Only Five More Days to China!!

Good evening everyone, or good morning to all my friends in Asia, and everyone who will read this in the morning instead of right now. I give up.

Hello all.

I am freaking out over here that I just wrote that we leave in five days. I only have four more days left in the states to finish everything. Only nine more days until I get to meet all the precious little kids! I am so excited about the goal of this trip. It is called a Storyteller Mission because we are going to collect stories of kids to, introduce them to families, to find them loving homes. I just went on a retreat last weekend and one of the talks was about how God uses stories to teach us, and the power that stories have. At one point Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he responded "love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as you love yourself." The natural follow up question to this was "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus could have given a straightforward, and to the point answer, "Everyone!", but He knew the power of telling a story and letting the listener find the answer and come to the truth themselves. So He told the story of the good Samaritan. Which you are free to skip if you already know!

There was a man traveling alone. Traveling alone comes with additional risk, and unfortunately for this Jewish man he did not make it to his destination unscathed. He was attacked by robbers who stole all his money and animals. Even that was not enough. They beat him up and left him on the side of the road half dead! A short while later a Levite came along. Levites were a family who worked in the temple in Jerusalem. It would be like if a church secretary or Sunday school teacher came along. If the beat up Jewish guy is even conscious at this point he is probably thinking that his troubles are over for the day. They are both Jewish men, and the Levite is a nice guy, a good guy, but the Levite doesn't stop! He goes to the other side of the road even though he has clearly seen the bloody, naked guy on the side of the road in desperate need of help. This is horrible! However, never fear, a short while later who should be seen coming down the road but a Jewish priest. Now the poor guy still awaiting salvation on the side of the road should be fine. There is no way a priest would leave someone is such a condition, especially someone who's soul they are charged with looking after. Unfortunately, there is a way, and the priest also takes a wide berth never even coming near the poor dying man. After another pause another man is to be seen coming down the road, but this time there is no surge of hope in the mangled man. The approaching stranger is clearly a Samaritan. The Jews and the Samaritans are not friendly, and that is putting it mildly. Samaritans and Jews do not help each other out. Normally. But this one does. He spots the guy who has been knocked about and left hopeless, and his heart fills with pity, compassion, empathy. He goes over to this wreck of an enemy and starts cleaning his wounds, he finds some spare clothes to wrap him up in, he puts him on his own ride, his own animal and takes him to a hotel and pays the guy in charge in advance for his stay promising that if he needs to stay longer than he has estimated that he will cover the rest of the bill when he is on his way back through.

After telling the story Jesus asked who was a neighbor to the beaten Jewish man. His questioner answered "The one who helped him. The one who was kind to him." Jesus responded "Go live like that too."

So here is an example of Jesus using a story to teach a lesson, and to motivate people to action. My team is hoping to use stories of children to teach families about children, beautiful, lovable, little kids who need families. We are hoping to motivate people to adopt and to convince their friends to adopt. I am so excited for the day when I can adopt myself. It is my dearest held wish for my life. For now, I am thrilled for the chance to help kids find other parents, and to spend even a week showing them that they are loved, and precious to someone.

Goodnight my dears!

Tatiana

Prayer Points:

• I have just come down with a mild throat infection today. I do not have time to be sick right now! I also have no desire to get the kids sick so please pray I make a speedy recovery.
• It is midterms at school right now and I have a couple papers in addition to my normal schoolwork that I need to get done. Please pray for clear thinking and good time management.
• Please pray for health for the rest of my team. It is common to get sick when traveling and eating different food. Pray that we are protected from this and are able to give the kids out all.
• Please pray that we will act wisely and start a wonderful new relationship with this orphanage.
• Pray for families to fall in love with the kids we meet!

Thank you for your prayers! They mean so much to me, and they are changing the world!!

Join me in Myanmar?

Hello my Dears,

As I told you in my last post I will be doing a dual trip to Myanmar and Vietnam in July/August. Details are still being finalized, but here is what I have so far. I am traveling over with my good friend to Myanmar to help in his mother's orphanage. Tentatively we are planning to go in the beginning of July for three to three and a half weeks. The orphanage we are serving in has around forty children from five to fifteen. The main help we have been asked to provide is English lessons after school and on the weekends. We have also been asked to provide some one on one tutoring in basic conversational English to ten to fifteen adult Bible students. We will also be loving on the kids and providing some relief support for the full time staff in whatever way is deemed necessary in the moment.

From Myanmar I will move straight to Vietnam to work more with Orphan Voice, the organization I have been to help twice before. I am planning to be there from four to five weeks. I have not solidified projects with them at this point, and will give you more information as I am able.

I am hoping and praying for more people to join me, especially in Myanmar. I will admit that a two person teaching team for forty kids is rather intimidating! So if I am able to recruit a teammate with teaching English as a second language experience that would be fabulous and ideal. If you, or anyone you know, has any interest in joining me for either my whole trip or part of either country leg please get in touch!

