I need patience

As I dig into the word of God more and more, I am learning that I have less patience for the things of this world. Especially people who live double standard lives. People who are wanting to live for Christ but who are also gripped by the things of this world. I can see that they want to give their all to Christ but they are also not wanting to let go of the things that are comfortable.

The Bible talks about how this is very dangerous.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot not cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16

Christ wants us to be all in or all out. He doesn’t want us to be half hearted about loving Him. He wants us to devote our lives, ALL of our lives, in every aspect to Him.

As my friend Robb said on Twitter today: There are days in ministry when you want to slap somebody in Jesus name – Chuck Lawless

That is exactly how I feel right now. I am trying to learn when to say things and when to have patience.

Is anyone else feeling this way?

Heart Sister

Here lately, my heart has been missing its sister…

Hannah Ruthie.

Let me tell you a little bit about this amazing woman of God:

I felt like I have known her for forever, but in all reality, it has only been 3 years. We met when we both signed up to go on a mission trip to South Africa for the summer of 2008.

We experienced a lot of that trip. We grew a lot. We learned how to seek God in all circumstances. We grew close towards the end of the summer and always had late night chats in the Love Shack about all of the silly things that were happening.

When we parted ways in the Newark Airport, I knew that our friendship didn’t end there. I knew that we would be talking on Facebook and on Skype.

Our friendship grew stronger and stronger as time went on.

I went out to Washington to stay with her 2 times:

We had many adventures together in lovely Seattle.

Then she came to Missouri to see me:

We had more adventures around Missouri. I took her to Kansas and we went to the Renaissance festival, toured around Independence and ate lots of good food.

Then I moved to Japan. I didn’t know when the next time that I would see her would be. But, I knew that our friendship would just continue to grow. We talked on the computer or wrote each other letters. We talked, cried, prayed and laughed together.

Then, the Lord blessed me and I was in return able to bless Hannah and she came to JAPAN!

Words cannot describe how much I love this lady. I feel like I am able to tell her anything and she will not judge me. If I call her and just want to chat, she will sacrifice sleep to talk to me. When we talk on Skype, hours feel like minutes. We could talk all day long about nothing and I love it. She asks me how my heart is and she truly wants to know how it is. If I want to just be silly and dream, she will do it with me. We can dream up some pretty fantastic things too.

When I think of our friendship, I think of her as my Jonathan.

I think of this verse, “Now it came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as himself.” 1 Samuel 18:1

I feel as if our souls are knit together so closely that nothing can break our friendship. We are BFFL (best friends for life).

Dearest Hannah Ruthie,

I love you and I am so thankful that the Lord has brought you into my life. I am encouraged by you daily and I pray that the Lord encourages you as well. I am so thankful that even though we have never experienced life on a day-to-day basis in the same city and we are thousands of miles apart, that our friendship continues to grow.

Love,
Mallory Eryn

On a whim

Today I woke up and realized… I have almost a whole week off of work coming up soon and I don’t want to sit in my apartment for that whole time.

So, what did I do?

I bought a ticket to Busan, South Korea.

That’s right… on a whim.

I will be going by myself for 4 days. I am sure that it is going to be an adventure. I am going to be part of a tour group… except it gets better… a Japanese tour group. Awesome.

I’m sure that someone will know English or I can find an English translation of where ever we are and read about it. It is going to be a lot of fun.

I am really excited.

What is something that you have done on a whim?

Pen Pals

Ever since I was little, I always thought that it was so neat that I had friends who lived in Japan.

We would get random pieces of mail from them or sometimes even a package.

I have decided that I need to conjure up some pen pals. People that I know very well and people who I don’t know that well.

I think that it is awesome to write letters and send them all over the world.

If you would like to be my pen pal, or if you want me to send you a letter, let me know.

:] Have a lovely Thursday.

500

Today marks the 500th day that I have lived in Japan.

That is a LOT of days.

In 500 days, I have learned a lot about myself, Japan and how to live in a foreign country.

In these 500 days, I have become a different person. Someone who is not afraid to make mistakes, ask questions, or get stared at.

Here are some of the few things that I have done in these 500 days:

* I have learned some Japanese.
* I have embarrassed myself a few times like this time and this time.
* I have gotten lost in Tokyo several times.
* I saw one of my Japanese sisters get married.
* I ventured to Australia.
* I went home to America for Christmas.
* I learned to have tough skin.
* I experienced a major natural disaster.
* My heart broke for the Japanese.
* My plans changed.
* I have learned to hang on to God’s word for everything.
* I learned to be brave.

