have a great love of fishing. My dad used to take us when we were little. Which is why I jumped on the opportunity to go today with a good friend. We were out there for several hours with out a single fish, and I ended up taking a nap right on the dock. After my second wind, I finally got a good hit and finally a fish. I was casting to get the next "big one" when a wild-life conservation official told us we were trespassing and needed to get off the grounds as soon as possible. Shut down right when we were just getting bites.

"isnt she a beaut...!"

Sports History!!

2009-08-17T12:01:00.003-05:00

Okay so I randomly turned on the boob-tube yesterday and turned it on just in time to see, Y.E. Yang make golf history by winning US PGA championship. Woo-whooo! Kind of wished I would have taken up golfing. And to commemorate the victory I made regular egg rolls, and a butter and honey braised fruit dessert egg rolls. Then I randomly watched Hussein Bolt run the fastest time in history with 9.58 in the 100m event.

Swine flu, koreans, & a vacation

2009-08-14T12:34:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow I will have been in the States for an entire week. The past week, I lead a group of Koreans from Seoul Baptist in Houston. It was a parent/child team and it was an awesome last team for the Summer season for me. They restocked my korean food stash that I hoard and only eat in extreme times of Korean food cravings.

I lead them on a trip to San Pedro Amuzgos. We passed out about 100 bags of dry groceries, did medical consults and gave medicine to over 200 patients, of which over half prayed the sinners prayer, had a children's event with around 250 children and parents attended. And then to close out the week we had a pizza party for the team and church volunteers who helped translate, cook, and man-power that weeks ministry schedule. It was truly beautiful to see Americans, and Koreans, and Amuzgans all coming together to adance God's kingdom but also just to fellowship and have fun. Unfortunately we did have a few cases of "runny butt." But you know this is missions and you'll have that.

I flew out the same day as the Koreans just several hours earlier. So it was like a marathon, trying to pack and clean, take them on their freeday, arrange travel to the airport, say goodbye to everyone, laundry, getting visa papers in order, and not to mention my case of runny butt and the beginnings of a cold (not swine flu). So when I made my first pit stop I was exhausted and my "cold" turned out to be walking pneumonia.

But even though I was exhausted mentally & physically, God in his goodness showered me with blessings upon blessings through several wonderful people in Rogers, Arkansas. I stayed in a beautiful home, I ate amazing food that was not black beans and tortillas, but best of all I got to rest. No schedules, no translating, no planning, no herding teams around airports or shopping or villages. Just four days of doing what I wanted to do, which was basically nothing.

The magnitude of this reprieve from my daily schedule reall hit me one night as I sat under the stars in a hot tub. I just kept saying over and over to God, thank you for giving me this time. Other than the discovery of walking pneumonia, I had an amazing time.

I hate when people name drop, so I will refrain from that tactless practice. But I do want to tell yall that I recently met the CEO of a major international corporation at a church plant's soup kitchen. If no one would've told me who he was, I would have assumed he was like a regular Joe. He was a very pleasant, non-ego-tripping, and a sincere and good christian man. Knowing the realm of influence and power he walks in daily, and yet seeing him set up chairs, clean, and serve was truly incredible. The thing that impressed me the most was the fact that he listened to someone's suggest about how to better his particular company (because it is a household name) and he seemed to genuinely take interest in what they had to say. I absolutely love his company chain and part of me wanted to tell him that the first time I cam back from Mexico and crossed the border his chain was the first place I went to and spent four hours in there. But I did not want to say something that would seem like "brown-nosing" so I let it be. He did ask me if there was a chaing of his business in my neck of the woods and I told him not but that there should be, he said he would look into it.

So right now I am re-couping at home in good ole West Virginia. so be expecting a few blog updates that I have been wanting to do but have not had a chance to.

A river runs through it...

2009-08-01T21:50:00.002-05:00

Here recently I went to a village called Tetepelcingo, which is a mixteco village to help do a clinical outreach. It was my resposibility to do children's ministry.

A majority of the children spoke very little Spanish so it was difficult to communicated with them. But we still had an amazing time playing together. I taught them how to play "steal the bacon." Which was a huge hit with them. Even when it started raining the kiddos still wanted to finish playing. Then we all went down to the river. The girls and I walked together while we held hands or they held parts of my skirt. I think that there were about 20 kids in all that went down to the river with me. It (the river) was beautiful because it is at the foot of the mountain. So I tucked my long missionary skirt throught my legs and into my waist band to make kind of like pants so they would not get wet and we waded through the little river or should say creek. The boys stripped down to their birthday suits and went romping throgh the water. There was lush vegetation everywhere and there were women out washing their clothes or bathing. The people of this village make little wells about a foot deep in the river with stones and mud to catch rain water and it also filters the water that is flowing and catches some of it. So we washed our faces and then the children took me to a part of the creek that is heavily shaded and a bit deeper. So the boys went for a swim and the girls went to sit on the rocks by the river. we ended up painting our faces with some really rich red mud, and then I told them a bible story and we talked about the moral of the story and of God's redeeming love for them. we then waded back through the water back to the clinic outreach.

I am not sure how to describe it, but there was team that was recently here that talked about discipleship is doing life with people. That day by the river, as simple and ordinary as it was for me was beautiful and something I will not soon forget, on some small scale I was discipling those children, just by doing life with them, playing with them, loving on them, and cherishing them, enjoying them, but most importantly telling them about the love of Jesus towards them.

On another note for those that follow this blog I am leaving for the states in the next few days or so after I finish the last short term team mission trip that I am leading of this summer season. Drop me a line if you want to get together with me. I am going to be going by fayetteville, arkansas; charleston, WV; columbus, ohio; springfield, missouri; tulsa, oklahoma; houston, texas; and possibly corpus chrisiti. hope to see you stateside very soon.

Three graduations and a funeral

2009-07-03T18:47:00.002-05:00

This past week has been one of the most spiritually and emotionally trying that I have had in a very long time. Last year I blogged about a young boy named Wilbur, from a village town about three hours away. He was a very special friend to me and he just so happened to have a congenital heart disease. Had I known that April would be the last time that I saw him I would have hugged him a little longer and told him how very special he was to me, even though I showed him all the time how much I thought of him. He passed away on the same day his sister, one of the girls in my pastoreal group, graduated from her second year of Bible school. I accompanied her home to help her with arrangements for the funeral. Her parents were to come back the next day with the coffin and little Wilbur's body. The verse that the Lord brought to my mind was the verse in Job where his friends came to where Job was at sat with him in silence for several days. Many times in our effort to comfort others during the passing of their loved ones we say really stupid stuff. I told her however she wanted to express her grief that I would just sit with her and pray to myself for her as she mourned. She was so strong for her mother though who was really taking her son's death particularly hard. I was so proud of her. A band, complete with drums brass instruments, came and played from the time the coffin got there until 2 in the morning. It is a tradition that comes from the Catholic religion when they pray for the soul to leave purgatory. Well that is what someone explained to me. The cemetary was on the other side of town on a hill that we had to walk to. During this walk, as I carried Wilbur's little sister, Annette, I came to some realizations that I am still processing. I miss him terribly, but I know that he is happier than he has ever been.

Apart from the funeral I celebrated the graduation of my girls in my pastoreal group. I helped served the graduation meal. I was the official general over the waiters. It was hectic but really rewarding to see everyone enjoy the meal so much.

I also was asked to be a madrina, which translates to godmother to a girl that was graduating from kindergarten. After the completion of each school, pre-school, primary, secondary school there is always a graduation, and each student is accompanied by a godparent. So I attended my first kindergarten graduation. My duty was to help monetarily and to buy a gift and attend her graduation meal. Her name is Roxana. Unfortunately I bought her clothing with out knowing her size and since last year she has doubled her weight. So the dress I bought for her fit her like a blouse. And the jacket I bought fit her little sister.

During the graduation they do several dances. This one is called the deer hunt. It originates from the Aztecs and there was a little kid that had a deer head and a hunter. very cute.

These little fellas marched around and were the color guard and carried the flag for the ceremonies.

This was the third graduation. A elementary school graduation. This is a dance called the arch dance. Very appropo no? Anyhow when I showed up at the graduation it was like the music cut out and every body whipped there heads around to look at me. The girl that I had come to the graduation for, needless to say was pummeled with thousands of questions. Like why a chinese girl had come to the graduation and how it was that the chinese girl spoke spanish and did she know kung fu? Sigh...some things never change I guess.

Medical Missions with out borders

2009-06-09T23:03:00.003-05:00

(I made this shirt tonight, the paint for the writing was made out of mexican mud)

Who: Whoever is stout of heart, and not afraid to rough it
Whoever wants to bring not only physical but spiritual healing
Whoever is prepared to go to the ends of the earth to bring Good news
So in other words NO PANSIES

Where: La Tortuga, Oaxaca
A 6-8 hour rocky and bumpy drive followed by another 1 day hike to this remote village that have seen only a hand full of Americans in its entire history

What for: To provide medical attention and medicine to those who need it and do not know Christ

When: Whenever I can put together a medical team that is not hung up on being served hand and foot but ready to serve with hands and feet

How to find out if you have what it takes: Email me or message me on facebook

Pitching the crazy IDEA:

I and the medical mission dream team would drive with four boxes of medicines 6-8 hours to El Mosco to the satellite clinic there. Meet up with a pastor called Florentino. Hike over the mountains, through rivers, cross another river swinging from a basket on a rope and possibly camping out to reach a village called La Tortuga. Do clinical consultations, pull some teeth, share the good news, push back the kingdom of darkness and then when all is said and done a lil R&R kayaking, horse back riding on scenic trails, and a really good and well deserved meal at my brand-new favorite restaurant. The End. So if you are MAN or WOMAN enough to join me in this adventure, give me a holler.

