Day One - at Sunshine House

Zoe, in the Seoul airport

7-30-09

Wow. What a journey. We left on Tuesday, and now it is Thursday. Eyes drooping and derrière best described as tender, I am in a surprisingly good mood. Seeing the sights sends pulses of random memories through my thoughts. And I think back to how much I unexpectedly learned from the last time I was here. I can only hope and pray that this trip will even surpass the amount of knowledge that I previously gained.

We started our day at the house by sorting through luggage and getting each piece to its designated destination. Took a little tour through the property. Talked to Denny (he even remembered my name! that made me feel good) Went over the rules Had a little time for either a swim in the pool or cool shower (I opted for the shower. Hairy legs and I do not bode well together). Ate an amazing lunch.. rice, and things that I do now know how to pronounce, let alone type. Took a mini-tour of the barrio. Made name tags for Crocodile Dock. Ate dinner.. Chicken Joy! .. the best home made fried chicken EvEr. Then we had a short devotional. Everyone was holding their eyes open trying to pay attention- this has been a loooong couple of days. We were excited to go to bed- and then the Girls found a HUGE gecko in our room. I have honestly never seen one so big. Poor Sandy was already asleep and was awoken by high-pitched screams. Troy tried to show his manliness to us by trying to catch it, but ended up getting a little frightened himself. The thing was hissing and jumping everywhere… and all of the girls were screaming and climbing up and down the bunks. It was a sight to behold. We managed to chase it close to the door, but then it was really really mad and faked dead. But who wants to touch a gecko faking dead? So one of the night watch guards heard us screaming and came running with a long stick in hand – he thought we had a snake in our room! Lol. Anyways, he took care of it and once the commotions settled down everyone was in bed- and asleep- by 7:41. What a day.

I was so amazed to see the progress and changes that have happened in two short years. Many buildings have been constructed or improved, and I can see that MOM has done an amazing job at showing the love of God to these people.

Seoul, Korea

Ethan- In the Seoul airport! Soooo happy that he just had the best 10 hours of his life sitting next to me on the last flight.










Our Korean Air airplane.. that looks like it has the Pepsi logo on the tail :)







7-29-09
We are fiiiiinally in Seoul. That was a pretty long flight with good ‘ol Korea airlines. 10 hours. And the best part was definitely the free socks. In a nice sea-foam green color. Oh- and the fact that they were just feeding us, the entire time. We purchased the economy seats, and were therefore in the very very back of the plane. Except for Joe. He got a seat in the middle of plane. How did he manage that? And he had a free seat next to him. Lucky guy. Even luckier that Maddie kept him company for the flight. There was some moderate turbulence throughout the flight, and I was definitely more worried about if Joe was handling it ok than what was happening with the plane.

We are all ready to be done with traveling, but we still have a 2 hour layover, 3 hour flight, 6 hour layover, and then 2 hour flight. Oh- and the drive to the house. JOY! At least everyone is still getting along and the flight attendants haven’t banned Seth from any planes. Much love from Korea!

Security Breach

Tyler & Troy fixing a broken string...
Seattle 7-28-09

Interesting Update :
I am sitting in the seattle airport, oblivious to all the problems of the world : and we have been quarantined! OK, well maybe not quarantined, but we are near one of the security check-ins, and we are in the area that nobody can get in or out of. Did I mention that Seth took half of the group to get their lunch of Italian pasta and paninis, while Jory, Sandy, Betty and I waited with the bags? It is true. No worries though- I have scoped things out and asked random people questions. This is the info I have so far. The pilot guy said that the officials couldn’t give us any information. I looked and all security check-in has been stopped, and the TSA agents are milling around in our quarantine area. However, none of them look especially bothered, so I believe we are safe. ☺
And finally, half an hour later they un-quarantined us- with the simple explanation that there was a security breach. Hm.

Up Up & Away!

The whole GrOuP. In Billings, MT
7-28-09

Chaos. Confusion. But yet, everyone with the same purpose. Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 12:31 PM we officially embarked on our journey to the Philippines. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t actually That chaotic or confusing, but in my world it was.

And in Kyla’s world her two most dreaded questions are 1)“So are you excited?” and 2) “What was your favorite part dear?” They are both very common courtesy questions, and sometimes people genuinely want to know. However, being someone who has been blessed with many, many opportunities to travel I have trained myself to begin with no huge expectations, just trust that everything will fall into place, I will enjoy myself, and hope I will learn everything that God has planned for me to realize. So to answer your question.. No. I don’t think my feeling would fall under the category of ‘excited’ quite yet. But ‘interested’ and ‘ready to begin’… yes.

The drive to Billings occurred without crash or leak or blowup, so categorized under SUCCESS! We had a leisurely dinner at McKenzie River Pizza, and then wandered over to Target for our last minute supplies and things that would could not get in the city of Glasgow. And it might even be considered a sin to not at least walk through Walmart while in Billings, so we had to take a gander through the isles there.

The stay at the Wiens household was great. They were extremely generous to not only let us stay at their house, but also keep the church van while we are away. The air-hockey table at the house was put to great use, and I believe there were only a few cuts and scrapes. Good news, right?
By the time everyone was at the house and things started settling down it was about midnight, so I do believe Joe, Maddie, Carly, and Kenzie decided it would be ridiculous to go to sleep- we had to leave for airport at 4:30 AM. ☺ I think I am too old to be attempting all-nighters so I opted out. 20 years of life is a lot longer than it sounds, I only wish I had the energy and enthusiasm of the highschoolers. Lol.

We are currently on the plane to Seattle, and I am proud to say that I had the privilege of sitting across the isle from Joe for his ‘well I flew once before in fifth grade’ flight. AKA- he was a little scared, and the nice lady next to me was even discretely laughing at his antics. Let’s just say we pulled out the little safety pamphlet and made sure that we practiced and knew all of the procedures. I am happy to say that we are off to a good start and we can feel the Lord continually watching over us.

the first blog of kyla's blogging life.

Well this is all pretty exciting. My first blog. I decided that because I enjoy journaling, and because a few people may enjoy learning about what is going on while we are in the Philippines, why not share my innermost thoughts and feelings about what is going on while I am over there with the whole world? Yep, why not. However, we are not over there yet and I have already started post #1. So I shall give you a little information about what is going on. There are a total of 16 people going to the Philippines for a missions trip. We are representing the Glasgow Evangelical Church, and of course, our Lord. We will be doing a Vacation Bible School, building a Sunday school room, taking school pictures, painting, and numerous other things. woohoo! Pretty exciting, right? We will also try and spend time with the locals- just getting to know them and sharing with them the Love that God has shown each of us. Well, that is all that I have for now. I hope I am doing this blogging thing right. Stay tuned for something that is actually interesting to read!
Oh look! Here are 11 out of the 16 people that are traveling to the Philippines! We have already done soooo much together.. {planning, fundraising, etc} that we are practically family. Fighting and all ;)