I love Beijing more than ever!

We went to the Haidian Church in Beijing again this morning and it was amazing.

Then Sarah and I went across the City, which required a taxi cab ride (my first one!) and then three subway rides, and then a long walk after that.
It was pretty amazing.

I'm actually really tired out right now because Beijing is such a fast-paced and chaotic city.

But I just wanted to let y'all know that everything is going well and I am loving China more and more and more everyday! And the title of this post is what is says on a t-shirt that they are selling everywhere, I'm thinking I might get one. :)

The Forbidden City!

Today was Saturday so we didn't do any of the normal T.I.P. activities, and so we went into downtown Beijing!

First we went to the Temple of Heaven, which was absolutely gorgeous.

And then we went to Tiananmen Square and then on through to the Forbidden City. It was amazing! I'm glad that it is no longer forbidden. :)

After that we went to Wangfujing Street and walked all around and then had dinner from some of the street vendor people, and I ate fried scorpions!! They tasted pretty good actually, but it was kinda gross feeling the legs all crunching around in my mouth.

Beijing is such a busy, incredible, crazy, and fast-paced city! I really think that I would like to stay here for much longer, especially considering that everything is so inexpensive and I am starting to learn some Chinese!

OK, it's getting really late. Tomorrow morning we go again to the Haidian Church, which I am very excited about.
I have much more to say and about 800 more pictures to upload, but for now, I'm going to bed!

Goodnight and I love you all!

Cross-culture

It has gotten cooler during the day because of the continued G.I. rain, but not much has changed in the daily flow of life at T.I.P.

Today in devotions we learned more about the Chinese culture, and things like Guanxi and "Saving Face" which are still difficult for me to understand at times.

It is hard sometimes to transition in this new culture, what with the squatty potties, the huge crowds, the odd table manners, and the fact that as a "foreigner" I am constantly stared at no matter where I go.

But then we were presented with the life of Christ: How much more difficult would it have been for the God of the universe to transition to life on Earth? That must have been quite a culture shock!
It was a comforting thing to think about, and it is always good to know that God can more than empathize with any cultural trouble that I am having while I am here in China.

I am reminded of the lyric from the Jon Foreman song: "This world is where I breathe, but let it never be called home!"

As of this moment, I still owe $1340 to the TeachOverseas company who has graciously allowed me to come to China despite the fact that I have not fully paid them.

If you feel called to further God's work through this ministry, I would encourage you to visit: http://teachoverseas.org/contribute.php

Make sure that if you do want to donate, type in my name so it goes toward my account.

Thank you very much!

To make a difference

All is still well here in China, but the "fake" rain continues...

I'd say overall I have not been "shocked" by the culture here, I mean, I expected it to be a different culture, but I tried not to come with a lot of expectations other than that. So it has been good.
The things that I find unusual are typically very subtle and hard to explain. Maybe I will attempt to explain them at another time. :)

We spent more time training today and we got to make our first lesson plan and teach our first English class. It was really exciting!

But as much as I like the teaching part of this program, it's even better to talk to the Chinese students during lunch and in between sessions, where I can really get to know them and hear about their lives and where they are from and all of that. It's really pretty amazing.

Today when I was having lunch with one of the students, she asked me: "What is mean by 'To make a difference?' What are those words meaning?"

And so I tried to explain to her as best as I could, "to make a difference" means to bring about a change, etc. And then that is when I realized that this is the very reason that I am here in China.
To make a difference.
I may not be able to cause a huge change here, and clearly, there is no way that I, as one person, would be able to impact the more than 1 billion people that live in China, but I have come to realize that one small change will make all the difference.
If I seek to connect with one Chinese student, and encourage them to be courageous and positive in their life and in their thinking, then hopefully they will be able to pass that one.

One small change can cause many more small changes, and in turn, that can make all the difference.

Pray that I can impact, even in a small way, the people that I meet here through the love that I have been provided with through God.
And that this love will make a difference in their lives.

T.I.P. and fake rain?

So we have been training pretty extensively for the past few days and learning about the T.I.P. program and everything is going really well.

The Chinese students come to the campus for an intense 3 week Total Immersion Program where they are only allowed to speak English and get cited for speaking Chinese.
This is the program we get to facilitate and it is really exciting to see what the new students will be like and how they will progress in their English!

On Sunday we went to a Christian Church in Beijing and it was incredible hearing the message from Pastor Wu; I was really surprised how excited and open he was about his faith and his thoughts about missions, especially considering that being a Christian and working as a missionary is rather frowned upon in this nation. But things are definitely looking up!

We also got to explore Beijing and the Peking University Campus, and I must say that this is a really hot, crowded, fast-paced, and amazing city!

Akso, over last few days it has been raining off and on, and Hee Sung told me that the government was making it rain because they didn't want rain to happen during the Olympics... I really thought that he was joking until I heard this same thing from a few other people!
I guess that planes fly over Beijing carrying dust and water and it makes the clouds want to rain?
I don't really know, but it's really kind of freaking me out...

Well, the ONLY other thing I don't like about it here is that the bottled green tea tastes like soap.

But myself, the food, the people, and the cheap Chinese goods are all wonderful!

I'm going to go get some sleep now!
Adios!

The Great Wall!

Today we climbed the Great Wall.

It was pretty great.
Amazing actually.



It was a very long and steep climb! Much harder than I thought it would be.

But now that I have climbed the Great Wall, I am a true man!

At the bottom of the mountain we got to bargain with the people selling goods, and that was pretty fun, although they can be insanely relentless about you buying their stuff.

I don't really have much else to say today, all is going well and the people and the food are still incredible.

My first day in China!

Today has been quite a day.