I am hoping that, Lord willing, the next 500 days here in Japan are just as life changing. I pray that the Lord would use the next 500 days to transform me into the woman of God that he is wanting me to be and that I would turn around and glorify him in all that I do.

Thanks Japan for an amazing 500 days, and counting, of living abroad!

Delight

Last year a few of my friends decided to choose one word that they would try to live by for the year.

This year I am choosing delight.

According to thesaurus.com, delight means this:

Definition:

enjoyment, happiness

I want to live those words out.

My life verse is Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

I feel like it is only fitting that I decide to choose delight as my word of choice for 2011.

Many things will be happening this year. I will be moving home from Japan, I will (hopefully) get a teaching job in Missouri (or Kansas), and I will watch my best friend get married.

I know that there will be times when I will not want to remember delight. But, I must.

Times when I am lonely, have no job, or I am not yet getting married; I will have to choose to be delight(ful).

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that you all have a delight(ful) year!

Tough Skin

Right now the one thing that I am learning is to have tough skin.

My friend Danielle told me this the other day. It is something that one must learn over the years. Thankfully Danielle has been teaching longer than me and she has many great tid bits of wisdom.

Every day before work, I put on my tough skin.

What is one thing that you are learning?

Amazed.

Yesterday was my first day of work. Most people are pretty excited about their first day of work. Working in a new environment, meeting new people, getting to learn how to do the new job or whatever it maybe. Well I was all of that and more. On my first day of work:

I got to go sledding on a mountain with my kids.

Holla.

I was amazed that my students who are 6 years old, were speaking to each other fluently in English. They knew what to say to get their point across and they were even talking about what they did last night and so on. I was floored.

But more so jealous.

They could talk to each other in 2 languages. They could talk in Japanese AND English fluently.

I know a lot of random words from random languages but I am not fluent in any other language at all. I wish I could be but I have never had the opportunity.

My students have inspired me. I hope to learn some Japanese while I am here. If I am not fluent, at least enough to get a conversation or point across to someone.

Living Abroad

Sendai, Japan.

This place is amazing. A dream come true really. For the first time in my life, I am living abroad. This is something that I have dreamed of since I was 10 years old. Living in my own apartment. Walking to work. Walking to the subway. Buying my own groceries.

Since I have arrived a week ago, I have only experienced culture shock once. I usually don’t have culture shock. I usually just change my way of thinking and avoid it. Not this time. On Saturday we were in downtown Sendai. We were walking through the subway station and I couldn’t see any other caucasian person around me. Only Japanese people and writing everywhere. This was kind of overwhelming. I thought about how I would find where I wanted to go and since I don’t know much Japanese, I had a freak out moment. There were people yelling, running with a purpose, walking, talking on cell phones, car horns honking, and the subway zooming past. This was just all too much to take in at once.

But the next day was kind of the same. My friends and I decided that we should venture out and go try one of the local restaurants near us. Bad idea, well kinda. 1. We couldn’t figure out how to get into the place. 2. We didn’t know what the man was saying to us. 3. We didn’t know what we were ordering or what they had. They had a lot of meat but we didn’t know what everything was, so we guessed. 4. I got beef and my friends got “chicken”. 5. It did not taste like chicken and it was cow stomach. 6. They ended up paying for the stomach and the beef that they got. Hilarious. 7. I paid for my $10.00 meal all in coins.

I am coming down with some sort of something. Not really sure what it is. I think maybe a chest cold. Be praying that I get over this since I am not sure how my health insurance and such works.

Here is a list of things that I have done since coming here:

* Grocery store adventure
* Started Training
* Wake up at 7 am every day… on my own.
* Cooked myself a real meal.
* Ate cow stomach
* Spent too much money on stuff for my apartment.
* Karaoke
* Walked to the subway station and back in a snow storm… about 5 miles round trip. :/

Ok well I hope to keep updated more often.

Really?

I move to Japan in 26 days.

HOLY SMOKES that is so soon!

Today I got my plane ticket and I got my address of my apartment in Japan. This is really starting to become a reality. I even started packing. I started packing all of the little things. Things that I don’t want to stress about in 3 weeks.

This is the biggest move that has happened in my life. Yes, I have packed my stuff up and moved to college 4 times and moved home. Yes, I lived in Africa for 2 months. Yes, I lived in Thailand for 1 month. But packing everything that I want to take to move to another country for 14 months, it is starting to get a little overwhelming. Especially when you have 4 bags to put them in.

Thankfully I don’t have to pack food. :]

My bff Hannah sent me this verse this week. It was like a hug from a far.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

prayers for peace would be welcomed.