"kicking the devil in the nuts!"

2009-06-09T22:56:00.006-05:00

(yes that is me doing my blackanese kung fu and singing in my head "...they were kung fu fightin...those cats were fast as lightenin...huuh")

To the countless hundreds I have probably just ticked off by the title of this blog, I am sorry if it offended you. But I think it is very accurate of what we as Christians are to do. We are to take our place of authority that the Lord Jesus spent his precious blood to give us and no longer quake in our boots every time he flips us the bird and wreaks havoc in our lives. Okay with that ridiculously long disclaimer let me tell you about this weeks team and this was the motto of this team which came up during our second team devotion time, from someone who will at this point remain anonymous, but suffice it to say they are a very wise and REALLY spiritual individual.

Genesis, the young adults group, from Northwood Assembly, hailing from Charleston, South Carolina!! There were 21 of these guys. Fantastic team! Fantastically fabulous to be exact. They were a very easy team to lead and manage and had such an amazing servant's heart. I was absolutely floored. The week of ministry that we had was incredible and the schedule was definitely demanding, yet they had enough energy to play games way past midnight (SIGNS).

This week we did home visits in a near by community. It was kind of like adopt-a-block. We brought food and helped clean yards, wash dishes, wash clothes. We did one house visit with a lady that recently had her house burn down. She said since that had happened she has several times thought about ending her life but each time that she would come to her end, God would send a Christian to come share the Good news with her or pray for her. She was bare-foot, so this team gave her a pair of Toms, and an amount of money which was equivalent to a day's wage tucked in a witnessing tract. Needless to say she and her children came to the VBS event later on that day and they enjoyed themselves a great deal.

Another home visit we did, we went to pray for a man that had throat cancer and was emaciated and very weak. His name was Agustin. Usually I do not cry a whole lot. But as I begin to share the love of Christ with him and that Jesus cared for him and bore his sickness on the cross, and provided each and everyone of us with salvation so we could go to heaven and suffer no more, the tears began to flow. As I lead him in the prayer of salvation, he could hardly choke out the words but he did between each labored breath. I told him I would never forget him and would pray for him everytime the Lord brought him to my mind. I quickly dried my eyes and we set upon helping his elderly wife with her many chores, sweeping, laundry, and dishes. As I said good-bye to him, my heart was breaking as I saw him there lying motionless and exhausted. But I reminded myself, that we do not grieve as the world, but that we have hope and that hope is Jesus.

This week we also did VBS programs for the children in these same communites as well as a clinical outreach in a moutain village. There were about 120 patients there and 53 salvations and about 98 children that came to the VBS. We had the rare opportunity to do our dramas inside of a local high school. Many teens willingly came to watch during the class break the dramas and hear the testimonies. One of the girls actually came to look for me later on that day to talk to me about family problems.
one of the children that got his face painted. This lil guy asked to be tigger.

The "Rag Man" drama in the ampitheather in the town of Rio Grande.

Drama at the junior high. Rag Man. Several junior high kids gave their hearts to Jesus that day.
The children at the clinical outreach in Tiltepec.

Michael Jackson impersonators and missions

2009-06-09T20:43:00.007-05:00

"...you know I'm bad, I'm bad, you know it, come on!" When I first saw this picture, I thought, this could easily be Micheal Jackson, in his later years. But this however, is actually Dr. Ross Taylor, a very distinguished canadian doc that has been a long time friend and supporter of the mission base where I serve, whom has never probably listened to a Michael Jackson song a day in his life. He has come to the the Oaxaca region for several years now and selflessly served in medical missions and administered both physical and spiritual healing to countless hundreds.

This trip we all went to a small Chatino town, nestled in the Sierra Madres called Tepenixthlauaca. We held a small clinic and served approximately 120 patients and about 50 children, of which there were about 65 salvations, and even 6 instantaneous healings. There is a neighboring village, that has a large church of 500 adults, that sent a team for witnessing to the patients and translators. They were phenomenal and tireless in the work of the Lord. The had a grueling 3 hour ride @ 3am in the morning to get there by 6am, and because of a miscommunication we did not get there until 12pm. They were gracious enough to stay and not hold our extreme tardiness against us.

Kim and I doing children's ministry underneath a tree on a blanket. I kind of imagined this is the way they would have done kid's ministry back in Jesus' time too.

Enjoying a little music during our down time. The smile on my face is because this guy had ABSOLUTELY no sense of rhythm and was jacking the song up.
This is the first village I have ever seen grown men color. One of the other team guy team members persistently invited them to color until they could not resist their inner-child any longer.

Every village that we have brought a frisbe to, the children have absolutely loved it. However, still have not had too much success with getting them to do ultimate frisbe...yet.

This is Mrs. Laura, probably one of the most incredible misisonaries I have personally had the privilege to meet. She has been serving at the missions base as the director of the clinic for over a decade now. She is probably the closest embodiment of the proverbs 31 woman I have every met. If you want to serve in medical missions someday, I suggest you come down and do an internship just to see the way this amazing woman of God has done it and the grace in which she has done it. I guarantee you will walk away inspired and amped up to go out and do medical missions in the way it was meant to be done.
This little girl has on one of the hats I made. One of the things I enjoy most is sharing Jesus with little children. There is just a pure joy that comes over me as I begin connecting with each one of these precious ones. As I connect with them I began tilling up the fertile grounds of their hearts to then be able to plant the living seed of God's word into their hearts. If I am careful and diligent, I many times also have the joy of seeing them close their eyes and lift their hands to receive Jesus, the desire of nations, and harvest the seed as well as sow it. On this day as I explained the intimate friendship of Jesus and the need we have for him and the invitation we have to give to him to come live in our hearts not only as a vistor but as a inhabitant forever many of these dear children easily made the decision that some many times we as adults try to overcomplicate. Yes, this was a day that the sower of the seed and the harvester were one in the same, and I am sure you could have heard the song of the angelic host singing out to celebrate this incredible moment.
I think this picture and this verse best sum up this trip:

"...whoever gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward."

THE PUKE-ATRON!!

2009-05-17T14:44:00.001-05:00

Have you ever had one of those, "Aww SNAP!! what the heck am I doing?!" Like you wish you could go back five minutes before you did something really dumb just to warn yourself not to do it?

I had one of those moments the other day. I felt a lil adventuresome and was seeking some cheap thrills last Friday night and thus got myself invited to a bonafide Mexican Town Fair. It had the typical feris wheel, vendors of all sorts, and of course the rides I have affectionately dubbed, "the puke-atrons." Knowing how ridiculously motion sick I get I some how got suckered into accompanying my friend on two of the puke-atron rides. Pukeatron number one was not bad I got light headed and my fried plantains felt a lil unsettled in my gut, but at the present time no hurling my ill-timed snack. The picture below is on the puke-atron number 1. and it cost me a whopping 10 pesos.

But then that is when it all went down hill. I climbed aboard Pukeatron number 2. Sufficed it to say that was the last ride I paid for that night. If you can not tell from the foto this thing spins like a top just on the verge of stopping, when they go all wonky. So not only does it spin ridiculously fast, but it has undulating up and down motions. When I saw only two people getting on I should have known to swallow my pride and just say no. But alas, as the things starts girating and whirling, I presumptiously thought, "ehh this aint so bad." And the ding dang ride must of sensed my thought because it soon kicked into high gear and had I not been holding on for dear life, I might have been flung off the stupid mexican spinning top ride. So after two hellish minutes of being lifted up out of my seat and flung against the "safety bar", the ride slowly came to a stop. I was a nano-second from jumping out of my seat and onto the ground to thank God for delivering from the demonic Puke-atron ride when the operator threw it into reverse. It was only after the first minute that I began pleading with God to not let me go unconscious thereby being flung out off the pukeatron. I swore that I would never ever be prideful and get on one of these stupid rides again. All the meanwhile I was crushing the life out of my friend because I could not brace my self against the other side of the cart and the force of gravity was causing me to repeatedly crush and slam into her side.

When finally, the pukeatron came to a stop I was the last one off, because I was so disoriented. I staggered away like a drunk woman to the side of the road and just laid down. My friend had the decency to wait for me as I sat there completely covered head to toe in a cold sweat. I knew that at any minute my fried plantains were going to make the second debut all over the side of the road as Mexican onlookers just shook their heads at what they saw as an enbreated korean. When I gained enough strength to walk I kept being jostled by the other fair-goers which cause me to flash back to my horrific pukeatron ride and as I caught sight of where my friend was leading me, straight to a taco shack, I excused myself and laid down in front of a liquor store on my back on a piece of cardboard. The proprietor of said liquor store after 15 minutes of watching me writhe on the floor because of the sweat and bugs and alternate praying under my breath, finally worked up the necessary effort to ask me what was wrong with me. I told her I was sick, she then shook her head knowingly and asked how much I had had to drink and said I should chase away the nauseua with a beer or some kind of alcohol. It took all my persuasive skill to ensure her I was not drunk or hungover, just that I had got on the puke-atron and that had made me sick. I finally puked on the side of the liquor store and felt strong enough to walk back with my friends to the car. and thus ends my sad little store. Moral of the story is, don't be to proud to say no to the pukeatron, respect him and you wont have to pay for it later. And if you disrepect the pukeatron by riding it, be smart enough to not sit in front of the liquor store where others suspect you to be a drunkard. the end

heeeelllllooooo nurse!!

2009-05-14T08:02:00.010-05:00

Two weeks ago there was a team of E.R. nurses that came down to do a medical outreach into the village of Yaitepec. Yaitepec is village where we had seen so many respond to the invitation to accept Christ. Prior to our first trip there in November there had been only one or two families that were christian. Now there are several cell groups that meet all over this small polytheistic town.

