That guy!

OMG so there’s this guy that I had a lil baby crush on in my Eng 1320 class my Freshman year. We didn’t really talk much in the class, we were partners sometimes or peer review stuffs but we left it at that all the while I’m drooling over him cause hes a hot lil Asian guy  The semester after that we kept running into each other everywhere and we’d just say hi and he’d smile the biggest smile ever!! It’s not just the typical hi that guys do with like a nod or raising a hand or two fingers. NO! It’s like HUGE SMILE and “HEEEY!” and a WAVE (AND A LOT OF THE TIME HE’D DO A LITTLE SNICKER/HALF LAUGH THING). (●♡∀♡) Anyway, I had forgotten his name and I felt really bad for it each time I saw him. So one day I thought reaaaaaaally hard and tried to remember roll call in class and I remembered his name! So I looked him up on Facebook and I found him. We only had one friend in common and that was a Japanese exchange student that had already went back to Japan. Because of that and the fact that we didn’t have class anymore and we didn’t have a reason to see each other anymore I didn’t add him on Facebook.

Now, I’m in Statistics 3307 whatever blah…lol. There are two sections of this, 2pm and 5pm class. I’m in 5pm. There are also like 3 labs on Fridays at different times so at first I didn’t go to the earliest cause who wants to get up and go to a 9:30am lab on a Friday? But then it ended up to where I had to go to that one because I had club meetings on Fridays now. So the first time I go to the 9:30am lab…I look across the room and notice…HE’S IN THE LAB!! I’m like wow, this is great. (≧∇≦) I’ll keep coming to this one. So that first time he didn’t notice me. 

The next time I went to lab I’m in there on time instead of walking in late, so I’m sitting there telling my friend about this guy and then he walks in. He walks past us but doesn’t notice me and my friend’s like: “That’s him right?” and im like “Mhm” >< All through the lab I keep looking over at him and my friend keeps making fun of me. She’s like “You should just go up to him and talk to him after lab.” and im like: “No. He won’t remember me by now.” So after the lab is over I kind of take my time packing my things up and slowly get up hoping he notices me when he walks out…AND HE DOES!! As soon as he sees me his eyes light up and he smiles that beautiful big smile and says: “HEY! I didn’t know you were in this class.” And then he keeps talking to me for a bit. OMGASDFGHJKL; ヘ(>_<ヘ) HE STILL REMEMBERS ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~

And tonight, we just ran into each other at the Rec Center! asdfghjkl; Is this fate?!?! Σ(￣。￣ノ)ノ　He freakin did that smile/hey thing again. He’s killing me and I think he knows it. I hope he didn’t turn around and see my fangirling after he did that. I REALLY WANT TO ADD HIM ON FACEBOOK BUT IM SUCH A CREEPER!!!!!!! And then I was thinking about messaging him first, but then I thought that might be even sillier? IDK! WHAT EVEN. I CANT. (/ﾟДﾟ)/

…Sorry bout it. That is all. (ﾉ_ _)ﾉ

Too Fast.

This semester has gone by too fast.

The last time I blogged, I had just gotten back from my mission trip. Now it is the beginning of November and this semester is about to come to an end.
I really wish I would take more time to blog things. So many things have happened and I can't possibly put them all in one post. I'm trying to think of some of the more important things to blog about. ...Now I can't even remember why I decided to post again.

• I could blog about my classes...nope.
• about how I became President of NASA and how that's going...maybe later.
• about my love life like always...or the semi lack thereof
• about the new friends I've made...possible topic of another post
• about my new job...too boring and not very interesting. Might appear later tho
• about my awesome weekend in LA for a Big Bang concert...a definite topic for next time 

There's plenty of other things that have happened, I'm sure. But they're either not important enough to remember or I'll just mention them later when I remember them.
Basically, this post is to apologize to myself (and the possible audience interested in my personal life/thoughts) about my lack of posting. Also, it is to help me for my major. As a mass comm major I'm sure I'll have to be writing a lot more... unfortunately.
Until next time,
MMK

