Giving Thanks and Visiting the Great Grandparents

I spent my Thanksgiving holiday with about twenty people from my church (American and Non) at my pastor's house. They used the same corn tradition that my family uses during this holiday, so that was neat! Yummy food, good friends, and an awesome God - so much to be thankful for!

This is table 1 of 3..Christina did such a beautiful job with the decorations and place settings!

...and tables 2 and 3. My intent was to show you guys a picture of the decorations and such, but someone thought it was a photo opp for them! Sheesh :) The guy on the left is German; the Thanksgiving dish he brought? Beer!

This is part of the first course. Myself and one other couple brought vegetables. Needless to say I did not have a balanced meal that night, but I'm okay with that :)

Pre-dinner funtivities :) Yours truly won fastest word search finder! (still working on the official title, haha)

Sylvie was my dinner date (kinda, if you don't count her husband); I love her! My church family is a big blessing to me.

Pastor Tobin telling us about the Thanksgiving in Mainland where he had to pluck and kill a turkey for dinner. I could not be more thankful for imported meats in Hong Kong!

A few friends and I hiked Lion Peak a few weeks ago. It is probably my least favorite hike so far, but we were able to see our ancestors (the monkeys), so all-in-all it was a good hike!

Here we are! Pretty incredible view of the island, too...

I was super excited about this shot, except my camera didn't use the flash so I had to adjust the contrast and coloring; but, I still love this picture! You don't want to know what I had to do to make them both look at me :)

Buildings galore ...the light reflecting off the water with the mountains in the background was so gorgeous, though....

Most pitiful face ever...yes, I know what you're thinking - "you make that face all the time, Gabrielle!"
(I know my mom is thinking that, at least).

Such an epic view...next time, yoga pose :)

More to come later!

Weekend Mission Trip to the Philippines

God blessed me with the funds (through my Grandaddy) to go on a mission trip with a few people from my care group. One of the guys from my care group works for ICM (Click here for more information on their ministry), so he organized the trip for us. I think everyone needs to go on a trip like this one - no matter what your spiritual beliefs are. It will make you so grateful for things we take for granted, like: eating three meals a day, taking hot showers, and sleeping on beds with mattresses (not bamboo poles).

The guy on the far left is who organized the trip. This was all of us who went, minus myself of course.

Getting in a wonderful nap on the plane on our way to Bacolod. The lady in the background kept giving Peter weird looks for taking pictures of three girls, haha!

Those mountains were gorgeous with the clouds and sunshine. I wanted to go there so badly, but we didn't have enough time.

The food was so tasty! In the picture that is garlic rice, chicken and congee. Yum! (minus the congee)

This is the church where ICM hosts the Preschool+ Program: 25 children are given food, education and a uniform for a year where they are educated to become literate, while the mothers of these children are trained on basic values, health and livelihood opportunities. We came to see the program and spend time with the children, playing games and making a craft. Only $200 is needed to sponsor a child and their parent for a YEAR in this program. The meals they receive here is often times the only meal they will eat that day.

Here we're playing duck, duck goose with the kids, but we translated the words into their native language (which I can't even remember now). The children in the background live in the nearby neighborhood. Some of them are siblings of the sponsored children (those sitting in the circle) and others are just curious to see the foreigners. If more people give money towards the program, more children can circulate through.

These boys were so funny! They kept posing so I would continue taking pictures. Their favorite part was looking at themselves afterwards on the camera screen. :)

I took this picture of the sunset when we returned to the hotel after going to the preschool and helping build houses.

The next morning we went to another church to attend their service. They also have a feeding program here and the program teaches them about organic farming. ICM provides the education and the worms to begin the process. This next picture shows part of the organic soil process.

The program has been so successful that nearby villagers have copied the process for themselves!

This man was the "worship band". He didn't play perfectly, but that's what is awesome about our God. He takes delight in our imperfect praise to Him, no matter how it sounds!

I was touched by the church members faith and obedience in giving to the church. These people have so little, yet they give and trust God to meet their daily needs.

These are some of the families that are able to participate in the feeding programs.

