I was hanging out with my friend Lei, and I suggested we go get our hair cut together. She took to me to a little hole-in-the wall place on her campus. You might think they had shag carpet, but, no that was just the hair of all the people who ever got their hair cut there. Brushes and combs were scattered about on dirty shelves with hair still in them. Whoever heard of sterilizing things? Sure, I could have turned and walked out but where’s the fun in that? A short Asian man with gangly teeth and a expression that told me he wasn’t pleased in the slightest to cut my hair was assigned to me.

While he washed my hair, I studied the crooked pictures of girls with 80′s hair styles on the walls while the question, “why in the world and I doing this?” drifted through my mind. After the trim he whipped out a funky pair of scissors and starting hacking off random parts of my hair. I watched wide eyed and a little freaked out. After a few minutes of watching the random hacking, I asked Lei what he was doing? He was giving me layers, ok? He finished, dried it a little and I was finished! I looked at the back of my hair and tried to supress feelings of AAAH! I had told him I wanted the bottom layer the same length, It looked like I had a rat tail hanging out of the middle of my now much shorter hair. Looking the extra bright side it only cost $1! Cheapest hair cut I ever got! And after a bit of styling, it looked tons better the next day. So, that was my first and last haircut I will ever have hacked in Asia!

Things are a little bit hectic, we have 5 days to pack, clean, finish the Bible study, say goodbye to all our friends, and buy souveniers because I have left most of it for the last minute! Why oh why! I can’t imagine saying goodbye to our closest friends, it’s going to be no fun! But, I am very excited to come home. Overall It’s been a fantastic experience that I would reccomend for anyone that has the opportunity.

Captain

We met Belle in the first couple months we were here and she definitely is not the same girl! When we would hang out, she would be bouncing off the walls, full of giggles and almost impossible to tie down for a serious conversation. I never would have thought she would be one of the girls who would accept Him AND earnestly seek after Him. God seems to have a much bigger vision then I do, imagine that?

Now speaking of His bigger vision; we seem to be on the short stretch before we climb aboard the big bird and fly home! Our friends are starting to realize that were not going to be here much longer and so are we. It’s really hard to keep the thought out of my head of, once we leave are they just going to forget about everything and go back to how they were? Are they going to make time to study and read their Bibles without us giving them pushes in the right direction? I guess here is where I have to keep reminding myself that God doesn’t need me to do work in people’s lives and I (and He) knew I was going to have to leave eventually! Be praying that God continues His work in them and that He sends them other Christian girls who can help them on their walk with Him.

So, walking down the street the last thing I personally expect to see is a monkey! Should I raise my expectations for life? So there was the monkey, small, mangy and fidgety. His owner was also small, dressed in tattered clothing and approached us with a huge smile on her face. My mind automatically went to the scary monkey from Pirates of the Caribbean

Only one child per couple means extra pressure on the child to succeed. In middle school their goals are to work as hard as they can to make good grades to get into a good high school, then to make good grades to get into a good College. Children and teens spend most of their time in school and the majority of them would tell you that good grades is the most important thing in their focused climbing the latter of success. It is the child’s job to support the parents after they finish school and their parents get to old to work. The college students have all their focus on getting a good job with a good salary. Once College is finished some of them work so hard at their jobs that they don’t have time to meet other singles, here the parents step in. Parents with single children will gather at a prearranged time and walk around with a picture of their son or daughter and tell other parents salary and job information. If the parents approve of each others children they will arrange meetings and hope for a marriage. Once married they’ll have their one child that the grandparents take care of while they continue to work like mad till they’re old and their child is old enough to start supporting them. Needless to say they’re a hard working bunch of people.

Now take almost an entire nation who have grown up thinking the Bible is nothing more then a fairy tale, or a good way to learn English. That Christianity is just another religion among the many, where He is “our God”, and the other belief’s have “other gods.” Some might even view Christianity, or really any religion, for people who need something to believe in, but their road to success is going well enough to where they simply say that the Asian culture is much different then the American culture.

