Well guys I'm finally back! I've been back for a couple of days actually, just haven't had the time to write my last and final entry! But I have had a lot of time to reflect on my trip! I've learned so many things about myself, China, and God's heart.

Personally I've learned that God does make all things new! Before this trip I lost passion! Passion for school, life, and my calling. I guess sometimes u need to lose things in order to really find them. Now I feel like a totally different person! I have this new found love for God and what he has planned for my life. Not just in my career, but my life in general!! I'm no longer going to try to be in control!My heart says of Him, "seek His face." Your face Lord, is what I will seek. All the days of my life. My eyes will be fixed on Him. Its a waste of my time and effort to be focused on other things. To keep your eyes focused on Him does not mean to be locked up in your room for hours praying and fasting!!! it means to think differently. To never be the status quo! To act, walk, think, and talk like Chirst did. People have Christianity all wrong, even I am still trying to figure out what being a Christian really is! Go figure! I don't think we will ever figure God out. He's not a formula we can calculate and figure out. He's not a system where if you follow the right rules u've got it!  He doesnt live in a box so we can take Him out whenever we need Him and put Him back when we think we got it under control.

He is a real living and breathing God! He is the one who is and is to come! He's the lover of my soul, my best friend, my CREATOR! He is the I AM! He is everything this broken world needs! Can't you see how broken we are!!!! If you don't look hard enough, its easy to miss. We are all walking around with our hands over our wounds trying to find something, someone to heal it! But that something, that someone cant be found here! Its found in Him! The more you seek answers, the more you seek Him....the more you wil see that we are broken and that we need Him to make us whole!

About my call to China, I've found that my heart belongs there!!!!! Thats all I can say! I still have yet to discover what God is doing there and how he wants to use me ! I know that God used me in China this last month. But mostly China changes you! I'm not quite sure what it is about China! Maybe I don't see what other people see! In fact some ppl probably think I'm crazy!!! Im out of my mind!!! Why is a spanish speaking girl going to China when she can just go to Venezuela or Guatemala. How will she communicate!!! Trust me I asked God this question sooo many times!!!But over and over again, God keeps telling me, you are not the status quo! Stop trying to be normal!!!! haha! I know he's funny! But its true! I NEVER want to be in a place in my life where I do not need Him! I don't want to be comfortable! I dont want to be normal! Anyway my heart won't let me!

About China, we will bring them home! They are so hungry for the truth!!!! Just like any other country is, only they do not have the freedom to seek the truth! To think outside the box, to ask questions, to break the status quo is looked down upon! China has been like this for thousands of years. China doesnt need missionaries to go and tell them that their culture is backwards and that they are an ignorant people. China doesnt need a "western" religion in order for them to be saved. They don't need to be taught "Christianity". I've learned that they are just like us. They have the same feelings of guilt, brokeness, and desires to be loved. A longing to find "home". A place where they are told who they really are and not lied to. A place where they feel safe and loved. A place where their feelings of guilt and shame are paid for by the price of one man who died for all of that. A place where they are free! That place is called "home" and they need someone to lead them there. No its not a physical place, but its a place in our hearts, in our souls, where God fills! That place is called Home!

 

Father we will lead them home!

 

Love you all and thank you for your support !!!! Be inspired, seek his face!

wo ai ni

Jovy

 

Ps. Baby Noah is eligable for adoption and can stay with the foster home!!! Thank you sooooo much for your prayers!

The song on my myspace speaks volumes of our hearts here in China!!! My roomate had it and I felt this spoke to me about China! Mostly because I have had many times where my cries were for them to come home! I don't know what He is doing in my heart, but my heart belongs here!!!!!!

 

Miss you all!

Jovy

We can not even begin to understand the depths of the devastation that the earthquake in Sichuan province has caused!! If you would like to find out more information about what has happened you can google CCTV international. You should watch some of the videos!

Please continue praying for the victims and the orphans! There number of orphans in these provinces have risen! Please read my blog about it!

 

Love You all so much!!!!

Jovy

 

Ps. I am so in love!!! haha!! God is so amazing!

When we brought back baby noah the nurse told me that they thought he has downs syndrome! This means that New Day can not keep him because they do not have the resources and they are also not allowed by the govt. to keep mentally handicapped children!! This was sad news! I got a little worried because New Day is an amazing place for orphans to receive what they need. It is the closest thing to having love and a family! It truly is an amazing place!

I then learned by my roomate who's family has adopted 3 children from China that families cannot adopt a mentally handicapped child from China. This devastated me!!!!! Two years ago when I came with a team from ORU we visited a government owned orphanage. There was a boy who was about 18 and was mentally handicapped. He had lived there it seemed his whole life. When I learned that baby noah might not be able to get adopted I thought of this boy and that he might end up like hiim! In an institution all alone with no resources to help him develop! It brought tears to my eyes!!!

