day 1 in china :)

helloooo :) i arrived safe and sound last night in beijing! my flight was super long and i kept waking up every hour with neck pains. it was really tiring but i was really happy to have arrived safely :) there was a super nice woman on the plane who sat next to me. she knew that i couldn't speak chinese so she helped me get my entry card and helped me with the airplane food :P i waited at the airport for about 4 hours and then met joy and mary. they were super duper kind and really welcoming :) we waited around and picked up melissa, morgan, and michael. we then drove to peking university at around 12pm. wow i don't think i've been THAT tired in a long time. i PASSED out in bed and i probably snored like a beast :D

today, i woke up at around 6am to meet my roomates yiyin and karen :) hehe you're probably surprised that sarah who sleeps like a bear was able to wake up at 6am. i'm surpised too.. but i think it was TOO EXCITED to keep sleeping :P we had breakfast and then had several seminars concerning tip, safety, mandarin language, and stereotypes. they were all really fun and interesting. i had my first experience with a squatty toilet this morning! lol it was kind of interesting.. if you were able to see how much i struggled with it, you'd probably DIE laughing. haha so its basically a hole in the floor so i had to balance while pooping. it was so hard but i did it! wahaha :P one of our facilitators taught us the GQ pose which is a special way of squatting so that you get the "FULL" experience :D we then ate lunch at the south restaurant on campus which was really yummy. it was my first real chinese meal here :) we toured the campus and had a meeting about food&manners and went to dinner in chang ping. we ate at this really fancy restaurant for $4 a person, which would probably cost around $20 per person in america. we ate so many new things that everyone had a really enjoyable experience. the main dishses that came out were sichuan cuisines so they had this special spiciness to them. the spiciness was really weird because it left sort of tingly feeling on my tongue. it wasn't my favorite, but it was definitely a good experience. we ended our meal with warm sesame rice balls. mmmm they were so hot, sticky, and yummy :D i'm gonna be SO FAT because everything hear is so yummy and cheap. MUHAHA :D after we ate dinner, we went to merry mart to buy groceries. it was reallyyy cool to go into the market. it was a really modernized 4 story market with everything from groceries to home appliances. everything is soooo cheap here that im afraid to go back to america -.- jeenjjah china is so amazing!! i love it here =) i'm meeting some really amazing people here that are from all over america. i can't wait to see what kind of relationships G-d will bless us with.

Every single moment of the day, I get more and more excited to meet my students that will be arriving on campus on july 4th. we have a long training but i'm really thankful for it because i feel that G-d is really going to use that time to really prepare our heart, mind, and soul. my first day here has been filled with so many exciting experiences as well as really blessing moments. i really can't wait to see how G-d is going to use every single day to speak to us. i'm seriously so super excited and i hope reading this is making you excited FOR ME :D well its 9:55pm here right now and i'm really tired so i'm gonna end it here. we're going to the GREAT WALL OF CHINA tomorrow!!!! everyone is so excited and i'm sooo looking foward to it. i'll update all about it when i get a chance. stay tuned! i have a special pr-yer topic. i've been having a really hard time breathing here in china. my nose is extra stuffed and dry at all times and so i've been breathing through my mouth. thats been kinda tough because its hard enough as it is to breathe here with all the humidity. so please keep my team members and i in your pr-yers. lots of LOVEEEE from china <3

4 days until CHINA :)

hellooo :) if you are reading this right now, it means that you'll be part of the amazing experience that i will be part of in china this summer! i will be serving in china from june 18th to august 27th. G-d has called me to devote my summer to Him by teaching english in china. hmm as you can see, i can't say certain things here so i hope you can catch on :P i'm super duper excited and nervous at the same time. from the moment that i was accepted into the program until this very moment right now, i have been bl-ssed beyond imagination. G-d has taught me so much about His grace and His sovereignty and i've definitely learned so much about myself as well. He has shown me such mercy and unconditional love that i'm in awe everytime i think about all the bl-ssings. despite my unworthiness, He still loves me and He has chosen me <3

as you may know, i struggled so much with the financial aspect of this trip. i was faithless and was totally frustrated thinking how in the world i was going to raise $4,500. as you can see, i thought i could do it all on my own. i honestly thought i could get two jobs on campus and work my butt off to raise the money. but hoho i was sooo wrong and G-d definitely showed me how selfish i was being. having to surrender myself wholly to Him was definitely not something that was easy.. but the moment that I did, i realized how amazing and allknowing our G-d is. i thought that by asking people to support me, i was being selfish. i knew that people didn't have money and i felt bad asking, thinking that i'd be a burden.. but!! what i didn't realize was that i was actually being selfish by not letting others be a part of the bl-ssing that was to occur in china. G-d has taught me so much through my supporters, through their pr-yers as well as their financial support. i can PROUDLY proclaim that as of this moment, $3,570 has been raised. i know that it was not through my strength that all that money was raised, but honestly through G-d and His gr-ce. i really can't put into words what a BL-SSING it has been. maybe i can show you through the HUGE SMILE on my face, but i still don't think that can justify the amount of joy that is in my heart. only $930 to go :) i really have no doubt in my mind that He will provide. thank you to you all that are reading this for supporting me and keeping me in your pr-yers. i might not be able to update everyday in china, but i'll try my best whenever i do get a chance.

i really hope that the bl-ssings that i will receive in china will bless and encourage you as well. please stay tuned for some amazing amazing entries from across the world :) please pr-y for the people of china as well as my team members and myself. thank you thank you! G-d bl-ss you <3