A Whirlwind of a Trip

Warm winds, blue skies, clear sunshine, fresh air, white beaches, and green mountains…summer in the middle of winter <3
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So a quick update as to how my recent trip to Thailand went. First, I have to give you the background of the whole thing:

I received an invitation to help run a children's program at a conference in Thailand back in October. I really wanted to go, but I really didn't see how I could afford the trip as I'm still paying back my trip to the States from last summer. However, I started praying about it- asking that if the Lord wanted me to go, He would provide for it.  November came around and I still hadn't committed fully to going for fear that I wouldn't have the funds. A friend came to me near the middle of November and stated that they were going to pay for my trip to Thailand. At first I said, "Absolutely not"….and they assured me I would come around and be able to accept the gift. As I pondered whether or not to accept such an extravagant gift, the Lord reminded me that I had been praying for such a miracle.
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Three months later…

I was so happy to be leaving the cold, polluted Xiamen air. We got into Macau around 9pm and made our way to our hotel for the night- our flight had been changed and we had an overnight layover +6 hrs the next day, so we planned to sleep late and explore the next day- which we did. It was a super laid back day, but good as our last week in Xiamen was a bit tense.
Flew into Bangkok the following evening and, upon arrival of our second hotel, went out in search of mango sticky rice and pad thai. Which we found and devoured. It was so. good. We met up with our team the following morning to leave for the conference we were volunteering at.

Four hours later, I was stunned to be in a five star resort that had a massive swimming pool (complete with water slide and a waterfall) and we jumped into team meetings. This place was absolutely gorgeous! The air fresh, the skies a flawless blue, and the greens richer than I remember ever seeing before. It was heaven in winter. The first meeting/mixer was a bit rough, but dinner made up for the stress of figuring out logistics. The food at the place, oh my, the food was just too good. I can't even think of a word for how good this food was. Meal times, though normally a highlight of my day, became almost a sole event of the day. I almost lived for those meals. (I think I gained weight while there…. :)

The following day, we dove in head first to the kids program. I had the privilege of working with 8-9 beautiful, intelligent 7-11 year old foreign children (aka Not Asian). Over the course of the week I was able to build relationships with these kids who are living all over Asia with their families. It was a privilege and a joy to see how God used this week to encourage and build them up. Over all, though a bit exhausting, running around with 7-11 year olds, it was a blast! There were only two afternoons that we had to run a program so the remaining afternoons were spent by the pool catching a few rays, or taking a day trip into the neighboring city of Hua Hin. Over all though, God really used this week to speak to me about repentance, redemption, surrender, leadership, and courage. I will expound more on these points in later blogs- I don't want to overwhelm ya'll in this one… :)

We left the resort one week after arriving and drove back to Bangkok. After a terrifying set of taxi rides, we made it to the main market street and bought our bus tickets down to Koh Samui and did some, what I call, blitz shopping (aka running into a stall and bargaining and purchasing something in less than 5 minutes). After a very long overnight bus to Surathani, we waited for 2 hours for the bus to the ferry where we had a 1 and a half hour ferry to the island.

The waters of Koh Samui were simply stunning, varying between an emerald green and turquoise blue. It was incredibly hot as the sun is so intense that close to the equator, but it felt good. Especially on winter skin.
I never remember just how much of a Florida girl I am until I'm deprived of four main key items: Alligator jerky, Key Lime anything, sun, and beaches. When I don't have access to these, I am not a happy camper. Koh Samui gave me two of those fore necessities, so I was pretty happy…about as happy as a camel in a drought!

Sunday afternoon after arriving, and Monday were spent in the sun on the beach, eating green curry at a beachside restaurant, and freshly grilled corn on the cob, chicken, prawns, and spring rolls from a beach vendor. So good.

Tuesday we went on a sea safari, which was basically amazing. It consisted of a 1 hour boat ride to Anthong National Park (a group of islands in the Gulf of Thailand) to go snorkeling, hiking to a green lagoon, kayaking, relaxing on a beach, eating lunch, sight-seeing from the boat, and back to the main island for a short elephant ride. An absolute experience of a life time! (Also more on some of these adventures later)

Wednesday was a half beach day, half motorbike/cooking class day. I had the unique opportunity to take a cooking class at the Samui Institute of Thai Culinary Arts! It was definitely an awesome experience. I got to experiment with some native Thai ingredients and cooked three dishes: Green Curry with Chicken, Chicken Pad Thai, and Coconut Lime Chicken Soup. All of which were simply amazing. Especially the soup- I was kind of surprised by how savory it was!

Thursday we got up super early (aka 4:30am) to taxi back to the ferry to the bus, to the taxi, to the train station, to Bangkok. We got adventurous and took a train for the first time in Thailand- I've had bad experiences with every bus in Thailand so far, so Ray and I decided to see if taking a train would be a little less traumatizing- it was. It was wonderful, and we got to see so much more of the Thai countryside as we were traveling during the day and were not confined to a highway. It was definitely a good experience.