Summer Mission Trip Fort Worth: Let All the Earth Rejoice

This summer has been an experience of a lifetime. People have already begun to ask me what are some favorite things about this summer. Soon, I'll be answering all types of questions like this. This summer has flown by too fast and it's so hard to keep track of everything that's been happening. There is one aspect about this summer that'll never forget though. That is having the opportunity to visit different ethnic churches. I had the pleasure of being able to visit Korean, Nepali, 2 different Burmese, along with a few American churches as well. I have always wanted to be able to experience worshiping the same God with people of a different language and culture. I am very excited this dream came true for me this summer. Its awesome how people from all over the Earth worship the same God and rejoice for the same things.
Let all the Earth rejoice...
One particular church I had the pleasure of visiting was the Ebenezer Church for Chin-Burmese. I was invited here by a little girl, Rebecca, that I had befriended close to the beginning of the summer. I really have a heart for this girl and her family, they are just so sweet. Rebecca is 11 or 12 years old, she has an 8 year old brother,Moses, 17 year old brother, Samuel, and two older teenage sisters, Kim and Lun. Rebecca's family was a Match Grant client and finished their case after I had been here a while.

Rebecca and I

When I visited Rebecca and her family in their apartment on July 21st, I spent a long time getting to know them more. While I was there, they invited me to go to church with them the next day. 

Rebecca got to work the slides for the worship songs. 

Soon after arriving at the church, Rebecca and I sat together and were listening to English worship songs from the family cell phone. She also let me know that a guy that works at World Relief attends this church too, that would be the R&P caseworker Khai. That was a nice surprise to see him and his wife come in. Rebecca was asked to work the laptop that provides the lyrics for the worship service, so her and I left our spots to move to the front row. 

I was sort of surprised to see Khai go up to be a leader for the worship service. Also, Rebecca's older brother, Samuel, was the drummer for the worship band. 

 

I love seeing how people worship the Lord. Each and everyone has their own way of praise. With these Burmese people you can tell how broken they are by the way they worship. They close their eyes and praise him with all they've got. They overflow with joy. God has delivered them out of a broken land and into the USA where they can have a better life for themselves and even have a right to worship our God. 

Rebecca's mother, on the right in grey, praising the Lord.

One thing I've noticed in other cultures during church services is the prayers. Often times when they pray, they pray all together, out loud, at once. It sounds a little chaotic, but this way each person can pour out their heart to the Lord and make their prayers known to everyone. I have know idea what any of them are saying, but I can tell their gratefulness and brokenness all at the same time. The prayers from each person are loud and very sincere. I just know that they are sending up prayers about their broken homeland. It is a bittersweet feeling hearing all these prayers all at once.  

Rebecca's brother, Moses,
in the red and white striped shirt

 

After the service, they served a Burmese fish soup and the kids played games.

I'm very glad God gave me the opportunity to experience so many great things this summer. This family will always be in my heart and I love that the love the same God I do. We are still keeping in touch even though I am back home now. It breaks my heart that they say they miss me every day and wish I'd never left. I will make it a point to visit them as soon as I get a car. 

Summer Mission Trip Fort Worth: ASL to Deaf Refugees

The thought of using my ASL skills was a thought that never occurred in my head for this trip until a few weeks ago.

One of the other interns, Ken, at World Relief has a girlfriend here in Fort Worth. Soon after talking with her,Jenn, I discovered her passion for ASL and the deaf community. She has a deaf sister and it seems that her passion started from that. She works in the mission department of a church her in Fort Worth.
The next thing I know, I am helping her teach ASL to deaf refugees at Ladera, the apartments I'm staying at with most of the resettled refugees. There is also another guy named Kurt helping on Wednesdays that God has also brought along. So the three of us,along with Ken, teach ASL to some deaf Nepali people on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-7:30pm. When we first all met up and lead the first successful class, afterwards we stood around and reveled in how great God is in bringing us all together like this without knowing each other before.

