I woke up on January 1 in Ruidoso, NM after having skied the day before with some great friends.
I was also still getting my feet wet with Elementary Ministry. My family gathered together to be with my Grandfather as he passed away. It was incredibly sad, yet to know the fullness of his life and to hear about the generosity that he displayed to friends and strangers alike was extremely inspiring.
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| Skiing with the Moores. That guy on the right is a New Mexico State Senator now! |
In February, I returned to Denmark! From the moment I booked my tickets in November of 2011, I was excited. Denmark is so much a part of my story and has contributed so much to the person that I am today that I was excited to re-visit. I was so glad to visit my host family and to see Chase's host family, and spent equal time with both. I could talk about the things I saw or ate, but the real reason I love Denmark so much are the people that I met while there. It was like a breath of fresh air that I desperately needed (especially because I was starting to mull over what my next move might be, sorting through some complicated relationship issues and just in general feeling overwhelmed). I left at the worst possible time for the rink, though, as there was a very serious fire in the compressor room that forced us to close down for two weeks right before I left.
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| With my host sister! <3 br="br"> |
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| Maggie and Me in Helsingør |
March brought a lot of BFF time. Sara and I did a lot of things together from attending a friend's wedding on St. Patrick's day to setting up one crazy night for an experiential worship service she was doing for her kids on Palm Sunday.
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| Me and the French girls! |
April was when I finally got my act together on applying to churches in Hong Kong. I felt pretty strongly that I might be feeling a call to move abroad but had no idea what that meant. April started off with a bang, as on April 1, Palm Sunday, we walked into our holding area for the palms to discover that they had been out of the refrigerator for about 48 hours thus rotting and falling apart for the most part. Most of the people on my staff went into damage control mode and pulled out the few usable palms. The rest of April was a whirlwind! I celebrated my birthday with both a surprise party and a party with some of my good friends thrown by Sara.
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| Birthday surprise! |
I can honestly say that I remember very little of May. Grace, the church I worked at in Houston puts on a massive VBS each year and this consumed most of May for me. I did get a great piece of relaxation when Sara and I took a few days to go to Aunt Becca's ranch at the end of the month. My move to HK was looking more and more possible, so I savored those moments with her for sure.
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| Elementary Ministry summed up in one picture |
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| Amazing time at the ranch |
June was also nuts. In addition to running VBS, we had an in town mission trip that week. It's no secret that I love youth ministry, so in addition to my role in VBS, I also stayed the night at the church each day and participated in their activities and nighttime worship each evening. By the end of the week, I was a complete and total zombie. I also got my very first intern! It was a lot of fun learning how to supervise him and help him pursue his calling to ministry! Possibly the most exciting thing that happened in June was that the Woodlands (north Houston) got a Trader Joes. I'm not even kidding when I say that I shed a tear in the parking lot. I LOVE Trader Joes. Oh, and on June 29th, my church here offered me the job. And I cried. On Skype. With my future bosses. Haha. Now that I think of it, that was obviously the most exciting thing that happened.
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| A horrendous picture but you can see the highlight of my week - shooting off a confetti cannon! |
In July, I went on a cruise with two fabulous friends from college, Jordin and Meleah. They were some of the first people to know that I had officially accepted the position and would be moving to Hong Kong. It was a great time to relax and recuperate from the craziness of June. We went to the Bahamas, St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Jordin and I even went parasailing in Nassau! It was a really great trip. Almost immediately after returning from the cruise, I got on a plane to New Mexico to join our family at our cabin in Colorado to spread my grandfather's ashes. "The Cabin" is my favorite place on earth, hands down. It was great to get to enjoy it one more time before my family sells it. Once I got back, the reality that I would be moving in just 6 short weeks hit me. And it was go time. I began sorting through my stuff, letting all my jobs know that I'd be moving, and doing a lot of secret crying. I was excited, but terrified, too.
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| St. Thomas |
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| My BFF and me at the cabin |
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| No more gorgeous place on earth |
At the beginning of August, I ran up to my parents' house for a goodbye visit before I moved. It was a great few days where I got to spend a LOT of time with my precious nephew. I adore this child. It was also great to see my parents and get to have a lot of quality time and conversation with them. Sara was in Germany at a teen conference, and the reality of what it would be like for us to be apart for a long amount of time really started to sink in. I finally got my tickets booked (a 36 hour long flight that I would not recommend), bought new suitcases, and cleaned out every nook and cranny in my house. I sold most of what I owned packing everything into three suitcases and a backpack (and storing 8-10 boxes at my parents' house). On August 21, I left Houston forever... Okay, okay, not forever. Just for a while. And I arrived in Hong Kong.
In September, I did a lot of sweating. Yes, it's true. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll know how I loathe sweating. There were about 17 days in September where I thought to myself, what the heck did I get myself into?! It is literally that hot in Hong Kong. But I did also start to settle into my job, I lived in a fabulous 23rd floor apartment with a gorgeous view of the HK skyline from both my bedroom and bathroom, I did a lot of hiking, visiting of beaches and making new friends. Which is exactly as it should be when you move to a new place. We also had a lock-in where I feel like I got to know the kids much better. Additionally, my work visa was approved and so I had to head to Macau for the day to go out of the country and come back again.
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| Church façade in Macau |
October brought more travel. I headed to Vietnam over Chinese Mid-Autumn festival with my friend Lillian and have blogged in detail about that. If you'd like to read more you can head on over to blog posts "Vietnam 1 and Vietnam 2". It was really fantastic to get away if only for a few days.
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| Crazy Motor Bikes in Vietnam |
November brought yet another move. I moved into my cozy apartment in Wanchai in the middle of sketchy-ville. It's true that I do live above a strip club, but actually I love my neighborhood. It has grown on me even more the longer I've lived here (and the craziness is really contained in a very small area). We also took our Junior students on a retreat and did the best poverty simulation I've ever participated in with an organization called Crossroads. I went kayaking with some youth worker friends, cooked two thanksgiving dinners, was invited to a third (and attended) and spent the majority of Thanksgiving day crying. It was an intense month. Luckily, my staff is awesome and gave me lots of grace in my homesick state. And my dad even sent me flowers on Thanksgiving. What a winner.
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| Thanksgiving shopping craziness |
And now it's December! One of my two roommates moved a couple of weeks ago, and we've got a new roommate, Melody. Things seem to be working great in that department. I've been scouring the markets for great unique Christmas presents and enjoying the colder weather. My friend Katie have kept up our weekly ritual of having dinner, but since our go-to Downton Abbey is finished for the season, we switched to Christmas movies. To top it off, my young adult group had a Christmas party on a tram this last week where we sang Christmas carols and acted like lunatics. I loved it.
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| Christmas party on the tram |
I'll post more on the rest of December later, but I hope that wherever you are that you're having a Merry Christmas!
Maybe I'll get those Christmas cards out next year...
-Til next time,
The Adventurer
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