a long week [christina]

I believe it's been about a week or so...well maybe over, I don't know...since I've blogged.
so let's start off with Tien Liao.

It was actually not what I was expecting, but it was still good. I thought that it would be all little kids and it turned out to be like 20 little kids and 15 middle schoolers. AHH...haha not really. I had one of the jr. high groups and with junior high kids often time get the quiet kids and it's usually just one or two instead of the entire group, which made it somewhat difficult. When I first met them they all seemed to be really scared of me for some strange reason. Everytime I tried to talk to them they would run away. But I prayed and asked God to open their hearts and answer some of the question that we were asking. So the first day they were all fairly quiet and didn't say anything in and I thought they didn't want to sit next to me because I thought I smelled or something, but I didn't.

There was one girl...she always had a smile on her face and she was fairly happy, but she always covered her mouth and I wondered why. I saw a glimpse of her mouth and half her teeth were literally rotted away and it scared me, but I knew that there was a happy spirit inside of her and comforted me. Wendy was the name of this girl. She was one of the main ones that I was praying for and by the last day she was answering all of the questions that we had asked and she had a curiosity in what God looked like. We told that if se prayed and asked she would see him maybe. But God doesn't normally reveal himself to people, but I prayed that God would give her a glimpse of himself so she would know that our God is more real than hers.

I also prayed that she would come to the praise night that we were having. There were many kids there before hand, but I didn't see Wendy and I was starting to think that no one from my small group would be there, but in walks Wendy and someone else that I didn't recognize. I asked her who it was and she had told me that it was her little sister and I was really encouraged that she had brought her little sister. They both had the smile and similar sests of teeth, but I knew that God was stiring in her heart. It came time for the altar call and she was one that raised her hand. We started praying over them and I looked and I saw her eyes closed and head bowed as though she knew what she was doing. Her smile was no longer there, but I knew she was trying to pray to the Lord. It was awesome. When we were all done and it was time to go she looked at me with a big smile and hugged me. I was touched, but I knew that God had started something up in her heart!

I wish I had blogged earlier cause I just realized how much stuff I still have yet to share with all of you. ok so anyways, that Saturday I don't really remember what we did during the day, but at night we were going to where the World Games were being held and we passed out tracks. It was really interesting cause I had passed out tracks before and usually it takes us a really long time to give them out, but this time the people were more will to take it and I saw many of them reading it and I was surprised that they didn't throw it out right away. I was really encouraged when I saw that. Another thing that we were going to do was body worship and at first we didn't have a place to use speakers to play the music and we were just going to not do it, but God provided phones that hold music for a reason. At first it was just three of us, the second time it was four, and the third time it was all of us on the worship team that was there. Even though we could barely hear the music I still felt God saying that we should do this because people can see what we're doing and there was actually someone sitting there with their camera recording us. IT WAS GRRRREAAAAAAT!!! haha ;D

ok so that was Saturday. THen the week began at Prince Kin, which is a kindergarden that one of our members mom works at. We teach two different times. Once during the morning and once in the afternon. We prety much just spend all day there, but it's not to bad. One thing that we all are very gratful for is nap time. We have all been quite tired and we get to sleep for at least 1 hour, which is awesome!!

The kids in the morning are mixed aged. Half of them are very quiet and the other half is loud. The first day kids are always quiet and shy, but I think part of the reason they did talk was because there was candy. There was one kid that knew all the answers and got pretty much all the candy and there wasn't a chance that the other kids could have gotten any. I fell as if that was part of the reason that some of the kids were quiet, but since then they have all participated in answering questions and have opened up quite a bit. 2 of the are still a bit quiet, but I know that they know what we are teaching them.

The afternoon kids are very loud and have a ton of energey. I really don't understand where half of it comes from. The first day I noticed a few kids where buddist necklaces and I thought to myself that they were the ones I needed to keep in mind, but the next day I didn't see any of them wearing one. It was kind of weird, but I think that was Gods way of telling me that it doesn't matter who is what religion because all of these children are improtant. Because our groups were big and hard to control we were split into 2 different teams. I had the majority of the boys and 2 of the girls, but I don't have a translator and I thoguht that it was going to be very hard, but so far it hasn't been to bad. I prayed to God to give me words to speak and he is starting to, but I know there is more to come.

Today we talked about their families a little bit, and it was really interesting. One girl didn't have a dad, on was buddist, one was catholic, one said that she prayed by herself in her room, and one didn't really know what we were talking about. I felt like a didn't know what to do because they were al different, so all I told them was that God will always love them and I hope that they herad those words. There is one boy named Jay and today he asked, "if I get angry will God run away?" I told him, "No, he will always be in you heart if you believe who he is." and the next thing I knew he said that he wanted to know and believe in Jesus!!

SO there have been many things that encouraged me and I hope that it has encouraged you as well. Please continue to Pray for Wendy in Tien Liao, even though we are not there pray that God still stirs in her heart. Also just pray for all the kids at Prince Kin especially Jay and him knowing God even more. Also that God would give our team physical and spritual strength to last the next 2 days and God would speak words of truth through all of us.

I think that this will be my last post so if you want to know more please email me at cuchanger@yahoo.com.