At first there were just three deaf Nepali guys, all middle aged or older. Then we discovered that two of them had wives who are also deaf. A big challenge is trying to get them all there at the same time where we meet in the World Relief clubhouse. We have decided to start getting there earlier so we can go and gather them together from their apartments. I had also discovered a Burmese girl that was deaf that had come to a play day for kids that a church youth group had put together. I kept trying to figure out where she lives to go and get her but I couldn't. Then one day she showed up with her family at the clubhouse for English class, but I couldn't be there to teach with Jenn that night. I called Jenn and told her to snag her when she gets there. Jenn let me know later that the girl did go to ASL with her and even seemed to pick a lot up and enjoy it. But since I've been there, she hasn't been back. Hopefully, we can find her again soon. Although, a new Nepali woman has been coming that's rather young looking. She has a walking impairment, but she is incredibly intelligent. She already knew quite a bit ASL her first time in the class. We were so surprised!

Overall, the classes have been fairly successful. Of course we have to use lots of visuals, but they seem to be catching on. The topics we have covered so far have been the alphabet, fruits, vegetables, colors, describing words (man, boy, woman, girl, tall, short...etc.),clothes, and names. I think they may be catching on to question words like who, what color, and which. On two occasions we have even had conversations about Jesus. Only through God could we have accomplished that. They seem to know a lot about the gospel even though they are all Hindu. I think one of them may be a believer, but its hard to tell. I pray that one day they can move on to sentences, but that is a very long way off and I won't be here.
It was sad to hear that these deaf refugees are a burden to people around here. The Nepali signs that they use are mostly gestures that are universal, so their skills of communicating, even with other Nepalis are limited. This is very big investment and I pray that Jenn and the others can fully accomplish this very difficult task that God has set before them.
~Meliah

Summer Mission Trip Ft Worth: Match Grant

Match Grant
...self proclaimed "best" department of World Relief- Ft. Worth office.
These people are really fun to work with once you get to know them.
Andrea Frick- program manager and my boss. She is just a really fun person that can be a bit sarcastic. I love her style of clothing and she always looks super cute. For a long time my task for her was trying to find a puppy online for her to adopt. Andrea recently graduated from UT-A with a Masters of Sociology. She also took a very difficult test and became licensed for social work practices. Most of the time we talk about make-up or girl stuff and puppies. We actually spent a lot of time trying to find a puppy for her to adopt. Last week she found one and now has a shepard mix named Gypsy! She is sooo cute! But besides the puppy business, she is actually a very focused and stern worker. She has a heart for serving and knows exactly how to work with the refugees and what to say to them. They usually trust her completely.
Robert Ortiz- Employment Specialist. Super sarcastic and a joker, but a really great guy. Engaged to a woman named Elise, whom I will soon meet. He works in Match by finding jobs for the  clients. Basically he is really helpful in getting the refugees self-sufficient because he helps them find their source of income. Even though he can be a prankster, he works hard advocating for refugees to employers trying to get them good steady jobs.
Bethany Toland- Married to Wes Toland who is in the church mobilization department. Bethany is a case worker for Match Grant, but what she is really passionate and trained for is Anti-Human Trafficking. She does sessions with people (like police) in the area to show them the signs of human trafficking and what to look for. She also leads orientations at the Ladera Palms World Relief clubhouse on safety and "stranger danger".
Rajan Biswa- A former Nepali translator that was recently hired on staff as a Match Grant case worker (still used for translations though). A few years ago, Rajan and his family were new refugees that even went through the Match Grant program. His English is almost flawless and he was apparently qualified for such a job like this at World Relief. He is a very sweet man and definitely on fire for God. He admits to not understanding the Bible even though he has read a lot of it. But that's ok, because God is not for the human mind to fully understand. He's also really quiet, but super nice and really smart.
Then there's me...
The first two or so weeks in Match Grant haven't been hard at all. I just come in and they tell me stuff to do for them. Most of it includes putting together case files, filing papers, and writing case notes or entering volunteer logs. I have been on errands and visits, but not by myself yet. I don't know how I feel about driving around here yet and well they don't make me go if I don't feel comfortable with driving. We have weekly Match Grant meetings on Fridays in the morning. The first thing they told me when i joined and at the first meeting is that last year their intern got a tattoo and they paid for it for her. They said they wanted that to be a Match intern tradition, but I have no interest in getting a tattoo. I told them they could dye my hair instead. Immediately, they decided on purple. I was ok with it until I realized and someone told me that I'd have to bleach my hair even more to get the color purple that would look cool. And that would kill my hair which is already damaged enough as it is. Christina the volunteer coordinator came into Match just to be my hair consultant. She says its not a good idea for my hair at this time, but when I suggested black with purple she ok-ed it. So I think that's whats been decided is black with a purple chunk or streaks.
We'll see...
It may seem like all we do is goof-off, but that's not it at all. These people are on fire for God and have a huge heart for missions and refugees. They do soooo much for them.That's all really to say about Match Grant...except that it is pretty dang awesome.
~Meliah~