Then there is the light that flickers into their eyes whenever we tell them about Jesus, they start to see something else to live for besides working till they die. To hear that Jesus loves them unconditionally seems almost impossible to them. They work so hard to please their parents and are terribly afraid of failure and shame to their families. More then one occasion girls have sat with a look of awe in their faces sometimes uttering “impossible.” To be the first one to tell some of the College girls about Jesus and His seemingly impossible love for the human race has been quite an experience and never fails to be a blessing.

I am now involved in a Saturday *Group* and watching these “baby Christians” is incredible. Every Saturday a different person speaks, some new believers, some not so new. Most of the students have about 1/3 of the knowledge that half of Church-going people, who don’t really even pay that much attention, in America have. I try and imagine me a few weeks after getting saved getting up in front of people and giving a sermon. Don’t make me laugh, I think to myself. Even now the lack of confidence in myself would make me blush and stutter in front of a group. It never fails to impress and make me thank God that he is growing such incredible leaders in a country that needs God. Watching them makes me do some deep praying about my own lack of faith and confidence in our Father to trust Him enough to be willing to preach to a group of people. We tell the students that it’s not our abilities or our Bible knowledge, but it’s His abilities, His wisdom and Him speaking through us. It is this faith and them acting upon it that gets them in front of groups relying on God and giving a sermon, even if they’ve never heard one before. What an awesome convicting time, Cindy Lu, forget about yourself and your own abilities or lack there of and live what you believe, not just some parts, but all that you teach and everything God promises!

I have heard that “the teacher learns more then the student.” What I have to say to that is, so true, so true. . .

~Cindy Lu

All of my life I have always had a small group of friends and have never been one to go out making new ones. When leaving the safety of my close friends and finding myself surrounded by strangers, my voice gets higher, my words often trip over themselves and my eyes start searching the room for a secluded corner, or my mind starts trying to think of an excuse to leave. Sure there’s been the occasional time where I’ve been able to pull myself together and talk to new people, but these times are so few and far between that I would not consider myself an out-going people person.

Now with that said, when I heard about the opportunity in Asia my mind had a few arguments with God about why I should not be a person to go. He reminded me with Him I could do anything. So I came, a little curious and a little nervous as to how I was going to make friends. Thank goodness, if you ask for friends, He Will Give You Friends!

When you leave your apartment you have the opportunity to make a friend. The chance that you will run across a few people that speak English is huge, and the chance that some will be eager to talk to you, and happy to hang out with you is just as big! Unfortunately that means that some of the names in my phone book I don’t recognize. Though, God has been faithful to show us the girls he wants us to pour into.

Upon meeting someone new the conversation is usually the same. Them, “Are you Students?” Us, “No we’re just traveling;-),” Them, “Where have you gone?” “Have you been here before?” … etc … Then after these questions comes the introduction of names, the offering and exchanging of phone numbers, and the depart with promises to call later on.

After making one friend this friendship will bring 2-3 others, and if you connect with any of these, it will bring a few more! I’ll admit that He doesn’t make it a walk in the park. Where would be the growing in that? He does stretch you and you will do things that, before, were way out of your comfort zone. Soon you realize that you really do believe that “I can do all things through Him…”

We definitely couldn’t ever say that we didn’t get enough opportunities to share Jesus.

~Cindy Lu

P.S The Fireworks are still going off!!

After returning from 5 days at our friend Jessie’s we did laundry, cleaned the apartment, and flew to a nearby country! This has definately been a good month for traveling as all of our friends are out of town visiting family for Spring Festival! We had a good time at Jessie’s! She and her aunt took us around to the local tourist attractions, and we had a great time getting to spend more time with her! The best thing was we got to talk to her about thoughts on all we have gotten to share with her about God. Please be praying about her. She has signed a contract saying she will not believe in any religion. We can’t wait for Him to change her heart. Already she told one of her friends who was stressed to turn to God because of what she had seen in our lives! As for right now though, she seems to want to remain politically correct, and be open to all sorts of views.

Right now while I have more free time then usual I am trying to do some pre-planned Bible studies. Rather then awkwardly dancing around topics, and fighting to bring up references from amongst all the other verses dancing around in one’s head. I have noticed (obviously, duh Cindy Lu) that the times when we spend time planning what we’ll talk about, praying about the person and topic, and planning out the verses and questions goes alot more smoothly! Man, what a concept, running on His steam rather than head knowledge that I always hope before hand that I have, and only He has been able to provide!