Please pray and consider where and how God can use you. We can give so little and it reaps such a rich harvest for the people in these slums. My prayer is that you will respond in obedience to however the Lord calls you. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me or ICM!

Ways you can help

More about the ministry

It's a small world after all, and it's even smaller in Hong Kong Disneyland...

Two weeks ago I took a trip to Disneyland with my friend who works for Disney...

We took the MTR there, and Disney has their own train. As you can see in the background everything is Micky-fied.

This is bread pudding dessert from Walt's Cafe. I think I told some of you I was eating at the castle..sorry I was wrong! The food looks better than it tastes...I'm finding that to be true with all foods here.

A maze just outside of Walt's cafe. Obviously, we didn't bother trying it since adults can see above the shrubbery. It looked fun though!

The castle is pretty tiny! They have a fireworks show every night right after the park closes, so we stayed to watch that. No pictures from that though; I couldn't get a good shot.

The girls found these silly hats in one of the gift shops. The hats were actually quite comfortable, but who would buy them??

There were several of these "photo opps" all over the park. I think this was in Tomorrow Land?

"Miss Gabby, your nose is tall!"

My title for today's blog is brought to you by direct quote from one of my students. At least he formed a proper sentence? Hiya....

..so, my friend Kendal took some amazing shots on my last hike. I asked him to be my blog photographer from now on (at least when we hike together) :) This is Sunset Peak in Lantau, in the general area of the airport. Such a gorgeous view...here I am struggling in the back!

We walked up this grassy area and the view was awesome, but the wind was so strong. I had to cover my ears to keep them warm and infection-free, not to tune anyone out ;) One of the guys was doing the same for a few minutes... that would have made for a good picture!

I love all of the pictures Kendal took, but I think this next one is my favorite. These are bunkers from WWII which people now buy or rent out. I am unsure of the cost, but our group wants to at least camp here one night to watch the sunrise the next morning. Can you imagine how awesome it would be??

That is all to share for now. I have a halloween event coming up this weekend, so maybe I will post again soon!

Hong Kong lately...

These are pictures from the hike that kicked my butt. It made me realize how out of shape I am, so I plan on doing plenty more of these!

The Parkview Hotel (shown) is where we started our hike...

It was pretty smoggy, but still a nice view.

The guy with his arms up was bookin' it the entire hike....I was the very last person in the back :)

My schools celebrate all the birthdays at the very end of each month. I'm not sure you would be able to tell it's their birthday party from their expressions.

This is from the fireworks show for "National Day". Imagine our (US) fireworks finales...this was our finale the entire duration.

All the locals around me were yelling "Waahhhh" in excitement...haha, it was hilarious and romantic all at the same time.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

The day before the MAF celebration my school in Wan Chai had a celebration of their own. All the students came to my classroom and they danced to music with their lanterns, which was probably the most exciting party they have ever been to.   :) I enjoyed seeing them excited and happy... here's a photographic recap....

It's blurry, but you get the idea...It was dark, their lanterns were illuminated, kids were running....

Some of the boyz....there were TONS of angry bird lanterns, haha!

The teacher to my left is one of my favorite ladies. She is in charge of the English department, so we've been able to converse a lot. She is so funny...cute kiddos, right?

This is Isaac. He latched onto me from day one, so of course we're buddies. He made his own latern and was more than happy to pose for a photo opp.

They were so excited about Mid-Autumn Festival! :) Love them...

These are some of the gifts given to me by the kids and my two schools. I received a lot of baked goods and fruits that didn't survive to be a part of the picture :) Oops...

Shouldn't the manufacturers have the spelling down by now? It gave me a good laugh anyways...Now on to the carnival that night...

This picture would be perfect without the weirdo and his blank stare...sigh

No asian carnival would be complete without...what?...Irish clogging??? So very random! Don't worry though, I've already bought everyone tickets when this group tours the North American circuit. You can thank me later...

All made of individual lanterns...it was gorgeous in person. Why can't my camera capture how I see things...
I wanted to get more shots of families and their illuminated lanterns, but I never saw that going on. Happy holiday anyways! :)