I am asking for you prayers!!! My friend told me that there was a possibility that his file could be put in a group of children who are able to get adopted!!! I'm not sure what all the details are and how this is possible but I beleive that together with our faith that God can truly do anything, that baby noah might have a chance at having a loving family with the right resources! I so beleive in the power of prayer!! Some people just beleive life happens the way it wants to. That we have no power to cause things to change through our prayers!!!! That life is just a coinicidence! I do not beleive that!!! We all have to have something bigger than ourselves to beleive in! That God is at work in our everyday lives and that if we ask Him, He can do anything for us when the time is right!

Also The Sichuan earthquake was very heartbreaking for China. I was talking to one of the students when we were on a city bus about it! She told me that she heard how many of the families who lost their home mgiht have to live in tents for up to three years! You can not imagine the depths of the physical, emotional, and spiritual damage that Sichuan and other provinces around it are going through! The beautiful thing about it, is that China has come together in a way that they never have before! They are raising funds, sending help and there are bumper stickers and signs in the subways that say Love China. My favorite were a group of hands linked together with a heart in the background! Please pray for them and if you'd like to get involved in the Sichuan relief research online! There are many organizations that you can donate money to! I am thinking of doing a fund raiser myself when I get back!

If you have any questions or ideas for fundraising let me know!

wo ai ni,

Jovy

 

mandarin lesson 6: Hu die (who die (not die like dye)

 

 

Hi my loves,

So today was the most amazing day!!! It started off normal, played with the kids do therapy with them etc. Then as I was chillin with Ben and Vaness (americans) the nurse asked if I could go with one of the staff to go and get a new baby!!! After a really long ride into the city, we stopped and ate. Im not much of a soup person and that soup made me less of a soup person! Haha...but I did have sone really good ravioli type thing stuffed with beef!!

We finally got to the hosptial and had to wait 2 hourse until they could discharge them. It was a good 2 hours. I got to know Amy one of the Chinese staff!!! She gave me my Chinese name: Zhou Wei (it kinda sounds like Joey because its the closest thing to my name) Well anyways we talked about how she became a beleiver and about Mao Zsedung for a while!!! It was nice!!! Seriously the Chinese are the sweetest ppl u will ever meet!!!

It was finally time to go get the baby. When we got there the nurses and staff seemed to be unorganized, but then again I had no idea what they were doing because I didnt understand them!!! lol FINALLY after about 30 minutes or so I met baby Noah!!!!!!!! And I fell in love!! They gave him to me and I held him all the way till we got home!!! uhhh!! On the way there I wondered what his story was. I told him what I thought was his story. I said "maybe your mom could not afford ur heart surgery so her act of love was to give you away!!!" "I'm pretty sure it was the hardest thing she had ever done!" Hes soooo cute!!!! OMG whoever adopts him is going to loovvee himi!!!

So now im here in my apartment feeling so full of life!!! Today was awesome!!

 

Love you and miss you!!!

Zhou Wei

 

Mandarin lesson 5: Can I help you = Wo keyi bang ni ma?

My favorite things:

1.) The sounds of China!!!

2.) Chinese DVDs (if you know what I mean, Joey would disapprove of this)

3.) Breaded Chicken and Fried sweet bread on a stick!!! MMM for only 44 cents!

4.) Chinese Jade!!! Beautiful (the lighter the green the better quality it is)

5.) When the Chinese get excited!!!!

6.) Chinese kids!!!! So cute!!! I might take one home with me! ha

7.) The Beijing Wildlife Park!!! Its the BEST park Ive ever been to!!! You can ride in a caged jeep and the bears and lions get really close you can feed them. Well they grab raw chicken from a small caged box attachted to the jeep!! Its really close though!!

8.) Bargaining! I love it cuz you can be mean and its so cool when you win!!

9.) Chinese hospitality!!!! They are the sweetest ppl you'll ever meet!

10.) When a Chinese becomes a beleiver!! (They really think about it and ask a lot of questions. But when they do become a believer they understand that its a life changing thing, not religion!! Its a beautiful thing to see!

 

My not so favorite things:

1.) The smells!!! They are all so very interesting!!

2.) The air quality. China is one of the most polluted countries. My lungs have a hard time adjusting! And you can't really take deep breaths, you kinda just take shallow breaths!

3.) The fact that I dont speak fluent mandarin, but one day I will!!

4.) Their meat in a pack snack things!!! mmm doesnt sound good doesnt look good!!