We boarded the train with our friend “Lei” and after a surprisingly short 38 hours we arrived in Lei’s home town. We were rather surprised to learn that a village is nothing like we had imagined. We thought perhaps something small, quaint in the country, little markets, etc. However, it was more like a small spread out city.

We loved her home, and her family was so sweet. Upon arrival her mother gave us hose and men socks as presents, sat us down, started handing us snacky food things to eat, and turned on the tv to the only English station. Their apartment on the top floor is oddly shaped; when you walked in the front door and looked to your right, there was no wall just the outside, and onto a concrete terrace. Because the house was basically outside, they had no fridge. They just left leftovers out on the wooden counters to chill ready to be
reheated for the next meal. So It was very cold, and after a while you got used to seeing your breath “indoors.” In the bathroom in a bucket next to the toilet was a very large live fish; luckily we did not get the pleasure of eating him. I think their family saw our attatchment to him and spared him until after we left.

There was no hot water and no mirrors here, so almost all pride and vanity went out the window. On one sunny day Captain A and I boiled some water and washed our hair on the terrace in the mop sink. Then we spent the afternoon basking in the sun, singing songs and playing guitar. I loved her house – it was very relaxing!

She lives above a factory, and most of the surrounding buildings are factories also. At night there were always barking dogs- the dogs Lei warned us to stay away from because they were wild and mean. Mostly they just seemed scared of people though. There was trash everywhere, and because of the rain it was muddy. There was a public shower which could be a story in and of itself. Over the past 15 days we have only participated in two showerings. One of the showers being at this facility. Five days after we got there, we armed ourselves with a hand towel to dry off with, shampoo and conditioner, and marched along the muddy path around the buildings to have a much-awaited shower. I was a little surprised to find that it wasn’t like a YMCA locker room with showers, and a little more surprised that the genders were not seperated.

I actually thoroughly enjoyed myself because I felt like I was walking into a movie. It was an old dark building, and once inside you felt like you were in a dirty shower barn. Dim lights hung from strings along the dark hall, water dripped on you from the yellowing ceilings. The doors to the shower stalls were nailed together with rusty nails, odd boards, and pieces of tin. Inside the shower stalls were one or more pipes comping out of the walls with no shower heads, it just poured it out. At one point the rusty pin that locked the door was stuck, then when it came out the latch woudln’t come off either, and after several minutes of wheedling with it and slamming myself and Captain A’s self from the other side against the door we managed to free me from my stall. Here you had the option of A:Showering with a bunch of people, B: Showering with Two people, or C: Paying more and showering alone. I showered alone and am not ashamed for not trying something new. Over-all this was the sort of place you would not want to be in with the lights out.

On one particularly cold and rainy day, we spent the afternoon at home, and as Captain A and I had done before were going to knit while the other read the Bible, then switch. Lei came in and started listening and asking questions. Captain A and I had a feeling that today was going to be the day that Lei invited Him in, so while she was out of the room we prayed that it would be. Sure enough, while we all cuddled on the electric blanket she confessed that she had felt that today might be the day! We could barely hide our excitement for her, we’ve been waiting for these words. He’s been tugging on her heart for a while now! We talked to her some more about what she was thinking and feeling, and we asked her if she would like to pray and ask Him into her heart!
She did!!

Before we left she was already being very diligent in reading the Bible and having a real desire to grow closer to Him.

Perhaps I will save more stories and happenings for another blog!

Cindy Lu

I got on it for my final ride to “shudders” (the nickname for our favorite restaurant) where I was going to order take out. I parked my orange beauty and locked it and without looking back went in and ordered in under 5 minutes. I walked out to get something to drink and there on the ground was my broken bike lock, no bike. “Hm,” I thought. “That’s interesting,” I said under my breath and threw the broken lock away. “Perhaps it’s gone to a better home.”

