Thursday, March 29, 2012
Introducing the siblings
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Saying goodbye
What a sad day. Even though I still have 8 days left I had to say my first goodbye to someone today. Tomorrow will be my last day at Siloe (the school I first helped teach at). I'm writing goodbye letters to a few of the kids I grew close to at the school. It's gonna be hard saying goodbye. I don't want to think about it, ahhh....
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Random blog
What a beautiful morning. Happy Tuesday everyone.
I hope everyone is having a great start of the week because I am. I should be working on filing some papers right now but since I haven't written a blog for a while, I thought I should quickly post a few things. First and foremost, I just want to give praises to the Man above for keeping me protected, keeping me healthy and for just always providing everything I need.
God is doing great things here at the missionary house. In the back area of our house we have a spare room that we turned into our hangout room. Half of the room is covered with a ceiling and the other half isn't. The part that isn't covered is for our hammocks so at night we can lay on them and look at the stars. We have a t.v. back there along with some chairs, tables, and couches. It's pretty nice and comfy. Just yesterday we put up a few picture frames, it's looking more comfier and comfier. Besides the back room, we now have the medical clinic here at the house. It's actually right below our house. To get a better picture, we live upstairs and the medical clinic is downstairs. On the days I have to work in the clinic I can just get up, wash up, eat something quick and walk downstairs. It's so nice.
One thing I want to see before I leave the country was their raining season. Of course that's impossible because it's the dry season right now. According to the friends I met here, they've been telling me about how crazy the weather has been, all the random raining isn't normal. Just the other day it was pouring for a good 30 min or so. Not just with rain but with lightening and thunder. Supposedly hearing thunder is abnormal, glad I was able to witness that. First the earthquakes now the rain. Praise the Lord for opportunities like this and for keeping me safe.
One of our missionary buddies left home a week ago. It's crazy how fast her time went. To think of it, I only have roughly 2 weeks left until I come home. Yeah, time is going by so fast, I'm trying my best to do what I can to enjoy every moment I have here. I've grown so attached to a lot of people here it's going to be hard leaving. We had a meeting last Thursday and Pastor Javior is planning a good bye party for Jimmy and I because we're the next missionaries to leave the base. Beach party on Monday and then that following Friday, I'm headed home.
On a new note, the whole family and I (the other 4 missionaries) watched the Olympic soccer game; El Salvador vs USA. Oh man was it a good game. Within the first min USA scored. Within the last min of the game El Salvador scored the winning goal to advance into the next bracket. Which meaning, USA is out of the game. Overall it was a good game.
That's all for now. I have to get going. I'll write more later. Have a great day! Be blessed my friends. Dios te bendiga.
I hope everyone is having a great start of the week because I am. I should be working on filing some papers right now but since I haven't written a blog for a while, I thought I should quickly post a few things. First and foremost, I just want to give praises to the Man above for keeping me protected, keeping me healthy and for just always providing everything I need.
God is doing great things here at the missionary house. In the back area of our house we have a spare room that we turned into our hangout room. Half of the room is covered with a ceiling and the other half isn't. The part that isn't covered is for our hammocks so at night we can lay on them and look at the stars. We have a t.v. back there along with some chairs, tables, and couches. It's pretty nice and comfy. Just yesterday we put up a few picture frames, it's looking more comfier and comfier. Besides the back room, we now have the medical clinic here at the house. It's actually right below our house. To get a better picture, we live upstairs and the medical clinic is downstairs. On the days I have to work in the clinic I can just get up, wash up, eat something quick and walk downstairs. It's so nice.
One thing I want to see before I leave the country was their raining season. Of course that's impossible because it's the dry season right now. According to the friends I met here, they've been telling me about how crazy the weather has been, all the random raining isn't normal. Just the other day it was pouring for a good 30 min or so. Not just with rain but with lightening and thunder. Supposedly hearing thunder is abnormal, glad I was able to witness that. First the earthquakes now the rain. Praise the Lord for opportunities like this and for keeping me safe.
One of our missionary buddies left home a week ago. It's crazy how fast her time went. To think of it, I only have roughly 2 weeks left until I come home. Yeah, time is going by so fast, I'm trying my best to do what I can to enjoy every moment I have here. I've grown so attached to a lot of people here it's going to be hard leaving. We had a meeting last Thursday and Pastor Javior is planning a good bye party for Jimmy and I because we're the next missionaries to leave the base. Beach party on Monday and then that following Friday, I'm headed home.
