Fortune Cookie

Have you ever gone to a Chinese Restaurant and picked up a fortune cookie? I have thought it strange that they have them in the Chinese restaurants here in the States, but not in China. The whole time I lived there I did not see one. I guess it is an American tradition really. Anyway... I find it interesting to read what they say, and I wonder who gets the job to come up with these "sayings". Sometimes they are scary (trust me), funny, and thought provoking. I don't believe in "fortunes" but I do believe in God. And wonder sometimes what God does with fortune cookies. He uses us and our weaknesses, he uses the wrong things that we do... does he use fortune cookies?

So, what do you think of this one, My Uncle got this after we all ate at the Hot Wok.

"Women are mothers at heart, men are bachelors at heart."

Do you think this is somewhat accurate?
I know this is a far fetched really weird post, but I was trying to find something to post, and this came to mind.

Weeds!

The weed guy came over to our house and saw me outside. He asked, "What are you going to do about your weeds?" I told him maybe he should ask my parents....so I go to get them. "Mom and Dad, there is this guy outside asking what we are going to do about our weeds, and he wants to talk to one of you. Dad: "we want to keep them." Mom: "he said that about my three dandelions?! I'll go talk to him." The result....Hannah gets paid to dig up the three dandelions (OK, OK, it was 57).

Taiwan?

It looks more and more like I will be going to Taiwan with my family. We don't know for sure yet. But what we do know is that the Lord wants us to be willing and ready to go.
The plan is for us to be in Taiwan for the school year to teach at an "English Village" that will be set up for around 20 teachers. My parents would be part of the leadership of the team. We will be teaching many different parts of our western culture in our village...not sure what those are yet, but it should be interesting. Young Taiwanese students will come through and visit these different classes. At least this is my understanding so far.
The Company that would be sponsoring us and the other teachers know that we are a Christian organization, and seem willing to let us use the class rooms that they provide for other christian meetings. This will be a good opportunity for us to get to know and share the love of God with the Taiwanese people that we are around.

It will be neat to go to Taiwan again...English Camp Teachers - February 03 at Sun Moon Lake

What?

Praise the Lord, we are homeless no more! I never thought that I would be considered normal, I have always been out-side of Normal. But now that we have a house in Normal, I guess that means I'm normal? But if most people are living out-side of Normal, like I was, and there are only a few people in Normal, does that mean that those in Normal are normal? Or do we just think that we are normal? Do normal people move to Normal because they think that is where they belong? Or do un-normal people move there because they want people to think they are normal, and hope that when you live in Normal that you will become normal, or at least that people will think you are normal?

Home is where the family is

After 6 months of living out of suit cases, at various family and friends houses, my family is still wondering what God has for us on a more long term basis. Do we go out on missions for awhile? Do we settle down, buy a house with a white picket fence, and get a nice job here in the states? Please pray for us.
I took a train and saw my family this weekend. Some really good news! My little sister prayed to receive Christ as her savior! Some other news, Ben is off to MT, he will be taking a Gray Hound bus to see J&J. Not sure how long he will be gone. I guess only God knows what he has for him in this timeThe snow around here has been amazing! So deep, and powdery, for the longest time. It is only now starting to be really good snowball snow. This Hawaii girl is not so sure what to think of the below zero weather we have had recently, but I think I am getting used to it.

Joel Morris

I just found out today, that a little 3 year old boy that I have been hearing about, and praying for, Joel Morris, died yesterday afternoon. It is real sad, and I can hardly imagine what that would be like for someone. I just keep on thinking of my little 3 year old sister. And relating that way brings tears to my eyes. But God is giving them the grace to go through this. As I read what the father wrote about his son, and how they are trusting God in this situation, it gives me even more faith, that God is faithful, and He will never let us go through something that we can't handle, and that God prepares us for these things.
I went sledding the other day. And boy what fun that was! I can't even remember the last time I did. Since I had jeans on under my skirt, I was the one that sat in the back or balanced standing up on the back of a sleigh of 4 girls. I still feel the bruises from tumbling off a few times.
My Dad is coming! He will be taking a train from MN to Chicago. He won't be with me for long though. He will be catching a ride up to the fathers conf. in Indianapolis the next day. Dad just retired from the military after his career of 24 years. And so since he is out, he now has the freedom, he's been growing a beard! and his hair is longer on top than I have ever seen it.