Today we went out with Pheobe for the second time. Man, it was incredible! We ate some yummy hot food that warmed our insides, but unfortunately not all the way down to our numbing toes. After we ate we went to a really cute coffee shop and she got out presents for us! Mine was a necklace with a HUGE cross on it with a gaudy blue jewel – oh its completely fantastic how gaudy it is. Anyway, we said oh, do you know who this is on the cross? She said no, so we told her all about Him and how He died and why. Then she would ask us to tell her more, so we told her about creation. We told her we could tell her more and she said please, please tell me more! So we explained further about sin and how much God wants her to come to Him! She was so excited! She kept saying “Seriously, wow, seriously, no seriously I am going to buy a Bible and learn more about Him.” She was almost leaping out of her chair exclaiming that yes she did have darkness in her heart, and yes she did understand how God could fill it. Pretty amazing how quickly He can work in the heart of a girl who knew only His name but nothing, and I mean nothing, more about Him.

Now on a more gross and disgusting note. Actually in complete and total honesty it tasted good. There were some roach-looking bugs on a stick ready to be grilled at a stand along a lovely quaint little street. We later found out they were silk worm larva. One of the friends we were with said they were quite delicious and bought a stick. Our other friend (Micky) said she was disgusting. She offered me to try one, so after a moment of pondering decided that I only live once so why not down a couple larva just for kicks. The man serving these delicacies had smothered it in spicyness, so it was very spicy, but I actually quite enjoyed it and thought it tasted all right. So I had a second and “Capital A to the Corn (Captain A)” stepped up to the plate and devoured a lovely little morsel as well… She was not pleased with its taste, and Micky was still disgusted.

For those of you thinking of coming to Asia, don’t miss out on the silk worm larva.
~Cindy Lu

Our trip home went smoothly; it was 18 hours. I’ve never gotten to sleep on a train before, though it really only felt like sleeping on a bus that had beds, cool none the less. The train ride consisted of playing cards with us and local non- English speaking train riders, eating, watching the scenery, and playing mafia until the wee hours.

This past Saturday I came down with some sort of virus, and was in bed sick the next few days. Unfortunately it lasted until Thursday, so I haven’t gotten to see any friends since Saturday. Now Stephanie has whatever I had and is now in bed as well. Luckily she says she is feeling a little better! A lot of people are getting sick or feeling under the weather so that is definitely something we all need *thinking about! Tomorrow Stephanie is leaving because she only had a 30 day visa and has already renewed it twice, so she has to leave to go get a new one. So especially be *thinking about her because she is still sick and has to travel!
love Missy

The next day we went to check out campuses. It was so awesome. Steph and I were just walking along and I saw a group of mostly girls sitting in a circle on some grass, and I was like hey let’s go talk to them, woudln’t that be funny if they were all English majors? So I walked up and said HI! Do any of you speak English, and they all said yes they were English majors, we asked what they were doing and they said they were doing role play of The walls of Jericho, and the script had God and Joshua and etc … And we said really? No way?

God couldn’t have possibly made sharing any easier, well I guess he could have. . . We asked them if they knew it was a true story, and they were all wide eyed as they said no, and so they all sat in a tight circle around us while we explained the whole story to them, they didn’t know what the Bible was either. Then we went out to dinner with some of them, and the girls took us back to there dorm room, and we got to share with all 8 of their roommates. They kept saying unbelievable, and they told us nobody had ever told them this before. But most of their eyes were lit up while we told them that He loved them so much. ..

Two days later Steph and I both received emails from this one girl saying that we were her angels, and that she didn’t believe in God before she met us, but she saw our faith, and oh that was so encouraging!

Thursday was thanksgiving (obviously)! It was great. We got up, ate breakfast, and then played football. Poor Steph who didn’t even play was tossing a ball around on the side lines broke her finger (or nearly broke it, it’s black and blue), nobody else got injured though I’m happy to report. After that some of us got in the “hot springs” pool. I put that in quotations because the water was freezing, and we didn’t warm up until we had a nice invigorating game of Marco Polo. Dinner was incredible; there was over 30 people here, and I think it’s pretty safe to say everyone had a pretty good Thanksgiving. We ate great food, played Do Ditchu, and Mafia, and got to just relax and hang out.

It’s been a long week so lot’s has happened, but I guess I’ll save it for another blog. Overall so far it’s been a great week! We leave in a couple days for our 24 hour train ride back!
~missy