I will start out this blog by listing the reasons that my mother utilizes Facebook.

1. To post incredibly long status updates that she copies out of the daily prayer quote book thing that sits by the toilet in her bathroom.
2. To post pictures of the dog and publicly declare her birthday while posting a profile picture of the poor dog in full birthday garb with the most miserable look on her face. I mean, I know you miss me…but really?
3. To record and post videos of her dancing with the dog to Christmas music in an attempt to mock Alyse (AKA) and myself and our amazing video-blogging skills, only to realize the silliness of such an exercise and proceed to freak out and “delete” the videos as soon as possible. Little does she know, she in fact, did not delete these videos so I, being the best daughter in the world, hacked into her Facebook account and deleted them myself, saving her from total embarrassment. (Don’t worry, though. I saved the videos for blackmail.)
4. To remind me to blog…Oh, and it was cute how everyone “liked” that comment. Ha. So, to appease you people….here you go: a blog.

MOTORBIKES: A TALE OF HIGHS AND WOES

(Just testing to see if I could make a good fiction writer…but actually, this is a true story…and actually, I’m just bored and I want to do something different…still incredibly sarcastic, but different.)

Once upon a hot, sticky day in the far away land of Bangkok, Thailand, my iPhone died in the middle of the night and decided to not wake me up for work in the morning. I was already late, so rather than rushing around, knocking stuff over in a futile attempt to clock in on time, I took my sweet time and actually tried to look decent. So, I trekked down to the motorbike stand where my faithful few are always awaiting me with waves and shouts of “Sawadee ka! Where you go?” But much to my dismay, the stand was deserted. I was too late. The reality of the situation began to sink in as I stood there on that desolate curb, reveling in my loneliness and wondering how I would ever make it to work. But then, I saw him. (cue angelic singing) That orange vest could not be mistaken for anything other than my motorbike savior. Joy welled up within me as he slowed down and said those three words that I so longed to hear–”Where you go?” I mounted his iron-clad steed side-saddle, and we rode off down the trafficked street. My heart was instantly won over when he so chivalrously offered me a lice-free helmet. It had been so long since I’d donned such an accessory, and I felt so safe as my motorbike prince weaved in and out of traffic and drove upon the wrong side of the street to get me to my destination. And I didn’t even have to give him directions or bargain for a fair price, he just knew. So as I paid and walked away, I knew in my heart that my motorbike prince would continue his quest of saving poor citizens from being stranded on lonely street corners, and I would have to continue on to my job, sign in late, and keep molding the young minds of this great land.  [The End]

LIFE UPDATE:

I’ve been doing the whole teaching kids thing since I’ve been back here in Bangkok, so please forgive me if I haven’t taken time to blog. The tearful homesickness lasted a whopping 24-hours, which is quite impressive if you ask me, seeing as how my original homesickness lasted for almost 2 months the first time around. My kids are insane at school, but the semester is flying by. With so many holidays and stuff, all of my co-workers keep telling me that it will be over before I know it. And honestly, it does make me a little sad that I’ll be done teaching at BCC in 4 months. That’s crazy! My how time flies. And I say “done teaching at BCC” with the assumption that God is going to allow me to return home in May and NOT call me to stay here for another year. We are not even going to discuss that notion because it is not my heart’s desire and I am CLAIMING Psalms 37:4 on this one. Haha.

So, what’s been going on here that’s so exciting that I have to blog about? Oh wait, nothing. I’ve just been living the working life, and I picked up several after-school tutors. It’s ridiculous how much extra cash there is to be made there, so I’m hoarding every bit of it and saving it for a rainy day back in the States. (AKA: down payment on a Mazda3 and a few months rent before I get on my feet……hello, welcome to the real world.) So I’ve been tutoring kids and working out a lot….losing a little bit of weight actually, but hey guess what? I got food poisoning…again. Heck, who knows if it’s even food poisoning anymore, my body just hates Thai food and it’s such a tragedy because I actually kinda love it now. I’m in freaking Thailand and I find that I can’t eat Thai food. What is that about?! So…I did a little experiment. I went to the store and bought all American food. I mean, we’re talkin’ PB&J stuff, Poptarts, spaghetti, potato salad and pork-n-beans…oh yeah. I dropped at least 1000 baht on that stuff. American food ain’t cheap! The good news? I haven’t felt sick at all since I’ve started eating all that. The bad news? I feel like a fat cow and it’s so painfully clear how much more unhealthy American food is than Thai food. So my choice is…to be sick always and skinny? Or have no stomach issues and return to fat-American status?  Hmm…I’m still deciding which one I’m going to go with for the next 4 months.

FREESTYLING:

I’ve really made an effort to get involved at Newsong since I’ve been back. Newsong is the coffee shop church that I attend here in Bangkok. It’s small, but there’s a lot of great people there. I went a lot before, but I’ve been intentional about being consistent recently. In fact, I’m starting to sing with the worship band, and it feels unreal. Something about leading worship just feels so natural to me; and I love being able to just sing harmony and not worry about solos and stuff. But actually, I did end up doing something pretty crazy last night. Well, Kilang (the main worship leader guy) had previously heard me “battle” one of our friends in a freestyle-rap-off and he actually asked me to come up with a little somethin-somethin to add to one of the worship songs in the middle of the set. At first I laughed, but then I actually went with it. Yes people, I legitimately freestyled in the middle of a worship song last night. I know, I know….I would.

