If You Need Us . . .

We'll be meeting friends here . . .

Singapore!!

 Who live here . . . 

Would you hate me if I said we were also making a pit stop here?

Yeah, I would too.

Celebrating Seven

YEARS that is - since Mr. Bentley and I's first date . . . or the origin of Team Bentley. My dear, dear boy asked me out for Valentine's Day in 2004, and although I did my best to convince myself it was "just as friends", thankfully he had other ideas. Although I still give him a hard time about waiting through the 1 1/2 hour restaurant wait, appetizer, dinner, dessert, AND paying the check - it was a conversation worth the wait.

All that to say, each year we celebrate Valentine's Day as not just a holiday but as the start of something wonderful. And this year's celebration was exactly that - wonderful! We decided to picnic at the park and pick up our favorite restaurant.

Gives "Chnese take out" a whole new meaning, right? HA!

Enjoying the view . . . both the lake and that smokin' hot guy!

We had a wonderful afternoon together, and I'd say after seven years we still got it babe! Because my husband loves me so well, he treated me to something I've been trying to get up the guts to try here - a massage!

What's funny though, is that I went in thinking I had asked for a body massage. (Haven't quite covered the spa terminology in class yet!) But none-the-less my $5, 1 1/2 hour facial massage I did receive was FANTASTIC! I lost count after the about the 4th tingly, lotiony substance that was rubbed into my face, and I think I had two different kinds of masks at various points - one heating and one cooling of course. All this in addition to the facial, scalp, neck and arm massage that was a part of the experience.

The whole time I was wishing for a third eye so I could watch what was going on - but thankfully I caught on and was able to ask about 15 minutes in that a full body massage wasn't actually in the plans. I'm sure the workers got a kick out of my subtle attempts at peeking from underneath my layers of mud and lotion wraps! The whole experience was a great reminder for me of how tricky language can be - you're never exactly sure you're getting what you asked for, but that an open and adventurous spirit is never disappointed!

Here's to you BBB - may we never lose our joy in one another or willingness for the adventure!

Discovery of the Day

At a local shopping area, they randomly sell baskets of carrots, which I never could figure quite why. Strawberries are in season, so I could understand why sellers would bring those to this particularly busy shopping area, but the abundance of carrots has been a mystery to me. UNTIL, my beloved husband noticed that these sellers would PEEL the carrots for you to eat on the spot! SCORE!! You better believe I was one happy rabbit!!

The Year of the Rabbit

Per the events of the week, I thought I would share with you what one might experience when celebrating the New Year in our part of the world.

Purchase fireworks in large quantity, disregarding any prior knowledge of safety or zoning laws. 

While visiting friends, play games in the local park, also disregarding any safety concerns your mother might have.

Drink "surprise" milk tea with students, and be grateful that the "surprise" was a good one. (Smiling optional, peace sign required). 

When visiting the village, oblige your hosts and take a nap as they suggest. It's only polite!

It is also important to play with any and all chunky babies. They may or may not eat money for a snack. This is ok.

Eat your weight in sunflower seeds and milk-flavored candy while trying to figure out the rules of Asian black jack. It's best to decline play, as money is involved, and you haven't the slightest of what's going on.

 

When the 4 foot strand of firecrackers is lit before dinner, try to hide how high you jump, and act like firecrackers to scare away evil spirits is also a normal occurrence at your family events. 

Eat dinner with your host's family, marveling at the thirteen dishes (actually 26, as it was 13 per table) they've prepared representing the 13 lunar months. Be grateful that mamaw got the eyeball from the soup this time, next time it could be you!!

And finally, make sure you watch the Spring Festival Gala. It's only about 6 hours long, but all the big stars are on it - and everyone will be talking about it the next day!


And there you have it my friends - a great week of learning and new experiences! Happy Year of the Rabbit to you!!

 

What's Below the Surface.

The past month or so has found me in an unusual season. Deep within me has been a spirit of unrest, which would on occasion and with increasing frequency burst forth in sporadic eruptions. Initially it was easy to attribute my disquieted soul to a number of believable alibis; the emotion and busyness of our first holiday season away from home, a hectic travel schedule, the six-month mark of living in a new culture and the emotional wear that can induce. These each could be cause for significant spiritual and emotional unrest, right?

However, I became more and more aware that the frustration and source of angst wasn’t around me, it was within me.  And like any good western pre-millennial, I began to address the symptoms with the quickest remedies possible. Frustrated with language? Study harder. Feeling disconnected? Have more people over. Feeling unbalanced? Work out/cook/read/clean more. These would briefly abate the tide of questions welling up within me, but no amount of study, cultural engagement or sweat could quell the coming surge.

After several days of emotional fragility, externalizing with a dear friend and my by now battered husband, I decided to face what was inside me. And mercy, is the depths of my soul a frightening place to hold up to any mirror. For much of my life, it has been easy to answer the questions that lie within us all by what was around me. Am I good enough? Of course, look at this list of accomplishments. Am I lovable? Clearly, Class Favorites always are. Do I have purpose? Absolutely! Just look at your planner!

But in a new world where the false comforts I have clung to for years are stripped away, I have found myself coming up short on answers to quiet the voices in my head.  In my flesh, I have created expectations for the pure sport of attempting my usual ability to exceed them. It has seemed that in almost every area of my life here, according to the lens that I have so poorly fashioned, I simply am not enough. I could run down the litany of ways in which I have wrestled to this realization, but we all have our own lists. Some of us allow others to form the image of what we should be, or if you’re like me, you inherit the fallacy of being superhuman and spend your life trying to prove that you are.

But what I am clinging to, hoping for, and risking the depths of my belief on, is that He is enough. Within me, for me, and around me - He is truly enough. I think for me to really, deeply know this, I had to come to a point where I could see, touch, and taste the bitterness of my own inadequacy. The questions and doubts finally boiled over, and I was swept up in the storm of my own undoing. But in the midst of it all, His light has dawned bright and clear again – guiding me to the firmness of His horizon. I know that while I cannot, am not, and will not be so many things, I am firmly His. I am setting my heart, life, hope, and purpose solely on Him.

All I have to offer today is Him. Simply, completely, Him. My flesh wishes I could point to my language, confidence, or accomplishments here as an offering to validate who I am or that I am enough by my own or anyone elses' standards. But I can’t, and I’m believing that this is the best place I could be. Rebuilding the story of who I am, built not by my own hands, but as He sees fit to form me. Shaping me into something more beautiful, more accurately depicting of His grace and goodness. 

What this will look like tomorrow or the next day I have no idea. I have no outline, no five-step plan to rehabilitate yourself from the idol of expectations. But what I do know is that trying to quantify success or progress has become a twisted game for me, so I want nothing else than for each day to be found fully with Him. Trusting that after I know myself in Him, He will tenderly guide my steps. He is it. He is all. He must be everything.

Jesus, give me the courage to live in this. Amen.

Because Pictures are Easy.

Some of my students in YJ after one of our last classes of the semester

Baxter modeling the 2 pairs of socks + 3 pairs of pants look we've been working lately. It has been COLD.

Trip to a village for the wedding of a friend after teaching in YJ

Seriously. Love it.

Local H cutie in all her get up for the wedding.

Team Bentley with the Bride & Groom

Leaning In with Mike

Recently we were blessed by a visit from this dear friend, teacher and mentor.

Mike is the kind of person whose very presence pushes you to think more deeply and love more fully, and we loved having him step into our world here. He recently wrote on his blog an entry that encapsulates so much of what we're experiencing, and the things that have been recently pressing on my heart and mind. I hope that as you read what he wrote you will know not only how to better pray for us, but be challenged in your own journey as well.