Details details details....

Hey folks!
Ok, for those of you who have some extra time on your hands and feel like catching up on the details of my life in the past few weeks, read on dear heart! However, I do realize that what with the new year already behind us, and everyone back to work, you might be a bit pressed for time. Therefore, I have compiled a much simplified, speed-through version on my previous blog. I do realize that even though at the moment I am sitting in the heat of midday in Malaysia with the nearby pool calling my name, most of you are rushing from house to car to work to school, etc...while trying not to freeze your buns off, and maybe are a little lacking in the free time department. (Don't worry...once you hear about my previous week, you'll see that I understand how you are feeling...well, minus the freezing weather!)

The Christmas holidays at Green Valley snuck up on us,as we had been so busy preparing for all of the activities previous to them, we barely noticed their arrival (although we did get in some sessions of listening to Amy Grant's Christmas album!) The week before Christmas holidays began was the ever-renowned "Gladiator Games" which Allison and I planned, and took part in. As you have previously read, my team, The Super Power Titans took first place, however not at all due to my athletic abilities! It was a super week, studying 1 and 2 Peter together in the mornings, having discussion time with our groups (ok, so when the students are still struggling in the English department, the discussion mostly consisted of silence and me answering my own questions...but you can't say I didn't try!) and preparing our costumes, flag and team cheer. The afternoons were filled with chuck the tire or swim relays or coconut bowling, and it was a blast. The week sped by, and before we knew it, the students were already busy into decorating the campus for our Christmas celebrations. By Saturday night we were welcoming the Peters (the director and his family, I finally got to meet his daughters, two lovely girls who were very friendly) and other guests to the school with a beautiful dinner (chicken biryani)and my apple crisp and ice cream for dessert(YOU try keeping ice cream frozen when your power doesn't stay on for more than three hours at a time!). That night we did a gift exchange and had a sort of talent show, resulting in some hilarious impersonations of the more eccentric staff members, and the boy students dressing up as the girls. Already Sunday was upon us, and we scrambled to prepare for 100+ children from surrounding villages and some adults as well, to come and spend the day with us. They started arriving around 10 and we were just finishing giving everyone instructions for their stations. After we taught them some Sunday School songs (ok, so, Stella Ella Ola is not a Sunday School song, but I was running out of ideas!) we split them in groups and sent them around to stations, each a different game, like musical chairs, an obstacle course, gunny sack race, and, my favorite, a telling of the Christmas story and then dressing them up as characters from it and taking a picture of them outside the little stable we have for our animals. Once finished all of that we had a group session with them, showing a powerpoint of the pictures we had taken that morning, a magic show, and a short bible message. Then we provided lunch for everyone. Let me tell you, eating off of banana leaves is the most expedient thing ever! Like, how handy! It is clean, environmentally friendly, and it grows everywhere!As you can tell, I was pretty impressed, and wondered why everyone, everywhere, doesn't do it. After that they went home and we exhaustedly began the cleanup! It was a great success, and now when I pass through the village I can usually pick out the children I now recognize amongst the throng who run yelling "hello! How are you!" after me.

And then our guests were gone, the students left for holidays, and us interns were alone with the few remaining students and staff. But it was a good time. I spent every morning out by the banana tree field...sitting on a granite bench, watching the sun slowly rise and begin to warm my fingers...in those times I was taught and encouraged and poured out my heart before the Lord as I missed my family, and all of the celebrations going on at home, and as I searched for the ever-contrite "true meaning of Christmas." I read through the book of Luke, hoping that it would open my eyes to comprehending the birth of my Savior, and I found such an accounting of His humanity that it almost scared me. For the longest time in Luke's gospel it doesn't even assure its readers that Jesus is God. Yes, of course, the long-awaited Messiah, but just a man? And I was brought again to the cross, the reason why Christ came. What was I doing in India, what was it that I wanted, needed, to share with these students and with the people I meet? Was it that Christ was a man that many miracles happened to? Was it that He died over 2000 years ago and for some reason we still remember it? What I discovered was the hope that comes when we know Christ. The hope that everyday has meaning, the hope that our every action is noticed and known by our Creator, the hope that even though salvation is hard to understand, that we can receive it. Hope that in spite of all of our searching and all of our celebrating, there is a reason. A reason that goes beyond what is possible for man, but is possible with God. Yes, our Lord was a man: born, died, struggled, taught, loved. And so are we, just men and women. But we can be extraordinary, when the life we live is given in entire submission to the LORD of the Universe. Not just the creator, but also the eternal sustainer and finsher of what He made. We are all on this journey, and as each year we stop and remember the commencement of the FIRST journey, the first life lived by God's power in such a way as was unknown to humanity, we can only be thankful for Christ, our multi-faceted savior, who lived as man and lived as God and worked to close the gap between each.

