Photo postcards for China!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59752548@N07/sets/72157626921352727/with/5844446247/

Thanks to Moses for the cool idea! I knew my random photo taking could be more useful one day haha. Check it out!!

HOW: Please post orders in the Flickr comments, Facebook messages, or to my gmail: ephra.tk.lee@gmail.com . 

WHEN: I'll get back to you after my trip!! (July 20th)

Bake sale

It's funny now that support raising has begun, I look at the money and I see it in three ways: administrative, financial, and personal support. Last night's bake sale was good!

(admin) I was happy to see people stay after fellowship ended, even though they were hungry for lack of dinner or had to rush to worship practice after.  And even before the actual bake sale, people were posting announcements on fb and made announcements during fellowship for Faith & I, AND quite a few people even brought their own homemade goodies to add to the table. :D <3

(financial) At the end of the night, the grand total to support me + Faith's mission trips was $274.39!!! Isn't is so bad that we're so used to seeing bigger numbers that we don't think much of that grand total? But just stop and think closely for awhile. We're all so young, still in school, some working part time jobs and some people have just started working full day jobs and, to me, putting money into something other than yourself takes a lot of consideration.

(personal) It feels strange because although I see the money, I don't feel like saying 'we raised this much money' but instead, it feels like 'we're offering this much from our fellowship'. Because the funding all goes to doing something for God, and I just get to be part of the team that goes to do it. On one hand, the focus is on God because I feel like we're raising money together as a whole fellowship, and on the other, people are emotionally and spiritually supporting me personally. People really put time and thought and energy into fundraising with us and by chatting and setting up/cleaning up with me, I could tell that our fellowship really cares for us. Yeah, I know, Pi totally digs us :P So this is awesome. WE LOVE YOU, PI :D

prayer requests.

I get that we all need to pray and we all always have prayer requests but these are some more specific things you could think and pray for me on for this trip! I challenge you to reflect on your life too because you don't need to leave the country to do something for God~ We can take action together! Read the verses. Actually read them!~~ Click on the links with yo smartphones :P 

-for the team: to always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15) and to be each other's strengths in weaknesses

-for health and energy: to keep hoping in the Lord for renewed strength to truly see and be with the Chinese people (Isaiah 40:28-31)

-family and friends: that they'll take action in their faith to serve together with her in different ways (James 2:22) and to keep loving each other in action and truth (1 John 3:18)

-language and culture: pray that the people will be open to us and want to fulfill their longing to discover God (James 4:8)

-self growth: to keep pursuing the direction of purity (2 Cor 7:1), to keep trusting in God's plans (Hebrews 4:14-16), and to be able to use everything about this stm to share with everyone

-thanks: to every single person who's been sacrificing time and energy to organize prayer meeting, lunch, support raising because they've stayed humble, joyful, and encouraging through it all (Col 3:17)

Thank you for remembering me in your prayer! :D We can make a difference and shine for Jesus! (I could've left it at 'make a difference' but you must know who you're doing it for and from whom you are able to do this~)

For all who are concerned:

YES, I will be bringing bug spray.
YES, I will carry ID 24/7
YES, I will look both ways before crossing the street.

NO, I won't eat raw veggies.
NO, I won't talk to sketchy people.

Soo funny. Should count how many times I hear those tips. Because people luff me muhaha :D THANKS GUISE + PARENTSS

Published.

Just posted the link to this blog on fb so I guess this blog is now 'publicly' announced but I've been asking myself that upon doing this, whether I would sugar coat my writing more. Make things sound nicer than they seem now that more people (MAYBE haha) are going to see it.

And I realize the answer is No, I won't be doing that. Because to track any changes, you have to see both before and after products. And this goes to show that I'm not just another perfect church-going girl that goes to China and do some nice things and look like a nice person.

This is a real human experience. I'm a seriously flawed, far from perfect girl going to China to meet some other flawed people and through the Holy Spirit working in both our hearts, we might connect on some level and someone can discover God's healing simply through me being there. That is all.

EA

Last week my friends came back from their own project with Campus for Christ, in EA. One thing that stuck with me is hearing them say that the youth don't really have their own beliefs. They'll tell you a memorized answer of what they believe in or what they want to be. When replied with 'Yes, but what do YOU really want?' they'll be at a loss for words.

Knowing that, I want to go with my own answer of what I want to be or what I want to do. Makes me wonder if who I am right now is enough to back up my words? I want to make an impact.

