I've gotten back into the routine of running several mornings a week. The weather has been perfect for running, usually in the 70s, so it's been really nice to take advance of that before it starts to get really warm here soon. Which reminds me that the humidity has definitely picked up in the last couple weeks. It's 70-80% humidity everyday ... you all should be glad you don't see my hair, it simply can't handle that kind of humidity, frizz everywhere :) I've been seeing the sun less often though so I'm praying for some sunny days to be coming up! So anyway, there's a park next to campus that I have been running at. I'm not exactly sure how big it is or far I'm running, but I usually download a John Piper sermon from his website (about 35 minutes long) and just run a couple laps until it's over. It's been a really great way to get my mornings started since most of my classes are in the afternoon and also just a great stress reliever!
Classes are going well! I'm finally starting to have assignments to do and besides finals pretty much everything is due in March so work load is definitely picking up. I'm glad though because I almost have had too much free time on my hands. haha Any of you who see me at Mercer and the sleepless wreck I can sometimes be probably think I'm ridiculous for complaining about too much free time but I've actually learned that I enjoy having a pretty structured schedule so I feel like I'm being productive with my life! I think the busier I am the better I use my time. One of the classes I'm taking here involves four field trips, 3 that are in Hong Kong and we've already gone of two of them. They've been really awesome and informative! We got to visit a forest preserve in Hong Kong ... yes, in the midst of all the city and pollution and over-population there's a forest and it's wonderful ... the most fresh air I've breathed in awhile! We also visited the wetland area which is in the northeast area of Hong Kong. IT was really beautiful there too! There was a lot of open, flat farmland and farmers out on their hands and knees picking vegetables, quite the relaxed and quaint life. Anytime I'm able to visit one of the islands here or an area away from the city I just love it. The city can be fun but it's when I escape for a bit that I feel I can breathe deeply again :) The last field trip we went on was two weeks ago to the district of Central. This area was very historical and I saw sights of both Victoria Town (the more modern, and English part of Central) and China Town (the areas with more chinese influence). One of the coolest buildings in Victoria Town was a little tea house that has been around for several hundred years and maintained from when the British still owned Hong Kong. We also saw St. John's cathedral, an Anglican church that was built when the English first came to the island. One of the cool sights in China Town was all the chinese medicine shops... they were everywhere! I will list just a few of the medicines you might find there: deer antler, lizard, and a mariad of skin looking items that I'm not sure exactly what they are?? haha I did not make any personal purchases. Above are pictures of: some "medicine?", the wetlands, A Mercer sign for all you Mercerians out there!! haha Apparently Captain Mercer was an important English man and I found this street on the Central field trip, and the last picture is looking through some trees over to a mountain at the preserve.
Let's see, another cool thing I've been up to is that I started the Cleansing Stream Seminar at my church. This is a seminar that focuses on healing, freedom, and discipleship and we meet every other wednesday from two weeks ago until the beginning of April and there is also a retreat weekend. I will be honest, two weeks ago when I first got there and saw that I was the youngest person there I really doubted if I had made the right choice in signing up.... yet since then I have learned how glad I am for signing up! I ended up meeting two other girls at Universities here in Hong Kong that are also going through and God has really been using this as an opportunity to break down some walls in my life. I started struggling with issues in my faith a little bit before coming to Hong Kong but since arriving here they definitely became for intensified. Of course in my own mind I'm frustrated with God and wondering how he could let me struggle like this when I'm already dealing with so many changes and the general lonliness of being abroad! Yet I'm coming to see and realize how of course, God has never left me, but he is using everything in my life as an opportunity to refine my faith into something even stronger. It often doesn't feel like that, but I know His purpose is beyond what I can see and feel. I know that God has allowed me to come to Hong Kong alone so that I could be away from everything that is comfortable and the daily clutter that can keep us from focusing on Him, and to really be able to stretch me and force me to listen and learn many things that I would never have learned otherwise. This last couple weeks I've been learning to get past my mind and feelings and to be able to listen to the Holy Spirit and what He is telling me... a hard thing to do here because I promise you, I've had a lot of feelings these past two months! haha Here's the part where once again I ask for your prayers! I'm honestly going through a period of the most testing my faith has ever seen and sometimes it can be very discouraging, but I know God will bring me out on top in the end! Pray that I will continue to TRUST Him and SEEK Him and will continue to learn to distinguish His voice amidst all the other voices that sometimes cloud my mind... and I thank you immensely for your prayers! James 1:2-4 "Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything"
Last but certainly not least, yesterday I went to Maccau!! I will first fill you in on a little history of Maccau. Until 1999 it was a colony of Portugal, but it now belongs to China. Maccau is a little island about a 1 hour ferry ride from Hong Kong... it really doesn't feel TOO much different from Hong Kong in parts but you get stamps in your passport so that's exciting! haha Anyway, Maccau is sort of known as the "Las Vegas" of the east today but what we mostly went to see was the historical sights. There is a lot of really pretty Portuguese architecture and they've done a better job at maintaining history than Hong Kong has. Hong Kong sorta just loves anything that is modern and considers anything older than 40 years 'old'. Much different than Europe! The picture to the top left is the ruins of St. Paul's cathedral in the background. To the front is me stuffing my face with a porkchop burger, and yes, it was very tasty :) Anyway, this was probably my favorite part of the day. They mostly just had the front of the cathedral still in place but they also had parts of the ground that were covered in glass and you could see the original foundation. They also had two museums connected to the ruins. One was a crypt for the bones of many Vietnamese and Japanese matrys from the late 1500s and early 1600s. All of the martyrs had attended St. Paul's to get their schooling so that was a really neat thing to be able to see. It's always good to remember how lucky so many of us are today to not be persecuted for our faith... definitely a blessing so many around the world don't today experience! The other museum was full of religious art that dated back several hundred years, one large painting really stuck out to me and it depicted the martyring of over 20 japanese Christians in the late 1590s ... they were actually crucified. I had no idea stuff like that occured in Asia, my Asian history is definitely pretty pathetic. The picture on the right is at a fortified wall that the Portuguese build in the 1600s. It circled around a pretty large area, had several spots with cannons sticking out, and was just pretty cool in general! I really enjoyed getting to see these big historical sights :) We saw several other smaller sights throughout the afternoon but last night we went to the Venetian hotel. The idea is that it's supposed to be set up to look like Venice so in part of the hotel there was a little river that ran through it and a few gondolas that you could take rides on. In general this hotel is HUGE, has over 3,000 rooms, and a whole lot of places to gamble. If any of you have visited the Opryland Hotel that's a little bit of the feel that I got except with a lot of the room taken up by gambling rather than trees. There was basically a shopping center inside and then the best part, a theatre! A couple girls and I figured out there was a Cirque du Soleil show going on last night and were able to attend! I really wish I had photos to show you all but we weren't allowed to take any picture. It was incredible though! The strength and control over their bodies that these acrobats showed was out of this world. They also just did an incredible job with the theatrics and had people flying through the air, a giant "globe" that floated around, lights, and beautiful music that featured stuff from all different parts of the world. I've realized while typing that there's no way to relate to you how wonderful it was but I will say that if you ever have a chance to see one of their shows you definitely should! Ok well I think that basically sums up my life so far :) I guess I will end how I end all other posts by saying that I miss you all dearly! Hope to hear from you all soon!
with love in Christ,
Deborah
