I almost died!!

November 4, 2013

Ok not really, I didn't almost die. But it felt like it haha....

First off my heart goes out to those who witnessed and those who were injured in the LAX shooting. I missed the shooting by a only about 48 hours. It's scary to think how close I was to seeing such a tragedy happen before my eyes. I PTL (Praise the Lord) that I was not there, but I am praying for the victims and the suspect who committed the crime.

So on to how I almost died...haha...The second full day I was here I got pretty ill. It kept me in bed for pretty much most of the day. I had a slight fever, headache, and was nauseous for most of the day. I could not speak clearly (I couldn't make full sentences) and was not able to eat anything for the whole day. (By this time I have only had 1 real meal since landing) And I know exactly why I felt this way. So here is some background, typically at home I'm an old grandma, I'm in bed by 10 pm and awake by 8am +/- about an hour or so. This has been my schedule since high school and when this schedule is thrown off my body reacts to the lack of rest I get. This has even happened to me while at home a couple of times when I stray away from my typical body clock for only a few hours over the course of several weeks. So you can imagine how my body would react when it is thrown off by a full 14 hours of change at the same time. It tried it kill me! Haha ok not really but it felt like it. Whenever this happens you will not see me get out of bed for at least a few days. But by God's grace and mercy I was almost at a 100% the very next day. I was able to attend church service and be present for all activities that day. I was able to eat again, I didn't eat much cause I was just getting my appetite back so it was a good thing. The only thing that was left over from the illness was the feeling of being tired which probably was a combination of illness and jet lag, so I tried not to move to fast or move around to much throughout the day. PTL I'm all better now and able to proceed with normal life here.

Today is a day off for everyone in the church so I am all alone today and able to chat and update throughout the day. 😊 like I said I am staying the church dormitory so I'm staying here at the church with some church members who live here year around. So I will write about church service that occurred on Sunday.

Church starts with prayer meeting in the morning. This means prayer! Not a bible study or a worship session. All there is to this time is a couple songs of worship and only a series of prayer sessions for the church, the members and anything else that needs prayer. Now let me talk about the style of praying. They do what my youth group calls "Korean style" prayer. (Nothing against Koreans, I think this is just the way one of them saw a Korean group pray and it just stuck ever since) To me personally I think this is one of the most annoying ways to pray, but this is just my opinion...hehe... So what exactly is "Korean style" praying? It is when everyone in the group prays out loud all at the same time. The leader will pray the loudest and when the leader is done everyone else should be finishing up their prayer. Why is this annoying to me? Well to me I can't focus on my own prayer, I only listen to the prayers of the people next to me or the the loudest person I can hear. But somehow this works for them. And they somehow are able to focus on their own prayer. I guess I will need to practice to focus more on my own prayer during this time, which in theory I should be doing anyways. 😛

Ok so next is Sunday school, they have a series throughout the church. Everyone breaks up into classes that is particular to where your spiritual maturity level is. Classes start from 101 up to 105. 101 is before baptism and learning what it means to be Christian. 102 is service and Discipleship. And I didn't quite get what the other 3 are...hehe sorry. I sat in the 101 class. Pastor Ohm lead this class and he was teaching about what it means to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. It was quite different hearing it explained in Thai.

After Sunday school was service. The sermon was about not giving up, which was really a message for me. I of course was not feeling well and already missing home, I wanted to go home already. I mean who wants to be sick in a foreign country? I certainly did not, but Pastor Ohm was speaking about the life of apostle Paul. Apostle Paul went through so much in his life, from disease, persecution, to ultimately his death. But throughout all of this Paul believed and he kept going for the sake of glorifying The Lord. So I thought who am I to give up now? I have not been stoned, I have not even heard a single word of persecution, nor have I died yet. I was just a little ill, what in that allows me to go home and give up? It doesn't!! So why the I heck was I even thinking of that?

Pastor Ohm continued and gave us a solution to the feeling of giving up. He told us that it just takes us to admit that we are mere mortals, that we are human and are not perfect. Not even close! Which hit me even more. I wouldn't say that I am a complete perfectionist but I'm pretty close. I definitely have a type A personality. In the sermon Pastor Ohm said that when we are able to admit that we are human and not perfect we are able to find more of a will to continue and not give up. Not to lower our standards or anything but that our will power, our hope and motivation to continue comes from The Lord Almighty. With Him on our side what can't we do? Absolutely nothing!!

After everyone eats lunch together which reminds me of my home church as we also eat lunch together. The difference is that a few women in the church cook every meal the church has every week they need it! That is commitment! Then after lunch everyone breaks off into small groups based one age to discuss the sermon and other spiritual related topics. I got placed in group 3G (gather, grow, go). This is a college group. This is quite and interesting bunch of personalities. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about this group...haha...

So that is a wrap of Saturday and Sunday. Interesting journey already no?