On a new note, the whole family and I (the other 4 missionaries) watched the Olympic soccer game; El Salvador vs USA. Oh man was it a good game. Within the first min USA scored. Within the last min of the game El Salvador scored the winning goal to advance into the next bracket. Which meaning, USA is out of the game. Overall it was a good game.
That's all for now. I have to get going. I'll write more later. Have a great day! Be blessed my friends. Dios te bendiga.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
It's not about being served, it's about seriving others
Before I continue writing, I just want to apologize for not writing a blog for the longest time. I hope no one is upset. With that being said, I'm doing great! Earlier this week I didn't feel to good. I had a bad headache that continued onto the next day. After a good, long nap and a huge intake of water, I'm up and running again. Thank you for all the prayers!!
This week we had two groups from Iowa State University and Wake forest University (North Carolina) come down for a mission trip. Wake forest was involved with the medical clinic and Iowa state was involved with the colleges and soccer. This week I participated in the clinics with wake forest. Lets say, this was my first time going hands on in the dental clinic. The past month in a half, I was dispensing old, expired medications and helping the Dr.'s move the clinic into the Mission House. Oh did it feel good to help out in the dental clinic, the last time I touched any instruments was probably back when I did my extern. This time I was able to perform some illegal treatments (something I'm not allowed to do back in the US as a dental assistant). Here, I was allowed to scale away a patients tarter and pull out a tooth. Oh did I have fun! If it wasn't for El Salvador, never would I have gotten the chance to do this.
Overall, this week was busy and filled with a lot of on going activities. Praise the Lord for rest. Rest in Him. Today we fed the homeless again. This time was different than last time. Last time we had roughly 120 bags of food and made 6 stops. This time we had roughly 120 bags and we made 2 stops. The first stop, we gave away about 10 bags, the second stop we gave all the bags away. When we made it to the second stop, we first saw one man lying on the ground reading something and then 10 feet ahead of us we saw about 10-15 people. Right after we gave the 3rd bag, the man who received it informed all the homeless people and literally about 50-100 people started running over to our truck. To get a picture in your head, imagine a crowed of people ready to run a 5k or marathon just ready to hear the word "GO". Yeah, it was just like that, people running towards our car and surrounding it. The team that was out handing the food had to get back onto the truck because it was getting out of control. My heart usually breaks when I see girls and older ladies out on the streets, here we saw a few girls and older ladies asking for food. Not just them but mens, fathers, grandpas etc. It was crazy how many people were homeless and staying in one area.
All of our food was handed out within 5-10 minutes. We had to turn some people away because we couldn't feed anymore people. The amazing part was, when we had to turn some people away they replied back by in Spanish saying, "That's okay, thank you for coming though." That's amazing how grateful they were just to see the presence of another human being giving their time to serve them.
I was doing my devotions this morning and the Lord reminded me of Matthew 20:28 "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." It was a reminder to me that I'm here in El Salvador to serve. I've gotten to the point where I was actually getting comfortable. Here, I have someone cooking me lunch and dinner. Someone doing my laundry and cleaning my mess. I was getting comfortable and God was reminding me this morning that it's not about me, it's about those out there who needs Him. It's about serving others, not your self. So when we were serving the homeless tonight, I was just thanking Him for the opportunity. How often will I get the chance to feed the homeless in El Salvador?! Rarely, because we can't afford to feed them every day or every week. It takes someone to donate that money to say, "Hey, this amount of money is for you to help feed the homeless." If you have a passion to feed the homeless here in El Salvador, please let me know. I'll help get you connected!
All in all, I'm trying my best to enjoy my time here. I can't believe I come back home in 3 weeks, right before Easter Sunday. Please continue to pray for my health and everyone here at the El Salvador base. Thank you for just taking your time to read my blog, you're awesome! Buenos noche y Dios te bendiga. :)
This week we had two groups from Iowa State University and Wake forest University (North Carolina) come down for a mission trip. Wake forest was involved with the medical clinic and Iowa state was involved with the colleges and soccer. This week I participated in the clinics with wake forest. Lets say, this was my first time going hands on in the dental clinic. The past month in a half, I was dispensing old, expired medications and helping the Dr.'s move the clinic into the Mission House. Oh did it feel good to help out in the dental clinic, the last time I touched any instruments was probably back when I did my extern. This time I was able to perform some illegal treatments (something I'm not allowed to do back in the US as a dental assistant). Here, I was allowed to scale away a patients tarter and pull out a tooth. Oh did I have fun! If it wasn't for El Salvador, never would I have gotten the chance to do this.
