A few things I forgot to mention about Hong Kong. Bamboo scaffolding! The city is full of it. All these big buildings are built with bamboo scaffolding! Rush Hour 2 is for real! hahaha. Everyone here has bad teeth. Its not that their crooked, its like they're really brown. Everytime I go outside, I'm stunned by the buildings. There are so many of them so close together, so tall.

It is finally friday! It is 8:36 pm. I just took a really long nap. I think its harder for me to develop a relationship with the kids because I have this language barrier. They can't chat with me. They work so hard just to talk to me. The other teachers I think are developing more of a relationship with them. I don't know how I can show the kids that I care. Please pray for that.

Last night, I read Psalm 18:19. I read chapter 18 and was hit by verse 19 again, just like I was a few years ago. It was a good reminder. "He rescued me because he delighted in me." It is so reassuring to know that God delights in me. Last night's worship was good. I just felt like giving God the glory for delighting in me.

Today everyone is going out. I think I'm going to go karaoke with some people at 9:15. Thomas might be there. I'm connecting with Steve my roomate more. We've been talking just a little bit.

I am leading a guitar workshop for the gospel camp which is at the end of the two weeks. Please pray for that. I don't know what i'm going to teach or if we're going to have enough guitars and its really tough to teach guitar without a guitar. Talk to everyone later. Stay in the presence of GOd! He is seeking after you! He loves you totally! Do not forget him. He is awesome. Turn back to him. He is always accepting of you. Dude God is so great, so strong and so mighty there's nothing my God cannot do!

It is 5pm on Thursday the 19th. I've tried to avoid going to the computer a lot and checking my email since that's all I seem to want to do. Today I think I felt the first pangs of homesickness and loneliness. I haven't made any really close friends this trip which is alright by me, but I want to be close to God. Pray for me that I will seek God's presence. That that would be utmost on my heart. I am running out of activities to do during class. I've never had to teach for 3 hours before. All the lesson materials that they give me are too advanced for the students so I have to basically make up everything on my own.

I bought some more clothes. I bought 3 shirts for 19HK dollars each. Thats about 2.50 US! I bought two pairs of chinos for 69HK dollars each.. thats like... 9 dollars a pair. The clothes are really cheap here. They are pretty good too. They have my sizes and stuff. I think I'm going to buy a suit. The blazer is only like 50US dollars and dress shirts are only 10 US dollars. So cheap. They're pretty good quality stuff too.

I have been learning a lot of cantonese words because they're all speaking so much cantonese. I am the only one from the states that is at my church. I haven't really had a chance to really bond with ppl. I don't know. I don't think I really want to so much either. People seem so different from me. It doesn't really bother me that much because I'm still having a lot of fun. But maybe it will later. I think they think that I am a bit too eccentric. People here aren't that crazy and I definitely am pretty crazy, so they think I'm weird. hahah. Thomas is very like... not laid back like a typical canadian. hahah. Not like Sam Ip. I think he likes his assistant Annie. hahah. He always talks to her really seriously and tries to find her when there is some free time. Annie has to catch a plane on Saturday to go to South Africa so she won't be here for the second week of teaching and he is always mentioning that. K write more later... gotta go. We have worship and prayer tonite.

Its 4pm on the Tuesday the 17th. I taught english today for the second day. Its much better today than it was yesterday. The kids are definitely speaking up a lot more and using a lot more english. Its aweosme. I hope I can begin incorporating the gospel into the lessons a lot. I know the main goal is not for me to teach english but rather to tell of the wondrous works of God.

I have 5 kids in my class. David is tall and he likes playing football(soccer). He speaks english pretty well. He probably speaks english the best of all my kids. There is a really quiet girl named Anna. There is a rowdy little kid named Peter. He doesn't speak english as well as the others. Martin has pretty good english and is really into Star Wars. Him and Peter are friends. Then there is Andy. He didn't speak english at all the first day but today he was speaking all over the place. He is kinda naughty. He kept saying "Say the F word!" to me. haha But yeah I think they like me as a teacher... so thats good.

It rained today, so its a lot cooler outside. Yesterday Steve (one of my roomates) and Audrey (one of the team leaders) were like attacking each other. hahah they were doing it playfully so it wasn't that bad, but it was pretty obvious that they clash somewhat. It was funny. Audrey is a more headstrong girl.. err lady I should say. Steve is a guy who thinks that the woman should be more submissive and that type of thing. It was really funny. Steve is pretty take charge and stuff. There is another girl here who is Thomas' assistant. Her name is Annie and she's from China but she's been living in HK for 10 years. She speaks english really well (okay for someone who lives here.) She is going to South Africa next week for a missions trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. Its really cool. Thomas is the other guy from my team. He's another take charge dude from Canada. He's only 18 years old but takes his lessons really seriously. His cantonese is really good. Okay I'll write more later. Don't want these posts to be too much or else you won't read em.

Okay i'm back from church now... My first lesson is tomorrow. I'm at an internet cafe right now. I don't know what I'm going to teach the kids. I'll probably teach them something like.. okay for the assembly tomorrow. Shake a friend's hand. We'll sing that song. and then.... Jesus Loves me. I think that'll be good enough... or at least I hope so. For the lesson tomorrow.. lets see... First introductions. My name is blah.. I like to blah... I am blah years old. Just get them talking I guess that is the goal. I don't know their english levels at all. I hope they have good english. I'm teaching 9th grade students. Okay after introductions... we'll do some sceanarios. Ask someone out to a movie. Ask someone to eat with you. Say no... say yes. that kinda thing. Our goal is mostly to talk to them make them use the english verbally that they already know. A lot of them can write english better than they can speak it supposedly. Today I bought a pair of pants and shorts for like 125 HK dollars... thats like... 16 dollars or something like that. And the sizes fit me! They totally have my size and a lot of them. I can never find 30/32 pants in the united states. The ppl from the Tsuen Wan church where I am teaching keep treating me out to lunch. I don't like them doing that... but they say that I'm their guest. Its kinda weird. I don't know what to do.