Tonight was SUCH a blessed night. Asian fiesta with asian food and talk galore! In other words, how I missed my Fremont roots tonight. Totally feeling homesick right now cause of all the asianness of tonight =( Thank you God for hecka new friends in Fremantle, asian food and the beauty that is Sriracha sauce.
Prayer night was awesome. The end.
Josh and I put it together but God definitely ran the show. It was the weirdest thing ever because usually, planning these kind of things, I always reach some level of stress; especially nearing the time it begins. But throughout the entirety of it, I had such peace about it and such an excitement about getting the chance to bless my friends on the Doulos. It was pretty much the same setup as worship nights at Interlude but with add-ins like Boae Lee’s amazingly long (but hilarious) farewell speech, an awesome aboriginal band, and totally not having things according to our time schedule - but it all worked out smooooooth as warm buttaaa. Good stuff.
We were sitting near the end of the night watching as people prayed fervently with people they’ve either never talked/prayed with, and it was just so beautiful - f’real. As Josh accurately put it, “It feels like Christmas.” Haha, thanks Jesus for giving us this opportunity to bless the people on this ship and glorify You through the night. I had such a ballin’ time, no lie; or as Australians say it, “It was DARDY!”
Oh you Aussies. How I shall miss you when we sail off for East Timor in 5 days. TIMORRRRRR! So excited yet apprehensive to how I’ll respond to the cultural difference, time will tell.
Got to catch up with Milan, Andy, Paul, Angela, Chris (C) and my daddios tonight via iChat! Oh technology, how I adore thee! ‘Tis truly the apple of thine eye.
Had an awesome time chatting it up and praying with these two people I met called Ron and Pauline at the cafe in the Book shop. They were so eager to listen and ecstatic to share about their own lives in Christ; the hardships they both went through with relative divorces and just really praying with them. They said I blessed them with sharing my story but dude, totally a blessing to me.
I’m determined to talk in depth with at least one visitor a day. Jennifer Wang, you SHALL come through with a resolution for once! Dum DUM dum DUhhHHHHhhHm.
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Oh yes, a couple of us also had an excellent time NOT debating about theology, but really discussing it. Taking issues, putting them in historical and biblical context, and really having fun while just talking. I loved seeing how, though we had obvious differences on debatable subjects, our faith was firmly rooted in the foundation of Christ being our God and Savior. Therefore, we knew throughout that it wasn’t an argument on which our faith hung and it was all in good spirits. SO REFRESHING TO HAVE THAT FELLOWSHIP!
Hyejung and I went out to a Fish and Chips restaurant to do our devotions together. It was such an encouraging and fun time for both of us to just sit, eat (AMAZING COFFEE GELATO) and share with each other.
To be honest, what God showed me wasn’t through the Word at all. Know why? ‘Cause I headed out for DEVOTIONS without a BIBLE. This is after spending 10 minutes deciding what to wear that morning, really shows where my priorities were this morning. Yet, through devotions, God really reminded me of the many truths He stands for in my life. Simple things like John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Something that is the crux of the Christian faith, yet because it is so infused in ‘Christian culture’ and we hear it so often, easily loses its significance to us.
We just sat there for an hour and a half sharing about what we were going through onboard and what God has been teaching us. Hyejung is honestly like an older sister kinda deal, it’s sweet (BUT NOT AS SWEET AS COFFEE GELATO, YUM).
Ok, time for some prayer night planning.
Today was such a sweet day. Went to the beach with Ros, Kaylee, Elliot and Mike thinking that it was totally going to be awkward (how I always assume the worst) but it ended up being so relaxing and enjoyable. The beach we hit up (Co-something or another) was gorgeous, the weather pretty sweet, and the things we did/talked about fun! I got nice and brown… and slightly burned the inside thighs. Nice one.
Anyway, work afterwards just went by so quickly! Thank you for really blessing me with Gagan. God, she was so awesome to talk to and just had such a desire to follow You, it was so refreshing. We got to open up to one another, pray together and, of course, take a picture so it could be tagged on facebook! Oh the unity that online social networks provide, joyous.