5.) The pressure in the showers!!!!!  I havent washed my hair in a while!!!

6.) the fact that I cant do anything if I hear a husband beating his wife on the floor below me! They have no numbers to call or places to go! Its sad!

7.) I have to walk everywhere!!!! No bikes yet!! We're thinkin of getting a motored one!!

8.) No mousse or gel! Bad for curly hair!! haha!

9.) No chinese cable...boo!!! its fun to watch!!

10.) The crazy roads and how no one really follows the rules!!!!!

 

Mandarin lesson 4: hen hao (pronounced hun haow) = very good

 

wo ai ni,

Jovy

Well guys I've survived my first week in China!!!!!!! Right when I landed I met my driver who I thought didnt speak English, but he spoke a little and was so excited to practice it with me!!! I love when the Chinese get excited!!! They smile really big and their eyes squint! I met my awesome roomate Becka!!!! We ventured into the village to buy some things for the apartment!! That was more exciting than I remembered it being! I found this sweet grocery on the corner of an intersection that sells awesome Chinese products!!!! My fav is the koala bears that are stuffed with different icings like strawberry!!!! lol So instead of writing a long blog Im gonna bullet point different topics!!! That doesnt really make sense but you get me!

About Housing:

So originally I thought I would be staying in the actual dorms of the foster home that Im interning for but I'm actually staying in an apartment complex where all the natives live!!!!! The cool thing is that I'm living how most of the people in the town live, but the negative part about it is that it is a 15 minute walk everyday!! Then I live on the 6th floor!!! haha! Sooo by the end of this month perhaps I will be able to run the fun run at ORU in a passing time!!!! So its def a blessing in disguise!!!

My babies:

I am in love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously I can die any day and I would die happy!!! So basically my day goes like this:

6:30-Wake up (but my body has been waking up around 5:30, Im finally a morning person!!!)

7:45-Walk the 15 minute walk with all the marvelous smells of Qingyundian town!!! This includes cow, dog, sheep, and human poop, fish, and this one smell we cant figure out. I think its coffee!!!

8:00-8:45-Follow the nurse around and check all the babies lung sounds and their pulseO2 (oxygen and pulse)

After that i lose track of time! But I feed the babies and hold them and sing to them after the health assessment. Then I do physical therapy with Phillip!!!! Im so in love with him!!! He has spina bifida and is getting stronger and stronger everyday! Then I play with the newborns!! (hard work u know) Then after they are fed I go eat lunch!!! MMMM Chinese food...real Chinese food! Then I basically have a 3 hour break!! I sterilize the therapy room and something really cool that I beleive is an answered prayer is that I am beginning to dev a realtionship with the preschool teacher!!! Shes a believer and Im so excited to get to know her!! I will be teaching her english for 30 minutes during my break!!! After my break the kids wake up from a nap and we go play outside or inside or walk in the village! Its one of my favorite  times!!! Im in love with the cutesttttt chubby baby. His name is Evan!!! When they took him to get his surgery the Dr.s basically said that he would die if he got the surgery and if he didnt because he had pneomonia. The staff decided that he needed the surgery and he survived and was back in a week!!!! A miracle!!!!

I get out around 5 and we hed back home. Sometimes we eat out in the village!!! They have this amazing breaded chicken on a stick!!! and fried bread on a stick!!!!! My fav!

Well thats how my week has been! Today I went to the Summer Palace and Soho!  Its a ritzy shopping area in the city. Then  we went to the Pearl Market!!! Its crazy!!!!! I love Bargaining!!! I love walking away or saying no thats too much money!!! I love when you win!!!! haha!! I got this a Gucci knock off watch for $20 lol!! I wanted it for $10 but some of them won't budge!!!!!

I will try updating my blog when I can! I am missing entry 2!! coming soon!!! lol

mandarin lesson 3

How much is this? = zhege duoshao qian? (pronounced: jigga dwoshao chian)

wo ai ni

Jovy

Entry2 longest plane ride of my life..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Music: ORU haha!

Food: Vanilla Haagen Dazs!!!!

My gluteus maximus hurts soooo freakin bad!!! So far we've been on the plane for about 7 hours!!! 6 more to go!!! I'm trying to stay awake cuz really for my body it is suppose to be 7 in the morning!!! Crazy right!!! I heard that some ppl get jet lag so bad they crap or pee on themselves!!!! My jet lag wasn't that crazy last time...but I haven't gotten up to pee since we took off!! Only because I got a window seat!!! Hopefully one of them will need to go! Someone might cuz we just ate a beef and swiss sandwhich for dinner!! It smelled like a cow farm!!!!