Summer Mission Trip Ft.Worth: World Relief

Stand/ for the vulnerable 
Coming in to this mission I didn't know what to expect. I had no idea what I would be doing here, but I did know I'd be working with an organization called World Relief. I now know that I am one of 3 summer interns working at World Relief here in Ft. Worth. This past week, we interns had multiple orientations or debriefings about the company and its departments. After the morning meetings we would hang around and see what and who needed help. We have done a little bit of everything so far. From taking an African family of 8 to the TB clinic for about 4 hours(turned out to be a long day) to apartment set-up and airport pick-ups for new families.
 Our first week went a little like this:

 

Monday, May 21st

9AM Wes Toland- Office walkthrough, volunteer orientation, cultural training. He gave us an overview of the company in general and what World Relief does exactly. He also talked a lot about the cultural profiles of clients they receive. Mostly talked about why they are refugees and how they get here. 

10:30 Micah Berry,our roommates Sara and Liz, Jonathon, Jason, and Khai. - Reception and Placement (R&P) They each spoke a bit on what goes on in R&P. They are the first people in the office to deal with the refugees before they even get to America and for the first 30 days. They "receive" information about a family or person coming. Usually if they have U.S. ties whether family or not they try to house them close to their ties. If not then they just get them an available and appropriate apartment, one of the caseworkers do that (which would be Jason, Jonathon, or Khai.) Then Sara or sometimes someone else goes to do a Wal-Mart and Fiesta run to get them the essentials for apartment living and food for at least a week. After that is apartment set-up before the refugee(s) get there, then someone picks them up from the airport. The refugees then go through detailed orientations to show them basic ways of living here in America. R&P also helps them apply for social security. 

12-1 Lunch

After lunch- shadowing (We set up an apartment and picked up a family later that night) 

Tuesday, May 22nd

9AM Becky Sayavongsa-Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) It is a state funded program that is a cash only assistance. It is an 8 month long program that has a set amount of money for the family depending on how many are in the family. After the first 4 months the money is cut in half. Also, there is no caseworker to help them and the refugees have to pay all their bills on their own with that money. Honestly, this program is not good for families, especially with little kids.   

10AM Courtney Bryant- Employment. Works with RCA to help clients find jobs.

After Lunch- Set up another apartment.

Wednesday, May 23rd

9AM Andrea Frick- Match Grant. This program can be chosen instead of RCA, which would be the better choice for families and/or people who would have more difficulty finding a job right away. Match Grant lasts for 6 months. Match Grant pays for rent and utilities along with giving them cash assistance for the first 4 months. After 4 months the cash assistance stops and if the client still hasn't obtained a job then Match will continue to pay bills for the rest of the 6 month period. A caseworker works with the client to assist them in anything they need help with, like setting-up and taking them to appointments and any other important things to live efficiently in America. It is called "Match Grant" because it is a federally funded program that takes any money raised for the Match Grant program and the federal government matches that amount. The funds are raised through gift in kind, which can be donations or help/services from volunteers that will be converted into cash value. 

