Festivities abound...

This last week of the year is full of special events for special people in my life. The 23rd was my parents' anniversary (as you may have noticed in an earlier blog). And obviously, Christmas was on the 25th (celebrating the birthday of Jesus!). The 28th (yesterday) marked the anniversary of one of my closest friends, Danette & her husband (also a dear friend of mine, Richard). The 29th (today) is Debbie's birthday -- another very precious friend & sis in Christ. (Happy Birthday, Debbie!!!) The 30th is Dan's (Danette's) birthday! And then of course we roll into New Year's Eve and then into a brand new year -- and decade, this time around!

Celebrating anniversaries with my loved ones seems to be becoming a pattern now! As you probably read, my parents asked me to come along with them to dinner on their 43rd anniversary. Sunday, Dan asked me if I wanted to come over on Monday evening (yesterday). But then I thought, "Wait a minute, it's your anniversary!!! Don't you want to have an evening alone???" But they were happy to have me over for dessert and I was very happy to spend time with them. I'm always amazed by how you can have certain friends that you only meet with a couple times a year, and even though you've missed out on alot of time and events together, when you do get together, you just go back to the same comfortability. That's how it is w/Dan & Richard. We can talk about deep deep things and I can be very vulnerable with them, but there's also no pressure in it either. I do feel like I can just be me and be accepted for who I am.

And now, a complete change of subject... For Christmas, my sister, Sharon & my brother in law, Irving got Bonnie & I gift certificates for massages @ Burke Williams Spa -- a fancy schmancy place. It was such a wonderful treat -- body, mind, and spirit -- and I really appreciated it. It's been a really hard mission in all those elements. I was stupid not to bring my Tempur-Pedic (Swedish memory foam pillow) with me, sacrificing it for clothes and candy for my European friends. I paid for it with the consequences of a lot of backaches, neck aches, and headaches -- even more than normal for me. My teammate was really helpful in giving me frequent massages to bring some relief and that was a huge blessing. But I needed some serious deep tissue work done on me and I got it here today. I probably also need to see my physical therapist before I go back to Europe because there's a grinding in my shoulder that has become especially noticeable this past tour. But this was a really great start. I don't think they even knew how perfect a gift this was for me. And it's certainly not something I'd ever ask for -- esp. not as a missionary. I'm so spoiled back here in LA. I really appreciate how much people want to take care of me and make sure I'm treated well while I'm back home. And I'm really grateful for all that I have here.

What was extra extra cool was that towards the end of my massage session, the conversation naturally rolled into what I do. The therapist asked what my favorite experience has been and one of the things I shared about was prison work and it came out that I work with a Christian ministry and it was obvious by her response that she was a Christian too -- confirming what I already had a feeling about just minutes into my session w/her. Isn't that cool how sometimes you can just tell? Anyway, I shared with her briefly at the end, that for me the session wasn't just therapeutic physically, but that there was also a spiritual element to it as well and she knew right away what I was talking about. At one point, she had said, "Amy, I want you to take deep breaths and as much as you can, just think about letting go." I don't know if she intended it or not, but for me, there was a very spiritual/psychological element to that for me -- things I've been struggling to release to the Lord. And I guess the blessing went both ways (as it often does). She thanked me a couple times, sincerely telling me that it was a pleasure. There was a moment during the session that I said something about how there's so much potential in her job to help people (before having confirmation that she was a Christian) and I guess that really ministered to her.

I had a thought this mission about looking into studying massage therapy after Covenant Players. It's not the first time I've thought about it. But this session has me thinking about that again. I've had another experience (with a Christian massage therapist) where the work done on me was not only physical but brought me spiritual release as well. Wouldn't that be an awesome ministry? After all, as humans, we're body, heart, mind, and soul and I don't believe you can just compartmentalize everything in your life to just affect one element and not another. I discovered one mission that I could get rid of my friend's migraines at times through accupressure/massage and she pointed out 9 years ago that she felt I had a special gift. We'll see if this goes anywhere...

Sharon is a great gift-giver. The purple journal is also from her and I couldn't have picked a more perfect journal, myself. It's a beautiful purple silk fabric on the outside and on the inside, it has this really nice parchment-like paper. Thank God for blank paper. I hate journaling on lined paper. I find it so creatively-limiting. Thanks, sis!!! :)

43 years of marriage...

Today my parents celebrated their 43rd anniversary! Pretty awesome, huh? (At the rate I'm going, I don't think I'll ever hit that mark!) Seriously though, that is really awesome.