This team always brings with it realness, that sometimes gets lost in christianese protocol. They speak their mind, have their opinion, and are just real about the issues they face and do not use the typical vener of that "everything is perfect and blessed in my life" attitude. So like I said very refreshing.

We saw over 200 patients during their time of medical outreach. Several of these patients made first time decisions to follow Christ. I love medical outreach in the fact that we approach healing from a whole-peron perspective: spirit, soul, and body.

Each time that we have a clinic we have to make consulting rooms. We usually put up clothesline and hang sheets to section of the consulting rooms and prayer room. I have become quite proficient and creative in my methods.

In Yaitepec, not only did I get to hold some cute babies and pull of some acrobatic feats but I also got to translate during the consultations. Which I how I met this cute little guy. He has candy streaked all over his mouth and his chief complaint was that he does not eat. We diagnosed him with "toomuchjunkfooditis" and told his mother to not give him as much money to buy junk food and make him eat during meal times and prescribed the little guy vitamins. He was not suffering from malnutrition too much because he was ripping and running all over the place. well when he was not blasting our eardrums with his little penny-whistle. Aww the joys of momhood. They are so much easier when they are at this age and all they do is eat, sleep and poop, and just to throw a little excitement in the game they change up the order.

Yaitepec, is an indigenous village, or rather they are Chatino people and speak a different language other than Spanish. So we always have translators with us to aid us in understanding one another. Which is why Brother Juventino showed up to the outreach. I have known him for several years now. And for the first two he could not for the life of him remember my name but always just called me la "Koreanita Chulita" [cute lil korean]. Until I finally told him the Spanish translation of my name "Lluvia" or "Rain." Its funny what age does to a person, because everytime he sees me we always, always have the same conversation. And when I try to change it up he kind of frowns and directs us back to the same conversation, with that "you need to stick to the script" kind of look. Anyhow, he is the first martyr for this region. How you might as if he is he is not dead. Well simple, while they were constructing the church in their town called Panixthluaca, the local militant Catholic bunch shot at the workers and he was shot five times. So there he was bleeding out and they pronunced him clinical dead on his long drive down to the hospital. But the christians were praying for a miracle and when they arrived they revived him. And he had been serving strong all these decades in God's kingdom; telling EVERYONE and several times how God resurrected him from the dead.

One finally note. The pastor of this team, Josh, went to the the catholic church and took some snapshots of the parishoners there. Now, just in case you do not know. Mexican catholicism is not main-stream Roman Catholicism and there is a mixture of some anamistic beliefs that has its roots in the Aztec rituals of their ancestors. So some of the catholic congregants do not have the slightest idea of what it is to have Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and think that through rituals and praying to the Saints and hoping on a wing and prayer that their God behavior and faithfulness to the Catholic church will give them entrance to the kingdom. Which is why this precious lady is on her knees crawling to the altar in hopes that the Saints and the Virgin Mary will see her piety and devotion and intercede on her behalf to God to supply her her petition.

Well that having been said we need to pray that the Light of the Gospel, Jesus, would shine upon their darkness and disallusion and they will come to know the truth. There is alot of work out there, but we already knew that because Jesus said, "Lift up your eyes for the harvest fields are white.." "...plenty is the harvest but the harvestors are few..."

p.s. All these photos were brought to your courtesy of the members of this team.

Lima Christian School

2009-04-19T00:26:00.001-05:00

I went out this week with 17 students and chaperons from Lima, New York. They are from a small christian school called Lima Christian. I never seen a group sing so much. A majority of them are in choir...well the most outspoken students anyways... and they are always singing and harmonizing and singing songs that are "rounds." I have really enjoyed them. We hit several villages for medical/children's outreach; Tiltepec, Loma Bonita, La Culebra, San Antonio, and La Boquilla. In La Culebra I actually got to share the gospel with someone who had never heard of Jesus and had to sum up the gospel message starting from Genesis to Revelations in just a few shorts sentences. It was challenging, but the awesome thing was that the lady accepted the Lord. I am not sure how this trip was different but during the times that I did evangelism, God just made my heart extra tender to each person that came into the little room where we were evangelizing. I was so in awe of the fluidity at which I was able to share the gospel, and that people responded. This trip, because of playing with the kids in the hot sun or sitting in a room without fans or a/c in 90+ weather and spending the night in the village in my tent and just having to witness too people in Spanish has been somewhat tiring.

Today, which was our last village evangelistic medical outreach specifically stood out in my mind because of a verse that I read. As we were waiting for the next person to witness to I open my Bible to read my daily reading plan [which I have to confess I was reading because I am several days behind on], the lady that was assisting me in evangelism asked me to read out loud, and this is what I was reading at the time Romans 8:18 "Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are." And later on it goes on to say that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. As I began reading this...tears filled my eyes and my voice quavered as I thought about the fact that this light and momentary affliction was nothing compared to later glory, that later glory being when we get to heaven and see again those lives that God has given us the chance to impact for God's kingdom. I told several people and really meant it that I would one day see them in heaven and was looking forward to catching up on how God has worked in their lives and what might exploits God had used them to accomplish this side of eternity.

So all the sweating, exhaustion, mosquito bites, driving, and my brain getting kind of mushy because of having to speak so much Spanish trying to convey deep concepts was and is going to be worth it. Every uncomfortable stretching moment was for the working out of my faith and for the ultimate goal of helping one more person change their eternal destiny from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Wow what a staggering thought no? This week along around 80 adults and children have made decisions to become Christ followers. We passed out some tracts as well as utilized the evangecube. which is this really amazing witnessing tool that is a cube that folds into different scenes that explain the Gospel and gives an opportunity to have a person accept Jesus in their hearts. Very effective for adults as well as children.

This is chinese jump rope. A game I used to play as a little girl in Texas. All of the kids love it down here and there is always a line of children waiting to display their prowess at jumping and coordination. To play you have to have a long stretchy cord that two people sustain with their legs. The child has to jump a certain sequence and then jump with both feet on the two different sides of the cord. With each successful attempt the cord is raised. and you can not step on the cord until the sequence is finished or you lose and have to start all over again on your next turn. I myself have on been successful up to the hip level. It is really difficult to get high enough to jump on the cord at the level.

a lil face time

2009-04-18T23:57:00.001-05:00

When I am in the villages I love to take face shots. The ministry times are always wonderful, but it makes the trip really memorable to be able to have faces that I associate with each trip. and these are the faces that really struck me on this trip. The expressions are always varied. My favorite shot was this lil girl named Susanna and her lil bro, Kevin is in the background. This facial expression was the get that camera outta my face or I'll whoop your korean tail. but looks can be deceiving because right after I showed her the foto of her mean muggin me she gave me the sweetest angelic smile. These were all taken in a village medical/children's outreach in San Antonio.

balloon animals and figures we passed out. this lil guy has a sword.
I was trying to be sneaky and take the foto by just having the camera at waist level and pushing the shutter button but I guess the caught me. The still did me the courtesy of smiling and not trying to hide their face or turn away

canadian invasion 3

2009-04-01T18:19:00.000-06:00

prayer ministry during one of the church services
This kid is like the Chatino version of Denis the Menace. He is sort of rowdy but extra cute. Do not let this traquil look fool you. every other time i saw him he was jumping of things or boxing with someone or poking the canadians. This is a shot of the inside of the outhouse, or Washroom as the canadians called it. yup the hole is what you think it is for and yes, it is "wet"

Canadian invasion cont

2009-04-01T18:14:00.000-06:00

The canadian team
I had to get like 10 shots of this little guy because he would look away or duck or move. so I put the camera down with my finger on the button and smiled at him and was able to capture this precious lil fella
There were like ten kids sitting on this hammock.

Canadian Invasion

2009-04-01T17:55:00.000-06:00

This week I had to opportunity to work with Victory Christian School Edmunton, Canada. It was an intense trip of six days in one of the villages.

I ended up staying in my tent for the entire time. It was amazing, except for the devilish siamese cat that bothered everynight. Then when i sprayed stuff around my tent to keep him away, he spitefully in turn sprayed my tent and somehow it got on the inside of the tent and I accidentally put my hand in his vile body secretion. When I saw him sleeping in his little cat bed in the morning, konked out because he had been bothering the snot out of me, I almost wanted to drop kick his tan and black hairy booty right into the street, but did not think the owner/hotel propietor would be too thrilled about that.

The pastor of Temaxcaltepec

view from the church porch of temaxcaltepec

Mission trip eh?

2009-04-01T17:05:00.012-06:00

We did a bunch of VBS programs for the kiddos in five different surrounding towns, as well as a youth concert, which had a crowd of about 500 or so. (Temaxcaltepec Children's program, the turn out was awesome, considering there was an ugly rumor that Americans were stealing and eating children.)

this chatino girl was at the first VBS, she had the most stunning set of eyes. Very beautiful

The canadians brought in several hundreds of toys, several kilos of candy, as well as over 200 strawberry-scented deodorants, as well as tracks, and tons of clothing.

(from this perspective he really looks like a giant)

The biggest VBS we did had about 300 children/parents there. It was really hard to control them and they kept trying to mob us or one another and climbing ontop of the furniture. For whatever reason, the local church that was supposed to loan us their sound syste, did not, and we were hoase and exhausted from constant crowd control and shouting to translate. But, all in all the VBS programs were really awesome and we got to impact just around 800-900 children.

We also gave out free groceries to families and did a special church service for the church that Arnulfo and Rebekah Rios pastor.

