"Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me..."

Now that I am back home in the good ol’ U.S.A., and since I practically didn’t post anything while abroad (for various reasons), I’ve decided to recap my time in China. One note before I get started blogging: the thoughts, stories, pictures, experiences, etc, that I will share here only scratch the surface of what happened on this trip, especially as it regards pictures*.

*For privacy and protection of the children, I will not be posting online any pictures of the children that I saw at Maria’s Big House of Hope. If you would like to see some of those pictures or hear some of my most special stories and memories from the trip, I would love to chat in person.

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June 5, 2015 was the day where I conquered some of my biggest fears in life.

I didn’t know what to think. I was scared and excited, but mostly scared. I was about to go half-way across the world with a bunch of strangers, eat new foods, use weird toilets (lovingly referred to as “squatty potties”), and over-all do new things. I wasn’t sure what to expect or what the adventure would bring, but ‘Lord, Your will be done. Not mine. Because my will would have me run away from the airport as fast as possible, cry a little, and then take a nap.’

That was a day full of firsts: first time flying/navigating airports all by myself, first time truly stepping out on faith alone, first time leaving the U.S., and my first time facing the fears of international travel and flying over oceans. I knew that I was doing what God wanted of me, but that did not negate the anxiety I was feeling. The only way I was able to step foot on those three airplanes was because the Lord granted me peace from the anxiety and He helped me feel the calm assurance of His presence and guidance.

The flights from Minneapolis to Chicago, Chicago to Beijing, and Beijing to Luoyang were moderately turbulent, but I slept through the worst of it, thankfully. The international flight from Chicago to Beijing was about 14 hours long and we crossed ~13 time zones. Being on such a huge jet for that long of a time was a strange experience… time went by so swiftly at times, and very slowly at others. I’ve decided that airplanes are like time capsules: time does not feel like a real thing on them. It’s rather difficult to describe unless you’ve been on a flight over 10 hours long, though.

One of my favorite parts of flying is seeing the “birds’-eye view” of different places. Here’s Minnesota from hundreds of feet in the air.

Here’s the first picture we had as a team in the Chicago O’Hare International Airport! It was amazing to see us all bond so quickly. In 36 hours we went from being complete strangers to a close-knit family. We only got closer as the week went along. Still miss them.

Eleah!! This is the girly that I rode with on the international flight to Beijing. She’s a real sweety and was quite fun to sit next to. Plus, we got ice cream at about 3 am!

Oh, how beautiful sunsets are when you’re above the clouds. Sorry for the blurry picture: it doesn’t do it justice.

When we arrived at the Beijing airport at about 10:00 p.m. local time, there was a huge crowd of people with cameras and bouquets of flowers 2-3x the size of people’s heads! We still aren’t certain why so many people were there, but we think it was to welcome their school-teachers back from a teaching conference. When we all walked by them, I felt like a celebrity!

At our first hotel, we had these fancy mugs and tea waiting for us. :)

Here’s an aerial view of Luoyang, China. The flight from Beijing to Luoyang was pretty turbulent, but thankfully it only got bad towards the end of the flight.

Thanks for reading! Excited to continue sharing my experiences both on this blog and in person, as I have more stories than what I can post on my blog.

Audrey