Overall, this week was busy and filled with a lot of on going activities. Praise the Lord for rest. Rest in Him. Today we fed the homeless again. This time was different than last time. Last time we had roughly 120 bags of food and made 6 stops. This time we had roughly 120 bags and we made 2 stops. The first stop, we gave away about 10 bags, the second stop we gave all the bags away. When we made it to the second stop, we first saw one man lying on the ground reading something and then 10 feet ahead of us we saw about 10-15 people. Right after we gave the 3rd bag, the man who received it informed all the homeless people and literally about 50-100 people started running over to our truck. To get a picture in your head, imagine a crowed of people ready to run a 5k or marathon just ready to hear the word "GO". Yeah, it was just like that, people running towards our car and surrounding it. The team that was out handing the food had to get back onto the truck because it was getting out of control. My heart usually breaks when I see girls and older ladies out on the streets, here we saw a few girls and older ladies asking for food. Not just them but mens, fathers, grandpas etc. It was crazy how many people were homeless and staying in one area.
All of our food was handed out within 5-10 minutes. We had to turn some people away because we couldn't feed anymore people. The amazing part was, when we had to turn some people away they replied back by in Spanish saying, "That's okay, thank you for coming though." That's amazing how grateful they were just to see the presence of another human being giving their time to serve them.
I was doing my devotions this morning and the Lord reminded me of Matthew 20:28 "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." It was a reminder to me that I'm here in El Salvador to serve. I've gotten to the point where I was actually getting comfortable. Here, I have someone cooking me lunch and dinner. Someone doing my laundry and cleaning my mess. I was getting comfortable and God was reminding me this morning that it's not about me, it's about those out there who needs Him. It's about serving others, not your self. So when we were serving the homeless tonight, I was just thanking Him for the opportunity. How often will I get the chance to feed the homeless in El Salvador?! Rarely, because we can't afford to feed them every day or every week. It takes someone to donate that money to say, "Hey, this amount of money is for you to help feed the homeless." If you have a passion to feed the homeless here in El Salvador, please let me know. I'll help get you connected!
All in all, I'm trying my best to enjoy my time here. I can't believe I come back home in 3 weeks, right before Easter Sunday. Please continue to pray for my health and everyone here at the El Salvador base. Thank you for just taking your time to read my blog, you're awesome! Buenos noche y Dios te bendiga. :)
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
God's Grace
I received an email from a friend the other day and I thought I share it with everyone.
There once was a man named George Thomas, preacher in a small Texas town. One Sunday morning he came to the Church building carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit. Eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, the Preacher began to speak. . . .
"I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me swinging this bird cage. On the bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.
I stopped the kid and asked, "What do you have there, son?"
"Just some old birds," came the reply.
"What are you going to do with them?" I asked.
"Take'em home and have fun with 'em," he answered. "I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. I'm gonna have a real good time."
"But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do then?"
"Oh, I got some cats," said the little boy. "They like birds. I'll take 'em to them."
The preacher was silent for a moment. "How much do you want for those birds, son?"
"Huh??!!! Why, you don't want them birds, mister. They're just plain old field birds. They don't sing. They ain't even pretty!"
"How much?" the preacher asked again.
The boy sized up the preacher as if he were crazy and said, "$10?"
The preacher reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He placed it in the boy's hand. In a flash, the boy was gone. The preacher picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot. Setting the cage down, he opened the door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting them free.
Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and then the preacher began to tell this story:
One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. "Yes, sir, I just caught a world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn't resist. Got 'em all!"
"What are you going to do with them?" Jesus asked.
Satan replied, "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse. I'm gonna teach them how to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I'm really gonna have fun!"
"And what will you do when you are done with them?"
Jesus asked .. "Oh, I'll kill 'em," Satan glared proudly.
"How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked.
"Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you. You don't want those people!!"
"How much? He asked again.
Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your blood, tears and your life."
Jesus said, "DONE!" Then He paid the price.
The preacher picked up the cage and walked from the pulpit.
Was that powerful or what? He paid that price for us. We're His!!
