A Glimpse of His World

These travels I have just finished have taught me so much. I have learned so much and changed so much and experienced so much. I got to see a part of His World that many people don't get to see. Some of it was completely incredible. Other parts were not as amazing. They were hard to see.

We started on January 11th in China.. flew to Guangzhou (South China). When we arrived we took the bus shuttle to the train station. We didn't have tickets to Nanning... and everything has been really sold out. It's hard to travel in China during holidays. Not enough transportation for all of the people in China. Well, we get to the train station and have problems.. like everytime I get up to a window.. the close for lunch. They don't understand what I need.. finally this Chinese girl decides to help me. We ended up with train tickets overnight that night. WONDERFUL! We took her and her friends to lunch for helping us for the 2 hours it took.. Then we chilled till we caught our train. We were not looking forward to overnight train to Nanning because the girl told us we had soft seats. Comfortable, but not perfect for overnight. So.. we're walking to our car and it ends up we have soft SLEEPERS... so wonderful. We proceed to get situated and then we get in our car and shut the door and spend time fellowshiping together and communing with our DAD. It was a wonderful start to the trip.

5 people traveling together can get interesting..

Once we got to Nanning it was 5 am. We went to sit outside the Visa office till it opens so we can apply for our Vietnam Visa and get it back the same day. Not thinking about having to give them our passports, but also having to have them to check into a hostel. So I break out my resources and find the hostel that does the Visa service for you. So we go there and they have 5 beds left. Perfect. Then they do our visa for us. So we spend the day doing a lot of nothing.. showers, shopping last minute at Wal-Mart, exploring, hanging out. Then we left the next morning on the bus to Vietnam.

Vietnam was amazing... we went to Hanoi, Halong Bay, Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, and Saigon. It's an open tour bus. You get tickets all the way down and when you get to that city you stay till you want to leave for the next place. It was a wonderful way to see the whole country. Kayaking on Halong Bay, Motorbikes in Nha Trang, Clothes made in Hoi An, and nothing in Saigon. I didn't like Saigon.. actually I think by then, I didn't like Vietnam. It was such a Worldly place.. so much evil around. There were drugs guys that would ride up next to you and say.. Marijuana??? Everywhere. There were prostitutes, drinking and partying everywhere. The foreigners on vacation were cursing so much and just all about the Worldly. It was so hard to be there. I felt like I was IN the World, and had never been so happy to not fit in. It broke my heart to see so much of that.

Cambodia still had a lot of World. It was mostly the foreigners who were traveling through. We smelled a lot of marijuana. The country was amazing though. It was so poverty stricken. The children were not kids.. they would school, and then go to work. There wasn't playing. The 6 year olds had better English than my 22 year old students... their English was better than mine. The adults were smiles, but begging. The country as a whole was just so beat up. They have been the underdogs in so much political mess.. they just kind of get pushed around by everyone around them. While we were traveling through I read "First They Killed My Father". It was really hard to read, but such a great history lesson on Cambodia. The take over of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. The genocides.. Vietnam taking so much of their country. The constant fighting between them. There is so much amazing history here.

While we were here we were in Phnom Penh and visited some Family. I got to see some fellow workers, and family friends.. the Northens. They do free dental work on a ship up and down the Mekong. The villages have come to rely on them so much and appreciate them. They are doing so much for our DAD in this job. Then we went up to Siem Reap to Angkor. This was first built as an Empire for the King in the 12th Century. Then they were changed to Hindu Temples to Vishnu.. then to Buddhist Temples. It was amazing to see. You need so many days if you want to see every inch of this place, but we only had one day and that was a enough. We did the highlights and the most popular temples. There are so many. It's the largest religious structure in the whole world.

Then on to Thailand... We did Bangkok for a day. Bangkok was like being in a big Chinese city or in America. It was nice, but I loved the small villages of the entire trip. I didn't miss being in a city. Then we left for Koh Phayam where we layed on the beach for a few days. It was a nice end to the traveling. It was so relaxing. We got to just swim, lay on the beach, play frisbee, football, volleyball, nap, nap, nap. I spent a lot of time in our DAD's amazing creation. It is incredible how you can go from the mountains of Vietnam to the beach of Thailand and see the variety he has given us in life.

Getting back was fun.. 2 hour ferry, 9 hour overnight sitting bus, day in Bangkok, flight to Guangzhou, overnight in the airport, flight to Hangzhou, bus to Ningbo, taxi to apartment. in 65 hours I slept 2 hours tops.. I have been exhausted. haha.

This trip was amazing and hard. It was really hard to be in a group of my brothers and sister and feel so completely alone, like I didn't fit in at all. Like my life was worthless. It was so hard. It was also amazing because I finally took that last step to having DAD as my best friend. I finally felt that inner peace and comfort that comes from being around HIM constantly. He consumed my time completely. I spent all of my time talking to him, and studying. I learned more about myself and HIM on this trip, than I ever have before. It was amazing and wonderful.

I am home now and headed to Beijing for a Conference tomorrow. It should be great. I will get to learn a lot about my long term work here on this Earth. I know that it will help me so much in my future. It will also be nice to fellowship with others, and encourage each other. I have gotten to experience so many amazing things. I am so thankful for this. There were no big kinks in the trip.. it all just worked out adn we were mostly safe. I am so thankful.

I have so many stories that I wish I could share, but I'm afraid it's just too much. I'll share a few at a time when I update for a while. I have them in my written journal and hopefully that means in my book that I'm working on. So just buy the book someday..