coming back home

hello hello!

another update for the blog. i guess some people have been wondering what's going to happen to this blog now that i'm no longer on my trip, and to be honest, i'm not entirely sure! i would love to keep blogging during the year with my thoughts and about how God is working in my life, so look for that! either that or maybe God will allow me to go on more summer short-term trips and then i can use this blog again! but yeah pray for me for my future because it's a little uncertain

i'll be sending out an email update shortly after this as well as letters to my supporters, so look for that to find out more about what God has been teaching me this summer :]

i guess i just wanted to recount a story about the perfect culmination to my trip:

so i arrived in boston from london on sunday evening and stayed with mandy. because mandy was going to be at work the whole day, i decided to go to the airport early to see if i could standby for an earlier flight (my flight wasnt leaving boston until 3:30pm). i arrived at the airport maybe around 8am and it was chaos! everyone was frantic. i realized later that a bunch of flights were cancelled or delayed the day before, so people were pretty ticked off and on edge. my chances of getting on an earlier flight were basically nonexistent. i had nowhere to go, and i couldn't check my bags in because they only accepted bags 4 hours before the flight, so i just bought a day pass for internet and tried to work on organizing pictures and writing my update letters (check out my pictures at www.picasaweb.google.com/vankim.dang.bui).

i started getting super sleepy, but i couldn't sleep since i didn't want anyone to take my stuff. i started to be unproductive since my brain wasnt functioning. i was starting to regret not booking a flight for the day before, and i was anxious to get home.

the 7 or so hours passed by quickly though, and it was finally time for me to board my flight! i was even more exhausted at that point that i passed out right when i got into my seat (it was nice because no one sat next to me! yay!). i didn't wake up until we landed in philly. still exhausted, i quickly grabbed some chickfila (i normally do this when i stop in the philly airport) and got food coma! so again...super sleepy. i was excited for my 3 hour flight to houston so that i could sleep, and i didn't have to wait long until it was time to board.

i snuggled into my window seat and positioned myself into sleeping mode. turns out i didn't sleep the whole 4 hours! (it turned into 4 because there was a back up on the runways getting out of philly and we had to taxi for a while). you may be wondering, "why didn't you sleep van-kim? i thought you were so tired! what waste of time" BUT there was a good reason!

so right after i got off the phone with my family to let them know that i had boarded, the guy next to me asked me a question. he had such a thick irish/indian accent that i couldn't understand, so i asked him to repeat the question. he asked again and i STILL couldn't understand him (plus i have poor hearing). this went on a few more times until i realized that he was asking "so whereabouts are you from?" which is a very united kingdom-y way of asking "where are you from?" i was so thankful that i had just spent the last few days in england or else i would still be confused! i told him that i was from texas and he began asking me more questions etcetc. anyway it turns out that he's from belfast and it was the first time he was coming to the states! he had an ex-girlfriend who lived in nyc, but she broke up with him because the distance and she really wanted to live in america and he wasnt living in america. so now he was coming to america to see what kind of life he could afford to give her.

ok but he actually started off the conversation talking about going out and being into techno and dj-ing and drinking and then asked me if i partied. he seemed surprised that i was a "quiet girl" who didn't party because i think he's used to everyone doing that sort of thing. the conversation topics turned me off, AND i was supersuper tired so i started forming ways i could end the conversation. (background info: i fly a lot, and i normally like to sleep through all flights since i don't like to fly. i normally never make conversation with anyone so that i can go to sleep. talking to him was very unusual and definitely an act of God)

anyway at that point, i would give him clear signs that i was no longer interested in the conversation and then fall asleep, but i felt convicted that God was trying to put to use all the lessons that i had learned the whole summer. i continued to answer his many questions. the guy asked me the basics (name, age, university, major) and i told him my name using my super long explanation that most of you have probably heard and then he told me his name (jerry) and explained that it was a catholic name. apparently he got teased a lot growing up because he went to school with protestants. (reminder: belfast is the city in ireland with the most religious tensions between catholics and protestants) i saw this as the perfect segway into discussing God! actually it was really God using this as a way to teach me. i was pretty ignorant to how bad the tensions were in belfast. even though everyone identified with either catholic or protestant, it was really just a label to segregate into two factions (sort of like how the kyrgyz identify with islam or russian orthodoxy but didn't really practice it piously). jerry informed me how his mother is catholic and his father is protestant. i asked him what he was and he told me that he was both. i decided to prod a little more to see what he really believed. i told him that i was protestant, and we began discussing the differences between catholicism and protestantism. it was amazing. his point of view was completely different than mine because of the experiences he's had in belfast. he sees it so differently because of the hate between the two groups, and it kind of made me really sad. i definitely don't know enough about the situation, but i felt sad that the two groups who claim to know of God's love couldn't love each other (1 John 4 came to mind).

