Thursday July 30, 2009
Today we had a really quick day. We had a normal morning. We reviewed rules, vocabulary, and had a daily morning routine. After recess, we watched a movie, had lunch, and then went on our class field trip to the reindeer park. It was beautiful! They had beautiful gardens, peacocks, reindeer, horses(I took pictures for you Courtney), goats, ostriches, and a few other animals. We read Noah's Ark this morning and as we were walking in the park their was a smaller version of the ark and some of the kids said, "look there's Noah's ark!" and another young girl as we passed by a beautiful wooden cross asked if that was the Jesus' cross. I'm telling you these kids never cease to amaze me! The kids enjoyed seeing the animals, but there was a lot of walking for their little legs so they were pretty tired by the end of the trip and ready to go home. I think overall they had a good time though. The reindeer were in a huge field feeding by the water. We could see them as we crossed over a bridge. I think that was both mine and the kid's favorite part of our field trip!
Tonight we went to the English director's home and met with him and his sweet family. His name is Wilson, his wife is Tanya, and they have three precious boys: Joshua (6), Timothy(3), and Nathaniel(6 weeks). They provided dinner for us and they shared with us how they were called to China and also talked about opportunities for us if ever wanted to teach. They are a very nice family. They mentioned a foster care home they have been to nearby where we could go play with kids one day after school so that would be neat! They have an anniversary coming up and so all of the girls offered to babysit because we know they have their hands full. We don't mind of course, their sons are precious! We got to hold baby Nathaniel, who is only six weeks, before Tanya put him down to sleep.
After dinner, Grace treated us to 1hour long foot massages. She goes so often that she had numerous free ones to use up so she treated us. It was amazing! It wasn't anything as I expected. It was a place specifically for foot massages. They cleared out the place for us (eight of us) so that we could all get them at the same time. Because we were last minute appointments they had us wait an hour since they already had clients inside so Grace treated us to a coffee place close by. When we came back, they led us to our massage areas for each of our massages. Each area had two beds so Melissa and I sat down next to one another. We both passed out quickly after the massage began. They first soaked our feet in a hot water, milk, and rose petal mixture while giving us a neck, shoulder, and back massage. After drying our feet we laid down and the rubbed our feet. It was so relaxing! I felt so undeserving though. We have been so spoiled and so taken care of here it is ridiculous! God has blessed up way more than we could ever have imagined! For most of us though we are not used to this kind of pampering and we feel very unworthy of it. As we were getting our massages we talked about Jesus washing His disciples' feet and were quickly humbled. One of my other teammates mentioned how she thought about Esther and when she was brought to the King's palace all the ladies/concubines went through a required year of daily beauty treatments. I have been blown away by how much God has provided for us. We know that as He fills us up, we are able to pour out onto many. He is so good!

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18