Go and Tell the World

Thank you for the food ( in song).

2010-04-13T19:09:00.000-07:00

With the little Malay they knew they put some words of thanks together to a familiar tune. The cooks loved it!

Benji and Douglas

2010-04-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

Joey and Brad

2010-04-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

A Testimony

2010-04-05T18:29:00.000-07:00

During the first week of meetings, I could feel a great unseen battle raging over my church. The sermons were going fairly well; I knew God was using me, lots of people were coming, but there were many technical glitches. I think Satan was trying to discourage me, but I prayed and pressed on, sometimes without slides or power. Then during the second week, I felt even more of the great controversy. Satan left off with the equipment, but less and less people showed up each night. Even though everything worked, hardly any people came. By Thursday night the second week, I could feel his attacks had shifted slightly and were centered on me. He tried to discourage me, using every tactic to make me feel inadequate and worthless as a messenger of God’s truth.

Eventually, I felt completely surrounded by his lies and my spirit became too weak to pray. My feeble attempts weren’t making it past the ceiling. That night, I knew I needed to tell someone about my struggle. My roommate listened to my story and immediately offered to pray for me. She rebuked the devil’s power and in the name of Jesus told him to leave. As soon as she prayed, I felt a burden lifted off my shoulders. That night, I realized how real the great controversy is and how we can only overcome in Jesus’ name.

Later I realized that Satan’s attacks on my connection to God were an attempt to prevent a great spiritual blessing that was to come.

The next Sabbath after this as I was listening to Jonathan preach, I noticed that a lot of what he was saying in his sermon would also be repeated in my sermon in the afternoon, and I began to wonder how necessary my sermon was. As these thoughts were going around my mind, I had this deep impression that I shouldn’t preach my Share Him sermon, even though I had practiced it several times and knew it backwards and forwards. I felt that I needed to share a more personal message. The set sermon topic was about Heaven, but most of the verses it used had already been shared in the previous sermon. Suddenly, I remembered what I had read in my devotions that morning and a sermon began to form in my head. Honestly, if I had not spent that time in the morning with God, I would not have had anything to share. In reading Isaiah 55 that morning, I now could use its picture of how to obtain a relationship with God as a parallel to talk about our relationship with Him in Heaven. A torrent of thoughts and ideas started to pour down, and in the half hour before I needed to speak, I deleted most of the set slides for my sermon, leaving only 8. I also deleted the set notes, and put my own in. The topic was still about Heaven, but the presentation would be much more personal through God’s inspiration. I had such a burden to share how it is practically to have a walk with Christ. As I typed out notes, I rejoiced how He was answering my continual prayer to be used in any way He saw fit.

Mt. Kinabalu

2010-03-31T16:37:00.000-07:00

We are not done yet!

2010-03-30T13:46:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, we made it back safe! Korea was a blast! But we are not done posting. I still have lots more pictures and even got some students to write about the trip. So don't leave us yet, there is still more to come.

Bethany and Ryo

2010-03-29T06:18:00.001-07:00

Becky L. and Cameron

2010-03-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Becky B. and Jonathan

2010-03-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

William

2010-03-28T06:27:00.000-07:00

I have never seen so many kids taking notes especially at such young ages than at this church!

Melody and Buddy

2010-03-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Lilly picked Buddy, Melody and I up tonight. She is the wife of the head elder of their church. Her family is very active on the church and does a lot to keep it going. They are such wonderful people. We drove up the road, and watched the green lush mountainous country while Buddy went over his health talk. Before we came to our site, we stopped at a little shop for supper. I still have a hard time believing this, but every night this little place closes just so Melody and Buddy can have their supper with out any disruptions. I have one word for the meal: "Sadop". It means "good" and Melody repeated it all night long. I asked them if there was another word for "good" so we could have a little variety in our vocabulary, but I already forgot it! Served in a red bowl was some rice noodles with some carrots, mushrooms, bok choi, and veggie meat. Then the lady took our bowls and poured some soup base over top. She said "Tonight, we eat soup." It was pleasing to the eye and more importantly pleasing to my stomach. So simple… but Ooooh so good! We took a picture with the kitchen staff and then crept back up the mountain. Melody kept asking me to pray for her during the sermon, because it was going to be a big appeal night and she has a persistent deep cough that could erupt at any time. Buddy presented the topic on Tobacco and it went very well. The translator informed Melody this week that Buddy is their new pastor! I sat on the front row with 12 other kids and listened to Melody's sermon. Melody was telling me that every night the kids have to take turns as to who gets to sit beside her. It is quite a coveted spot! I got the privilege of sitting next to Baby, Wrexy, and Elanie. Baby's real name is Estretchalyn because she was born on a stretcher. But we like to keep it simple. Surprisingly, Melody only coughed 3 short coughs, and the appeal went very smoothly! I was excited to know that one of the ladies on my row checked the box for baptism. At this church they have air conditioning (quite nice if you ask me). One of their church improvements is to have the speaker wear a suit. The first few nights, Melody was swimming in it, but then they found a much more fitted one. Before we drove home, I took a bunch of pictures of Melody and the girls. As we pulled up to the hotel, I knew that we were the last ones back, because Becky Brousson and Jonathan Farquhar were already there, and normally they are much later than the rest.