So, quickly Christmas was over, and us interns went our separate ways for a bit as Jeff and Allison and I went to visit another part of India for two days, and Matt prepared to take off with his father. Jeff and Allison went on to Thailand, leaving Arnd and I at Green Valley, to celebrate New Years and start the mad scramble for the first week of school, which Jay had just a week previously, informed us that we would be 'teaching' (the students were to watch the video series on Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, and we were to fascilitate discussion, go through the study questions, teach English, do Library Hour, mark all of their journals, and lead Chapel for the week!)New Years was a fantastic time with the students and staff, I was reunited with my beloved 'Tata,' Indian for Grandpa, who is everything I could have wished for in a surrogate 'pops'....and also the cook at school, who spoils me with pancakes and 'smashed' potatoes! :) Arnd and I had just returned from a night spent in Bangalore at the Peter's, and upon our first meeting with Paupu, the main staff left at the school, we were informed of the three services that would be held that evening for New Years! We would meet a 6:30 for a service, with singing and message, and then again at 10, outside, around the fire, have another service, with me as the MC, and then snack and a ringing in of the New Year together with fireworks. THEN we would have ANOTHER service, at 1 or so, where we would pray together for the New Year, dedicating it to the Lord, and have the other interns share an encouragement (by that time, I wasn't entirely coherent, and was VERY glad that my contribution to the festivities had occured earlier on in the evening!). AND THEN (!!!) we would all have a New Year's meal together, a Burmese specialty, that the girls would prepare and serve. At 2 in the morning! It was crazy, but wonderful, and the chicken stew that they made, was actually pretty tasty! And that's how I rung in the New Year. With lemonade instead of champagne, and a bonfire and little firecrackers instead of a cheese fondue and a TV countdown. It was super.

So the first week of class happened...and wow, that was just this past week! It seems like forever ago, but when you are constantly on the move and have more to do than can be done in a day, that seems to happen easily. The classes went well, despite a viscious power schedule that left us with a totally screwy class schedule, and I (finally!) really started to bond with the students. I think that being the only two interns left, they were drawn to us a bit more, and it was fantastic. Suddenly I was having deep conversations about life and marriage and society with the girls, and the boys were asking me to play volleyball and showing me how to play guitar (I am pretty proud of my calouses ;)) I felt like the Lord was reaffirming His purpose for us, in that we are to be encouragers and leaders of the students at Green Valley. And this past week, I felt closer to realizing this goal.

So here I am, now having to leave the students I was enjoying so much, missing them, but really happy and blessed to be back in Malaysia, to meet the New Interns. Urgh. I am pretty nervous, actually. Two girls and three boys that I have to know, love, work with, encourage, depend on, learn from and share a bathroom with! ;) I have been praying that God will make it easy. Never before have I been a person to be apprehensive about meeting new people, but suddenly, here in Asia, where my world (and emotions) have been turned upside-down, I find my stomach churning a bit to think of how badly I need these to be people who will accept me, will support me, who I can share my heart with. Lately, I have been reflecting a lot on what it would be like to be a missionary, the life of uncertainty it would bring. And although it scares the crap out of me, I have tried to come to the place where I can say to the Lord, "Yes. Wherever, whenever, Your will be done." My comfort, one thing I cling to, is the fellowship of other believers. And how, no matter where I go, I can find encouragement from my Father in the form of friends; co-heirs. Yes, this is the gold and silver of what I have found at Green Valley...no matter race or language or Bible knowledge, a fellow follower of Christ is a sister or a brother, and there is such joy in that.

I will need the encouragement from these new interns because I have a new challenge of my own to face! I received a very exciting email from the director of another Bible School, one in Kerala, which we visited when we were there. There is a place for me at an orphanage near his house, and I can go for the whole month of February, room and board taken care of, and even teach in the school they have set up in the orphanage. Oh, please, Lord, may this be something that will increase Your Kingdom, and not make me feel even more displaced in Asia than I have felt in the past. I am excited and terrified and entirely tickled to think of this new adventure. I don't want to assume my relevance there (although visions of me as the next mother theresa have unwillingly propped themselves up in my mind), but I cannot help but think of the words from a very wise friend of mine who never ceases to encourage me and open my eyes to the vastness of our God, "just think, what would you do if you knew that you couldn't fall? And remember, that this is Christian life and this is what it is supposed to look like."

Ok, Lord, here I am.
Send me.