So I watched this odd chinese movie!!! The movie was about a little boy (cute as hell) and his dad. They were really poor and the boy went to a school where these kids made fun of him. There was this really awkward tall fat and bulky girl who sounded like she was three. She was really odd looking and she had a crush on the little boy! Haha! Its funnier if u saw the both of them!!! Well the plot was that one night his dad was digging in a pile of junk where apparently a UFO landed! He brought home some sort of gooey bouncy ball thing for his son not knowing that it was an alien dog or something like that! Well the boy became close to it and in a series of events the dog alien brought his dad who died in a construction accident back to life! Good for the boy and the dad but not for the poor alien dog!! He used all his strength to bring him back that he died!!! The death scene was actually kinda funny! The alien dog grew weak and shriveled into a stuffed animal version of it!!!! Lol Again funnier if u saw it!!! All in all I rate this movie 3 stars! Only cuz it was very odd! It ended with a whole mass of those alien dogs and the one that died coming to earth!!! Lol!!! I don't know if I would recommend it but if u like weird asian sci fi / comedy then go for it. Only I don't know the name of the movie!!! Lol

Well im gonna peace out for now!! Ugh I really hope someone has to pee!! Lol!

Chinese lesson2

Ni hao =hello

(we're soon going to get to two worded phrases.by the end of my trip u will speak fluent mandarin lol)

wo ai ni (i love you)

Jovy

Well I am officially on my way to Beijing!!! ahhh I have a mix of emotions right now, so im not sure what to feel!! haha!!! but im so excited...im surrounded by so many chinitos!!! haha! There are these 2 little american chinese boys that are out of control!!!!!! Wow they are spoiled it seems!! The mom told them to shut up!!! lol!! Then she yelled something in chinese!!! So far the only chinese I understand in the announcements is thank you!!! haha!!! So much for that learn mandarin crap!!! Or maybe she was talking too fast!!! Well my loves im gonna miss you!!! Words can't express how much I appreciate your support!! talk to you soon!!! chinese lesson #1 good bye = zai jian with love jovy

Hello My loves!

I've been learning a lot about life, love, and God! There's a song by an artist Brooke Fraser called "Love Where is Your Fire" and every word is exactly what God has shown me about these three things. I'm not sure whether Brooke meant the song to be about life or God because it talks about Love but I can definately relate it to all three. I refuse to be Leukwarm. I'm either hot or cold! I want what God wants for me! I want that fire! I want that abundant life that He came to give us!!! I want to experience that love that two people are meant to have when they do things right and wait and are wise! I dont want the love that I see everywhere around me!!! It has to be possible to obtain that kind of love!!! I've seen very few couples that share it! And though its a hard and narrow road, its worth it in the end! I want that life that God promised me! I'm willing to do whatever it is to obtain it! I will not give up on this long and hard narrow road! Though others tell me to give in! I can't!! I wasn't made for that! There's got to be more to life than the life that I see around me that's full of hurt and pain, unfaithfullness, jealousy, abuse, betrayal. Why do we choose this life? Is the wide road really worth it???? Yea it looks easy and good and tempting! But in the end is it fulfilling? Is it worth it? Does it bring true satisfaction? It seems to me that the life lived on the wide road in the end leaves you empty and filled with more questions, failures, guilt, and pain.

And that is why no matter how hard or confusing and lonely it is to walk down the narrow road is, I choose life! I see that life that is ahead of me! I see now the amazing things that lie before me! I see that God really wants the best for us! If we choose to walk down this road and let God really deal with us and ask questions but never lose sight of the end of the road, we will enter into that promised land. We have this hope in Christ who just like us walked down this hard and narrow road! If He did, we too can do it! So I fix my eyes on Him! I walk down the road no matter what the cost! All for the sake of Christ. All for entering into that promised land! I trust in His love!

Leukwarm will never do!

wo ai ni,

Jovy

Ps. Read Hebrews 4

Love, Where Is Your Fire?"

Love, where is your fire? I've been sitting here smoking away
making signals with sticks and odd ends and bits, but there's no sign of a flame
Imposters have been passing, offering good-feeling glow
but I'm holding out for what you are about - an inferno that burns to the bone
some urge me to be temperate, lukewarm will never do

[CHORUS]
'Cause I, I wanna blaze with you
So i'm holding my heart out to you
Holding my heart out

So I stand, handing out torches
speaking words that are lamps to their feet
Til the tine when you come an I'm whole and we are one and the fire in me is complete
Some tell me to be moderate but lukewarm will never do


Then a doubt comes to lie at the back of my mind
That I'll offer you me and you'll politely decline
So i hasten to mute it, I'll shout and rebuke it - "away!"

-Brook Fraser