-Ceri

Water Village

2010-03-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

As we drove to the water village we tasted a quite yummy water lilly pod. I asked our driver what motivates these people build their homes over the water. He told me that it is because its free, they don't have to deal with waste (since it just goes into the water) and they are fisherman so it is easy access to the water. The government is making homes for the people who live here. Because of the sanitary reasons, they do not want them living over the water. Just a little ways from the water I was shocked to see subdivisions. I certainly did not expect to see that in Malaysia!

Jenny and Jourdain

2010-03-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

Jenny, Jourdain and I climbed in a little SUV and slowly climbed up the mountain. As soon as we reached the top, we started to drive down the curvy road into the valley. That was when we had to say goodbye to the beautiful sunset. We drove through the village and then up a steep hill which I soon realized was the driveway. As we popped over the hill, the church was right in front of us. As we unloaded everything, our driver took out her little basket of food and set it up in their little building that doubles as the Sabbath School room and fellowship hall. She called us over to eat, and because I was the guest, I was chosen to pray. We ate short grain brown rice (yummy), stir fry with lots of tofu (a staple here), corn on the cob (not as good as in Wisconsin , but still good) and a dish with green beans, tofu, some other green vegetable in a peanut sauce (the first peanut sauce I have ever liked). While we were waiting for the meeting to start we all laughed about their past bug experiences at their church. Then we saw a huge beetle on the floor struggling to get back onto its feet. We watched it for awhile until this girl got up to walk to the back of the church. Unaware of the bug's whereabouts she stepped right on top of it. The sound of it was hideous… Bzzzzzz….. Step…step… step… CRUNCH! Despite Jenny's feeling of unpreparedness she presented the topic of hypertension (or high blood pressure) to her audience well. It was perfect because her translator was very familiar with the subject. Watching Jourdain was rather amusing. He is much taller than the people here, His head kept hitting the curtain hanging from the ceiling. Thankfully it was not the fan! The sermon he preached is one of my favorites from the series. The title is "Why So Many Denominations". I believe it cleared up many questions that the audience had. Every person shook both Jenny and Jourdain's hands on their way out and said "Salamat Malam" which means "good night". Before we left a few of the locals stayed back and we chatted for a bit. One of them told Jenny, "If you stay here 2 more weeks you will be darker than I am". He promptly put his arm up to hers to compare skin tone. It was very obvious that she did not need to stay two more weeks, because she was already darker than he. We all laughed looked, and after looking at a few more bugs, we hopped in the car for the ride back to our hotel. Like most rides back, we all discussed our favorite part of the sermon and told a few stories how God has proven it true in our lives.

-Ceri

Luke

2010-03-22T20:23:00.001-07:00

Traveling to Luke's site is a breeze compared to the majority of places I have been. He describes it like this: " You can touch the church from the car". You don't have to walk across any swinging bridges, walk through any jungles, or climb any hills, but the road is long and rough. The kids are anything but camera shy! First they crowded around the piano and banged on the keys, and then they all crowded around Luke as he set up his equipment, but when Alonna and I got out our cameras, that is when the kids really came alive! Luke decided to show a song from the film "Go Tell It On The Mountain". He told them that if you really pay attention you might see him without a beard. The audience's response was hilarious. They all pointed when his face flashed across the screen and burst into hysterical laughter! The topic was very well presented with clarity in his voice and he held he stage with confidence. He seemed so at home with his church, as if he had been attending there for years. Before we drove home, they gave each of us a bag full of food for our supper. We had water, juice, bread, cheese, pop corn, veggie links, and veggie chicken. The veggie chicken was amazing! His church often gives him yummy fake meats with some of them even going as far as having little sticks of bamboo to imitate the bone.

