This week in food

Malaysia is incredible. Marriage is awesome.

I'm still in the honeymoon stage. On both accounts.

So far, I have mostly documented my experience in terms of food. Unfortunately, I only have one exciting picture of our breakfast this morning. If you're not interested in food, you might be disappointed in this post and you can skip over it.

Monday: We arrived today and were whisked off to eat (because that's what you do here)! We had Cantonese food, which was new to me. It was a bed of rice (a theme you will see frequently) with various dishes - cabbage, bean curd, and chicken. It was all very good.

Tuesday: We went to the mall and met up with a friend from Daniel's church. She introduced us to delicious tea, an iced mocha, and the most incredible salted caramel cake. That night we were able to attend the weekly Bible study at a parishioner's house.  They graciously hosted us for dinner - rice, lamb curry, roasted chicken with vegetables, and so many good Malaysian fruits.

Wednesday: Our friend took us out to have Thai food - garlic pepper chicken, pandan chicken, vegetables, and a really spicy soup (over rice).  That was probably my favorite meal until this morning.

This morning we decided we should stop eating croissants and jelly every morning for breakfast. So instead we went down to the mamak (street side restaurant) not even a block from our house and had roti.  Roti is a similar consistency as a crepe and is served pulled apart with a curry sauce on the side. You can also get it with eggs, onions, and other things. It took us a while to figure out how to order, but everyone is really gracious to us foreigners. The best part was that our meal (2 rotis) costs 50 cents. So we will definitely be going back basically every morning. No more croissants and jelly for us!

Roti with spicy curry sauce!

Running on Fumes

I am exhausted. And I haven't even arrived in country yet. In fact, we are just now leaving Columbus. What is this life?

I am so ready for a new normal.  I don't know what that means yet (hopefully it involves naps), but I am definitely ready for it.  In the past three weeks, I haven't gotten anything close to normal.

We moved all of our belongings into storage.
We couch surfed for three days.
We temporarily moved into a mountain house with our family of twelve.
We got married (yikes).
We moved up to Ohio for a week with my parents.
We packed everything else we own into six bags.
We said goodbye.

And now we are weirdly in this in-between place again of not quite able to move forward and really really wanting to be in Malaysia already! Womp womp. That's the beautiful tragedy of airport terminals, I suppose.

The good news is that our first week of marriage has been pretty cool. We have gone to fancy restaurants, eaten a lot of good food, slept in until late, played with our wonderful dog, and played a lot of Spades with my parents.  All in all, if the rest of our marriage could continue like this (minus the whole living in my parents' house thing), we would be pretty happy.

But we are really ready for Kuala Lumpur.  We might be dreading the 36 hours it is going to take to get there, but we are really ready for the malls, the people, our own little house, a crazy year of internship, and lots of really good food.

And I, for one, am really excited for a new normal.  I am so ready to not be living out of my suitcase anymore. I am so ready to empty out onto the bathroom counter the quart size plastic bag I use to hold my makeup.  I am so ready to put my shampoo on the shower shelf for more than a week. And I am more than ready to sit down at night and say, "this is our home."  Even if it only lasts a few months.

So for now, I suppose I should nap a little bit before we get on this plane to Denver.  Because goodness knows it's only a matter of time before I start to get hangry and grumpy and altogether beat by this travel.  It's going to be a bumpy ride.

And in case you're wondering, here's our flight plan:

Columbus -> Denver -> Los Angelos -> Taipei -> Kuala Lumpur

See you on the other side of the world!

Soggy Wedding

I think it is only appropriate that it rained on our wedding day. It was beautiful weather all week (a little bit of rain in the mornings and gorgeous in the evenings) and then Friday came around.  It threatened storms but held off for a while. My mother was giving explicit instructions to everyone around not to tell me about the downpour that was happening while I got my hair and makeup done.

But eventually I walked outside to brush my teeth (in the spirit of a Honduras trip), and all I could do was smile at the drizzle.  My bridesmaids, knowing I can be a bit dramatic and waiting for me to full-on rage, kept delicately asking, "are you okay? How are you doing?"  But honestly I didn't care at all that it was raining.  (To be honest, I wanted the rain to stop only so we could have pictures taken outside with the gorgeous mountains.)