I really hope the Prayer Night on Thursday can be a blessing to those on ship and that they’ll really take it for what it is; a time of worship and really sitting down to soak You in. Let it be all about you and let me remind myself over and over of that knowledge.
So Dan, Suzie, and Josiah Potter left the ship today. Totally brought on a huge wave of homesickness. We went out after they left to grab some gelato, and at first I was fine, but after awhile I just really withdrew.
God, I can’t do this. I can’t do this whole “love people with all that I am” and then have them perform the vanishing act a month or so later. It’s so damn difficult for me, especially emotionally.
I felt so antisocial tonight, like I had to keep trying to come up with witty comments or funny stories to keep up with “myself”. I was like Antisocial Anne (alliteration!), whoever that is. Haha, sounds like one of those goth chick dolls you’d find on the shelf at Hot Topic.
Sometimes I really don’t know who I am at all in terms of personality other than that I am in You. Many times, that’s just not enough for me. Deep down inside, there’s the fear that I’m secretly (as in it’s even oblivious to myself) a boring, bad-tempered, lazy Asian-American girl. As corny and movie-scripted as my next statement will sound, God, I just want to learn about myself and who I really am. Teach me and allow me to have an open heart to see myself for how You made me - strengths, weaknesses, all of it.
ON MY LAST OFF DAY, WE WENT TO THE PERTH ZOO!
It was Jen, Josh, Josiah, Elliot and I and we left the ship roughly around 9AM (ughaghhgh so early). Anyway, we hopped a train, arrived in Perth, took a bus to the zoo (with a grouchy driver lady that totally hit an open car door), and finally got to the zoo!
It was so much fun, I freaking love animals (and saying the word ‘freaking’ without having to explain what it means!) and there were so many that I hadn’t really seen before! I was especially excited to see the koalas because, c’mon, I’m in Australia for goodness sakes! But they were totally anti-climatic, basically fat, grey, rocks hanging on a tree sleeping. Woooooooooo… so not exciting.
BUT the orangutans were hilarious to watch. We stood there for probably half an hour just laughing and making dialogues between them because we’re major dorks :) The first one we saw walked to the edge of his little tower and peed off the side while we all stood below laughing. Another one slid off his tower, grabbed a cardboard box to the side, and began peeing in it. We were all talking about how intelligent he was for doing that when he proceeded to step out of the box, turn around, and stick his face in his urine. HAHAHAH I’m like 5 years old.
What else… I don’t know, it was just an overall relaxing day. We went into Perth again later on that night to go to a swing dancing club but Karl forgot his ID so we scratched that and ate instead. OH YEAH, I had pho + boba for the first time in 2 months. I almost cried in ecstasy when my eyes made contact with the beauty that is jasmine milk tea.
MmMMmmmMMm… :)
FINALLY JOSH UPLOADS HIS PICTURES!
Anyway, performing at International Night at Albany was so much fun. Actually, during rehearsal that day, I was really having a bad time just cause the swing dance leaders pointed out that my skirt was too short EVEN THOUGH it was them that had asked me to go out and purchase a short one. Honestly, it wasn’t even that big of a deal but I really just felt super humiliated and overall, just stressed because I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do.
But as the night approached and people filing in, God really just helped me to focus on Him and not how I would look performing that night. It was kind of a, “Hey Jennifer, chill. This night isn’t about how good you perform or how your swing dancing outfit looks, it’s about me.” And that really brought me a peace which made performing on stage all that much more fun!
Man, Josiah and I did really well EVEN THOUGH my shoe totally slipped off part way through for half a second… in which Josh managed to capture a picture of it. It was hilarious though and we just had a lot of fun performing! Totally bites that he’s leaving though, we became pretty good friends.
After years of being tagged as simplexlove and ‘livejournal-addicted’, I think it’s high time for a new blog! Pretty exciting stuff.
So yes, I’ll be recording little tidbits of my everyday life that I want to remember for future reference. Man, I can’t believe I ever got over livejournal. I seriously remember spending hours on that thing making ridiculous picture posts… (God, please don’t let tumblr become an idol!)
This will be an outpour of the events, hopes, stresses, and experiences of me as I get to journey through the world on the Doulos in the next two years. Sweet.