-Ceri

Vern and Leighton

2010-03-21T21:59:00.000-07:00

Egg rolls! Like a flash, they disappeared. I guess Vern, Leighton, and Ceri were starving! After supper, they drove towards their site. They drove as far as they could go and then they had to get out and carry themselves along with all their gear the rest of the way. As soon as they climbed out of the car, Vern started chasing the chicken birds that were running loose. She finally caught one and held it proudly while Ceri took pictures. After letting the poor bird go free, she put hand sanitizer on because “the chicken bird was disgusting.” Haha!

Then they started hiking. They hiked across a swinging bridge and past some pineapple plants. Vern wanted to know how long it took for a pineapple to ripen. But no one knew the answer. They hiked through the woods, through a little gate, across a soccer field, and up a big rocky hill, until they finally reached the church. (By the way, several days ago, Vern was stung by a jellyfish. That night, she couldn't walk to her site soLeighton had to carry her across the swinging bridge and up and down rocky hills all the way to their site. You can see why this hike is a piece of cake now that Vern can walk on her own two feet…)

After arriving at their site, Vern started hunting for geckos. She searched under tables, along the walls, and behind anything that looked like a good gecko hiding place. Then they went outside and talked and watched the sunset until it was time to head in for the meeting. Leighton gave a wonderful health talk on teeth which was very fitting as his dad is a dentist. Vern delivered a well prepared for sermon. She was full of enthusiasm and did a superb job. They got to walk back in the dark which was, as Ceri put it, “pretty interesting!” Back at the car, something very predictable happened. Vern caught a rhinoceros beetle and held him the whole ride back in the car. Ceri and Leighton couldn’t get bored even if they wanted to!

Raquel and David O.

2010-03-21T04:44:00.000-07:00

On Friday evening, Ceri came with David Ortiz and I to our church, at Pukak. The church is the last one on a string of churches connected by the same road; it took about 40 minutes to reach it. The road ran out before we got to the church, so the last part of the trip was very bumpy. I was preaching that night, and when we got there, I immediately went inside the church to set up my equipment. That’s when I discovered that the power adapter was not in the case. This was a big problem because I couldn’t plug my American plugs into their Malaysian outlets, and thus I couldn’t use my projector or plug in my laptop. The sermon for that night was very important, so we immediately wondered if ulterior powers were at work. As Ceri and I walked over behind the church to the potluck building to eat supper, I wondered what we could do. All during supper and into the start of the program, we were thinking and praying. How likely would it be that they would have an adapter for American plugs way out here in the jungle? We knew there was nothing we could do except pray for a miracle.

Guess what? God came through! Right before we needed to start playing the Jesus video with the powerless projector, an old, nearly toothless elder came up to us, carrying a dinosaur sized adapter with three American outlets on it! David ‘s smile was huge as he plugged in the projector and laptop.

That night the church was more full than it’s ever been for the meetings. There were even 5 full pews outside the church. As I got up to preach, we were all rejoicing over the LORD’S providence way out here in Sabah.

-Raquel

2010-03-21T00:36:00.000-07:00

"It's 9:00, time for worship. Don't be late"! I have learned that if you are late, you get stuck in the hall. This morning was no exception. I sat there enjoying all the energy pouring out of the room. They were all singing " Jesus Is Coming Soon", which has become one of our favorite songs. You should buy a ticket and fly over here and listen to the power they sing it with. After the song, the kids started to share how God has been working in their churches. I laid my head back against the wall and listened. That is when I heard a little boy humming a familiar tune in the next room. He was singing our song, "Jesus is coming soon"! Then he stopped, but then a bit later he started again! This time he sang the words! I don't know if he knows english or not, but I guess he does now! This little experience just made me realize that we have an influence even when we don't try. In fact it is impossible to be a living breathing human without having an influence.

-Ceri

P.S. I am trying my hardest to get the students to write down their experiences so that I can share them with you all. So hold on, they should be coming soon. Thanks for all your patience!

