Asian's are masters of the rice cooker. It should be called "the multi-purpose heated bowl of wonder." Besides cooking rice, you can:
Boil eggs
Cook meat
Make pasta
Make pancakes
Bake bread
Some beauty parlors use it to warm damp towels (others use crock pots)
Steam potatoes or any veggie
Use it as a soup heater
make scrambled eggs
and may other uses....
My 5th grade class was learning about China in order to present the country for international day. We learned songs in Chinese, brought different items from China, made crafts, posters, and colored flags. I was able to take my students to China town. China town is...very small. It takes a little over an hour by metro to travel there. We walked around, ate Chinese black bean noodles (a favorite!), and looked at the plethora of toys and other items. China town is located about 10 minutes by bus from an island, and we took a bus to the waterfront where we walked around the still melting piles of snow. We watched the ferries come and go, played the half-broken and deserted arcade games, and found a small amusement park with a few brave souls that had ventured out into the cold. My kids bought some toys and trinkets, and we made it back just in time for the end of school. It was quite an enjoyable field trip. International Day went well. No melt-downs on my part, though it was a bit stressful.
We celebrated Lunar New Year by taking a short break from school. A few of us went to Spavis. Spavis is a "spa" which is about 2 hours by metro from where we live. It's not a typical American style spa. There are rooms with heated floors and wooden blocks for pillows for resting, dry saunas, and pools of various sizes, temperatures, colors, and scents. There is an indoor and outdoor area with kiddie pools, playgrounds in the water, slides, private hot tub shacks, jets, waterfalls, and beach chairs. It's interesting because you swim outdoors while there is snow on the ground. They have karaoke contests, and lazy river, and places for massages. There are also doctor fish which are large pools full of goldfish size fish which surround your body by the hundreds (literally) and eat the dead skin off your body. It tickles like mad! When you enter the spa you get a plastic bracelet with a number. This bracelet unlocks your locker, pays for life jackets or inner tubes, pays for food or anything you buy. It's like a credit card on your wrist. When you leave, you pay the balance. Quite a good system. The rest of my vacation was spent resting and playing. :)
I was cooking and went to crack an egg. SOMEHOW I missed the bowl and the egg flew out of my hand landing in my....shoe.
I decided to paint my nails one night. The only problem is that it was already 2am...and then I had to wait for them to dry. I suppose that common sense goes out the window at 2am.
Teaching is going well as usual. I'm really enjoying my class this year. I've graduated from 5 students to 8. I don't remember if I said it before, but we got another girl! My one girl was overjoyed (but, of course, couldn't visibly show it) and I was happy because I had been praying for another girl. The boys groaned, but I just laughed. I've been learning right along with my students the importance of being kind, putting others first, loving people even if they don't show love to you, spending time in God's word, and just desiring God in general. We all have a long way to go, but I've seen them take big steps.
The kids were sitting in the reading corner doing a worksheet together, and one boy touched another boy's book. The reaction? "Just in case you didn't know the rule, you're not supposed to encroach on other people's property." I couldn't not laugh.
I read a quote by C.S. Lewis which reads "The safest road to hell is the gradual one. The gentle slop, soft underfoot, without sudden turning, without milestones, without signposts." Sometimes it's easy to fall into the routine of life and get comfortable with your spiritual state and just set cruise control. Spending time with God becomes less exciting and Bible reading is checked off the list of things to do for the day. There aren't any real trials or convictions of the heart, and reaching the lost seems distant. The Sunday service is good, but not applied throughout the week. Who wants to admit this? Certainly not me. Who falls into this? Definitely me. I know that if I'm not constantly in the word, fighting the devil's attacks, talking with my God, and making it a point to give my days, thoughts, actions, and words to God, I can fall into this gradual, gentle slope of life. It's comfortable, but it's not real or right. What is real is loving God and showing Him that love. I need constant reality checks about how many people are dying and going to hell every day without knowing that Jesus could have saved them from death. Constant reminders about how awesome and amazing God is and what He's done for me, His promises, and how He wants me to love Him. Maybe that's not quite what this quote is talking about, but for me, this is part of the message. God needs all that I am, and I should WANT to give it to Him out of passionate love for the One who died a horrible death for me to save me. I spit in His face, denied Him, and He still died. I don't want comfortable, I want real.
I heard a pastor say in a sermon "For a believer, this is the worst it will get. For an unbeliever, this is the best it will get." So many people don't know Jesus. I pray it breaks our hearts.
People who are close to me have been going through some trying times. I've seen them grow closer to God through it. Things that go "wrong" in our lives really aren't wrong if you think about it. Sure, it might not be what we want, but it's not wrong if it fits into God's will. I think of Joseph. He was treated rather unfairly by most people's standards, and He had a hard road. But in the end, God made it known that evil was meant against Joseph, but God meant it for good. He had a specific plan, right down to the last detail, that He carried out in His time and for His glory. (Genesis 50:20) So, people rejecting God, dying, money being lost, a broken home, anything. Some might be results of sin, but God always has a plan that He works out for His glory and for the good of His children. (Romans 8:28)
I love the passage Ephesians 1:3-14. I went through the passage in my Bible and highlighted all the things God has done for us. Blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, chose us in Him, predestined us in love, adopted us, redeemed us with His blood, forgave our trespasses, sent Christ, united us in Him, gave us an inheritance, and sealed us with the Holy Spirit. And I'm sure He did this because He realized how amazing we were and how much we loved Him. UNTRUE. He did this: according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, according to the riches of His grace, in all wisdom and insight, according to His purpose, as a plan for the fulness of time, according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, and to the praise of His glory. God didn't do all these things because we were lovely or good. We're quite the opposite. He did this so that we might see how wonderful He is and turn right around and praise Him. He did this so that He might receive the glory. He did this because it fit with His will. God didn't need to love us, but He chose to. He doesn't need any of our works, but He desires them. God needs us to be humble and therefore exalt Him. God needs us to love others and in that show love to Him. God needs us to praise Him and give Him all the glory for everything in our lives. We're worthless, but God is worth more than words can say. His love to us should be worth that much as well. It is a thing of unmeasurable beauty and grace completely undeserved.
God is the only thing we need, right? If that is so, He should be able to give and take as He pleases, right? He should be able to take our money, health, time, loved ones, plans, possessions, and anything else, right? And He should be able to do all of this without us complaining, whining, worrying, becoming angry, grumbling, getting frustrated or being anxious, right? Yes. If God is truly all that we need, life should pass with us placing our complete trust in God that He will supply all that we need and that His will is perfect.
"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." Acts 20:24
This is one of my favorite verses. I want to own this verse and believe it with all my heart. My life is worthless unless I place it in God's hands to do with it what He pleases. Unless I abandon all else and follow solely after God with my purpose being to tell others about what He's done and in doing so to glorify Him.
Peace.