I love Matthew 18:12 "What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?" We mean so much to the Lord. Never does He want to see us tormented by Satan. The Lord has never left us. When Jesus left to go to heaven, He left behind the Holy Spirit to be with us, to live in us. There may be times when we feel like we're alone in this world, when no one cares, but the Lord does. He sees everything and counts them all. And that's why He paid the price.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Finding joy in every situation
March 3, 2012
This morning was spent with the soccer kids. They had a game today and won. Man, was first half a tough game. The other team scored within the first 30 seconds of the game. By second half it was 1 to 1. If it wasn't for the other team, we wouldn't have scored in the first half. Boy were the kids frustrated. One of the students was so upset at himself because he knew he wasn't playing to his fullest. He was letting his family issues take over. He was venting out later about how he witnessed his parents arguing and this was the first time he saw them arguing really bad. So that had an effect on his playing. Once after the venting and prayers, he was back out on the field and playing. Before you know it, he was one of the students out on the field who scored a goal. Praise the Lord. Second half of the game was a lot better. We eventually won our game (4-3).
This evening was spent hanging out with the friends and prepping for our night mission. We packed some PB&J's, apples, cookies, juice and chips and passed them out to the homeless people who slept out on the streets. There was one area in the community that had a lot of homeless people, they all slept by the railroad track. Never will I forget it. As I was handing out the bag of food, there was an area that I walked past and the smell reminded me of the pig and cow slaughter house (if you're Asian you know what I'm talking about). It was so dark out and I was in my flip flops. Yikes! As we were walking and handing out food, the guys there would just pee outside like it's a bathroom. So no wonder it 'stank'. Another stop, we gave a bag to this old man who would just sit outside a car shop every night a lone. When one of our guys gave him the bag and chatted with him, the dude responded back. The said part was, our guy couldn't understand the dude. The dude mumbles and could barely walk. When a grandma across the street saw us handing out food, she started crossing the freeway a lone with her cane. Finally we saw her half way and one of our team ran to her and handed her a bag.
I am so blessed to have experience what I saw today. Never have I seen it before. I'm sure it happens everywhere, even back home in my back yard. If it wasn't for a donor from the states who wanted to send money for us to feed the homeless, we would have never had the chance to do so. As I sat on the back of the truck as we drove off, I was just talking to the Lord and just praising Him. Even though there were many people out on the streets, I'm so thankful that He places a passion in others who want to help feed the homeless, build a shelter, and go mister to them. If I would have left home on March 2nd, never would I have gotten this opportunity to reach out to the homeless people. Praise the Lord for His timing in my life.
This morning was spent with the soccer kids. They had a game today and won. Man, was first half a tough game. The other team scored within the first 30 seconds of the game. By second half it was 1 to 1. If it wasn't for the other team, we wouldn't have scored in the first half. Boy were the kids frustrated. One of the students was so upset at himself because he knew he wasn't playing to his fullest. He was letting his family issues take over. He was venting out later about how he witnessed his parents arguing and this was the first time he saw them arguing really bad. So that had an effect on his playing. Once after the venting and prayers, he was back out on the field and playing. Before you know it, he was one of the students out on the field who scored a goal. Praise the Lord. Second half of the game was a lot better. We eventually won our game (4-3).
This evening was spent hanging out with the friends and prepping for our night mission. We packed some PB&J's, apples, cookies, juice and chips and passed them out to the homeless people who slept out on the streets. There was one area in the community that had a lot of homeless people, they all slept by the railroad track. Never will I forget it. As I was handing out the bag of food, there was an area that I walked past and the smell reminded me of the pig and cow slaughter house (if you're Asian you know what I'm talking about). It was so dark out and I was in my flip flops. Yikes! As we were walking and handing out food, the guys there would just pee outside like it's a bathroom. So no wonder it 'stank'. Another stop, we gave a bag to this old man who would just sit outside a car shop every night a lone. When one of our guys gave him the bag and chatted with him, the dude responded back. The said part was, our guy couldn't understand the dude. The dude mumbles and could barely walk. When a grandma across the street saw us handing out food, she started crossing the freeway a lone with her cane. Finally we saw her half way and one of our team ran to her and handed her a bag.
I am so blessed to have experience what I saw today. Never have I seen it before. I'm sure it happens everywhere, even back home in my back yard. If it wasn't for a donor from the states who wanted to send money for us to feed the homeless, we would have never had the chance to do so. As I sat on the back of the truck as we drove off, I was just talking to the Lord and just praising Him. Even though there were many people out on the streets, I'm so thankful that He places a passion in others who want to help feed the homeless, build a shelter, and go mister to them. If I would have left home on March 2nd, never would I have gotten this opportunity to reach out to the homeless people. Praise the Lord for His timing in my life.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Thankful for the people in my life
Today hits the 4th week of my stay here in El Salvador. Just think, if I didn't extend my stay I would be coming home this weekend. I'm so glad that I'm staying an extra month. I'll be coming home April 7th (12am-ish). So far I'm enjoying every moment here.