Sunset

2010-03-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

The Beach

2010-03-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Market

2010-03-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

I stopped. I sniffed. I tried to plug my nose. I tried holding my breath. But to no avail. I gave up and decided to embrace the aroma of fresh fish. After all, the smell of the market makes up most the experience. We passed pile after pile of fish stacked on bamboo mats or tarps or pieces of canvas or even newspaper. Behind the piles of fish were the merchants who mostly just stared at us partly because they don’t know English and partly because we make quite a spectacle wherever we go. Did you know the people here in Sabah have a corny sense of humor? As I walked past a lady hacking away at a tuna fish with a big meat cleaver, the man beside her called out in broken English, “Hello! This is a tuna fish.” I smiled and nodded. He continued, “Did you know that one-a plus-a one-a equals tuna?”

We didn’t only see fish at this market. There were mounds of squid and eel and chicken feet and who knows what else. Snake fruit, jackfruit, star fruit, sugar cane, lychees, all sorts of greens, eggplants, banana flowers, sour oranges, and many other delicious fruits and vegetables. Above every vendor stood a colorful umbrella which added to the already bright scene. There was music playing over loudspeakers which caused one lady to start dancing in the street and at another time made us smile when the song, “You Raise Me Up” started to play. When we walked through the clothes section, two little girls hid behind the racks and played peekaboo with us. Here’s how they played the game: they would stare at us until we spotted them and then they would shriek and run away. Then they would sneak back between the hangers and peek at us again.

But not only did we play peekaboo, we also tried new fruits, tasted fresh sugar cane juice, listened to Robby speak with a Chinese merchant, witnessed Benji’s bartering and purchase of a pair of sunglasses, and took plenty of pictures. The only thing we didn’t do was put some of the “market” smell into a bottle to bring back for you to enjoy. That part only you can experience for yourself.

Cara and Michael

2010-03-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

Time to eat! The taste-bud-tickling menu consisted of spaghetti type noodles with “spaghetti sauce” that wasn’t at all like Canadian spaghetti sauce. It tasted like baked beans with floating carrots and gluten in it.

After eating supper with three other teams, Michael, Cara, and Ceri headed off to their site. They walked across a very narrow swinging bridge that stretched across the river and took them right to the village. They walked under a big sign that read “Salamat Datang!” (which means “Welcome!”) and passed through the village and up a little hill to the church. The church overlooks the entire village and down below, they could see the teenagers of the village playing their daily soccer game. The soccer field is located in the center of the village and is bordered on one side by many little houses and on the other side by a peaceful pond. Houses lined the entire water’s edge out over the water stood the cutest little bamboo hut built on stilts. They just stood on the hill and took it all in for a long, long time.

Then suddenly a little girl came running up the hill and disturbed their reverie. She was “flapping” her “wings” and yipping the whole way up. As soon as she arrived at her destination, introductions took place. Ceri asked, “Hi, what’s your name?” “Sherry,” she said. “Oh that’s cool, my name is Ceri!” The little girl frowned, “No that’s MY name!” “What is YOUR name?” “Ceri!” “No!” She kept them entertained the whole evening!

Michael had the sermon and did a fabulous job even though he had to endure a stomachache during the last half. They walked back across the swinging bridge in the dark because Michael and Cara insisted that they could see better if they didn’t use a flashlight. I’m sure the swinging bridge and curvy roads on the way back must have cured Michael’s stomachache or maybe it was the TUMS. The pastor’s parting words were, “You don’t look so great!” But in spite of this, God was still present and He was working the whole evening. Isn’t it wonderful to serve a God who never sleeps nor slumbers?

The Sunrise behind our hotel.

2010-03-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

Melissa and Dave W.

2010-03-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

When Dave, Ceri, and I headed out to our site, Ceri was expecting to go down the same road that most of the other sites were on. But instead of turning down the road to the mission, we kept going straight and as we climbed higher and higher into the mountains, she was awestruck by the view. The road up to our site cuts through the jungle and on either side is lush foliage. Through the banana trees, rubber trees, boganvilla bushes, and vines, we looked out over the valley below which rose back up into more mountains. We drove a gravel/clay road for quite a while, once again through lush jungle. Every now and then, a dog would run across the road in front of us or a chicken would scurry through the ditch.

Soon we came to the village, a small village of about 400 people. The villlage is situated on a ridge so everything is right beside the narrow road. The scenery just kept getting better and the road continued to get narrower as we followed the ridge until we arrived at the church. They had landscaped it so nicely and many bushes were in bloom. The tiny little church wore a steeple equally as tiny. It was so picturesque. Ceri said that she couldn’t think of a better place to put a church. On the right, it was just straight down, and on the left, also straight down. You could see Mt. Kinabalu really well and Ceri couldn’t take enough pictures. They led us to the back of the church, through a creaky door into what I would normally call a chicken coop but they call it their fellowship hall. They fed us creamy fruit salad, black bean soup (which they called porridge) papaya, and bananas.