The pictures are from breakfast & dinner. My sisters were both out of town but I wanted to help them celebrate. So I woke up early (by accident, actually, since my body has no idea what time zone it's supposed to be in at the moment)-- and I took the opportunity to sneak out to get them some roses. The ceramic vase was bought in Poland in a town called Boleslawiec, world-reknown for their pottery. (That particular blue and the circle patterns are especially typical of their pottery.) I made French toast for them (or as the French say, "Pain perdu" -- which means lost bread!). And I have to say, that was the worst French toast I've ever made (including in my childhood)! You might be able to tell if you look carefully in the picture. I didn't have the right pan and I was also trying to multi-task! (Disastrous for a girl with borderline Attention Deficit Disorder.) Oh well. It's the thought that counts, eh?

Anyway, I left them to eat breakfast on their own, but they insisted that I come out to dinner with them. Very Chinese. Not the food, but the custom of taking out their loved ones with them to celebrate -- even if it is their anniversary. Really different from the Western mentality of having a romantic evening, huh?

For dinner we went to this really nice restaurant called Monterey Hills Steakhouse and it's pretty fancy schmancy but very reasonable for their "Sunset Dinner Special." (The picture of the freeways was taken from where I was seated.) The funny thing is that we hardly even noticed the sunset! I don't know if it was because we were too busy looking over the menu or eating or what. But I think we completely missed the sunset! Anyway, dinner was yummy -- Prime Rib! There was so much food, though. Even I, being so carnivorous had some leftover! Anyway, this fancy dinner cost about the same as a mediocre meal in Europe if you were to go out. We're pretty fortunate in the States when it comes to going out to eat, I tell ya.

Enjoy the pics.

P.S. Check out the hip pink jacket I'm wearing! It's my mom's! From decades ago! (I'm gonna steal it from her if she isn't careful! Shhhh!)

Is it really mid-December???

It must be the global warming or something. I can't believe it was 77 degrees today (that's about 25 C for my European friends). The past couple days it's been so warm that I ended up changing clothes 'cause it was too hot to be in a long sleeve shirt & jeans. I was sweating. Sweating. I can't remember the last time I was sweating. (dragging my suitcases around the airports in a huge hurry doesn't count).
And to think, just three days ago, I was sitting in an airplane on the runway, delayed for take-off by 1 hr 30min because of snow in London.

Enjoy the contrast in pictures. I think you can figure out which photo was taken in LA (today -- the 19th of December). The other picture is from our last Sunday on mission in Annaberg-Buchholz, Leo's home town. Christmas market there was so memorable. It had such a special flavor. I tell ya, they really know how to do Christmas in Germany. And while I'm an LA girl, I have to say, I can certainly understand why a white Christmas is so enchanting.

Speaking of Christmas...
For our final playdate at Leo's home church, we performed a play -- in German(!) --called TWO BELIEVERS -- a poignant play (by Charles M. Tanner, of course) about what it might have been like for Mary to have to give Joseph the news that she was pregnant with the future Messiah. It was really an awesome experience -- difficult at one point during the rehearsal -- but awesome. God was definitely my help. (And Leo was a good German teacher, too.) It's also always really special to be able to perform at the home churches of other CP-ers. You get to see a part of what someone else's life was pre-CP -- an essential part of that person's spirituality.
(Thanks, Astrid, for the pictures!)

my tastebuds are happy to be home...

among other parts of me, my tastebuds are happy to be home. my first meal:
vietnamese food last night brought over from Sharon and Irving. :)
I didn't eat very much b/c more than anything, I needed sleep as well as
medicine for these really strange and horrible rashes I developed at the
end of tour. (I did put some medicine on here at home and it's 5x's better
already.)
but this morning-- okay afternoon, as I didn't have my first meal of the day
until 12:30-- I enjoyed both Vietnamese and Chinese leftovers. i ate far
more than i needed to since my tastebuds were over-enthusiastic. :)

it's good to be home after an extremely long journey -- including a missed
connection in London. (it was a mess at that airport.) thank God for the
Hansens (CP-er in London) who came to my rescue since my missed flight
meant I needed a place to stay overnight. yeah, it was a really messy journey
home. i even had to dump out half the contents of my carry on in London,
even though it was a normal size bag. they have really strict weight
restrictions there and my carry-on weighed in at 11.2kg (and u apparently can
only take on a carry on of 6kg.) they had some grace.
they let me take it on after getting the weight down to 7kg -- after taking out
some clothes and christmas gifts. :(

anyway, it's good to be home, with my loving family (minus my younger sis who'll
be back for a week starting sunday (or monday?). don't have much planned on the
agenda today. don't want much planned on my agenda for the next few days. i just
need some rest. and i know i have a lot to process through -- which i normally
spend a lot of time doing on the plane -- but i'm not really up to it this time.
i don't want to think too much at this time. i just really really need this break
to recover and restore my well-being in many ways.