Pages

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

A Typical Day

Life here in East Asia is always an adventure! It is also quite different from the life we were used to in the States. Then again, I guess that was a given! However, it is not only different for obvious reasons like, culture and food, but also because our day-to-day life looks totally different from our day-to-day life in good 'ole Texas. I am sure some of you may wonder, "What in the world do y'all do all day, every day?!" So, I thought I would share what a typical day looks like for us. Currently, our main focus is learning the language, so you will see that the majority of our day is spent in language study!

We usually wake up around 6:30, but depending on the day, we may wake up earlier to go on a run or some other form of exercise. After waking up, we have our quite time and take our Piper girl outside. Piper is our golden retriever who we are pretty crazy about! It is a little tricky not having a yard of our own, but we are thankful to live across the street from an awesome park that we take her to  throughout the day. Then, around 9:00am we hit the books and begin our "self-study" time. We study for about 3 1/2 hours in the morning, on our own, before we each have class at 1:00. Around 12:00 or 12:30 we eat lunch, which is either left overs, whipping together a PB & J or running down the street to grab a quick bite to eat. Also, between lunch and class, I will usually run to the market (conveniently located right behind our building :)) to grab what I need to make dinner that night.

We have class from 1:00-4:30pm every day, Monday through Friday. We are extremely thankful to each have our own tutors who work with us every day. Bless them, they are so patient with us. Not only are they our teachers, but they have also become dear friends.

After we finish studying with our tutors at 4:30, our evenings just vary depending on what we have going on. It is our desire to spend our evenings with local friends we have made, so a good 3-4 nights a week, that is what we are doing! Once a week we also go out on a date night! Can I get a hallelujah?!  Back in the States, this was usually every Tuesday night, but now we just pick a day at the beginning of the week. On the days we are not hanging out with friends or going out on date night, we try to intentionally set aside an evening or two to rest and take it easy! We typically go to bed around 11:00 or so and then wake up and do it all over again! :)

There you have it, that is what a typical day looks like for us. As you can see, our life is a simple one and not very glamorous. In a lot of ways, our life looks a lot different than what we had originally pictured. Once we knew we were moving, we immediately began to picture what we thought our life would look like. You know, all the exciting things we would do each day, the people we would meet and all the lives that would be changed. So, in the midst of all the dreaming, we rarely considered all the hard work (all the grunt work, so to speak) that it would take to actually be able to do what we are called to do. Our new reality has definitely been a humbling process for us. Yet, a process we are so thankful for. We deeply desire to be faithful in all we do, especially in the small things, knowing that when we are faithful with little, we can be trusted with more (Luke 16:10). So, in this season, faithfulness looks like learning the local language and getting out there to make friends! And to be honest? Some days, that can be a daunting task! But, we aim to work hard with joy, knowing this season is equipping us for the work He is calling us to do.
And the best part? Our current season, although a little different than expected, is filled with exciting things each day, has given us incredible opportunities to meet so many new friends and we are more than confident because we know that, even though we may not always see obvious fruit right away, Jesus really is changing lives, mainly our own!