After the meal, the elder went outside and rang the huge gong seven times. I asked him if there was a certain reason why he rang it seven times… but he shrugged his shoulders and said he does a different number every time.

No one is there on time except a couple small children and an adorable little old man. Ceri just kept taking pictures of him. Dave courageously presents his health talk, the translator struggling through every word. (Between sentences, Dave made the most hilarious facial expressions. Everything he was thinking showed on his face. We all started laughing when he accidentally said arithmetic instead of arthritic.) We had been having problems with our translator not only talking slowly but also talking plenty. For every word Dave would say, the translator would say two or three. And he ended each sentence with “Ya!” which means yes. When I got up to preach, I was relieved to find I would be working with a new translator and he did a spectacular job. Since then, we have had a different translator every night. It’s part of our training in patience and flexibility.

On the way back to our hotel, we decided that they shouldn’t paint lines on the road in Sabah… or maybe instead of not painting lines, they could paint two extra lines; one in the middle of each lane because everyone drives down the middle of the road anyways, straddling the center line. Anyways, nobody asked us our opinion when they were making the roads…

Happy Birthday Dear Ceri!

2010-03-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

Today is a special day... I get to tell you all about Ceri. Ceri is one amazing lady. She is an awesome dean and friend and is always willing to help wherever she's needed. She's an amazing cook and her creativity is something to be admired. She is always seeking to honor Christ in all that she does, and her walk with Christ has inspired me. I feel pretty special to know such a famous photographer. (All the pictures on this blog were taken by Ceri and she's passionate about photography.) She wasn't originally planning on coming to Sabah with us, but I'm so glad it worked out. Ceri is fun to be around and her positive attitude and cheery smile really brighten the atmosphere wherever she is. God has really used her in a powerful way to bless others. Happy Birthday, Ceri!

-The Class of 2010

Eat them Up, Yumm!

2010-03-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

Color

2010-03-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

Sharon and David C.

2010-03-13T04:41:00.000-08:00

Ceri, Sharon, and David Chang climbed into the landrover and drove past coconut palms, banana trees, and several other sites until they were up in the mountains. The driver turned onto a very narrow road that lead to the river and laid on the horn. He just held it there and didn’t let go… David Chang turns to Ceri and says, “This is where it get’s interesting.” The driver beeps twice then lays on the horn again for a long time. Why? Because of the narrowness of the road, you can not meet with any other cars. So anytime a car goes down this road, they have to hold down their horn so any cars at the bottom know to wait.

Upon reaching the river, they all got out of the landrover and walked across on a swinging bridge! David, of course, was hopping across the bridge to make it swing like swinging bridges are supposed to do. What a spectacular sight! It was just picture perfect sitting in the church in the middle of the jungle watching the people stream across the swinging bridge coming to church. The service went smoothly and God really blessed. For potluck, the people proudly served some of the local delicacies, sardines and many other kinds of fish. They had to ask about each dish to see whether it was truly vegetarian or not. One dish looked JUST like chicken, but the church members assured them that it was jackfruit. Ceri claims it was the most chickeny jackfruit she’s ever tasted…

Once again, they crossed the little swinging bridge and went back on the narrow road, honking all the way. They stopped by Melody and Buddy’s site and also Jonathan Sharley’s site. Then their driver took them to the top of a hill where they were able to watch a gorgeous sunset and sing and pray together.

After stopping by a restaurant for some lychee juice, they arrived back at the hotel. After hearing of their day’s adventures, we all wished we could have spent Sabbath with Ceri, Sharon, and David Chang!

Working with the Translator

2010-03-11T18:00:00.000-08:00

A Time To Prepare!

With the opening night looming ever closer, we have been going through Orientation and editing our sermons. We even practiced with our translators. But after the translators left, there were still some who hadn’t practiced preaching with a translator so we enlisted the help of Jeremy who happily volunteered his time and energy to translate into Tonga for us. It provided amusement for us all and we ended up deciding that he should be the translator for each site because of his mastery of both English and Tonga. Too bad the people here don’t understand Tonga…

Wednesday night Assembly for the Academy

2010-03-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

Last night we were asked to hold worship for the students at the Academy at the conference headquarters about 15 minutes away from our hotel. We prepared a couple special numbers for them and several of the students presented practical truths on how to become best friends with Jesus. We had a few technical problems, but Luke fixed it (figures...) and we were able to show the students a portion of Steps to Christ in Song. After the meeting, we took the opportunity to practice speaking Bahasa and the students enjoyed meeting us and practicing their English. One of the girls asked Ceri if she could touch her blonde hair and they were happy to find out we lived in dormitories as well and really had a lot in common. One little boy, maybe 6 years old, came running up to the van just before we left and handed me a lollipop. They were very happy and friendly and waved goodbye to us until the buses were out of sight.