10AM Gina Godfrey- Preferred Communities. Communities that help the mentally challenged refugees come to terms with living in a new country. People suffering the effects of culture shock, PTSD, or anything else that causes them to be mentally unstable. 

Rest of the day- Helping/ shadowing people. Another apartment set-up.

Thursday, May 24

9AM Bethany Toland- Human Trafficking. Learned how they handle these types of clients and what to look for. 

9:30AM Evangeline Baker- Case Management, Elderly

10AM Wes Toland- Church Engagement. Getting the local churches involved. Not just to help, but to form relationships that will last long term. 

Around 2ish- Airport pick-up for a woman from Ethiopia that we reunited with her husband. They had been apart for a year and 8 months. It was such a sweet reuniting and they talked and laughed the whole way home. 

Friday, May 25th

Made cookies for the whole office and surprised everyone with them and thanked everyone for a great first week for us.

 

After all this meeting, Laura and I had to pick between R&P and Match Grant to intern with for the rest of the summer. It was a hard decision, but I finally had to make a final decision and pick Match Grant so Laura will be with R&P (this was on Sunday that we picked). At the end of this week I will talk about my first week with Match Grant and some of the things I did.

Until next time!~

~Meliah

 

Summer Mission Trip Ft. Worth: Diving Right In

Settle in and take time to figure out how this mission trip will go or how we will meet people? Not us. As soon as Laura and I arrived at Ladera Palms Apartments right after Go Now Orientation we were met in the parking spaces by Sara, one of our other roommates that works a World Relief, and an 8 year old Nepali girl named Asmita and her 9 year old brother, Niraj. Asmita and Niraj helped us carry in our luggage to the apartment, and then it was play time. We learned very quickly that these kids are blunt and not afraid to ask for something. Laura had a box of stationary that she had left in her car and the kids went with her to retrieve it. Using her cards and envelopes they wrote drew pictures and wrote notes to Laura’s and my moms.

Niraj

Laura, Asmita, Niraj

 Asmita notice my nails painted and wanted me to paint hers too. I painted her nails and she kept asking me to add nail art stickers and jewels, but I did not have much and didn’t want to run out. I finally had to put my polishes away. They did not take long at all to open up to us and immediately starting making us play made-up games with them.  For a while it was just these two that stayed in our living room, then a little four year old boy named Samir came for a bit. Not too long later Asmita and Niraj’s cousin, Samikchhya a 7 year old girl, came to play too.  Samikchhya wanted me to do her nails too of course.

Asmita's nails

Samikchhya's nails

                                                                                                                                    

These kids have so much energy. They run around and wrestle and are just so rough with each other.

Also, I have already had some talking about Jesus. Supposedly Niraj believes in Jesus, but the two younger girls don’t. The little girls even said that their god is a cow and that Asmita accidently ate cow when ate school and didn’t know.  On Sunday we met some older kids. Three girls in eighth grade, one of them being Samikchhya’s older sister started fighting for our attention. I also did these girls’ nails. (But I didn’t get a picture.) The older girls all tell me that they love Jesus and wanted to know if I love Jesus too. This made me really happy to hear. I love that people have already been working this hard to bring these girls to Christ. Hopefully, they will have influence on their families and friends that may still be rejecting the Gospel.

These kids have been here close to three years, so their English speaking is fairly well. There are some words and phrases that they don’t get right yet, but that is understandable. I haven’t really been able to talk with the adults yet, but I think the kids have better English skills anyway.  They also seem to come at the most inconvenient times. We finally have started making them wait outside until we have finished eating or tell them to come back later because we are busy. I am so glad that they want to be around us, but we can’t spend all our time with them.

Anyway, that’s all I really have for now. In my next update I will talk more about the apartment and our first week at work with World Relief.

Until then, GOD BLESS!!! :D

Meliah