then we started discussing missions, and i expressed that i had an interest in being a long-term missionary. he was completely against it. he thought it was so wrong to be a missionary because he didn't think that anyone should disrespect another culture by getting people to believe in what i believed in, which is a very real concern that many people have. he brought up some pretty tough topics and skepticisms, but i was comforted the whole time knowing that God had been working in me the whole summer, and that He would provide me with the words to say and the peace that He would watch over me as long as i was doing His will (even if that means being in the missions field), so i wasn't phased by his concerns. my lack of defensiveness really showed me how much God had taught me and grew me this summer.

we talked about random things the whole trip and it was interesting to see how he viewed things. i felt that he had a very secular worldview as well putting a lot of emphasis on having things and making money and having status, but he also had a good understanding of Christianity. i felt very blessed by the conversation because i felt like i was learning a lot about what i believed in.

finally, it was time to land in houston, and i wished him good luck with his mission and reminded him to try the mexican food and barbecue. he pushed to get my contact information, but i thought it was a little weird so i evaded it. we parted ways and that was that.

if God allowed me to get on an earlier flight, i never would've met jerry. if God hadn't given me enough energy to stay awake, i would've passed out the whole trip. if God hadn't taught me so many things this summer, i would've caved into the pressure of jerry's skepticisms. if God hadn't given me wisdom this summer, i would've shyed away from the religious conversation altogether (i don't like confrontation that leads to debates). God was really using this conversation to show me that He is all powerful. He had been working in me the whole summer and was showing me that He would be using these skills in everyday scenarios all for His glory.

ok anyway i hope i said everything i wanted to say. i'm still jetlagged and it's pretty late, so i'm realllyyy sleepy and i can't concentrate much.

i'll leave you with a few pictures and you can see the rest on my picture site!

aizada and me (see post below)

the cha's + eva, tim, and me (see post below)


ok i hope i don't read this entry tomorrow and get embarrassed because i wrote something incorrect or funny or wrong or something but i'm pretty tired so it might happen

van-kim

last day in kyrgyzstan

hello all!

i just came back from my mini vacation. we went to san kol and issy kol (i'm horrible with spelling btw). san kol is a lake way up in the mountains and issy kol is a huge lake that most people go to for vacation (it's their equivalent to a beach). we took two students with us who could speak kyrgyz as well as the son of one of the long-termers here, so he could hang out with us.

san kol was amazing. it was so peaceful and relaxing. there was almost nothing there lol but a beautiful lake, mountains, yurts (little hut houses that kyrgyz people used to live in), horses, sheep, and cows. i think i was able to get a lot of reflection time there because there was nothing to do except sit and think and just be in God's creation.

issy kol was different because it was more touristy but it was still fun nonetheless! i met a girl gildis who heard me speaking english when i was wading in the water and so we talked a little bit. she was so pretty! but yeah that was more fun than reflective.

ok anyway that was a great way to relax but today is my last day in kyrgyzstan, and i am so sad. i really don't want to leave because my time here has been so great. i was just discussing with the girls of my team how much i'm going to miss it here because it feels like we've been able to make friendships with a lot of people. surprisingly these relationships are with the children of long-termers, long-termers, or other Christians here. many of us feel as if we weren't able to really reach out to the non-believers, but i think that i've been feeling a lot of peace about the work we've done because we've been able to help and support those who are here long-term so that they may be able to continue in the relationships with the non-believers and support them...long term! i feel like i've been so blessed with these relationships that i have formed with m-workers or mk's or Christians especially since i've felt such a connection to them after such a short amount of time. bahhh i'm getting sad :[

but yeah so i'm really sad and i dont want to leave and i'm half looking forward to coming home and half dreading it because i know that right when i come home, i wont have much time (especially since i'll be getting my wisdom teeth taken out...sad) before i have to go back to cornell and i know i need to do a lot of stuff

