So we have been busy growing beards in China. Oliver has been much busier then I:
Our Contact loves heavy metal music. On a typical evening we eat dinner with his family, then crowd around his computer to watch epic live metal concerts from days of old. He then will pick up his guitar and melt our faces with his shredding abilities!! It has been a great experience hanging with the Lenharts. We helped him clean out his garage the other day and threw away boxes and boxes of cassette tapes. He told us that when he first came over to China (20 years ago) that these tapes were his lifeline. The man loves his Hair Metal! Check this sick jam from 1987:
We are at a weird spot right now, our contact is leaving the country soon here in Kunming, and we are unsure what our next travel move will be. We hope that this weekend doors will be doing some opening and closing. There are many options and travel within China is pretty straightforward because of the train system. We should know by Monday, hopefully. On another note, I started reading "The Heavenly Man" yesterday. It is quite a read. Intensely challenging and powerfully informing about China. Reading it feels like I am read a modern day book of Acts, and the coolest part is, it is happening now! Tight stuff ya'll. -Josh
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Meet Giardia: This has become a close friend of ours in the past couple weeks. I first heard of this cute little parasite in the infamous Keith Gogan Backpacking Class at ORU. Gogan described it as pretty hellish, and he was very correct. Luckily the medication is cheap and works quickly, but we just found it today. In the meantime, we have learned superior sphincter and esophagus blocking abilities.
It has been a while since we posted, we apologize for that, but we have been busy entertaining some friends in our small intestines. We are currently in Kumning, China and the possibilities are pretty rockin'. We are safe, sound, and hanging with the Great White Buddha (as our host has been nicknamed). Here are some photos from Laos:
Sam = stud...unicycle super star and phenomenal human being
Glorious night at the mighty Me Kong river!!!
After a night at the bus station being harrassed by tuk tuk drivers this is what we woke up to
Since Sunday we have been staying at a Children's Home in Chiang Rai. It is called River Of Life Children's Home. From the moment we set foot into one of the buildings we realized that this place was not normal. We were invited into their sunday morning service, and I expected the typical children's service; a service complete with Hillsongs' Kids video worship, a Jesus picture to color, maybe some puppets, loads of candy, and a candy coated message. Not the case at all. Over the next two hours we encountered a worship service filled with passion and excellence. The kids lead the worship and they have a spot on team! Honestly, the best worship band that we have heard in Thailand. That is just crazy the team being all under 21, but these kids just know how to worship. Not only worship, but also teach and interceed. The founders of the home, Pat and Debbie, have been incredibally welcoming to us, and better yet have shared a wealth of wisdom with us. Not only are these kids some sick warriors for Christ, they are an absolute blast! We went swiming/fishing/noodlin'/muddin' in their pond:
We also got to hang out with two of the dudes' home village, which just happened to be an elephant village! And they drove their elephants, and we hung out with their grandparents, eating sugarcane and other sweets.
This was in my devotional like a week ago, and has been haunting me ever since: "It is one thing to go on the lonely way with dignified heroism, but quite another thing if the line mapped out for you by God means being a door-mat under other people's feet....Are you ready to be not so much as a drop in a bucket - to be so hopelessly insignificant that you are never thought of again in connection with the life you served?" - Oswald Chambers from My Utmost for His Highest
I am not at all close to being there, but I am closer then I was two months ago. Especially after being inspired by this 80s classic:
Our Family...We stayed a whole week with these amazing people!!!
Well it has been a little over two months and, WOW or maybe even holy crap, is all we can really say. We never thought we make it this far, It may sound cliche, but we are just so amazed at all the the things that God has allowed us to do, how much He has worked in us and through us, and has done so much the words can not really describe. He has been faithful, and ever present, provided us wisdom and peace, and showed us how to deal with our circumstances and each other. This is funny, but we were hanging out with this married couple the other day, and they were recently married, and we began talking. It seems that a lot of the challenges that newlyweds come across(concerning each other)Josh and I have dealt with. Not saying that we are married or anything, but we have literally been 30 seconds away from each other at all times for the last +2 months. But God is faithful and amazing things are coming out of our friendship.
SO what have we done and where will we go!!! We have been in Northern Thailand for almost two weeks now and got to spend some time with a Thai family. It was a great week as we dominated the local basketball court with our amazing American basketball skillzzzzz. We are so thug. Here is a video after a day of battle.
We taught English in a school and got to ask simple questions like..."What is your name," "How old are you," and"What do you think are the major implications of the global economic crisis". It was good times! We then traveled to Chiang Mai, and met up with some friends of a friend and talked about one of my favorite topics for most of the afternoon...TEXAS. Being local Austinites, good times were had as we talked about Mozarts Coffee, Kirby Lane, and Freebirds...OH FREEBIRDS. We then met a dude at our guesthouse who invited us to go to Chiang Rai for a worship conference for the youth of the area. We were already planning on going to Chiang Rai to work at an orphanage, so we jumped on the chance to party with some Thai youth! Next is Laos, and we cant be more pumped. The prospect of a 2 day boat ride to our city is an awesome idea, one of which i can not wait to experience...More to come!!!
Josh's preferred form of transport to and from streetball magic
Over the River and Through the Woods to Rambo's House We Go...That's Right you are Looking at Burma!
To All You Haters Who Said It Couldn't Be Done...Facial Hair is a Total Go
This is Our Squad Ripe after 4 or 5 Consecutive Wins!!!
Ok so me and Josh have lived in the same room for over 8 months now. Needless to say, we know each other very well and know how to push each others buttons. One of the things that Josh really hates is Pillow Talk. I love it and really know that if I push long enough Josh will get really ticked and utter some of the most hilarious phrases in the history of man. I kid you not. Last night after 20 min of Pillow Talk this dialogue was birthed.
Josh- "Dude I hate this" Me-"HEHEHEHEHAAAAAHHHaAAA" Josh-"Dude you were that kid at summer camp" Me- "Of course dude I was MR. Youth Group" Josh- " No dude you were that kid. You know the kid that i would plays bows and arrows with just long enough to get him to go on the blob with me."
This may be the best fat joke in the history of our friendship. For those of you who do not know me that well, I am, well lets say a lil plump. Anyway watch this video and enjoy a classic scene from the movie Heavy Weights!
Ok so it has been quite awhile since my last blog post. Sorry bout that, but I was in the trenches battling a very gnarly collapsed lung. It was so brutal, but i survived... Rambo would have been proud. So last week we were in a small town named Ratchaburi and got to teach English, and minister to some Burmese refugees in a little village outside of the town. That was fun, and the kids that we got to hang out with seemed to be really interested in the Gospel, so it was an amazing chance to spend some quality time with some awesome ninos. http://www.ywamthai.org/ratchaburi/ This next week, we will be traveling to the North of Thailand, leaving Bangkok behind for the last time. It will be weird knowing that we will not be coming back here, as we have made so many awesome connections and have, in a way, made this city home. In the North, we will spend our remaining 3 weeks(ish) traveling around visiting a village(whose name we do not know), Chang Mai, and finally in Chang Rai, before heading on to Laos. It should be a very interesting and packed time. Missing everyone! Oliver
Here are some videos that we have finally had the time to edit and post. again like the last video these are not for the squeemish so be ready cause BOYS WILL BE BOYS
spiders taste good!!!
umm i just watched the video for the first time and now realize that youtube decided that the dragonforce audio track wasnt worthy of youtube glory so just put in some headphones and rock out to your fav jam while you watch it!