We flew out of Bangkok around 3 am, only to arrive exhausted back in Macau for another 8 hour layover. After getting kicked out of baggage claim (after mean lady number 3 woke us up), we went to the Hard Rock Hotel in hopes of finding breakfast. Apparently Macau does not believe in breakfast because we could only find one place that served breakfast. And boy was it worth every Macau Pataca it cost! There was an omelet station, rosemary and sausage roasted potatoes, smoked ham, three different international cheeses, blueberry and cheese brioche, cinnamon brioche, about 6 different types of bread, coffee, tea, grapefruit juice, cranberry juice, cereal, fruit, unlimited tea and coffee (and that was only the western side of the buffet…. (and they gave us clean cutlery half way through the meal!!!!!) Over all, it was a little much needed, well deserved pampering after being up almost all night traveling. We explored the historic sights of Macau for the rest of the day and enjoyed one last western meal before heading to the airport to return to Xiamen…..only to have our flight delayed.

No worries, a few hours later I found myself all snuggled up in my Xiamen bed. No movement, no bumps, no headlights in my eyes, no turbulence, no mean ladies to wake me up. =)

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

"That's just the way it is, Joanna, you chose to move to China and to those of us still in the States, it's out of sight, out of mind."
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The first time I heard these words they stung so unbelievably badly I wasn't sure if I could handle the implications. Having lived overseas in China for two years now, I've actually gotten almost used to hearing the expression.

Feeling displaced in a foreign country and learning to cope and live in a new culture with new people and learn a new language, it would be so much more simple for me to take the easy road and return back to America as quickly as I came. However, I have not been called to live in America for this stage of my life, I have been called to China. I know I must stay, regardless the cost.

As I mull over recent conversations with friends and family in the States, I can't shake the expression:

Out of sight, out of mind.

I hear it over and over again in my head, "Why won't it go away??" I ask myself. The more I think about it, the more I wonder how many times this has been my approach to God.

Out of sight, out of mind.

When it's obvious that God is working, or I see Him saving the multitudes, or I see hundreds of campers responding to an invitation, it's easy to think, "Wow, God is so awesome!" When I am on a boat in the Gulf of Thailand speechless because of the beauty in front of me and think to myself, "And my God is so much more beautiful than all I see!" I can sit through a worship service and be awed by the power of my great God, and I can hear God speaking clearly through His word or in a powerful message at a conference.

But when all that is over, when all is said and done, do I sit in my room in the silence, when no on is around and think, "Wow, my God is so awesome, so beautiful, so powerful, so worthy of my praise"?

More often than not, when I am alone in the afternoons after a full morning of classes, I find myself despairing. Despairing over a lack of communication with those I love, despairing over a word that should have gone unsaid, or deed that I refused to do out of stubborn selfishness that should have been done. Despairing over my pathetic lack of faith in many situations, and despairing of hope that I will ever not have to teach for a living or have a family of my own some day. Somewhere in those afternoons, my focus changed. My eyes shifted and my sight was not fixed on the prize. My eyes were no longer on God and His beauty, but rather the facts of life around me.

There was a shift from Truth to fact. I allowed my reality to be dictated by the circumstances around me rather than asking Truth what He wanted me to learn about Him through the situations. When I looked away from Truth, I forgot Truth. When I forgot Truth, I despaired. In an instant, I went from praising to mourning. Truth got smaller and I got bigger- so did the circumstances.

For even a moment, He became out of sight, out of mind

How tragic! How tragic it is that we can lose focus of our Redeemer, Savior, and Friend! How tragic that we could forget about our God, the Creator the Universe! How tragic that our one true Companion and Father could be invisible to us in just a moment! One moment of letting our guards down, one moment of thinking that we can stand on our own, one moment of wanting rest from the struggle… In one moment He becomes out of sight, out of mind.

Even as I write this, tears come to my eyes. I have felt the sting of the reality of this phrase and I have learned how to be seen. I have experienced the beauty of being seen and accepted, I have felt the warmth of pure love overflowing in the body of Christ and experienced sweet fellowship with those I am proud to call family. But I have had to work for it. It has not been easy, it's a journey- trial and error and more times than not I am afraid I am closer to the error side of things than the positive. But Jesus already did the work to be seen. He already came, He's already made Himself known. He's put out the greatest effort there has ever been to get our attention! And yet, still, in a moment we find Him,

Out of sight, out of mind

Oh that we would fix our eyes on Jesus, never wavering. With our shield of faith always protecting against the arrows of the evil one. That we would brandish our swords of truth with boldness to fight off our enemy and clear all the rubble and brush out of the way to have a clear view of the One who gave His life that we might glorify Him forever! So we might never be able to say His beauty, His face, His glory, His majesty, His love, His conviction, His Spirit could or would ever be

Out of sight, out of mind.