OH YEAH
and one of the students we took on the trip was the only non-Christian on the trip, and on the marshuka ride back, she said that she wanted to accept Christ because one of my teammates spent a lot of time with her sharing about the Word, so pleaseplease pray for her and that she understood the fullness of what she said! but remember also that it's God's will if she is to be His child or not. ok that was kind of a reminder for us than for you but yeah

OK

i will see you guys in less than a week!

probably no more updates after this one because i wont have internet until i come home...don't miss them too much!

van-kim

short update

there are so many things i want to tell you guys, but i don't have time right now! btw if you have been emailing me and haven't gotten a response, i'm so sorry! i've been able to quickly read emails and send supersuper short emails, but i haven't had time to respond in depth with anyone so bear with me!

in short here are some highlights:
-one of my students invited me over to her house and i was able to talk to her about God and shared my testimony. it was so surprising because she asked me about it, and i was so off guard. it was very slow because everything had to be translated (she invited the translator over as well so we could understand each other) and i didn't get to say a lot of the things that i wanted to say, but it's okay because i know that God will work in His way.
-today was the last day of classes and we went to Ala Archa, a state park kind of place in the mountains. by far one of the most beautiful areas i've ever been to. i didn't want to leave!!!
-because today was the last day of classes, we had to say bye to all of our students, and that was really sad because my camera ran out of batteries and i wasnt able to take pictures with my students. i also couldn't take pictures yesterday (the last day of classes when we actually taught stuff) because i went home since i wasn't feeling well and so it was disappointing. but yeah i feel like we were so rushed in getting of the bus and getting to the other buses that i didnt get to say a proper goodbye to my students or to the other students that i was able to bond with. hopefully i'll see them on monday because we're having a picnic for any students who want to say a last goodbye to us.
-on that note, we have to wait for monday because our team is going on vacation tomorrow until sunday. we'll be going to the mountains again (a different area from today) and staying in a yurt! it's like a hut almost. and then we'll be going to issykul (again i dont know how to spell it. which is sad since ive say it a lot), which is the lake that everyone vacations.

ok sorry this was a poor update but yeah
lots of things on my mind and not enough time to think about it or process it :[
please pray for my student!! oh yeah she became Muslim because she married a Muslim guy but her sister is Christian and she was kind of orthodox before but not really (as is the story for most russians in kyrgyzstan)

ok i'll try to update when i come back from vacation-ish

miss you all!

van-kim

p.s. the two best students in my class are both Muslims and i think that's God's way of telling me something because they constantly come to us asking questions and therefore we get to spend a lot of time with them so yeah...thankful for that.
p.p.s. the day i was sick, i was actually supposed to go visit one of my students who was hospitalized for kidney issues, but i couldn't go. my other student informed me that he was fine and was very excited to see visitors! i'm sad i missed it. please pray for him. i believe he's Christian, but he got sick the day after he asked my teaching partner if we "had Jesus in our hearts" so i don't know too many other details

i can't sleep

Hmmm so updates since the last time I wrote!

Rollerskating on Saturday:
My teaching partner and I wanted to do something fun with our students during the weekend, so we voted in class, and guess what they chose?? Rollerskating! (Yes I know the title of this section gives it away) Anyway, we decided to invite the elementary class because many of the students in our class and their class hang out, so it just made sense. Plus, we knew that we would have a low percentage of turn out, so we wanted to increase our numbers hehe. Three students from each class showed up, and that happened to be a good number because the rink was pretty small. They played a bunch of American music, which made me feel like I had a little piece of home with me in Kyrgyzstan :]

Afterwards we went to get ice cream and then walked to the park. My teammate and I invited two girls to come over, and we got Begemot! For those of you who don’t know, Begemot is a gamburger place. Yes a GAMBURGER with a G. It’s pretty much the same as a hamburger but everything slightly different. We pass Begemot every morning when we walk to the boys’ place and every afternoon when we come home from school, and our students tell us that it’s the best gamburger place. And sure enough, it was pretty good! But I would still choose a burger at home over a gamburger anytime.

Church on Sunday:
Warning: This entry might make some CBS-ers a little jealous.

