East Asia Orphanage.

I just got a phone call this morning, informing me that I was chosen to go with a team to East Asia this summer!  I applied for the trip last week-- honestly, I didn't think  I would get on the team since they were looking for licensed PT's, nurses, and doctors.  But to my surprise, I'm going :) 

We will be visiting an orphanage made specifically for disabled children, and working with them for a week.  If you don't know me, this is exactly where my heart is. I remember when I first heard about this trip, and I just wanted to know more and more.  How many children are there? How old are they?  What are they like? I cannot wait  to actually meet these children and hold them.  God is constantly using children in my life to teach me more about Him, and the simple love He has for us.  

For the next few months, I'm going to start learning more about East Asia and what their lives are like by reading books, newspapers, etc. (Please pass anything along that you think I'd find interesting.)  Something I've learned from traveling is the value of learning about the people, and putting aside all that you know from your own culture.  In Lithuania, I learned that sometimes it is more important to understand than to be understood.  We all want to be understood and for our struggles to be known.  And that's the beauty of intercultural relationships-- we are given the privilege to share in each other's lives and to understand one another.  I've come to find that people struggle with some of the same things globally.  Not everything, because each country has its own struggles-- America struggles with the pursuit of self-comfort.  But the one thing we all share in common is the need for a Savior.  We all struggle to find redemption for ourselves and for a Father to call us His children.   Christ is the hope of the world.  He brings redemption to us all, and so we rejoice!

I am so, so, SO excited about this opportunity, and I cannot wait for God to stretch my mind even further by introducing me to a new part of His world.  

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." -- Jesus, John 14:18