Changes.

Today the temperature is finally at a comfortable 70F with a high of 81F. The blossoms have come and gone and trees are basically in full bloom now. I’ve even whipped out the flip flops, whoo hoo! The changing of the seasons has paralleled my own season of change. But since I love the spring, I’m embracing the rest of the changes in my life.

- My home group has disbanded since our leader is encountering her own new season full o’ exciting things. This has been the first community I’ve belonged to since arriving in Dallas and it will be strange not seeing these girls every week.

- I finished up a big project which means I can start updating my portfolio. After I finish updating my new portfolio and get back from Asia, I will soon re-enter the workforce. I’m slightly nervous that I will settle for second best and that I will have major withdrawals from my afternoon naps. Also, I will be seeking a graphic design job in which my nine years of tech support experience may be useless. I’ll be fresh meat!

- In a little over two weeks, I will be off to East Asia. Some major changes have gone through and our trip will be nothing like the one I took last year. I was looking forward to some familiarity, but it looks like we’ll all be in for a little adventure!

- I signed a six-month lease last month to save some money, but looks like I’ll be up to moving in August.  This heavily depends on my future job but I also have an affinity towards the northwest side of the metroplex since that’s where church and most of my friends are. This apartment complex has been perfect for me, but I think I need to live with another human being in fear that I will become “that cat lady.”

Welp, speaking of, it’s time to head west to Grapevine for W.I.T. night — watching my favorite shows with Jenna!

Help Nina, help East Asia!

What? One core value at The Village Church is Missional Living, stating Acts 17:26 that “He (God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation…” To live this out, in addition to local missions, there are often teams sent from the church to South America, Africa, and Asia. I am part of a small team heading out to East Asia to push back the darkness, focusing on relationship building in order to proclaim the Gospel among the lost. Some opportunities include English corner, prayer walking, and just spending time with the locals.

Who? Me and a few members from The Village Church.

Where? East Asia

When? The deadline for financial support is March 28, 2008. The trip will be April 14-26, 2008.

How? I recently went on a mission trip in August and find myself humbly asking my sponsors to help me out again. In attempts to reach more supporters, I’m asking you - my online friends and acquaintances - for help, both prayerfully and financially. I must raise $2100 before March 28 which goes towards The Village Church short-term mission trips funds which will cover the team’s expenses during this trip.

If you would like to help financially, please e-mail me at theneener[at]gmail.com and I will give you the information. No amount is too small and I will be sure to bring back a gift as a token of my appreciation!

If you cannot help financially, you can still help me out through prayers (specifically for finances, team unity, open hearts and eager ears) and by posting this web banner on your web site and/or blog! You can copy and paste the html code below which will post the image as well as a link back to this page.

<a href="http://theignition.net/blog/?page_id=236"><img src="http://www.theignition.net/images/asia/halfbanner.jpg" alt="HELP NINA, HELP EAST ASIA!" /></a>

Not the same.

Ever since I came back from Asia, my body hasn’t been acting quite right. I’ve been more tired than usual, find myself taking naps after work, and then being extremely nauseous after my naps. The thought of food either makes me ill or extremely hungry. Although I haven’t yakked, I almost wish I did, like it would magically fix things. I really have no idea what’s going on, but I hope it doesn’t involve trips to the doctor. Rather, I hope it involves me waking up tomorrow and being my usual cookie monster self.

Edit: Someone in a trip before me mentioned feeling sick and wondering if he got worms. And I just finished a book that mentioned worms several times. I just spent a few minutes googling “worms parasites traveling” and the results are quite alarming. There’s just something unnerving about the words “2,000 eggs a day,” “anus,” and “feeding off your body” all in the same article.

Asia Unpacked: Part 1.

For those of you expecting the lowdown on what I got to do in East Asia, you’ll have to wait. Like I said in my last post, I got back Saturday night and then slept for about 14 hours. The sleeping was mostly because I was tired and also recovering from a head cold. But it is also my defense mechanism and I was defending “reverse culture shock.”

East Asia was amazing. I got along with three other people I didn’t really know before, made some really good friends overseas, and ate some crazy things. Through this, I saw different characteristics of God I’m sure I would never a million years see in my little life in the U.S.A. One of the reasons why I saw differently was, duh, I was on the complete other side of the world. Eastern culture is crazy different than Western culture. I’ll get to that in future posts when/if I get to unpack a few details.

One of the other reasons why I saw other characteristics of God was because I didn’t have my comforts at all. Other than my team members from America, my photo album (that I initially carried to start conversations with the locals, but ended up as a good reminder of my buddies back home), and my bag of Skittles, everything else was shaky ground. The fact that I didn’t have a good friend to run to, a TV to space out with, a burger and beer to relax, or my comfy bed to end the day with, ended up being enough to fall back on God instead of these other things.

With these idols out of the way, I saw the best and the worst of me. And through the best times, I was able to thank God because I knew for a fact it wasn’t because of my flesh that I was able to endure full 7am - midnight days, hold conversations in broken English, and learn to love people who I have little in common with. And through my worst times, I was able to thank God that He could show me how ridiculously ugly and dark I can get and that He loves me the same.

It’s really hard to unpack the past two weeks, even if I did get to chronicle every day here, my words would do the experience a great injustice. A teammate and I spoke briefly tonight and we both agreed that we were experiencing “reverse culture shock.” I understood him when he said he felt like the experience was being taken away… like it was some twilight zone in which nothing happened. But of course something happened, something huge happened in all of us in which we learned so much in two weeks on the other side of the world… and trying to bring everything back and apply it to our lives in the Western world, a world all too familiar, is enough to make my head spin. As soon as I got back to the states, even as I sat in at LAX, my brain was reeling from the many differences already! I nitpicked so much within an hour and felt so bad for doing so. There are definitely pros and cons to every culture, so of course it was easy to come back to something I know and then instantly see the cons to it. However, when I got back home to smiling faces and a late birthday present - a complete cleaning of my apartment! - I started to see the pros again.

So how will I do it? How will I be able to take this new knowledge, this revigorated heart and spread this light in Dallas, Texas? How can I continue having a missionary life in the Western world which has its own barriers against the Gospel? These are the things I prayed before leaving and I ask these questions now. It will be interesting to see what God has planned for me now, that’s for sure!

Guess who’s back?

I arrived at DFW last night a few minutes past 7pm. I was able to stay awake and spend a few hours with friends, but was sure to down some Nyquil sometime after midnight and slept. I finally got out of bed around 4pm today. I’m not sure if I’m tired because I overslept or if I’m already tired thinking about life back in the U.S.A.

I’ll try and unpack my Asia trip sometime, but for now I’ve gotta get back into the grind of things. In case you are wondering how the trip was, I’ll just say it was pretty much amazing.