Tim, another teammate, and I went to the church in the morning, and guess who happened to be there?? ALEXANDER SPOCK LEE. Ok that sounds like we just coincidentally bumped into him, but I actually called him the day before and decided to meet him there since I had to give him something from Richard Yan, and Tim had to pass on something from Dave Smith. We also got to meet the VSET team which was encouraging! I met two of Faith’s disciplees and Caleb’s student from two years ago, so it felt like a super small world, but a wonderfully small world! Tim and I instantly warmed up to Spock, and I showed him a picture of the most recent camping trip that Janice had given me for my birthday. He was so excited to see how everyone changed, and I could see in his eyes how much it meant for him to see everyone grown up or different. Right then, God convicted me that he probably needed the picture more than I did, so I found myself offering him the picture. He seemed pretty excited, so I hope he enjoys it as much as I did during the first part of my trip! Yeah…that was really an act of God because I don’t think that I would’ve naturally decided to give him one of the pictures that has brought me the most comfort on this trip.

Anyway, even though that may sound super exciting to some people (and it was), the part that stood out the most for me was the trip to church that morning. I was in charge of directing my other teammates to the church since my team leader was in Tokmok with other teammates visiting old students. My senses were pretty heightened as I tried to make sure that I spotted every landmark listed on my yellow post-it note. I knew it would be a long ride, but I started to get nervous halfway through the trip thinking that we had gone the wrong way, and we wouldn’t know how to get back. Eventually we got off at the place that I figured was the right place and tried to look for a yellow building. We walked around and couldn’t find the yellow building, but at least I knew the street name. We eventually found the cross streets, but we still couldn’t find the yellow building! I started to panic a bit and then we just decided to find an internet café and try to call the lady who gave me directions. We were already late for service, and I was scared that we might not get another chance to see Spock and give him the gifts. As we were walking to the area that we thought we saw an internet café, I spotted a young boy from across the street, and I recognized him! He was the son of a missionary who came to talk to us just a few nights before (he drank A LOT of orange juice btw), and being me, I shouted his name across the street without embarrassment. I was just relieved to see a familiar face. Then I spotted his dad and also called out to him unabashedly announcing that we were lost and how thankful I was to see them. They directed us to the church, and I began to feel convicted about how little I trusted God. I didn’t even stop and think to pray and ask God to show us the way. As unfaithful as I was, God was ever faithful and provided us with a means of direction. It was such a small yet significant reminder that God is always watching out for me and providing for me, even when I fail to acknowledge Him. Apparently, I was the only person who felt panicky during this journey since the other two boys just figured that we’d eventually run into foreigners who would show us the way. I later found out they recently repainted the building pink, so there was no yellow building to be found! Sigh.

Later that evening, a few of us were able to go to the evening service. This time, we took a marshuka, and it turned before it got to our stop, so we quickly got out and tried to redirect ourselves. I didn’t panic this time since I knew that God would provide. And He did! Right after we got off, we noticed the daughter of one of the long-termers here, and she guided us to the church, and all was well! :] The sermon was pretty good too because it was given by this precious little old preacher who normally preaches at prisons. He was so honest about how nervous he was to preach to us, and it was refreshing to hear such honesty. We were also able to meet up with the Cha’s and their team. I figured it was the last time I would be able to see them, so I wanted to give them something to thank them for being so welcoming to us. I had these English workbooks and readers that I had originally bought to lesson plan for my class, but I soon realized that my class wouldn’t be able to handle these exercises quite yet. I knew that they could use it so much more than I ever did, so it was a pretty obvious choice for a gift.

Anyway that was a SUPER SUPER SUPER long entry, so maybe I won’t have to write one until I get back! Just kidding…I probably will. But yeah many things happened, so I had to update a lot. The weekdays seem too routine now for me, so I forget to update :[

van-kim

!!!

i just realized that my blog's name was spelled SO INCREDIBLY incorrectly! why didn't anyone inform me of this?? what a huge and significant typo!

Rustam

As we were leaving the school today, I found out that the first of our students was leaving. Rustam was originally in the beginners class, but I soon realized he knew too much English when he started listing out all the vocabulary before I had a chance to write it on the board. I encouraged him to move up to the elementary class, and during break, he switched classes. He even knew more than some of the students who were already placed in elementary. Since then, he has made such an effort to get to know all of the teachers as well as the other students, often acting as a translator. He has many friends, which actually proves to be a frustration for his teachers since he'd rather talk and misbehave than pay attention in class. Nonetheless, he has always had a good attitude towards school. When I realized that today was his last day of class (his family is going to Issykuhl? lake for 10 days), I found myself feeling emotional. I didnt' cry, but I almost wanted to! Our team had just had our mid-trip discussion the night before, and I shared that that day was the first day that I felt like I was going to truly miss our students after we left. I knew that he proably felt emotional as well because our team leader said that he started tearing as he was saying goodbye to him. SIGH it's amazing to see the relationships that can be formed in such a short time.