Bloomington is NOT Normal

I just came back from visiting my brother Ben and my Uncle Todd in Bloomington-Normal. It was a last minuet decision to go really. Instead of leaving on Friday night like normal, I left Dark and Early Saturday morning at 6am. I sat in the Starbucks across the street to wait for the 6:55 Metra to Chicago. It was a nice time to have a cup of coffee and read my Bible.
Ben picked me up in Uncle Todd's PT cruiser "Ruby". And we had lunch and then went shopping for a bit. Afterwards we Saw the movie "The pursuit of Happyness" with Will Smith and his son, acting as his son, in this film. It was neat to see them acting together. The movie is based on a real story, about a low class income family getting to the top. And all the impossible things that the father had to do to get there. I liked the fact that he had to work real hard, and he seemed to have a good work ethic. One thing I did not like about it was the fact that the mother quit on him, and just gave up on her husband, she was not supportive at all, and even though they made it seem like an okay thing that she left her son with the father and went off, the reason was pitiful. The other thing I did not like about it was the message that real happiness and success is from how much money you make. Now it did not say that blatantly, but that was the message that came across to me.
On Sunday after church Ben and I went out to Starbucks and had a nice time talking. We like to do that, While I get my *cough*-ee, (Ben's interpretation) Ben gets his hot chocolate. Starbucks is a nice place to talk, I wonder what they put in there drinks, because I am not always that talkative. Maybe it is just coffee in general, because even though I really like Starbucks, Caribou Coffee is my favorite coffee shop.

Star

I miss my family, and especially my little sisters and my nieces and nephews. Kids do the cutest things, and they are not afraid to speak their mind no matter how illogical it is. You can learn a lot about the "fear of man" from them, as well as how we can have a child like faith. They are so trusting. And that is how we need to be with God.
And talking about logic... I love Spock! Spock is my favorite Star Trek character. And yes, I like Star Trek better than Star Wars. But you just can't get enough of Yoda! Hmmm.... it must be the ears....

HQ Again???

Yes, the Lord has brought me back to IBLP Headquarters once again. But this time it is supposedly short term. They needed the help, so what can I say? I'm a mercy? But seriously, I really do like it here. I just don't know if this is where the Lord wants me for very long.
It is nice to unpack for once... Traveling for the last 4 months have given even more of an opportunity to be flexible, if being a Military brat did not already give my over and above the opportunity to learn this.

Mongolia, July 2006

As some of you may know I am now back in America. I returned and jumped right in helping my family with the next move. We will be leaving California September 1st and start driving across the country to the east coast visiting family and friends along the way. But I did not want to let you all down and not let you know the things that the Lord did in Mongolia the last few weeks I was there. So here are some of the things that you can continue to pray for. Even though I am not serving in Mongolia right now, God has planted seeds that I pray will continue to grow. The training of the World Vision staff is going well, recently some of the staff came up after the meeting and asked if they could use our Christian materials as they go out to the country side and use it as a tool to help reach the Nomads. Tim has started trying to get the overlays for our lessons, with the Mongolian and/or English, translated all the way so that they could purchase them at the cost it would be to make them. The translation work is going slow, we are down to one translator, Idree. Idree also has a family and other responsibilities, and cannot help with translating full time. But it is being done well. Pujee, one of our best translators, just had her baby, and so cannot help with translating for awhile. The baby's name, in English, means Fragrant Lily. She was born early but is doing well. She is a tiny adorable little girl. There have been meetings with the Mongolian International Institute about the classes the Character Training Institute is going to be starting this new school year. The leaders at MIU are excited about CTI coming and teaching, and many plans are being made to help the students to really learn, and not cheat. :-) The Trainings at the Children's Place are going well and strong. Mostly Tim is the one teaching, with Idree to translate into Mongolian. Please pray that this Christan Orphanage will be blessed with the teachings from Gods word. A few weeks before I left, Erin came up with the wonderful idea of doing some cooking and craft classes with spoken English for some of our students and friends who don't have as much to do during the Summer. This was a wonderful time of getting to know some of the Mongolian people we come in contact with more personally. They loved the classes! We shared with them some of our American culture through the food and crafts that we taught them how to make. We had all ages attend, from child to grandmother. I think they enjoyed the cooking classes the most. We made Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal cookies, Banana Bread and Apple Pie! On one occasion, Duma's sister and law came (Duma is one of My Christan Mongolian friends), I assumed that she was a Christan too, but she was not, and so I started asking her questions like what church she went to and such, Duma was very pleased that I was asking her these things and it brought up more opportunities for Duma to talk about the gospel with her sister in law. Toward the end of my time in Mongolia the Lord gave ma many neat opportunities to experience the culture. One of them was with Julie, a Mongolian girl that went to our church, she invited Erin and I out to the country side to stay in her Ger (a round tent like house). We had a relaxing time. It was neat to be with all the Herder families and their heards of horses. We climbed a mountain and viewed the wonderful scenery from the top. We also had our meals cooked over a fire and milk tea in the morning, and brushed our teeth in a nice fresh flowing river. While I was there I learned how to make a Mongolian dish called Hosher, I have already made it for my family and they seem to really enjoy it. Looking back on my time in Mongolia, I would say that my main ministry was discipleing young Christian ladies in their walk with the Lord. Many of them are new Christians, and I was asked a lot of things. Like, "How do I stop this life of sin I am living in, when I know it is disobeying God, but I just can't stop?" or just simple questions about how to have personal devotion time and studying Gods word. I am so grateful to God for giving me the words to say. Thank you all for your interest in what God is doing, and the support you have given me. There are many other trainings that are going on and that have started recently as well, so obviously there is much more that I could say, but I hope that this gives you a little picture of how you can pray for the country of Mongolia. May God bless you as you seek to serve Him. Naomi Lyons