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>

2007 moments.

I’ve been at my parents’ home (the land of dial-up) so I haven’t had a chance to update. For now, here’s my favorite memories of 2007 in chronological order.

Baptism - My mom had me baptized before I knew what that meant as part of the Catholic tradition. I became a believer in 2001 and thought, “once baptized, always baptized.” Something always nagged at me that maybe I should look into getting baptized again, so I did. Actually, I wanted to become a member of The Village and had to complete that as a requirement. I took the mandatory baptism class which made the experience richer. I had my good friend Courtney baptize me as I stood in front of the congregation and my friends and declared my faith. We also had Palio’s pizza beforehand so it was a pretty good day.

The Band - My friend Megan and I always talk about music and our rockstar dreams. She found two other girls with similar passions and we rocked out for a month or so. At first, I thought it was a joke, but then I realized the drummer, Z, was amazing and Megan and the singer, Steph, were passionate about getting this thing going. We had a date set for Memorial Day to play a gig and practiced a lot, getting a few cover songs down. We goofed off a lot, but we also had fun piddling around and even hitting up church together. It was an unlikely combination, but it worked. Sadly, the party did not happen so we did not play, and when I came back from Asia, half the band started their real world jobs. We haven’t played since, but I’d be up for it again anytime.

Week before Asia - The week before my Asia trip was a hectic one. All the packing, planning, working, and my birthday was squeezed in there. All the encouragement I received from friends, family, and strangers was God sent and totally helped me get through the preparations and last minute hesitations. As a birthday gift, my friends helped me out big $$$ time and my bandmates put together a care package, complete with compact toilet paper and hand sanitizers. These gifts and the time spent made my heart happy.

Last night in Asia - I spent almost two weeks in east Asia and met some amazing people. During our last week, we dedicated our time to two of our new friends - seeing the sights, eating new food, and just getting to know one another. For our last full day together, we went to see the incredible fountain night show (while eating KFC!) then just sat outside and talked. I had a crazy moment of peace sitting out there, staring at the neon lights of the city and smiling at the entire experience. I want to go back.

Afternoon in Portland’s Living Room - After reading Don Miller’s books and falling in love with Oregon, I finally spent a week in Portland with my friend Megan. We hit up some hotspots like Powell’s Books and even went north to visit Mars Hill Church in Seattle. But hands down, my favorite moment was sitting in Pioneer Courthouse Square. We bought some lunch from some food carts (I think I ate a Philly Cheesesteak) and popped a squat on the steps. There were loads of people just sitting and chatting and the sense of community was welcomed. Megan and I engaged in some great conversation which topped off the moment. Dallas needs one of these.

Chantanapummas + Wii - I bought a used Wii for a fantastic price just in time for my holiday trip to Stephenville. My brother has been encouraging me to buy one, thinking the whole family would join in perfect harmony to play together. Well, he was right! After all those times my brother and I would play Guitar Hero on my PS2 while my mom danced, we finally had something all four of us could play. I have never seen my mom laugh so hard in my life. She ended up kicking our butts at bowling and laughed every single time she hit a strike (which was almost every time!) Even my dad ended up trying it out and determined to beat my mom at bowling (which he did at 3am once my mom was tired!) It’s my first game console since the PS2 I bought in 2001 and it has already earned its keep. I can’t wait ’til the next family get together and am contemplating buying one just for my parents!

Bring it on, 2008.

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.