Anyway, there isn't much time to process a lot of things that are happening everyday. I hope that by the end of the trip, I'll have a lot more to share about what I learned on this trip. It doesn't seem as if I could do that now. There are many things to think through during this trip, and I hope that I can really try to meditate and not dwell and use my mental time wisely.

On another note, we have a lady who cooks for us every night, and her daughter is one of the students. The other night, her daughter made some amazing oatmeal chocochip cookies (which is my favorite btw), and I got the recipe yesterday! So prepare for some awesome cookies when I come home :]

van-kim

Aizada

This past Sunday, my team went to a village about an hour away by marshuka from where we are now. Right when we got there, we visited a clinic/center (the place where three of my team mates taught English last summer). After visiting, one of the directors brought us to a Baptist Kyrgyz church. We had a translator who was an old student of my team leader, but I was sitting behind her, so her whispered voice didn’t project to my side. I took that opportunity to just soak in the whole scene. There were roughly 30 people, all sitting in pews listening to what was going on. They would pray for each other, pray for their neighbors, pray for those who didn’t believe. They sang songs from a little yellow hymnal book, and listened to the pastor preach from the pulpit. I kept wondering about how each one of them came to know Christ. From body language, I could tell that one guy had brought another lady to church, and so maybe it’s by trying to share with our friends. For others, it didn’t make sense because there were old men without wives and old women without husbands. Then there were only a few families and children. There was even a German couple who came 6 months ago, but could almost understand everything that was being preached in the service!

Anyway, those were just details, but this was the best part of the service:

I met the sweetest 11-year old girl named Aizada. She was skinny with a light brown skin tone, freckles, and long light brown hair gathered together in a ponytail topped with a blue headband, not perfectly done but as if she had fixed her hair in the morning then went out to play shortly thereafter. She wore light blue overalls with an orange and white striped shirt underneath. Unknowingly, her shoes matched her whole outfit as they seemed to be made of some denim material accented with orange and white trims. During the service, our team sat in the second pew, and she was in the first. As we introduced ourselves to the congregation, she would look back and forth between us and the translator in an attempt to connect the delayed description with the actual person. She continued to look back at us, and I would smile at her each time. Her smile was so precious because you could tell that she was excitedly fascinated by our presence. When it was time to sing praise, she turned around and shared her hymnal with me, flipped to the correct page, and pointed at the words as we sang them. When it was time to read Scripture, she turned around again and pointed at the verses in her Bible so that I would know what we were reading. Even though we couldn’t speak the same language, she still tried to make sure that I knew what was going on.

After service, I felt so touched by her kindness that I waved her over to give her some toys that I had brought. She chose a ring and a mini watergun. She could probably buy better toys in her bazaar, but I think the fact that we gave her something made her appreciate the little gifts that much more (I think it helped that they were so colorful as well). As I was being ushered outside to catch a cab to go to the next service, she came outside and hovered around me. I asked her in Russian how old she was, and she answered “11” in English! I was so surprised, and she could tell that I was surprised since her smile grew when I reacted. The cab approached, and she opened up the door for me. I proceeded to get in the cab, but I turned around, knowing she was there, and decided to get out and give her a hug. I felt like I was going to miss her so much even though I had only known her for two hours at most! We waved goodbye to each other as the cab drove away, and that was it.

I’m not sure why I felt so connected to her after such a short time. I hope that in her future, she continues to go to church and that God will continue to cultivate her kind heart. At such a young age, she already had a heart to serve, even if it was as small as showing me where the passages were and what song to sing, but I know that if she allows God to use her, He will use her in such amazing ways!

In other news, we went to a Russian home church after this service, and I was proposed to by an Uzbek guy. He has been Christian for nine years, but his Muslim family doesn’t know. Our team prayed for him and his family after service, and I hope you can pray for him too. Oh! And don’t worry. I said no :]

Van-Kim