Southeast Aisa 2007- Scenery

The steel building that looks like a
bunch of rubber bands intertwined
is the Crow's Nest, which is where the
2008 Olympics will be held in Beijing.
This was my view outside my hotel
window. We stayed in this hotel when we
first arrived in Beijing & just before heading
home.

The sky just before the 2nd Typhoon.

The path from the camp to the grocery

store & Dico's.

We swam here with our students

3 times. It was over 100 degree's

outside & the water was the same,

so it was not very refreshing.

This was the camp we stayed at for

our 3 weeks with the students.

These are the dorms where we all slept.

This was a statue that some of the
people worship. They have

several gods. They believe the red
keeps the wood from burning &
black will keep water out.

They have many superstitions.

This is a special rock. The

Emporers would send their armies down,

dig trenches along the way, fill the trenches

with water, wait for it to freeze & then

bring a rock like this across the ice. They

thought it was beautiful.








This is the Forbidden City. It held the

most amount of Emporers.

The rock above is in the Forbidden City.











A temple at the Great Wall. Inside are

gods the people worship.












I took this from the top of the first

tower we climbed up. As you can

see, parts of the Wall are VERY steep!

There were times I would not let go

of the railing, as I felt like I would just

topple over if I did.








This was a manmade island in the

Summer Palace. The Summer Palace

is the largest, best kept Imperial Garden's

in the world. It consists of a manmade

lake with islands all throughout it. You take

boats to get from island to island.








Behind the water flowers you can

see some of the boats used to get

around the Summer Palace.

This was at the Acrobatic

Theatre. We went to this our last

full day in Beijing. It was good, but

we were so exhausted that half the

team fell asleep.

Southeast Asia 2007- Food :)

Cindy & I eating the Dumplings
that my class made. I got real good
at eating with chopsticks!











Here I'm getting ready to eat
my Chow Mein, which we had
every day for lunch & dinner.
Yes, that is an octopus I am
about to eat. They put it in their
Chow Mein. It really did not have
a taste.







My breakfast for 3 weeks straight.
The bottom white thing (steamed bread)
was like raw dough, the muffin looking
thingwas like stale angel food cake & the
top left thing was some kind of bread
with egg & something else in it. I did not
always ask what I was eating!






My Chow Mein & watermelon.













A ketsup packet. I tried it only once,
as it has a mixture of tomato paste
& what tasted like soy sauce in it.











My first meal in Southeast Asia! It
was the main course. Yes, I did eat
some of it. I tried everything so I
would not offend.












This was the main course
at our last dinner. It was
very good!

Southeast Asia 2007- Funny Pictures

My class being goofy!!!










Gary was trying to get Kiki to scream
for our class play that we were doing
for the talent show. The only way to get
our students to do anything was to get
over the top about it, which you can see
Gary was good at! :)








Cindy was showing George how to
be a dead possom for our class play
for the talent show.












A little orphan boy who was running
around wanting everyone to take a
picture with him in it. I love his face!















Double (one of my students) kept
telling me that she weighed a lot
(90 lbs), so I picked her up to show
her that she is not big! She is such a
crack up!









Me sticking my head out of part
of the Great Wall!

















Waiting for Cindy & Gary at
the Great Wall. They were an
hour and a half late, as they
went around a loop of the
wall and it was longer than
they thought. We got a little
bored! ;)







Jenni, Me & Kendra after a
shaving cream fight! We had
to show our students that
we know how to have a good
time!!!









Pizza Hut!!! We think that is
supposed to be Jack Sparrow!

Southeast Asia 2007- My Class

Go Jamaica! This is my Advanced English class.
They are awesome!










Virginia (Chinese Assistant), Cindy (Lead Teacher), Me & Gary (Assistant Teachers)











During the 2nd Typhoon the kitchen staff
had us make Dumplings. We had
to cancel going swimming, so this was a fun
& interesting alternative!






This was a lesson in giving directions.
Cindy would tell the students a place
on campus to go to and they would
have to lead me by tellingme where
to go in English. I have to admit to
peeking under my blindfold now & then! ;)





My students believe that ALL American's
do the peace sign in their pictures. They
are so funny!








My last goodbye with Anna, one of my
students who stayed an extra night after
all the other students left. Anna and I
had a lot of talks about my faith and the
Lord. She would even borrow my Bible
and read it during her free time. We still
keep in contact via email. Anna did not
accept the Lord as her Savior while I was
there, but she is so close. Please pray for
Anna's salvation!

Southeast Asia 2007- The Orphanage

The 1st orphanage we went to.
A girl who is learning photography.
This was her first time using a digital camera.










Me with all the girls from the 1st orphanage.
They loved the heart baloons Dave brought them!















This little girl showed me around the
orphanage and then we played.
We were only there for an hour and
she did not speak English, but she
was such a sweetie!









These are the children from the
2nd orphanage we went to. I spent
2 days with them. Here they are
saying a prayer for our team.
Some of my team members spent
their time teaching these
children English.







This 3 year old girl stole my heart (big time)! Cindy & her brother, Justin came to the orphanage because her aunt poisioned
her parents and older brothers. It took
a while to get her to warm up to me,
but once she did she was mine!








This was right before I had to say "goodbye"
to Cindy. A piece of my heart is still with her
in Southeast Asia!!! I would have taken her
home in a second if I could have!!!

Southeast Asia 2007- My AMAZING Team

My team was an amazing group of people! Everyone was dedicated and there to do the Lord's work. There was very little complaining even through the most difficult circumstances. Their attitudes were great and focused on others. From the beginning we were a family.








Kendra, Me & Jenni downtown in the
city where we stayed. We were shopping
on our day off.











We took our class to a fastfood
place called Dico's. We bought everyone
an ice cream cone to cool off. It was around
113 degrees this day!










Jenni, Kendra, Me & Cindy at our last
dinner together! :(












The Great Wall! It was 110 degrees
this day. That is not fog, but pollution in the
background. Kendra, Lacey and I climbed to
the 2nd tower.
















Brian, Lacey, Me & Stephanie after graduation/talent show, which was
the night before the students left.

Mexico 2007

My second time in Tecate was a LOT different from the first! First of all I knew what to expect so I wasn't as nervous, but I was the only youth and the only girl doing construction! Being the only youth on the trip forced me to step outside of my comfort zone ever further than I had before. On this trip I was able to visit Tecate with the daughter of the Tecate church's pastor, which allowed me to see the true poverty and hardship of the Tecate people. My eyes were truly opened to the need of people all around the world. My desire to serve the Lord through missions grew even stronger while I was in Mexico!