This is coming way out of order of things I've done lately but mostly I just feel kind of like I want to pour myself out now, so here goes.

I'm sitting in Starbucks (Beijing has TONS of them, they've even started giving out maps) and listening to Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust", and while the lines of the song don't totally fit to my life (though some do), the idea of things being a matter of trust is so true.  This does not only apply to relationships, but to all areas of life.  I've been thinking a lot lately how much we have to trust the Father, and how we are dependant on him while the world sometimes goes crazy, and for someone who is a 'feeler' this can be difficult.  This morning I got a call from my parents saying that they had a fire at my father's business.  My heart broke for my Father, because I know how much it meant to him, and how much of himself he invested, heck I feel like I invested a bit of myself there and I'm sad to think of all of that just gone.  On the other hand I see how much my family was blessed by God and the way that He took care of them by keeping everyone safe, and that there wasn't as much damage as there could have been.  The other thing I've really realized in the last few years is how important it is to have community and people who will help you out when something disastrous like that happens.  People responded to my family in their time of need, and that makes me so glad, especially because I cannot be there to help them.  Anyways, so basically I just feel like that this 'matter of trust' is something that I'm always having to give up to the Father.  That I have to give over my family, friends, and my singleness over to the Father and trust him with it, because He is able and will take care of it better than I ever could.  So here goes...may I be able to trust Him moment by moment regardless of the situation. 

Last week Wednesday my students and I went on a field trip to 'world park'.  Now you may be guessing what world park is.  Basically it is miniature replicas of famous places around the world.  They created this park way back before many Chinese people were able to travel overseas.  While it was by far the best field trip our school has been on in awhile, it would not be my first choice in a place to go. 

Part of why we were at this park is to perform their morning exercises for the kids parents.  They did a good job on the dance routine they've been learning for months.

Me with a group of my students, they are so much fun, this particular class is one of my favorites to teach.  The student standing behind me is one of my favorite kids, he is so sweet and has just the best smile ever when he is really happy.  

I don't actually remember my co-teacher doing that...

This was taken in the America section.  The kids had a great time here because they got to ask me what everything was :)  They particularly loved this eagle...

The cherry blossoms are all in bloom right now, and the park was so gorgeous.  Even better than that though, was the fact that the whole park was covered in giant lilac bushes that were in bloom and very fragrant.  I went around sniffing all of the bushes.

I love this photo...she is washing her glasses in the sprinkler.

Pretty much the kids climbed all over all of the monuments, even though there are all of these signs saying not to.  I ended up yelling a lot in Chinese while we were there.

All over the park they had various animals.  This is one of my students and her mom riding a horse around. I really wanted to do it, but I had to walk around with everyone.

This woman was getting wedding photos taken while we were there.  They had the whole place covered in doves or pigeons.  Notice she is actually wearing combat boots under her dress.

Checking out Egypt

We had great fun with this camel.  The kids LOVED it, and the camel's owner had walked away, and the camel, though tied to this stand, kept coming over, and let us pet him.  After I decided that the kids were getting too close, we backed off a bit, which turned out to be a good thing, cause then it sneezed and snot flew everywhere, which thrilled the kids even more.

Oh yes, they had peacocks that we could pet.  That was loads of fun.  They are really soft and beautiful, but I felt kind of bad for them actually cause I don't know that the one with his feathers extended really liked being that way.  Every now and then a man would run behind its' rear end and do something to make the feathers go down so he could rest. 

Two weekends ago our youth group had their spring youth camp, and I went as a counselor. It was an awesome time of refreshment, meeting new people, seeing old friends from other cities, and playing some awesome games.  Here are some photos:

A couple of weeks ago I had one of my best friends in China visit on her way back to Canada.  She left due to circumstances here, as well as at home, and as sorry as I was to see her go, I was really, really thankful for time together before she left.  Love you Ros!

I did not go with her, but I helped her carry her stuff out to the school gate.  And yes we are wearing matching outfits.

We had lots of activities and I taught the ladies how to decorate blown eggs.  It was pretty fun!  They got way into it, one of the ladies below did at least four or five of them.  She could give Martha Stewart a run for her money :)

On my recent trip to Thailand, I went kayaking in Krabi with some friends from my Beijing International Fellowship.  We had a great time.  It was the one day we weren't all sick!

Looking for crabs among the coral!  They were really beautiful!

This is called a slack line, which is essentially a tightrope extended between two large giant rock formations.  Since I am not so great at walking a tight rope I pretty much hung off it and then tried to army crawl across.  I didn't last long though before I fell fifteen+ feet into the water below.  It was pretty fun.