Let's give this another go shall we?

Yesterday marked the end of the fourth week of lectures. I have been here for over a month. I'm astounded at how the time has passed. At first, I prayed for the time to pass faster and now I'm praying it moves a little slower.

Last night we watched the movie Evan Almighty. I would recommend it to anyone. It had its hilarious scenes, but ultimately it gave me a painful feeling in the pit of my stomach as to what following God looks like to this world. It painted a pretty vivid picture of how things most likely occured when Noah built the boat, in a more modern aspect of course. Obviously we don't know all of the goings on around Noah in the true story, but there is a scene where Steve Carrell's character, Evan Baxter, is standing on the ark while threats of tearing the boat down are getting more real with each passing minute. Evan stands on deck and pleads with the people to get on the boat and they laugh. It made me pretty heart-broken for the people that were around Noah. The movie had a happy ending, but that particular scene struck the core of my heart for the true story of what actually happened. The bottom line is that none of those people got on the boat in real life. I hurt more for what it felt like for God to have to do that. It hurt him pretty badly.

I'm actually sitting on the couch just counting minutes. We have a four day weekend due to Chinese New Year and quite a bit of the group went home to their families to celebrate. The rest of us non-Chinese folk are trying to pass the time with meaningless activities. I actually took an "unofficial" IQ test and scored a 135, which was pretty good according to the website. Then I took a Mensa test. I did fair on it but people were in the room so I couldn't concentrate. I attributed the missed questions to conversation attempts by my peers. I'm not upset or anything. Mensa means "table" in latin. Whoever would want to be a member of a group named "table" is someone I would like to know (no offense if you are a member and go to table conventions with the other "geniuses").

Tomorrow will be much better than today. We are leaving at 6 AM and going to the highly esteemed "monkey" beach. That's no tribute to Davy, Michael, Peter and Micky either (be careful with that statement, lest you show your true age, because in my efforts of transparency, I have to admit, I had to look that up). There are suppose to be primates there often. I have heard monkeys are everywhere here but I have seen not one. Apparently, I couldn't spot George Washington on a dollar bill. It will be a full day at monkey beach and I will have my camera with me. You don't have to worry about that. My mother reminded me to take lots of pictures in the most threatening tone anyone could use over an instant message chat.

Yesterday, we prayed for a state in India named Orissa. Orissa is in bad shape with the persecution of followers of the only living God. Hindu radicals fear the surge of Christianity that has been taking place and in an attempt to subdue this "problematic christianity" and "kill it at the root," churches are being burned and people are being murdered. Believers are fleeing the entire state and it has been said it is unsafe for Westerners. A man feel off of the roof of a Christian church and these oblivious Hindus are calling him a martyr. What cause did he die for? I have never heard of a martyr for stupidity. He isn't a martyr sitting in hell right now, I promise. He is probably thinking how much more convenient it would have been to fall IN the church than OFF of it. I feel terrible for that lost soul. There is a very high profile person in Orissa right now and they are able to move freely through the state and give missionaries reports of what is happening there. I apologize for my blunt honesty, but I hope this breaks your heart like it does mine. Remember Orissa all the time in your prayers.

Thanks for reading.