Maryvale Orphanage

We had our first week volunteering at the orphange in Monterey Park!!

Sadly, we are not allowed to take pictures of the girls because of sercurity reasons so I can not post any of our activities.

However, we had an overflow of volunteers from the church!! We actually had to split volunteers up into rotating dates! I went on Wednesday and led the arts activity with the girls who were 13-15 years old. They were very creative and very focused on their work. I love being able to include art in various places of my work :) Games are always a struggle with the girls because we cannot have any physical contact with them. Therefore, we can't even play a simple game like tag. So we are having to be really creative with games and relays.

Please pray for the girls at the orphanage for they have all been abused in their past and suffer from various degrees of disorders and disabilities. They are all beautiful and need to feel loved! I am sad that I will have to miss out on three weeks of volunteering with them while in Taiwan!

My Host Grandma...

I am living with Annie Chan. She is my host grandmother for my internship. In her home she didn't have one picture or piece of art on the walls. Everything was very plain. On Monday I had the day off of church and spent the whole day at home with Annie. In the laundry room I found a pile pictures and paintings stacked away in storage. When I asked her about them she told me that she has never had someone to help her hang them around the house. That was all I had to hear in order for the long day of decorating to begin.

She was so excited as we started to unwrap all the pictures and place them around the house where she wanted them. Finally, after many nails and hooks and many many variations... the house is actually decorated! She has lived there for two years with nothing on the walls!

It was such a great afternoon. Afterwards, we cooked dinner together and enjoyed eating with some added color in the dining room :)

Jr. High/High School Pool Party

This week I hosted the Jr. High and High School Pool Party. It was at a willing student's beautiful home and we had an excellent time. I made the students participate in a crazy relay:

Explaining the rules:

Running with a ball between two people...

Running back to back with linked arms...

There were also people hopping on one foot while blowing bubbles but there is no picture...
Leap Frog...

Then two people had to eat a donut each and swallow...
The last leg of the race was swimming across the pool...

And TEAM ONE WON!.. creative team name, eh?

Non-English Labels...

There is something very humbling about going into a store and admitting that you need help to get just about anything...
The other evening I needed toothpaste and deoderant (sorry for the openness). So I went to Super H Mart. Standing in the aisle I looked at rows and rows of Korean symbols. Yes, I knew I was looking at the products I needed but really had no idea what to pick:.. the red box? the white box? the green box? The cheapest box? These were the only things I could go on because I had no idea what it said...

"Missions Boot Camp"

This past Thursday and Friday the Taiwan/Korea missions team had "Boot Camp". We met at church on Thursday around 5:00 and spent 24 hours together! We spent Thursday as strictly 'hang out' time and a time to just get to know each other better to bond as a team. We did nothing in regards to planning or talking about the upcoming trip. It was great! Friday morning we woke up early and started the boot camp part. We ran through pretty much everything for the trip: worship sets, different songs, english lessons, kids camps, art workshops, testimonies, etc. It was good and needed but a very long day. The funny thing is: that is what we will be doing every day on the trip!! So it was a good experience. I can honestly say I feel that we are much more of a team after the boot camp. There is something about sharing food together and just telling jokes and laughing that brings people together as a team. It was tiring and long... but it was definately worth it.

Coffee House

Quarterly at the Church, Marcus Robinson (on English Staff) heads up 'Coffee House'. Coffee house is an arts based production in which visual, media, and performing artists are showcased. I usually help setting up all the art work that various artists in the area submit to be shown. Each coffeehouse usually brings in about 300-400 people! The performers below are 'Commoners and Kings', a spoken word group. The performances are very diverse and on June 14th we just had our most recent Coffee House as a fundraiser for the missions tream. The performances included: lyrical dance, classical piano, commoners and kings, a jazz/blues group 'Callbox', a gentlemen singing and playing the piano, and a woman playing the guitar and singing. It is always such a fun night! The bottom picture is just a small amount of the art around the room.

The Bryans....

I thought this was hilarious so I wanted to share it. These to men are both Bryan: Bryan Shaw and Bryan Kuranga. They both lead cell groups at our church and help with student ministries. AND if that wasn't enough: They both have the exact same car.