Photos by McKenzie Canaday

All that mattered to me that day, and that entire week, was that on Friday night around 5:30pm I would be married to my best friend.  No amount of rain could dampen my mood because I was the giddiest girl in the entire world.

As we got ready for the grand reveal of my dress, the rain stopped, the sun shone beautifully, and we were able to walk down to the field and barn to take pictures with our entourage.

Photo by McKenzie Canaday

We took photos with our entire family and a lot of friends as guests began to arrive with umbrellas.  I said a silent prayer, hoping the rain would hold off until after the ceremony and I had a feeling we would be okay.

The music started. My dad took my arm. I saw Daniel's smile. We walked down the aisle.

And the heavens opened up.

Our pastor looked over at me as he began the welcome, silently asking, "are we staying here or moving inside?"  I shrugged and said, "we can stay here for now."  Then it down poured.

So we crammed everything inside the barn and tried to dry off as the groomsmen and musicians brought the speakers inside.  I felt as if everyone was looking at me, waiting for me to get emotional about the rain (or maybe I'm just that vain thinking everyone was looking at me).  All I could do was smile.  Still, even as I shivered inside the dark barn, nothing could bring my spirits down.

Everything else went off without a hitch. The rain made things more fun- people laughed and gathered closer to one another, and we chuckled about who had umbrellas and who didn't.  Pastor Gary made jokes about baptism and made some verses up about rain on your wedding day. The whole thing was a blast. I barely remember the ceremony besides the vows and me staring at Daniel through all of the prayers as tears rolled steadily down both my cheeks. (And in case you really want to listen to my voice crack again as I giggle and sob, here's the video.)

Later that night I was commended for "handling everything with such grace."  I couldn't help but think that it was not me with the grace on this day, but God whose grace so overflowed that even the heavens couldn't contain it.  Everything was wonderful. Everything was perfect.  Everything was a little bit soggy (from the rain and the tears).

So I can't help but find the humor in our wedding day as we prepare for our first year of marriage in a city of monsoons.  We started it all off being rained on, and I suspect it won't let up any time soon. But I'm perfectly happy dancing in the rain.

New blog gadgets

There are a few new additions to the right of my blog posts.

The first thing you'll see is a map of where I am at the moment. I want to keep you updated because we will be traveling quite a bit in the next few weeks.

Further down the page, you'll see a link for the Global Service Newsletters. So far I have only received the one for August, but as I receive more, I will post them.

Spoiler alert: Daniel and I are in this newsletter quite a few times! We hope to write for it a few times over the next year. The link is also here: Global Service August 2015 Newsletter

Next, you'll see a form where you can sign up for email updates. You should do it! Because if you've read this blog post, there's a good chance you'll want to read the more interesting ones. And this way, you'll know the minute I've posted one!

Lastly, you will see an option to change this blog into a different language. This is for all of my lovely missionaries who are learning new languages, along with making it easier for people whose first language might not be English.

I'm looking to make this blog accessible and open to anyone who wants to read it, so let me know if there is anything else I can add.

Why Malaysia?

I've gotten a lot questions lately.  They usually follow some comment I make about moving to Southeast Asia for the next year.  So here are a few of them and here are my somewhat vague answers...

So, why Malaysia?

Well, to answer "why Malaysia," we need to ask a few more questions before that.

Why are you moving at all? 

I'm in seminary and it is my third year as a Lutheran student.  In our third year (or sometimes our fourth), the Lutherans are sent out to do an internship for a year.  It is used as a learning experience so that we are able bring those experiences back to seminary for a year and mull them around in community, or go directly into a parish and use those experiences to be better pastors.  We, of course, aren't able to learn everything we need to know, but as we walk alongside a congregation who has a lot of experience forming, nurturing, and teaching future church leaders, we are hopefully a little more prepared for parish ministry.

Why did you choose Malaysia? 