Yum Yum Yum!

2010-03-09T18:36:00.000-08:00

The sights and smells of Sabah are quite an experience but you really haven't experienced anything until you taste the food. Mmmmm!

This morning we ate at the cafe behind our hotel. Fresh papaya, watermelon, rice, brownish noodles, clear noodles, eggs, tofu, and bok choi gave us a great start to our day. For lunch, we ate... fresh papaya, watermelon, rice, noodles, tofu, gluten, bok choi and fried bananas. For supper, well you might be able to guess what we'll eat for supper. But no matter how repetitive the menu is, the rice and noodles are the best! We are thoroughly enjoying the sights, smells (some of them) and the tastes of Sabah.

The most exciting part of our day was the arrival of a jackfruit at lunchtime. The jackfruit caused a most interesting controversy instantly. It's putrid smell started to permeate the room at once and everyone had to find out where it was coming from. It's related to durian, I'm sure. Anyways, after Mr. Luchak opened it for us, almost everyone was eager to try it. (Some a little more than others) The jackfruit was about the size of a football and contained many seeds covered in a layer of gooey, stinky slime. To eat, one would pop the seed into their mouth and eat the gooey part and then spit out the seed. To cut a long story short, it was hilarious to watch each person's reaction. Some appeared on the verge of throwing up, while others went running back for more. One student ate about 10. Johnny informed us that they were just like mangoes, which calmed our fears for a moment until a student piped up, "Johnny hates mangoes!" If you want to have an interesting conversation, ask any of the seniors what they thought of jackfruit and you'll probably find 30 different answers. Who knows what tomorrow will bring... maybe durian?

We made it!

2010-03-09T00:44:00.000-08:00

After much planning, packing, bidding farewell, and even switching buses at the last minute, we finally embarked on our journey of a lifetime. To our surprise, we were met at the airport by our travel agent (Ellen Butler) who helped us check in and escorted us all the way to our gate. How special! Don't you wish you had that kind of service?

Speaking of service, flying on Korean Air was a joy even though it was a 10 hour, 30 minute flight to Seoul, Korea. We flew over Alaska and got a glimpse of Mt. McKinley and expanses of glaciers. They fed us two delicious meals (I mean, they were actually delicious… a first in the history of airplane food) and they brought drinks by about every hour. The seat belt sign was off for most of the flight except the takeoff and landing and we got a chance to mingle throughout different seats and stretch our legs a bit. Near the end of the flight, the crew brought us hot towels to freshen up. The best part of the flight was the fact that we were able to witness to several of the other passengers and took opportunities to strike up conversations and give away literature we had brought for this very purpose.

Upon arriving in Seoul, we had to go through security again to get to our gate for our flight to Kota Kinabalu. As we walked through the airport, we were just about the only non-asian people around. As a group of students walked past a small boy and his mother, the boy stared at us and then suddenly threw his head back and howled with laughter. Either the 10 hour flight really did something to us or rather white people are a strange sight. Maybe some of both…

Our flight from Seoul to Kota Kinabalu was about 5 1/2 hours and was quite the flight as well. One of the students threw up with the turbulence and another one of the students woke up in distress thinking that we were about to hit a building… but alas! It was a dream! When we finally reached our final destination, we were exhausted but so excited all at once! The airport was clean and quite nicer than we had expected. But then came the bathrooms, our first culture shock. Squat toilets, empty toilet paper dispensers, empty, rusty soap containers, and an inch of water across the floor all greeted us at once. The hot, humid air blew across our faces as we loaded the vans to our hotel. We sped past coconut palms, banana trees, and papaya plants on the wrong (ooops, I mean the left) side of the road. The houses lining each side of the road looked more like run-down shacks but ironically, most of the cars we were passing looked brand new. We rehearsed a few phrases in Bahasa and practiced saying "Terima Kasih" (thank you) to our drivers. Then off to bed we went. What a trip!