Taking the Metro to LA...

This sign was infront of the Los Angeles Court House with the top sign as "Our Sister Cities". I am going to Taipei!!! and I went to Guangzhou two years ago!!

If you click on this picture it will come up larger so you can see that it says: Chinese Population in Los Angeles, 1850: 2. Two Chinese people were in the city! Jeanelle thought this was amazing so we had to take a picture by it!

The Market....

I do my grocer shopping at Super H Mart around the corner from my house. The other grocery stores in the area are:

99 Ranch and DoReMe. Have you ever heard of those? Me Neither. The picture above is the candy aisle!! I can never read what I am buying so I am left to just looking at the pictures. The other picture is a bin of alive crabs. There are many bins of living creatures around the store. It's smelly....

Congrats Grads still....

A long day of Graduations... We went to them back to back!
Congrats Rachel Hu!! Welcome to Berkeley!

Congrats Eva! Welcome to Cal State Fullerton!!

Congrats Grads!

There are many graduations to attend... I still have two more!

Congrats to LUNA! Welcome to High School!

Congrats Erica! Welcome to BIOLA!! So many people from church came to support the graduates!

Congrats Chris!! Welcome to College!

Congrats Grace!! Welcome to College!!

Ministries

Work has definately been interesting and busy this week!

First, Wilson and Patty are also on staff in the English ministry and the three of us visited Maryvale which was founded as The Los Angeles Orphan Asylum way back in 1856. Today the Orphanage is in Monterey Park and is on 16 acres of land. During the summer volunteers from church will be going to Maryvale twice a week on every Tuesday and Wednesday. Currently, Patty and I are putting together the activities, games, waterpark trip, cake decorating day, etc for the girls at the orphange. Church volunteers will start going Tuesday the 24th. I am mostly in charge of faciliating and organizing with Patty. Please pray for this time as many youth from church will be serving here during the summer.

At cell group tonight I will be leading discussion on Ecclesiastes 2, "Pleasures are Meaningless".

Please pray for wisdom while speaking and for the hearts of the youth hearing and reading the Word.

Some girls and I are doing: Read the New Testament in a Month!

Okay so this is very ambitious of us but we are going to do it! We are reading 10 chapters a day and that will equal the whole NT within a month. We are starting today so feel free to jump in along side us!

Prayer Request: Unity of the missions team going to Taiwan and Korea! I am having the girls on the trip over on Saturday and we are baking for a fundraising bake sale! I hope this to be a great time for us girls on the team to bond and spend time together before we leave for Taiwan.

A peek into my new neighborhood!

It has been such an interesting start to the internship. I am living with one of the pastor's mothers in Diamond Bar which is south of Hacienda Heights. It is also a highly diverse area and my neighborhood is mostly Asian. I am living with Annie Chan and we get along great so far. The first night there I learned how to make dumpling soup. She has taught me how to make vegetables more tasty with different spices and has taught me to make some stir fry! On Saturday night she passed me a bowl of rice and there were little 0ne-two inch fish in it. She was eating them whole with her chopsticks so I followed her lead! It wasn't too bad! Once I got over the fact that I could feel the fish head and all, it was actually quite good; plus very healthy.


Above in the picture on the right is of one of the shopping centers. It is actually in Rowland Heights but just minutes from the church. This is what most streets surrounding the church and my house look like. Many signs are in Chinese and the workers within the store do not all speak English.
The picture to the left is the Mandarin Church service at Great Commission Church International (my church!). The website for the church is: ucchh.org -however it is all in Chinese!! There is an option to translate to English but it isn't always accurate or great.

This morning we had an all church staff meeting where both the Mandarin church staff and English staff were both present. Those are always my favorite. We start with worship and then pray. Everyone is kneeled on prayer pillows in the prayer room in which we do not wear shoes. The meeting is probably 90% prayer. We go around and each give a short statement about our ministry and prayer requests. The whole time is devoted to prayer for members who are sick, pregnant, getting married, ministries, students, leaders, China earthquake, and many other things! Everyone prays at the same time so the room is very loud. Two languages are being spoken and it is an amazing sound! This is how I get to start my every morning! What a blessing :)