The great thing about working with team from the north is the fact that I get to help facilitate their ministry as well as minister to them. Every morning we started off with prayer and praise and worship. One particular morning was just amazing. Sometimes as youth, one can be ultra-conscious of what other people think. Which is why I prayed over the youth and their leaders, that we would get to a place of not caring what others think, but begin to focus on how to move God's heart with devotion and love that comes from a heart whole consumed with him. I encouraged to do something to show express their love for the Lord. Something that would capture their hearts. Several kneeled while othes lay before the Lord while others lifted hands towards him. But the underlying sentiment, was that we demonstrated our love to the lover our soul's, just as the bible says he is captured with just one look of our eyes. One look from us that shows him our passion for the one who poured out his passion on the cross of calvary. Wow...there was a holy hush that fell over everyone as we just ministered to the Lord in our own way.

If you want to see all the pictures from my trip I have uploaded them on to my face book.

Goin' back to the ROCK!

2009-03-05T23:38:00.010-06:00

I know its been awhile since I have last blogged. So I thought I would re-enter the blog world since...

Tomorrow I am heading back to the missions base. This month has been amazing. I have had all my medical check ups and everything turned out fine except that I am waiting for one last lab resultresult. God willing it will come back negative as well. Here are some highlights.

I saw, with my own two eyes, snow, for the first time in three years.

This is the view to the backyard from my window.

I was able to flex my culinary muscles a bit and cooked and experimented with some recipes... alot [in other words I gained some extra and unwanted pounds] but was successful in making some killer egg rolls.

I and my family visited the Muhamed Ali center in louisville and was able to appreciate all that this man had done for the civil rights movement and eventually the world. We also acted silly in the main lobby and thoroughly embarrassed our selves... at least i did. for example...
me staging a foto for someone's support letter for missions. I am supposed to look poor and hungry. We had several attempts because I was laughing hysterically. The people waiting in the lobby thought I was absolutely nuts.

I was able to spend alot of time with my family and just relax. I also got to see my brand new nephew Cadence Romaro Gore.

As i prepare to say my goodbye's to my family, I am comforted by the fact that I look forward to serving on the field and having many more moments like these:

And soon and very soon I am going to be walking over the mountains to be able to shine the light where his light is not seen, and be a voice where his voice is not often heard.

Bouldering!!!

2009-02-02T07:09:00.005-06:00

I have had the opportunity to go to a few rock gyms in the states and have always loved it. However, the expense of going has not always been so great. Which is why I started bouldering. I recently had a break here at the base to be able to go. So here are a few shots from my day on Sunday.
This is the first place I attempted. It was the easiest but also the highest. It had plenty of good holds. I tried several different routes.
A snap shot from the top.

I was being careles and just smashed my elbow into one of the rocks that juts out a little further than the rest.
There were these crazy holes in the rock that were almost completely circular and really deep.

This is a crucifix that sits on top of the rock formation.
I got a little bit of sun bathing in before facing the blustery wintry weather in good ole' West Virginia.

One of the climbs that I made. it was the hardest climb I made all day.
Me attempting to climb this rock. I fell from this one but it was not a bad fall. Just a few scraps and the sand made for a nice landing.

Corn-rowin’ and LICE

2009-01-15T22:28:00.004-06:00

Okay, in my 26 years of existence I have never ever had lice. So I was not even really sure what they look like. Which is why when I was corn-rowing a little afro-mestizo girl’s (Guadalupe) hair I was oblivious to the nits that I saw. [about a few hundred years ago there was a slave trade ship that wrecked off the coast of mexico. they settled in Mexico and intermarried with the indigenous Mexicans and the mestizos (which is Spanish -Indigenous people) so there are Mexicans that are of this African descent that have coarser hair and have more African features, which is why I was corning-rowing the little girl's hair. The do not keep it in braids like some African Americans do in the States or even use hair dressing. I used some scented hand cream to make the braiding a little easier.] When someone finally told me she had lice, I was a little grossed out but did want to hurt her feelings by not finishing. So I finished, even though my scalp was just about crawling and I was on the verge of hysteria from wanting to scratch it.

After I finished, she looked absolutely beautiful. Prior to attending to her hair, it was unkempt and knotted so badly it took me twice as long just to comb it out. The look of admiration she gave herself as she peered into the mirror made it more than worth the possible lice contraction I was partially dreading.

At the advice of a very wise Auntie, I slapped about half a tube of Vaseline in my hair and put a plastic bag over it and slept with it on my head all night. I also found out my hair does interesting things when Vaseline is in it. The point was that the lice would not be able to lay eggs and thus I would avoid lice infestation. In the morning all was well and my head was not itchy at all and I was unable to detect any lice or nits.

However the Vaseline would not wash out until almost a week later. Everytime I would lean my head up against anything I would live a huge stain or Vaseline slick. But it was definitely worth not getting lice and not having to use a harsh chemical shampoo, and seeing that Guadalupe was very pleased at the way she looked was definitely worth it.

Newsletter 2008

2008-12-30T14:31:00.014-06:00

This shall be a sign to you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them…take root downward, And bear fruit upward.
Isaiah 37:30-31

Dear Friends,

It gives me great pleasure to be able to greet you on the cusp of this brand new year of 2009. I pray that you have had a wonderful christmas. I am sure that you can hardly believe that this past year has zoomed by. This coming March will mark three years of service here at the Roca Blanca Mission Base. The verse that God gave me for my third year here at the base was Isaiah 37:30-31. My first two years here, I was learning the language and the ropes to my position here. There was a lot of ministry done in my first two years even as I was learning and training, just as these verses mentioned eating for oneself and it does not really talk about sowing or reaping or working towards the harvest. But in my third year I felt God showing me that it was going to be a very fruitful year. I had a sense that I was going to “take root downward,” which was to deepen in my relationship and trust of the Lord and I was going to “bear fruit upward,” or rather that there would be visible and enduring fruits of my labor. I knew that people would come to know the Lord, be discipled, and because of my passion for the Lord and his work that others would essentially be touched by that passion and have a passion kindled in them as well. I knew I would sow and reap in my third year and there would be fruits and I would find my satisfaction and fulfillment from this fruit.

How can you portray a years worth of ministry. For the left brain people out there I was involved in ministering to 11,110 people through medical treatment, dental treatment, children’s ministry, food and clothing distributions, evangelism, and church ministry. There were 757 confirmed salvations, 253 water baptisms, and 27 physical healings. Success in the kingdom of God is so much more than mere numbers but this is just to give you an idea of the fruit that God gave me the privilege of being a part of.

For the right brain people I have a few photos of some of the ministry I did in this past year.
(children's ministry in Mixteco area)

(prayer for sick during a medical outreach, this little lady was blind and had diabetes)

(Baptism of a young girl from the base's high school)

(preparation for children's evangelistic event in San Pedro Amuzgos)

(Me translating in a church service in San Pedro Amuzgos)

These girls are in my discipleship group. I meet with each one every two weeks. I pray for them I give them advice. Here are five lives that I have had direct and eternal impact in. And with the help of God I have watched them grow and mature and absolutely flourish.
Her father recently died while she was studying. But she returned and has caused the words "peace that passes all understanding" to have a whole other meaning. She has demonstrated that our God is the God of peace that passes all human understanding. She wants to be a praise and worship leader.

This young lady is the most helpful and encouraging person I have had the privilege to pastor. She has overcome many hard obstacles and is bound to be a mighty woman of God. She would like to be a missionary.

I love this girl. I have seen her grow so much in the Lord in the past two years she has studied here. She has an amazing call to bring economic healing and growth to her village. She is a young woman of faith and will go onto study in university someday.

This young lady used to be excruciatingly shy and timid. The more she learns who she is in Christ and find inner healing through the word and direct pastoring and discipling the more confident she becomes each and everyday. It is a sheer delight to watch her in praise and worship and she dances before God with total abandon. She wants to go back to her village and be a children's pastor.

I absolutely cherish this young lady as we have very similar pasts and very similar callings. She has a heart for worship and for expressive arts and will use this for the kingdom. I have watched her during this time rise from the ashes of a broken home and past to use it as a testimony for the kingdom of God. She wants to be used in praise and worship in the future.

The girl in red is Estella, another one of the girls I pastor and am financially providing for her tuition. She is 18 and she is attending the high school. She is dynamic. She has been unofficially pastoring the girls in the high school. She plays several instruments and helps lead worship in her church. Last summer she and I partnered together to help bring the children (over 25) from her children's church to a christian summer camp here at the base. She is definitely been good ground to sow into.

As we head into this brand new year of 2009, let us put to one side all the usually vain and easily-forgotten resolutions and sincerely "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." Let us all put our hand to the plow, work the land or the area of influence that God has given us. Let us sow our seeds so that we may reap. Let us each and every one this year take up our CROSS and follow where ever the Lord may lead.

Thank you so very much for all of your support this year both financially and in your prayers. Please continue to pray for me as I continue my service here at the base as I will be praying for you. If you have any needs through out the year at any time please feel free to email so that we can join together in prayer. If the Lord places in your heart to support me financially you may contact me or go to the site of my sending agency (http://www.bgitulsa.org/). God bless you all and Happy New Year!

Street life in Oax

2008-12-26T19:48:00.000-06:00

So this little man is blind and was playing an accordian for tips. Your probably thinking how random, but let me just say that he was one of like ten people playing the accordian for tips. Poor lil guy... unfortunately some people were paying him not to play anymore. There were other blind people that had a strappable portable karayoke machine walking through the city singing for tips they were not very good either.

A fake christmas tree in the center of the town square...sigh... the closest thing to christmas.

A shot of the corridor of the hotel we stayed in.