I didn't choose Malaysia, to be quite honest.  No one gets to "choose" their internship.  There is a lot of planning, discerning, and praying that happens before anyone is assigned to an internship site.  We have a director for internship who works with our paperwork and his colleagues in order to place us in the best place for our specific needs and learning goals.  All of my Lutheran colleagues at Southern Seminary were given assignments within the United States- some of them in the Southeast and some of them as far away as California.

What's so special about you? 

Nothing. There is certainly nothing special about me.  I prayerfully decided (with Daniel) to apply for a different internship program that is run by the Global Mission division of the ELCA.  The application process started a few months before the domestic internship process and was a little more extensive.  There was probably ten times the amount of paperwork and an interview in Chicago with the Director of Global Mission.  I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting into at the time, but I knew I wanted to take the opportunity of internship to experience Church in a (very) different context.

Will you be doing missionary work?  Working in an orphanage and building houses? 

Not exactly. Actually, not at all.  My internship will be very similar to all of my other colleagues' internships.  I will be working in a Lutheran church with a supervising pastor.  I'll have all of the usual duties: preaching, teaching, counseling, and visiting.  I'm sure there will be some opportunities in which we might be able to go visit places outside of the city, but that is not what I will be doing regularly.

But seriously, why Malaysia? 

God is calling me to Malaysia for many reasons.  The first one being (I think), is that it isn't going to be easy. The other reasons will reveal themselves over the next year (or several).  But I believe God is at work in this unique opportunity and I could not be more excited about it.

Next Adventures

Daniel and I are trying hard to keep everyone informed about what is happening in our very busy lives. But every once and a while, we will rattle off the next six adventures as if they are just obstacles on the way to the next moment in our lives.  Please trust me when I say that they are not.  The truth is that when people ask, "so what are you doing next?" or "where are you headed?" I automatically (sometimes falsely) assume that they do not want to hear all of the places we are going in the next three weeks.  But maybe they do, maybe they really do care about our crazy lives and the roller coaster that we have only just begun.

So that's what this post is about.  If you really do care about the craziness that is happening in the next few weeks - here it is.

Daniel and I JUST left (two weeks for me, one week for him) internship training with the Global Missions division of the ELCA.  It was a blast, and we learned a lot about the "beautiful secret" things that the ELCA is doing through Global Missions.  If you're interested in these secret or unknown things, just ask me because I have gotten really geeked out about it. We just started a program that focuses on educating women, there's an international leadership program, and there are people all over the world doing really incredible things (like starting a Lutheran church in South Sudan in the midst of a civil war).  

All this to say, Daniel and I are officially a "missionary couple!!"  It sounds so crazy because I don't consider what we are doing next year "mission" work, but it is a pretty humbling title to carry around.  Especially among the other beautiful people who hold that title in this church. 

Right now we are heading to Columbus, OH, where my parents have so graciously kept Cooper for two weeks.  (Thanks Mama and Daddy!!) We will pick him up, love on my parents for about twelve hours, then head back "home" to Durham, NC.  Daniel has one more heartbreaking week of internship down there.  On August 2nd, we will say, "goodbye for now" to our beautiful church family there. It will be one of the hardest goodbyes thus far.  

From there, we will have about a week to pack up all of Daniel's things (and my remaining things) and move them down to our storage unit in South Carolina.  We are excited and sad to say "goodbye" and "see you later" to a lot of our great friends at the seminary that weekend. We are at least very thankful for the opportunity to see some people and get some hugs before we depart for the year. 

Then we work our way back up north to Lincolnton, NC, where we will spend a day with our sisters and visit with Grandma before making the trek up to the mountains of Banner Elk, NC. 

After almost a week of wedding week preparation and vacation in our big family rental house in Banner Elk, 150 of our closest friends will join us for the celebration of Holy Communion and our wedding.  Obviously, that is the event that many people are most excited for.  But I can honestly say that I am just glad that I will finally be married to my best friend.  

After the wedding, we will drive back up to Columbus, spend a week with my parents (honeymooning a bit), then start our very long journey (24 hours of plane-riding) to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! 

We want to make sure people who care know where we are and where we are going so that they can keep in touch and continue to hold us in prayer. So thank you, for everything you have done in our lives and all of the support you continue to give us.