As each day passes, I'm getting to know each and everyone of my missionary friends more and more. We just added a new missionary to our house and her name is Ashley. Honestly, I couldn't be more happier. I have such a great team! When I first met each and everyone of them, I knew they were God sent. I was talking to one of the leaders here and they mentioned how the El Salvador base rarely receives missionaries. Maybe 5-7 people a year and a few teams. I was thinking to myself... Well that must mean my team was hand picked from God because all 6 of us broke that record in FEB. Plus, we just had a team from New York come and in a few weeks we have 2 more coming. God is blessing the El Salvador base and I am so bless to be apart of the blessing. :)
Meet Jimmy, he is such a Man of God. He has such a great passion for soccer and kids. He's always filled with words of encouragements. Never have I seen him frustrated (only when he misses a goal), he's always seeing things on the positive side. He's a great leader to our mission family and I'm so honored to call him my brother.
Meet Lauren or Lorena, She was the first person I met when I moved into the Mission house. Right after I met her, I knew she was someone I wanted to be friends with. Not trying to say I didn't, but I wanted to get to know her. She was very welcoming, bubbly, and just full of life. She is such a woman of God, her thoughts, her prayers and her love towards others. I'm so thankful to have met her.
Meet Ashley, the youngest of the group with the most experience of life. Honestly, if she never told me her story I would have never guessed it. One word to describe Ashley: Survivor. Ever since meeting Ashley, her life proves that God can make the impossible the possible. Even though she's gone through a lot, I'm so proud of how she reacts towards things. I'm so blessed to have her as a room mate, a friend and a sister.
Meet David or Tio David, the oldest of the group. Tio which in Spanish means Uncle. The oldest and the wisest. If it wasn't for Tio's help, I wouldn't have known how to save $$ with my extended stay here in El Salvador. He's so nice! Every time I listen to his story of how he went from having everything to giving it all to the Lord amazes me. Our God is so big and when he calls, he calls. It's either you go or you miss the opportunity that He has for you. Plan A is always better than plan B. I'm so glad Tio is with our group.
Meet Ashley B, can you spot her? Just kidding. The newest and the latest addition to our group. The nurse, the one with energy and the one with the craziest ideas.. However, when she speaks about Jesus, you can tell her love and her passion is placed in Him. Friendly, outgoing, and caring is definitely what describes Ashley.
As each day passes, I'm getting to know each and everyone of my missionary friends more and more. We just added a new missionary to our house and her name is Ashley. Honestly, I couldn't be more happier. I have such a great team! When I first met each and everyone of them, I knew they were God sent. I was talking to one of the leaders here and they mentioned how the El Salvador base rarely receives missionaries. Maybe 5-7 people a year and a few teams. I was thinking to myself... Well that must mean my team was hand picked from God because all 6 of us broke that record in FEB. Plus, we just had a team from New York come and in a few weeks we have 2 more coming. God is blessing the El Salvador base and I am so bless to be apart of the blessing. :)
Meet Jimmy, he is such a Man of God. He has such a great passion for soccer and kids. He's always filled with words of encouragements. Never have I seen him frustrated (only when he misses a goal), he's always seeing things on the positive side. He's a great leader to our mission family and I'm so honored to call him my brother.
Meet Lauren or Lorena, She was the first person I met when I moved into the Mission house. Right after I met her, I knew she was someone I wanted to be friends with. Not trying to say I didn't, but I wanted to get to know her. She was very welcoming, bubbly, and just full of life. She is such a woman of God, her thoughts, her prayers and her love towards others. I'm so thankful to have met her.
Meet David or Tio David, the oldest of the group. Tio which in Spanish means Uncle. The oldest and the wisest. If it wasn't for Tio's help, I wouldn't have known how to save $$ with my extended stay here in El Salvador. He's so nice! Every time I listen to his story of how he went from having everything to giving it all to the Lord amazes me. Our God is so big and when he calls, he calls. It's either you go or you miss the opportunity that He has for you. Plan A is always better than plan B. I'm so glad Tio is with our group.
Meet Ashley B, can you spot her? Just kidding. The newest and the latest addition to our group. The nurse, the one with energy and the one with the craziest ideas.. However, when she speaks about Jesus, you can tell her love and her passion is placed in Him. Friendly, outgoing, and caring is definitely what describes Ashley.
Don't I have a great crew? I'm so thankful for the people the Lord has placed in my life right now. I honestly did not know I was going to be down here with these amazing people. God is so good at hand picking His people at the right time. Thank you Jesus for the people in my life!
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