Last random note. Last week two japanese men in a black Altima came strolling through the fishing village of Cacalote. Random japanese man number one is older and works for the embassy in Oaxaca City. Random japanese man number two is his 20 something year old handsome and tall son (or so says the proprietor of the beach cabin where he stayed). Random Japananese man 1 speaks fluent spanish and begins to translate for his non-spanish and english speaking son, and asks where I lived. They both asked for me by name and were absolutely certain I lived in Cacalote. The big mouthed proprietor tells him "OH Danbi runs by here almost every morning." (Thanks Ernesto, nice to know you got my back in case random people want to hunt me down) So Random 1 drops his son off, to go stay in a nice cushy hotel in Puerto, and leaves his son to wait for me to randomly run by in the morning. Day two, still no signs of the running korean chick, so the father takes his son to the gates of the base but they decide not to go in. Random number 2 stays one extra night and then his father comes and picks him up in the morning and they both drive off into the sunset towards Oaxaca city. Craziness huh? Ernesto, big-mouthed proprietor of the beach cabin, does not ask what they wanted but was sure quick to tell them all about me. So I head to Oaxaca City and as we are traveling through downtown. I see an usually large Japanese guy. He gives me the one over and I immediately thought of the random japanese man number 2. He definitely fits the description, but let it pass as random coincidence, until I see him like two other times as we shop through out the city. Random Japanese man number 2 until we meet again.

Trekking Monte Alban

2008-12-26T19:23:00.000-06:00

There are some Zapoteca Ruins right out side of Oaxaca that I got to visit. They were built about 500 or 600 years B.C. The pictures I have seen did not seem to do it justice. The place is huge. We got to climb to the tops of the pyramids. Let me just say that the air was a little thin.

The pyramid to the left was one of the places where sacrifices were made.

View from the very top of a pyramid

Looking down the steps. They even added a hand rail, kind of ruined the whole effect of the pyramid but very much appreciated on the way going down. The average height of the people during the times of these ruins was like 5 foot for a man so these steps were a beast to climb up, because they were about a foot or more in height. My gluts were screaming at me towards the end of our tour.

Feliz Navidad Oaxaca City!!

2008-12-26T19:00:00.000-06:00

So I've been to Oaxaca City (Wa-ha-ka) a couple of times but it has always been for a wedding or some kind of business. This was my first time to be able to go just a tourist. So here are a few pictures from my travels. I also got to attend "La Noche de los Rabanos" which is the a festival called "The night of the Radishes." Organizations from all over the city made figurines and elaborate scenes out of radishes. The most impressive was the last supper of Jesus. I got to walk all over the center of town and see all the really impressive and beautiful architecture. As much as I love small town Cacalote, to have a little culture for a change was really nice.

The weather there was awesome too. In my village on the coast it is about in the 80's still... daily, so to have cooler 70 and 40s weather made it seem more like Christmas. I also got to reunite with a family that is now pastoring in the city that I used to teach English to. This is their daughter Elisa, who is enamored with some random band called the Jonas Brothers.

This was on the street downtown that is blocked off to traffic. The flags are a common decoration during many holidays. Mexicans on the whole are a very festive people. I once had a Mexican tell me that the have parties for just about anything weddings, birthdays, baptisms, and even when a kid loses their tooth. Any reason is reason enough to celebrate.

All of the older buildings downtown have an open area right in the middle of the building. this is a rug and tapestry shop with the open court area.

A famous catholic cathedral, I forget what it is called.

Everyday Miracles

2008-12-17T09:27:00.000-06:00

Why is it that we love hearing about miraculous events? We continue to listen with mouth-opened wonder...even if the story seems incredulous or some what exaggerated. Its because the eternal and divine calls to us through these incredible accounts. I have personally had the privilege of meeting someone that is a walking, talking, and laughing miracle. His name is Aran. He is only about 4 o 5 years old but he is the cutest little kid you could ever meet. He laughs and smiles easily, he loves to play, but he tends to be a cry baby. As a matter of fact he cries at the drop of a hat, literally. As cute as he is his cry-baby tendencies cause him to be a little trying at times. Because of this slight consternation people quite easily lose sight of the fact of what a miracle he is.

"The onslaught of tragedy or trouble is the perfect condition for birthing a miracle. " Aran is the result of a brutal assault and rape. His mother was already married, so imagine to her horror when she found out that she was pregnant and that is was her attackers child. She decided that she would abort this baby as not to have a constant reminder of her assault. After the first abortion she still found herself pregnant. She went the second time and then ultimately the third time. After the third attempt she had her regular monthly cycles. It was not until the seventh month that she noticed swelling in her ankles, which had been a sign from her first pregnancy that she was still some how miraculously pregnant.

By the third trimester it was too late to attempt another abortion. Had she have known earlier in her preganancy that she was still in fact pregnant she was very sure that she would have attempted yet another abortion until Aran's life had been extinguished. But she then realized that it had to have been God sparing Aran's life. She is very sure that God has a purpose for Aran. Even now he is always praying for people or talking about God. Just having met him, played with him, and walked with him to school one day my life has been indeliably touched by his testimony and his pure and amazing faith in Jesus. I and the whole world look forward to the amazing young man he is sure to become one day and the mighty exploits he will do on the Lord's behalf

And the violent take it by force

2008-11-14T23:47:00.002-06:00

Last week I lead a team from Manna Church, from Fayetteville, North Carolina. The really awesome thing was that their church is a hop, skip, and jump from where I used to live. God did some amazing things and opened doors for us to be able to go to public elementary schools and do bible school lessons, crafts, and activities. We were not able to mention God but we were able to invite all of the kids after school to a gospel drama presentation. We went to two different schools and over 20 children got saved from both schools.

We also went to do prison ministry in a town called Juquila. For whatever reason I decided to get in the car with one of my drivers (Diego) instead of driving myself, because he was the only Spanish speaker in his car and I just wanted to keep him company. I was asking about his testimony and he told me his mother and father both died leaving him and his 9 siblings orphans. He told me he had a sister. This was five minutes before we go into the jail. Women and children are allowed in the jail to visit for long periods of time, so I went with the women on this team to minister to the inmates’ families. There was this one woman in red that I just felt I need to talk to. So I grabbed one of the team members, Adrienne, and we started talking to this lady. She was completely cold and unmoved. But then she asked where we were from and come to find out this was my driver, Diego’s sister. So I remembered his testimony and began to minister to this area of her life. I ministered to her and she accepted the lord. Later she went out and found her brother and it was a tear-eyed reunion of orphaned brother and sister who had not seen one another in many years. It was awesome seeing the hand of God orchestrate everything for his glory. Amazing trip and an extraordinary team

(bird's eye view of the jail)

This week I had the privilege of accompanying a medical team. We first went to a prison in Jamiltepec and we saw about 70 or 80 patients. At the end when they found out we were leaving they got a little rowdy but we quickly packed up at got outta Dodge, but prior to that it was pretty calm. It was pretty funny because I was translating with a blonde nurse and the men kept trying to jump the line for the male doctor to get into our line. I guess the guy doctor was not cute enough.

We also went to a village for the first time called Yaitepec. In the first half day of clinic we saw 50 patients and 43 of them received the Lord. The villagers were astonished that we just came to do free medical care and give away medicines and vitamins. So the second day we had about 200 patients and about 150 of them received Christ. We worked and evangelized like crazy. But it was so worth it. This particular town is known for Satanic rituals and worship and sacrifices. They have be known to kill Christians in the past. So the fact that they let us come and set up was remarkable. The town mayor came and his family received medical attention as well and he was very welcoming and wanted to know how to get us to come back again. We came to serve and treat them physically and God treated them spiritually through evangelism. The seeds that we sowed will have everlasting impact on this town. Because of the medical campaign, a once hardened town filled with witchcraft and Satanism is being softened and will soon bear the fruit of new disciples and eventually a church body. Friends that is what its all about, the Kingdom of God. What a privilege it is to be a co-laborer with the Lord.

chinese dinner and sumo wrestling wannabe

2008-11-14T23:31:00.000-06:00

I made a special dinner for one of the girls in my discipleship group. Her father recent past away from cancer and that was her first day back at the base and I wanted to do something nice for her to celebrate life. She was such a trooper and really has blessed me with how strong she has been through the whole ordeal. I made chicken stir-fry and nectarine crème pie.

I also went to a baby shower of friends I help hook up. They recently had a little daughter, Cascia. I still think they should have named her Danbi. Yes I have a diaper on because we were not supposed to cross our legs so as a punishment I had to look like a stinkin’ sumo wrestler. and then I crossed my legs again and then they painted my face.

into the water I will wade

2008-11-14T23:26:00.003-06:00

The month of October was a really awesome month. I fasted the entire month of October, well during the weekdays, it was juice fast. I went on missions trips on the weekends and suspended my fast. But, let me just say God did some amazing things in my life personally. I was seeking God for some answers in my life and during the first week he pretty much answered all of those questions. So the rest of time was just filled with drawing closer to him. During this time of drawing near to God, I have felt his presence like never before.

I also baptized four girls from the high school here on the missionary base. We later prayed with those that wanted to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Honestly, I did not know what I was going to say but as I stepped into the river, God gave me a super natural grace to just speak the right words into these young girls life. God really showed up at the river that day.

Momma's high school years

2008-10-08T06:55:00.000-05:00

A picture of our Momma, when she was still in high school, she would have been about seventeen. It was taken in 1979, about three years before I was born.

