Day 53 - Minority Village- Part II

Posted by The Stoffel Family October 21, 2012

Day 53 - Minority Village- Part II

Day 53

(October 5, 2012)

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been so long... Danielle and I have been quite busy lately with plenty of new adventures including new English Teaching jobs, being tour guides for a professor and his son, a bike crash (just me, Phil!), meeting new friends, keeping up with my last semester of college classes, enjoying our time with Josh, Linds and the kids and so much more! This upcoming Thursday and Friday I will be speaking to roughly 100 middle school and high school youth at the youth group we serve at. I am definitely looking forward to it, and I really hope and pray that God gives me the right words to speak to these kids. I will be speaking on Luke 6:43-49 talking about "The Tree and It's Fruit" and "Building on a Solid Foundation." Middle School and High School is such a tough age for kids to be able to stay away from the pressures of their peers and the worlds and the only way they are even successful at all is by the Grace of God. I know personally, I need to God's word and truth- the Bible to build a solid foundation. The past four months or so I went three of those months reading the Bible daily- even before I put food in my mouth because it is important that we are spiritually fed daily and not just when we want. All of us eat food everyday and you can take one look at me and see I do not go without missing many meals! But why is it that we see food as so important, yet our own souls go days without being fed? I say this not because I am any better than anyone else at this, but because I struggle. I mentioned I went a good three months straight reading the word and staying in prayer- it was great and I was saturated with God's word. Well this last month I have failed to consistently seek God and it has showed- even in the way I physically feel and my general mood. I encourage all of you, to pick up a Bible, even if you haven't read one in years and just read and pray that God would speak to you through His words. Even if you read one, verse, one chapter, one book, just start somewhere! It's not always easy, even being in a different country with a foreign mission, you think it would make things easier, but it is certainly not.

In other words, I am officially down to my last 12 credits and 7 weeks of college (God willing I pass those classes!). My most dreaded class has been a statistics course which I am miraculously getting an A in, so I guess I am more upbeat about this semester than I anticipated. I have also been telling Danielle lately that I am more satisfied with my major, Human Services, than I ever have been. Between that and my Firefighting 1 Certification, I am really thankful this is the field that I am at least attempting to delve into and I just hope and pray God would open up opportunities for me to help others in that field, especially when we get back to the states.

We miss and love you all. If anyone sees KuJo or Edward, give them a big hug for us!

Foreign chickens always look the same! At least this guy looks like the one we saw in the Bahamas!

Danielle taking pictures while I play tour guide! Bruce and his son Nathaniel were a pleasure to be around.

You should see the way that people live in their villages! The housing structures are unbelievable and so incredibly diverse!

Danielle is a celebrity over here! Everyone always wants pictures with her- (she certainly is beautiful, so I can't blame them!) Danielle had four girls in a row take a picture with her, so she asked if we could take one of them as well!

Where was I when this picture was taken?!?! I don't remember this view!!

Well, I guess I was in the picture before or after it! I honestly did not remember!

All throughout the minority village were paths that took us to different places- they all looked quite a bit like this!

Awesome canoe in an awesome river full of plants!

It's hard to tell, but these were Mongolian style structures that looked like circus tents! They were very incredible on the inside.

This was taken from a court yard of a home on the picture below. I was amazed by this and would love to have something like this in my home one day.

In the court yard- notice the laundry hanging from above! That is definitely not an exhibit, but definitely reality!

Inside an inner Mongolian tent structure!

Danielle shoots a good bow!

This bridge was quite large actually, and it swung back and forth and we all had to hang on at times.

Bruce with his prize around his neck for hitting a target!

A people group here who follow Islam. I hope and pray they find the one, true, God!

There were even Angry Birds here!

We weren't a big fan of the Elephant being chained. Hopefully he was taken care of or at least tried to stomp on those who weren't taking care of him.

What an amazing creature God created, though!

He sure liked Danielle. She certainly has a gift for being around God's creatures. I honestly believe with all my heart that they always know Danielle's intentions when they are near her.

What a creature!

He liked me, but not nearly as much as Danielle.

Not Edward!

So, I was riding my moped after visiting with Danielle and I's English Teaching boss and I was on my way to play football with some of the guys from youth group. On the way my moped hit a hole and shifted to the right a bit, but not enough to take me off my bike by any means, until a guy who was following way to close to me slammed into my back wheel and we went skidding for about 15-20 feet. It wasn't so bad, except that he and his bike then slammed into me and my bike on the ground and my back hurt pretty good for awhile. I still played football (obviously!) and definitely played well, all things considering!