Everything about China is amazing, and the TIP (Total Immersion Program) is incredible!
I landed at around 11 PM local time, and didn't get to sleep until around 1 am, but I have adjusted to the time change really well.
In the morning we started training overcast and early and we spent time talking about God, and some other things I probably should wait and mention later. ;)

Also today we ate the BEST food I’ve ever had before; some dishes that I can't even remember or pronounce, and some which were strange, such as fried eel or seaweed and egg soup or cold chicken and very noodles, also just rice and eggs and tomatoes fried together, which was incredible.

The air here is so thick that you can't ever see all the way down the street, and it's humid as heck; definitely a weird experience for me, but I'm enjoying it immensely.

We also learned today some Chinese phrases like how to count to 10 and how to say please and thank you. And I also learned the "proper" technique for using a squatty potty... quite fun actually.

Some more fun facts:
- My pillow is a bag of rice.
- Lots of little kids and babies don’t have butts on their pants because they don’t wear or can’t afford to wear diapers.
- It's not really legal to be a missionary.
- It's OK to stare at strangers.
- Jay walking is not at all illegal (In fact people were walking across the freeway!)
- People drive like crazy but they don't get in very many accidents.
- All of the people in this TIP group are amazing.


It's hard to believe that I have only been here for one day!

And tomorrow we see the great wall! My heart is open, my mind is ready and I can't want to see all that there is to see.

I'm in Japan!

Hey all!

Right now I'm in the Narita Airport in Japan and it's pretty amazing.
My flight from Los Angeles went really really well, and it didn't even feel like 12 hours. :)

I started to type this while I was on the airplane, but sadly couldn’t publish it yet because for some reason there is not a wi-fi connection at 30,000 feet.... strange.

But no worries! I love flying more than anything, even though I woke up from a nap to find that my feet were swollen like crazy. Aah.

But the Airline food is really really delicious! (or should I say dericious?) and I made friends with the boy sitting next to me who was an exchange student from Korea who had been living in LA and studying art. He was cool.

And the plane I was on was GIGANTIC! I’ve never seen anything so big, it’s probably more than 30 feet across, has over 70 rows in the economy section alone, and has two stories!!! Crazy stuff.

Alright! I have to board my flight to Beijing soon, so I'd best be off to see if I can find some Engrish before I leave this wonderful island nation.
(Can you believe that not ALL the signs are in engrish? I'm a little dissapointed I must say.)

Thanks again to David and Eric and Courtney and Kenny and Abbey for driving to LA with me and dropping me off at LAX!

I love you all and am very thankful for your thoughts and prayers!

On packing lightly...

From what I hear, China is going to be quite a culture shock.

I've been given lots of information on the differences between the cultures here and there, and one thing I find interesting is that it is more than perfectly acceptable to wear the same outfit several times a week.
Therefore, I guess I don't actually have to pack very many clothes for the two months I will be spending there.
In fact, everyone is recommending that people pack light because, well, airlines can be lame these days.

Aside from airlines,
today was an absolutely amazing day that further confirmed how incredible God is and how he has been preparing my heart to go to China.
Tim and Dale prayed for me during church, and it was such a blessing to know that this trip will be considered in the hearts and minds of my fellow believers.
My family also prayed for me, and it was wonderful to know how much they are supporting me.

So, at this point, I am more than ready to get on that plane and go to China... except for one thing... I have not even started packing!
Ah!
I'd better get to work.

Happy Fathers day everyone! :)

Realizations to prepare my heart

So last night I was hanging out with a group of my best friends, and I was enjoying how much fun they were to be around and how much I loved them, and I was thinking how much I am going to miss them when I am gone for two months.

I also came to realize that God has rather recently brought me to a place where I could more fully understand his incredible love through the love of and from other people. I guess in some subtle way I have always been hiding from that love, or, unable to accept it, because of the fear that it might not be realized. You know? Like I have never allowed my heart to get too attached to anyone because something might happen and their love might go away for some reason. Which I see now, is a silly reason not to love anyone.

Well now, as I prepare to leave for a far off land, my heart is ready to love these new people that I am about to meet.
I want to show them God's love in any way possible, and clearly the best way to show this love that I know is to love others in return.

I also want to thank Heather for sharing this incredible verse with me: "And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of Righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God" (Phil 1:9-11)

I still have a lot I need to prepare for, and I leave next Wednesday (!) but I am more excited than anything.
If you are one of the wonderful people supporting this trip in your thoughts and prayers, pray that all goes well in my preperations, that I don't forget to pack anything, that I don't pack too much, and that I am provided with enough money!

Again, check out: TeachOverseas.Org

Thanks again!

A little more than a week to go...

Hello again everyone!

I'm leaving for China on the 18th, so there isn't a whole lot of time left before I go.
I've been having a lot of fun so far this summer, but I think right now I need to start focusing more on my trip and what I need to do in preparation for it.

I still need over $1000 at this point, but I'm sure that God will provide it for me if he desires me to embark upon this journey, which I really believe that he does.

I am inviting anyone and everyone to pray for me and for this trip. I'm sure that it will be used to do amazing things.

I will keep you updated via this blog, and also through my email: MorganA.Miller@gmail.com

So if you want to be on my email list, just let me know!

And if you know anyone who would like to financially support me on this journey, this is the way to do it: http://teachoverseas.org/contribute.php

Thank for reading and God bless!

Preparing this blog (for China!)

Hey friends!

I am now beginning my blog about China!

In a few short weeks I am going to embark on a great adventure.

I am traveling with TeachOverseas to The People’s Republic of China from June 18th until August 9.
I will be teaching English as part of an immersion program at Peking University.

I can hardly wait for this journey to begin!
Pray that God gives me strength, direction, and also the financial means, to go and serve him in this way.

I will keep you updated as things progress.

For now, be well.