Rear-ending a Donkey and Children's Church in a cemetary

2008-10-05T16:02:00.000-05:00

Today I just got back from a 7 hour trip to a village called, San Jose Ixtapan. It is an indigenous village and the primary language is Chatino. I was part of a ministry team that went to this particular village to help minister to the growing church, which is pastored by a graduate of the bible school (here at the base).
The trip during raining season can be anywhere from 6 up to 8 hours of grueling driving conditions with only a few kilometers of paved or gravel roads. The rest my dear friends is a treacherous, rocky, and sometime rain-washed out path. The road was nothing short of causing a concussion and motion sickness. The only reason why we even braved the roads was because of the new believers waiting to be baptized and hungry to hear rudimentary teachings of the Bible that we had to offer.
As all 10 (three riding shotgun, four crammed in the backseat, and three poor unfortunate souls in the camper) of us climbed into the 2500 Sierra GMC extended cab truck, we all dreaded the rough road that lay ahead in the next several hours. About 15 minutes into the drive, as I was recovering from a yawn, I opened my eyes to see two kamikaze donkeys laying ambush on us. The guy driving (Gerardo) did not swerve did not even slow down, he just plowed into the backside of the poor beast, thereby maiming him and we drove off (with almost everyone having soiled their underpants) leaving the now maimed donkey strewn in the middle of the street. The truck was okay just knocked the headlight loose, which is more than I can say for the rear-ended donkey.
After several hours of riding up and over the mountains the GMC decided to take a breather and consequently throw-up transmission fluid all over the side of the mountain. It was then that as the fellas were looking into the truck trouble, one of the girls was going to hop out and assist them. Upon which she hopped out and right into a ginormous ditch. Everyone rushed out, flash lights blazing only to find the poor little wretch four feet down, curled in fetal position amongst jagged and savage looking rocks. She had the wind knocked out of her and was either mumbling that she couldn’t or wouldn’t move.
At about this time, around 9pm, we find ourselves, stuck on the backside of nowhere, in pitch blackness except for our truck lights, with a defunct truck, in extremely cold weather (well... comparatively to the coast), and now a possibly seriously injured young girl. Then by the providence of God two vehicles were passing, which is highly rare for this time of night n this remote area because of bandits. With the fallen girl being okay, the owner of one of the vehicles helps us move over to the side of the road and the other just so happens to be Christian and is willing to take the females and a few of the younger guys to the nearest town to where we just so happened to know a Christian mechanic. The girls and I are sent to a neighboring Chrisitian lady’s house as the mechanic mysteriously pops out right as we are pulling up. The mechanic and young guys head back to the truck and we are sent to a nice warm house to bed down for the night.
In the morning at 5:30am we head off for Ixtapan (which is still two hours away) with the now repaired GMC. We arrive explaining the previous night’s adventures and head off to the first special church service. I helped the worship band by singing. The Lord also gave me a prophetic song in Spanish about the river of God, which would wash away the stain of sin and take away the sting of death and bring forgiveness, new life, healing and liberty. It was almost two hours of amazing worship as the passionate congregation relished in the presence of God. Then I headed out with the children to have lessons and games. There was no shade except for in the nearby cemetery. Imagine if you will about fifty children or more amongst headstones and statues of saints and sitting on top of multiple cement slabs covering the burial plots listening to the gospel and then later coloring pictures of Jesus feeding the five thousand. An odd sight no? Spiritual revitalization and rejuvenation to a new generation as the gospel was brought forth in a place known for death and decay.
We baptized six new believers in the river below the church. We ministered again later on in the afternoon about the importance and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
It was a really amazing trip, even though my backside went numb from the total of 15 hours in the truck. But God was faithful and ultimately we were about our father’s business.

drum roll please....TOP TEN

2008-09-11T23:24:00.003-05:00

From time to time I do a top ten, usually to mark special occassions and such. I have spent a little over a month in the U.S. on furlough. There is not even enough space to recapture my time here in the States and so I'll just hit the highlights. Here we go...

10. seeing my first spitting llama, and laughing obnoxiously loud
9. receiving death stares from the ticked off mama, covered in the spit of the llama
8. eating enough Korean food to put even hot-dog eating phenom Takeru Kobayashi to shame
7. staying up til three in the morning to catch up on the entire first two seasons of HEROES
6. figuring out how to get my next Wii-fix in MEXICO
5. realizing how much I have missed family and friends
4. Spending my first birthday in several years with my family
3. Hearing my niece call me “Auntie”…about a thousand times a day and realizing how much I will miss her and that one word.
2. Seeing my lil brother, and realizing that he wants to become a man, a man with goals and aspirations.
1. discovering how much family and friends have missed me and how hard it will be to head back to Mexico

For those of you all that do not know I will be heading back to Mexico this Monday... I think. Three day Mexican road trip here I come. meanwhile...give me a call while I am in the States or email me.

Spitting llamas & Angry Mamas

2008-09-04T19:43:00.007-05:00

(This is the infamous spiting llama)

Have you ever laughed at inappropriate times and felt absolutley awful, like at a funneral or when someone dies in the movies. Well, I am as guilty as all of you because of a recent incedent at a petting zoo in St. Louis. It all went down when I was watching a mom and her child feed a llama. The guilty llama got really excited by the free grub being shoved in its face and then proceeded to push his face into her face like he was Casanova. This llama then made a deep-throaty hocking sound and spit in her unsuspecting face as well as her child's face. The image of the Mom's startled face, Rico Suave the llama, and the unexpected airborn-spit, proved to be a seriously dangerously funny combination. In my defense I was not the only laugher...my laugh just was several decibels louder than the others. The mom the thick saliva from her ticked off face, sunglasses, and hair as well as her hysteric son. I felt terrible as the pair stormed off, with many death stares over her shoulder.

My whole family and I got to see the spitting llama while we were having family vacation in St. Louis. This year was the first year in two years that I have spent my birthday with family in the states. Here are some of the pictures that we took.

(Entrance to Union Train Station)

(outside our hotel with my cousins and their wives)

(my birthday cheesecake, yeah... I turned 26)

(family portrait outside Union Station...kind of looks like a United Nation summit)

SURFING

2008-08-10T01:07:00.002-05:00

for the past two years I have been saying I am going to learn to surf and here recently I tried for the first time. I was not able to get up on the board but hey its a start. I have a rashguard and I used it when we go swimming or bodysurfing. I feel like such a poser but now I can start putting it to some good use. so the next time any o'yall want to try your hand at surfing I m in.

run for the border

2008-08-03T15:36:00.001-05:00

Hey yall, I just got into Houston, Texas today. I am going to have to say I miss the base already. As I was greyhounding from San Antonio, I was thinking about the ocean, my mexican family, my room, my routine, and the food, I got all emotional and choked back a few tears. so here is a top ten list of my past week at the base in reverse chronological order

10. a cockroach crawling across a girls' face

9. previously mentioned cockroach crawling up another lady's pant leg

8. previously mentioned lady screaming out a swear word because of cockroach attack

7. over 300 children showing up at the vacation bible school program and hearing about Jesus' love

6. Seeing the pastor in the village being touched by God and crying as we prayed for him

5. Looking up at the stars and Milky Way as we were walking back from church service during a black out

4. having to leave three hours after returning from a Mixteco village and two back to back teams to drive to the border

3. Looking for and freaking out about important immigration documents that were actually under my booty in the drivers seat

2. Forgetting my visa and passport at the bridge before the border crossing, then having my vehicle overheat, then having to turn on the heater to cool off the engine

1. Getting off the greyhound bus for a few minutes to pray for Carmen that had to get off because her mother had a heartattack in San Antonio as we were headed for Houston.

whew...

I will be here in houston for a few days and then onto tulsa, columbus ohio, and then to West Virginia. email if you would want to get together

Flood and Oaxaca Caca

2008-07-10T12:43:00.003-05:00

I am on the homestretch of summer mission team season. I have two more teams left. Highlights since the last time I blogged (in reverse chronological order), a bout of Oaxaca CACA, an engagement, a minor Noahic flooding of the base, Korean Cultural exposure, two graduations.

These are some fotos of students that graduated from the Bible school this year. The girls are from my discipleship group. I was so proud of them.

Also several of my prior English students graduated from High school. They are the first graduating class from the private high school at Roca Blanca.

My ex-roommate Rachel got in engaged to one of the accountants here at the base. She is the fourth roommate that I have had that has left a shared room to go off and get married. I am not sure if God is using me as some kind of final test for girls before they are able to get married or what or if I have the mantle of marriage anointing. I would like to think it is the latter.

I recently hosted a Korean mission team made up of parents and their teens. It was really quite and experience. I made several discoveries of some unexplainable personal idiosyncrasies, that really just stem from my Korean heritage. Example, Koreans highly… no, no, super competitive. A majority of downtime was spent playing games, kai by bo (paper rock scissors), ping pong pang, I don’t know how to even explain how to play it you just have to experience it. A lot of the games the exiting loser had to do sometimes embarrassing things. Like spelling your name with your booty or singing children’s songs complete with motions or it involved so sort of physical pain. After several rounds of Korean games, you kind of feel mentally spent. Koreans are very…boisterous and lively.

Unfortunately I also got very sick. I had some kind of dysentery or bacterial infection. I have affectionately dubbed it “Oaxaca Caca.” This condition comes complete with fever, headache, body aches, nausea, then culminates with simultaneous diarrhea and vomiting. It was pretty bad. My next door neighbor, Mrs. Lorenza and also Mrs. Sue seemed to think it was some of witchcraft. She told me that Amuzgos, where I thought I picked up this case of Oaxaca Caca, is full of practicing witches. It could be possible, I had a terrible nightmare the day I got sick about snakes and scorpions chasing me and trying to bite or sting me and then wham I got really sick. Crazy huh?

Lha Sha Nho'o Sca Swi Chandiu Thuilio'o in Jesus...