CRAZY LOVE:

Another cool thing that’s happened at Newsong was when Francis Chan came and spoke. He’s the author of Crazy Love, and probably one of the funniest speakers I’ve ever heard. We had a Night of Worship at a local venue and invited several churches to attend. There was dinner, worship, and Francis Chan, and it was unreal. Dude was hilarious. And some of the things he said were absolutely eye-opening. Here is the main thing I really got out of it:

Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the LORD always, and I’ll say it again–REJOICE!”  So check this out…if we, as Christians, are not filled with joy, and we live our lives looking miserable and depressed all the time, why would any non-Christian look at us and want what we have? It’s a command to rejoice in the LORD when? ALWAYS. This really spoke to me because I’ve been struggling to find my joy. I don’t know what’s sucked it out of me, but it hasn’t been there for a while…so being reminded that having joy is a part of witnessing woke me up from whatever sleep I was in. I needed that reminder for sure.

***Check out Francis Chan’s website >>crazylovebook.com

Philippians 4:4-13 [The Message] -

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

PRAYER WARRIOR:

So, I try to keep my cheesiness to a minimum on here, but I just can’t help but say how much I love Eric. He means the world to me, and I couldn’t ask for a better boyfriend or best friend. Like most college grads, he’s been job-hunting since we graduated back in May, and in this economy, that’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It sucks! I’ve been praying for him to find a job, but everything always seems to fall through. He’d get his hopes up and continually end up let down and discouraged. I got frustrated and even wondered, “Why bother praying about it anymore? God’s gonna do what He wants…why does it even matter what I say? There’s no point.” It was so hard to stay positive and fill the role of the encouraging girlfriend when I, myself, began to doubt.

When I was home, my mother gave me a book about intercessory prayer. I’ve always been interested in it, and I knew my prayer life was suffering as a result of doubt and discouragement, so I figured I’d just start reading the book. And seriously, I hadn’t even finished the first chapter before I was completely astounded by all the things that I’d been missing. I had been under the false impression that continually praying for the same thing (i.e. a job for Eric) was pointless and a waste of time. If I asked for it once, God knows I want it right? WRONG! Persistence in prayer is so crucial, and I’d never realized it. I also never realized that my prayers really can change things. I honestly don’t know what I thought before because looking back, I feel like I really did believe that my prayers were worthless. Ok, maybe “worthless” is not the word I’m really looking for, but I do think that I didn’t fully understand the impact that my prayers had in my own life and in the lives of others. I began to understand the authority that God’s given me through prayer, and I started praying with more confidence and expectation.

Last week, Eric had a job interview in Nashville. I don’t know what it was about this one, but I just felt like it was the one. I’m tellin’ ya, I’ve never prayed with such confidence and authority as I did that night. I’ve always wanted to feel like I was a prayer warrior…like I was really making a difference in someone’s life by praying for them, and that night I felt it. The next day, Eric was supposed to find out if he got the job or not. He was supposed to let me know when he heard from the company, but he never called. I had a dream that his mom had emailed me and told me that he got the job, but I woke up to an email from her that said, “No one has called, Eric doesn’t think he got the job.” Talk about disappointment?! The whole way to work I was praying the same thing over and over, “God, I’m sorry but I’m so angry with you and I can’t help it. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am. Forgive me.” I got to work and all but cried on my friend Sina’s shoulder before going to my 1st period class. Right before I walked away from my desk, I checked my Skype and Eric had IM’d me saying, “Looks like your boy is moving to Nashville…” I flipped out. HE GOT THE JOB!!!! In that moment, I had so many kinds of excitement running through my body it was ridiculous. And all I kept hearing was God saying, “Pssh…don’t doubt me.” Haha. It’s amazing…It literally astounds me to know that God hears me when I talk to him. And I love knowing that I can approach the throne of God through prayer and tell him exactly what I think, feel, need, etc. It’s also amazing how God’s changing me through the entire Eric-job-hunt-situation. Even people I work with here have been praying for him, and it’s so cool seeing how God is using Eric to help me carry out what He’s called me to do here in Thailand. It’s that whole “big picture” thing…we just have to continue focusing on God’s plan and not the roadblocks along the way.

So, it settled. Eric is moving to Nashville tomorrow, and he starts work on Monday. It’s crazy how life can change in a matter of 5 days isn’t it? But I’m so incredibly happy for him and proud of him. And of course I’m super happy because Ashley and Justin are living in Nashville now!!! So, next up on the list of things to pray for…a job for ME in Nashville! :) I can’t wait to see what God does next…

IN CONCLUSION:

Here’s a few random happy things:

• I got a toaster oven, so I’ve made brownies a couple of times. I mix up the stuff in a ghetto cooler I bought at 7eleven, and I guess on the water/oil because I don’t have measuring cups. I mean, the brownies taste good so I guess that means I’m awesome.
• I was Lady GaGa for Halloween…I didn’t wanna waste money on a costume and my paper plate dress ended up failing miserably, so I just wrapped myself in bubble wrap, put on a blonde, got some stunna shades, and rocked it.
• The Hangover 2 is being filmed in BKK right now, and I have a chance to be an extra. I’m hoping that works out because I might be slightly obsessed with Bradley Cooper and I just really wanna give Zach Galifianakis a bear hug because he’s from Asheville. Haha.
• I saw my first Christmas tree in the city last night. It was huge and glorious. So much for pretending Christmas isn’t real this year.
• I’m buying my plane ticket home this week. I decided to stop in Egypt for about 10 days because it’s cheaper to fly home on Egypt Airways…go ahead and check that one off the Bucket List. Booyaah!!!

Ok, this is officially the longest blog post ever. I’m shutting up now. I’ll update soon, so you don’t have to hound me on Facebook.

I’m out. //Cwalk.