Emails: response.

Why is it that we're quicker to share our needs than our gratitude? It took me 2 days to post a prayer request but 4 days to write this response? Could say I was 'busy' but we're all busy these days, aren't we? Makes me feel like those 9 lepers who never came back to thank Jesus when he had actually cured 10 lepers =P

Anyways, the replies I got back from missions board + other people at church were more than expected. It was so truly encouraging and insightful that I had to read them all a couple times to realize their sincere words. I was just floored. I want to be like that when I come back more experienced than before too.

So thank you (: And thank you Lord for putting me in the midst of others who love you so much that they can love me too. It's a blessing because it's out of my control, and too good to be luck.

Emails

Just finished emailing all the people I needed to email in order to seek wisdom, clarity, and advice on support raising and the ESL lesson plan! Now to just wait. Feels much more at peace knowing I've done more of what I can, despite being limited (like, not having super powers or a super genius brain bahah). Thank you to all who have been so encouraging, especially Jotaro + Karin (:

on Time.

Retired couples with grown up children are the easiest missionaries. They don't have to work, they don't have to look after their kids, they don't have to worry about anything pretty much. And they get to serve together. Out of all the possible missionary 'categories', I think this one is the easiest one. It's most ideal to serve the God you love without having to worry about anything right?

But I heard this thing recently (forgot where... =P) where the pastor said something about couples as missionaries. To serve as a couple, they actually give up seeing their grandchildren. They don't get to just relax at home in a retired life. They don't get to be with their grown up children who are actually now able to support the parents in return. The retired couple gives up all these things and, from a desire for others to see God's love, chooses to work again.

It's hard to give up the right to our leisure time after working hard. We're young right now so it may be giving up a week of spring break or a month of summer to go make a difference in this world. Most mission conferences challenge us to offer a year of our lives to missions work. A year is a long time and some of us need to find jobs after graduating. So maybe we'll wait until after we find a job, after we get married, after the kids grow up, after we retire... after, what? The way I see it now, the older we get, the harder it may be to offer a year because when we're older, we're closer to the end of our lifespan and health and energy become more fragile.When we're young, we want to experience and when we're old, we want to just enjoy. So when is a good time, then?

Well it just means that time is always valuable no matter your stage in life. And if time is always important, then giving up our time will always be a sacrifice. If we are to offer sacrificially, then that means we can offer and serve, any time (: It's never too late.

Support.

First off: For financial support raising, it's not that clear still and with the upcoming departure time (12 days!) is a bit frustrating because I don't know how it all works together. Also, needing to make a 6 day 'lesson plan' for the ESL camp is quite daunting.

But secondly: Had a chance to share my true thoughts with a good brother and sister (in christ) today and it's weird because although they couldn't solve the problem, they both had different approaches to the situation and both gave me different things but they both gave me prayer and their energy + time in talking with me (: THANK YOU! So glad for people that see how I'm doing (:

I feel more motivated to keep working (email/call organizers) to clear up any questions because I realize they are working hard on many things as well and would be glad to help me out, and to ask others who are more experienced for advice :D THANKSS hehe.

Speaking of prayer, I should probably write some prayer requests soon... I realized some people have their prayer letters already which means they've done quite a lot of thinking and research already. Need to sit down and stop being so busy and just think about what I'm about to do... I leave in 2 weeks. That is astonishing. I am astonished.

Prayer.

A few days ago I was thinking about why people say 'school' and 'exams' so much when we ask for prayer requests. Sometimes I think it's just a prayer request to say if we don't want to tell people other things that weigh on our hearts, because I've done that as well, but then I also began to think that perhaps we ask for prayer in final exams because there's only so much we can do in terms of time, wisdom, and energy. So much is 'out of our control', or at least we feel that way, and school is such an important thing to us yet it could be so daunting at times and that is why we ask for prayer. Prayer is to give it over to the God who loves us and to give him the control because we realize it's out of our own control.

And then I thought about what would happen if we were able to pray for anything in our lives? Does it sound too idealistic? Because wouldn't that be recognizing that it's all in his hands and that we're willing to follow his plans for us?

Also, I realized that someone's one sentence in a prayer request encapsulates so much more than is being said. So think about the people who talk to us, and pray! :D

Health.

Good sleeping habits and good health and better fitness are a must. Don't want us to be quarantined and I want to exert the most energy I can to learn the most that I can during this trip!!