2008-06-13T23:00:00.003-05:00

until all the world knows Jesus!!!!

The title of this blog is an indigenous dialect called Chatino. This very phrase resounds in the heart of every true missionary. Which is why I am putting this out there.

A young children's pastor from a remote village called Atotonilco, recently drew me aside to ask for my help this summer. This youth pastor is a 15 year old high school girl, her name is Estela. She has requested that I help her fund the cost of bringing her church children to a summer camp called Operation Samuel.

The purpose of Operación Samuel, is to provide village children the opportunity to come to camp near the ocean and just be children. Far from the poverty they have grown accustomed to and grown up with. Far from dusty sometimes dirty villages, and they have the chance to breathe the salty sea air and be simply...children. There will be activities, games, food, Bible lessons, clowns, face painting. It will be an absolute blow out. She asked me to either help with half the children with 150$ or all of the children about 40 for 300$. If this is something that you feel that God might lay on your heart to help with, email me and I can give you details. Thank you so much. So UNTIL THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS!!!!

on the streets of Laredo....

2008-06-10T21:40:00.002-05:00

I wish I had a dollar for every mile that I have had to traverse the highway fromt the base to the border in the past two years. Then I would be one extremely rich Korean. So this past time I went to help a friend get a student visa, and sadly, no she did not get it. Anyhow, we had to go from the base to Mexico City, twelve hours, and then to Nuevo Laredo, another 15 hours. It was a terribly grueling trip but definitely worth it.

We got to stay with the family of one of the students of the worship school.

Soco and I were able to minister in their church. I had a small sermon about being spiritually awake, and how many times when we are spiritually asleep it resembles death. I used the illustration of how a sleeping person and a dead person for the most part look about the same. Soco ministered and prayed over people and also prophesied. I sang a few songs in Spanish. We were there in the small church for over four hours ministering. There was a lot of encouragement and reconciliation that took place that night.

Here are a few fotos:

This is Soco, Mirna and Elias. Mirna was so funny and had us cracking up all the time. Elias is her very handsome and healthy son.

I got to spend quite a bit of time with Elias. In this foto he was drinking his juice but with out using his hands and just had the bottle suspended in the air with his little feet.

This is Pastor Chuy and Pastor Dolores. We stayed in their house and ministered in the church. We took them out to eat at Parillita. A really good Mexican grill style restaurant. I ate enough meat to cause any vegetarian shame. The guacamole was extremely good.

I wrote a song...

2008-06-10T20:43:00.004-05:00

okay so my debut as a songwriter/singer!!! I shared a couple of weeks ago in a church in Rio Grande, Mexico about when Moses spent time in God's manifested glory. In Exodus 20 God gives Moses and the Israelites his 10 commandments. In Exodus 19 he tells Moses and the Israelites that he will descend onto Mount Sinai to revel himself to them on the third day. So he had them consecrate themselves outwardly and inwardly from all things. As God's shekinah glory began to descend upon Mount Sinai, it was a dark thick cloud descending and billowing down the side of the mountain, while lightning bolts and thunder caused the earth to shudder and tremble, as well as the Israelites, except for one, Moses. And then Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the ten commandments.

Because God came in his awesome power and might the people became afraid and told Moses to speak to God for them. They chose their fear instead of intimate communion and fellowship like what Moses had experienced. Exodus 20:21 says,

So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was...

So I wrote this song, as I thought about what Moses must have experienced and felt. He took a risk to draw close to God's presence. God's presence is not cute or prepackaged. It is wild and fierce but glorious. When the time of my visitation comes I hope to have the same boldness the same fearlessness the same fierceness as Moses did.
moses song.wav - danbi kim martin

ps I also uploaded one of my favorite songs "come ye sinners"come ye sinners.wav - danbi kim martin

neh cumee chu [mixteco salutation]

2008-05-24T00:38:00.006-05:00

this week I went as a translator/chauffeur for the Seoul Baptist Team and Oral roberts university Mission team as well. It was a physically demanding trip especially after having no break from the previous team. I got extremely tired during translation but God's grace was there to sustain me.

I secretly tried to snap this shot but I guess they noticed, opps!

Brother Jae Chung and Pastor Florentino were over evangelism and spiritual care. Neither spoke the other's language. But God moved mightily through Pastor Florentino's evangelism and Brother Jae's prayer. I went in one time and Brother Jae was praying the house down, in Korean and Pastor Florentino in Mixteco It was awesome

One of our little patients and her mother.

It seems that every year the Koreans always bring the rainy season. It was actually two weeks early this year. During the first rain in the Mixteco region it causes the termites to migrate. So I felt like we were in the plague of Egypt. There literally were thick clouds of the little boogers. they flew up your nose, and skirt, and in your hair. they they shed their wings and got into the wood. so there were huge piles of discarded wings everywhere it was pretty nasty.

there is NewLife...

2008-05-24T00:00:00.003-05:00

One of the most rewarding parts of my service here is working with short term teams. I had one of the most challenging weeks, since my time here at the Base but it was honestly the most rewarding because of the men and women of God I had the privilege of co laboring with. Each and every one of them brought a different facet to the team that ministered to several villages along the Oaxacan coast. They were truly an amazing team and a blessing to the Oaxacans and to me as well.

Dr. Joe worked with such fervor and zeal that many were not only touched by his dental skills but also by the testimony of his life and passion. Of the entire team he definitely worked the longest and hardest. He definitely made me proud to be a Korean but more importantly a Christ-follower.

Patient-waiting area in San Martin.

A little boy that had a bazillion teeth that needed pulled. i think we gave him candy before he went in to see doctor JOE.

Scorpion attack and God's wrath

2008-05-07T09:22:00.000-05:00

On Monday after our weekly Monday chapel service I went to my office to call my family. There I was in my office contently sharing some phone time with my folks. I was walking a small circle in my office and just kind of staring at the floor. As I passed by my office door I noticed something move out of the corner of my eye. So I looked over my shoulder toward the crack under the door, while still continuing to walk in my little circle. That is when the horrid shock hit me that the scorpion, yes scorpion, decided it would try to bum-rush me while I had my back to it. I wheeled around to stand toe to toe with my venomous foe when the realization hit me he was still coming at me and not retreating as I thought he would. I screamed and ran away. What valiance and bravery no? I screamed and tried to run away realizing my office was a little to small as I had come up against the wall. I am not sure why but the little demon decided I was too large to take on and ran behind a box. A flickering ember of courage was then re-ignited at my foe's doomed retreat. I decided to pursue and utterly destroy the little beast. I picked up the closest blunt object, a really large screwdriver, and I was in hot pursuit of the scorpion. As I searched behind the box, the scorpion had tucked his stinger and pinchers and was attempting to hide. So that is when I exerted God-give dominion and executed the wrath of God on him and thwacked him DEAD. That is why there is white goop around his body, it gushed out when I gave it to him. So he was about four and a half to five inches in length and about 2.5 to 3 inches in width. But before I took its picture I bludgeoned him a few more times just to be sure.

So rest well tonight blogger world, there was one more scorpion whose life was judiciously snuffed out that night.

Wedding of the Century

2008-04-18T09:52:00.000-05:00

As Ms. Laura Elizabeth Pratt walked through the beautiful garden and down the aisle on the arm of her brother, you would have thought there was no other bride in all the world more radiant in that particular moment. As she made her approach to the altar where her beloved groom, on which she had waited half of a century for, the reality of God's immense faithfulness and goodness was so amazingly demonstrated in this wedding. As Mr. David Stuart Nelson waited for his bride to make her way to the altar, there was such an joyful expectation and anticipation. I along with the over 600 wedding attendees had tears of thankfulness and joy over such a union. Mrs. Laura is such an amazing woman of God, and I count it a high privilege and an honor to have been able to share this momentous day with them. Congratulations Mr. David and Mrs. Laura!!! Today we rejoice with those who rejoice.

These are the women of the Merino family, who have so graciously and loving unofficially adopted me into their family. Mimi, Lorenza, and Cheli. For me they have been such a wonderful blessing and they take some of the sting out of homesickness.

Oh CANADA!!!

2008-04-04T16:26:00.000-06:00

I recently had the privilege to help with a team from Edmunton, Alberta Canada. It was a team from a christian school. It was really a wonderful trip full of little surprises.

This young man in white was a little tipsy when he came to church. Mr. McGee started praying for him and it keeled over several times. But one of the times that Mr. McGee helped him to his feet, he gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. Unshaken, McGee continued praying for him. He must have been impacted because he kept coming back for more prayer.

This young man in white was a little tipsy when he came to church. Mr. McGee started praying for him and it keeled over several times. But one of the times that Mr. McGee helped him to his feet, he gave him a hug and kissed his cheek. Unshaken, McGee continued praying for him. He must have been impacted because he kept coming back for more prayer.

These were the students from the school in the back of a covered truck which is used as public transportation, it was the highlight of their trip.

This is Wilbur. He is 11 years old. He has a congential heart defect. the entire loew portion of his body is significantly under developed. He looks like he might be 6 or 7. He has the smallest little hands and his lips and fingernails are usually a dark shade of purple. He usually has to be carried everywhere because he does not have the stength to walk for long distances and gets tired quickly. It does not help that his village is in a very steep area with hills that are at least 30 to 35 degree grade hills. I get winded walking up them I imagine he is absolutley spent after the walk to the church if he can even make it at all. Last year his father and mother attended the bible school and have since graduated. He is so sweet and tender that he has made a little place in my heart and every time i come to his village I try to spend time with him, not knowing if it will be my last. His mother and father do not have enough money to get the right kind of medical attention. so all we can do is continue to pray for a miracle.

March...came and went

2008-04-04T12:38:00.000-06:00

Whew.... it has been an incredibly long time since I last blogged a whole month and more. I have been crazy busy and have jest recently came back from a trip in a mountain village. I wanted to share the highlights of this trip.

I went to one of the extremely poor villages in our region amongst the Mixteco people. I helped to translate for the Oral Roberts University Nursing seniors. It was amazing. They were alot of fun. I can schooled in some new and interesting music groups and had lots of fun playing with the children.

This is me with some children in a Chatino village called San Juan. This team was from Tulsa. I had to do alot of translating and it was lots of work and really challenging but it was good. During this particular trip we were able to minister to 395 people in three different villages

This very special lady, is named Lola. In the seven months that she had been here at the base she has really become a vey close and wonderful friend. She and her husband Bob have recently finished the short term missionary time at Roca Blanca. The base almost does not seem the same with out them they will be truly missed.

I recently accompanied a band from the base to a concert, I had to drive eight hours to Oaxaca city, that they held in a town center. The town is right out side of Oaxaca city called Xoxotitlan also known as Xoxo (HOHO). This ia a picture of the neaby catholic church where we held the concert.

just a feeling?

2008-02-21T09:35:00.000-06:00

Call it hormones, call it being an emotional girl, or whatever. All I know is that on this particular day I just had to hold every single baby that came with in arms reach. No matter whether the kid was boogery or snot-faced, smelly, or soggy diapered, or not diapered. On this particular day something, caused me to want to hold each precious little life in my arms, cuddle them, pray for them, talk to them. This particular little guy had very ASIAN features, well mostly slanted eyes. He had the most contagious, radiant toothless smile. Enough to make my heart a melted mess. As I held him, this feeling from deep inside my gut just started churning. NO it was not diarrhea or upset stomach. It was something completely different. As it began to roll around I could feel my eyes misting over. He put his little head on my shoulder and just at the point I thought I might become a blubbering mess in front of everyone, one of the older nurses made an innocent comment.

"You know it will be you turn pretty soon."

With this little comment, a tear slide down my face. I am not sure if it was a tear because unlike most of my friends from university I was not even able to be at this point in my life, well because of the whole not having a husband thing or if this solitary tear was because my time to have this same joy was coming very soon. In any case, my maternal instincts just kicked into fifth gear, if I am not able to have any of my own yet, there are hundreds and hundreds of kids that I can begin to spiritually mother. Ten of which gave their lives to Jesus during the past two days of evangelism in a near by town, for which I had the immense privilege of leading to the father of all fathers Jesus.

It is very common for children in the mountains at this age to not have a name yet. Which was the case of this lil guy. I began suggesting names. I finally suggested Arnulfo. Which is his fathers name. And so that one is the name that the parents had recently decided on. So blogger world, meet Arnulfo.

Teaching good nutrition to impoverished and malnourished

2008-02-15T13:13:00.001-06:00

On a recent village trip to El mosco we had the opportunity to speak to 180 children on the importance of nutrition. As we talked about the need for fruits and vegetables, my heart was breaking with the realization that they were doing good to even be getting tortillas and if they were blessed beans and eggs. As their faces and shiny black eyes peered back at us, I secretly wondered how many of them would be caught up in the sickening cycle of povery, malnutrition, and sickness. How could they eat healthy if they could hardly afford to eat in the first place? How could they keep from getting sick if they did not have enough to eat and medicine? As these questions laid oppressively over my heart, I realized the only answer had to be Jesus. Not to be cliche, but if there was not corruption in government, more compassion in the church causing more than a hand full to take up the cause, greed which caused exploitation of a people group, a return of hope than these little ones would not know suffering. wow, what a sobering thought.

I left the car doors unlocked on the clinic base compound in El Mosco. The temptation for this lil guy was too much to withstand and thus he snuck into the car and stole my bananas and bag of dry toast. I did not mind so much. I am sure he needed it more than I did.

How refreshing it is to still be able to catch glimpses of what a life, a childhood should look like with out the worry of the next meal, looming sicknesses, and other grown up problems. A simple snapshoot of a happy moment in the midst of the myriad of bleak moments that are sure to mar her still young and tender life, if things do not change economically and socially. Worse still, if she does not come to know the maravelous love of the father. A foto to remind us all that we need to be taking up our cross in our daily lives, and giving of ourselves and lives that others may live the abundant life that Jesus offers to each and everyone of us.

Worth the Booty-numbness

2008-02-04T12:17:00.001-06:00

I just got back from the great city of Houston, Texas. I had the privilege of attending a seminar on "House Churches" at Seoul Church/New Life Fellowship. It was incredibly impacting on several levels. I met incredible pastors and church workers that completely amazed me by their lives and ministry. I learned about the house church model of church that creates a real sense of ownership of the church by congregation members, instead of the weight of all responbility of the church weighing on the pastor's shoulders. I found out what it meant to be a true Christ Follower and that we all need to be about the building up of the church body and about reaching out to the lost. Here is a quote that really was like an arrow that pierced my heart,

Many are overly zealous about what they can do in a year, but underestimate what they can accomplish in five.

I came away from this conference physically tired [and several pounds heavier because of all of the excellent korean food] because I would leave my hosthome at 7:30am and not return until 10:30 at night sometimes. I sat for several hours in workshops until my booty would fall asleep but I can honestly say it was all worth it. I am so spiritually refreshed and recharged. I have a renewed outlook on what it is to be a servant leader. Thank you New Life Fellowship Seould Church, and especially the Cacalote House Church!!

The Chatino People

2008-01-24T11:12:00.000-06:00

This past week I went with Chico State University nursing students to Carrizal, which is a Chatino village. It is a small village of 15 families, which is roughly about 80 people in size. Of the 80 people 50 people showed up for the medical consultation.

Sadly, we had to leave early because the pastor thought we would be wasting our time because the surrounding villages were probably not going to allow their people to come. There have been several missing children in the past couple of months. Recently, a child, who had been reported missing, was discovered dead with some of his internal organs missing. It is suspected that the child was either apart of some satanic sacrifice rituals or witchcraft. Consequently, rumors had been going around that Americans were stealing children, which is why we had a low turn out from the surrounding villages.

I was able to help translate for the clinical outreach and help with some educational teachings that the nursing students gave. Apart from that I got to play with the kids a vast majority of the time.

They were such precious children. As we all sat in the dirt behind the clinic, I learned several of their names and who was related to whom. I taught them how to make some origami, some English (they in turn taught me some Chatino), a few Bible lessons, and a few games. I am not sure who had more fun, the children or myself. As the kids and I played and colored and learned from one another, the children felt comfortable enough to lay across my lap or legs. What we both did not realize is that some of these little guys had scabies, lice, and or chiggers. Luckily, I did not get any of it but some of the other nurses did.

As we pulled away and they waved us off, I thought about the stories of the missing children. One by one their faces and names came to my mind. With each tender little face passed in my minds eye I began praying fervently that God would protect each one of them from the forces of evil that would try to violate or snuff their young lives out. I am asking if you think about it you pray for the safety of these little lives as well.

cute lil girls and the ferris wheel of death

2008-01-15T16:51:00.000-06:00

I would like to introduce you to one of my brand new lil' friends, Jandi, she is about three years old and absolutely precious. Every time I walk by her, she calls out after me. Precious.

We had to stay overnight in a city two hours away to pick up a team the next day. So me and my partner in crime went out on the town and came upon this rundown carnival. On a whim Rachel decides that we are going to ride this ferris wheel. How bad could it be, right. Well what I did not realize is that it would whirl a million miles an hour and I imagined it disconnecting from the base and rolling down the street to my eminent doom and death. At the thought of my some what comical death I began to laugh hysterically from fright and exhaustion from the full day I had. So they we were random white chick random asian chick laughing our tails off hysterically. They must have thought we wanted to go faster or something because the ferris wheel operator kicked it up to fifth gear. yup, good times and near death exeperiences.

after a long search, i finally found the love of my life

The Accidental Flasher

2008-01-12T08:56:00.000-06:00

Sometimes in life we take ourselves too seriously, then something happens and you can't help but keel over and laugh your tail off. Lately I have been preoccupied with all of the decisions I am mulling over and asking "LORD what is your will for me for this year and what do I need to do?" I have just about given myself an ulcer trying to plan and "Do the right thing."

So I put on my new white Mexican dress for praise and worship/chapel. And as always I was running a few minutes behind, surprise surprise. Consequently, I did not do the once over in the mirror before running out. Fastforward to the next day, there I am in my office stressing over what the "PLAN" was when a close friend of mine pulls me off to the side.

"I do not know if you are going to be incredibly mad or incredibly embarrassed..." [what a way to start off a conversation, no?]

"but last night as you were worshipping and dancing up front, you need to know that everybody could tell what color your underwear were. I would have told you last night but it would have been really obvious and did want to embarrass you in front of everyone. But I am telling you so you know for next time."

As the shock wave of horrific, terrible, red-faced-embarrassment washed over me, all I could do was bust up into fits of giggling as I thought about the fact that about 170 people watched in disbelief as I bounced around obliviously to the fact that I was practically mooning everyone. As I came back to my desk snickering to myself about my accidental underwear flashing escapade, it really put everything into perspective. Life is more than just the final destination, it is more about the journey and process that it takes to get there, even if we accidentally flash the people we pass by.

Happy 2008

2008-01-01T17:31:00.000-06:00

My dear Family and Friends,
It gives me great joy to be able to greet each and everyone of you all in this brand new year. I pray that each one of you has been blessed during this holiday season and this past year and that 2008 will be full of blessings, answered prayers, and that you would be abundantly blessed in all things.