I will update you all on China tonight or tomorrow. We leave in just six days!

Thank you all for your support!

Tatiana

Prayer Points

• That my friend and I will find people to join us in Myanmar
• That my team to China will stay healthy in this last week and while overseas. We have one girl working with a lot of sick children right now, please pray that she will stay well!
• Join me in thanking God for His never ending provision for all the details. I needed some pants for the trip and was able to find three pairs of great ones that fit me perfectly at a Salvation Army store for less than $12.00!
• Please pray that I will pack well, and find everything else I need easily in the stores, for example an outlet converter.
• Please pray for everyone's emotional and spiritual wellbeing. We want to be on the top of our game when we get to the orphanage so that we are able to pour ourselves out for these kids. 

I Love Children!

Hello dear friends.

     "A few days ago, I took a nap with the children. Lom, an eight year old boy with a happy, loving, and mischievous personality, slept next to me. He hugged me the entire time he slept, and I realized that I had fallen in love. Not with a man, but with some sweaty little orphans. "

~excerpt from a college paper about my first trip to Vietnam. The photo is of me and Lom.

I am still in love with them. Their pictures hang on my walls, and thoughts of them fill my head. Especially now that I in the final preparation phase for another orphanage in a new country. I leave for China in seventeen days! We are down to the teens. I got my passport with my fancy new visa back today from my trip leader. All I have left is making sure I have proper clothing, and packing my bags.

Praise God, and a major thank you to my donors, I am fully funded! I actually was given cash that was beyond what I needed by exactly $100. What am I going to do with this extra cash? Use it for my trip this summer!! I was asked by a friend to help in his mother's orphanage in Myanmar, and after praying, happily agreed. The plan is that I will spend the first three weeks of July in Myanmar, and then go straight to Vietnam, back to the same people I have worked with the previous two times. My friend and I are hoping to get a small team together to go to Myanmar with us so if you or anyone awesome you know is interested let me know!

Just in case any of you have no idea where Myanmar is. Also, I love that all three countries I am going to are in this frame. I guess you could say I have a theme going. 

Three Weeks and Two Days

So much exiting news! We booked out airfare, and it was the cheapest the agency has ever seen. We have a layover in Newark, NJ on the way out, and a layover in Chicago on the way back. If any of you have suggestions on what to see let me know because the layovers are long enough that we might hit the town. We also all were granted our visas smoothly and they are in the mail back to us!

The orphanage we are going to is a brand new partner for America World. The orphanage had trouble with the last adoption agency they were working with and decided to end that relationship. It has been two years since they worked with an agency and the kids have been waiting to find families. Because of this, some of the kids they really want placed are older, and therefore more challenging to find homes for. Please be in prayer that my team will get to know these kids and advocate for them well. We are going to be taking lots of photos and meeting every night to write down what we observe in the children to add to their files. Hopefully with the added information America World will be able to find them wonderful families. Just because they have expressed a desire to get the older kids adopted does not mean there are not little ones. They have thirty-eight kids under four! With so many kids, please be in prayer that my team will do a good job at spreading out so we do not miss children or opportunities.

We had some last minute additions to the team and are now at a lovely ten. I was able to get a screenshot at one of our last meetings with most of us.

Top left to right: Lois, Cathy, me (Tatiana)

Middle: Kim (our wonderful leader!), Jenna (Kim's daughter), Amy

Bottom: Kara, Barb (My lovely mentor who blinks for photos even when there is no camera let alone a flash)

In our little team we have a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, some retired nurses, and at least five of us have experience helping in orphanages. I am thankful we were assigned a new orphanage with so much need because I think we are qualified to handle it!

That is all for now, but soon I will be updating you on another trip I am planing for this summer to two South East Asian countries to help in orphanages!

Thank you all so much for your support!

Prayer Points:

• Please pray that we will help begin a good relationship between America World and the new orphanage. Please especially be in prayer for Kim our leader as a lot of the communication with the director and organization of our efforts will fall on her.
• Join me in thanking God for our plane tickets and visas! Hip hip hooray!
• Please pray that we will be wise in our purchases of gifts to bring. We will be bringing toys and necessities for the kids, and gifts for the caretakers. Because this is a new partnership we do not have much information, for example would the kids have a place to use chalk?
• Please pray for my teams personal preparations. We have just over three weeks left. Please pray that we all get enough rest, are able to find the things we need to shopping, and take care of any medical things we need to.

I am $188 short of my given goal. I recently did a painting job for family friends and can use money from that to cover it. However, if you wanted to, this is your last chance to support my on this trip financially. Fundraising ends on Wednesday night.

If you want to contribute financially you can do it online here. In the drop-down list select "Storyteller Missions", and under "Participant Name(s)" put Tatiana Martin March'16 Guangdong China Team. Because there are only two days left online is now the only option.

First Team Meeting

My team is all female. Seven other New Hampshire gals, and two southern ladies. Ages range from late teens to mid seventies. We are all American's with big hearts for kids. On a beautiful December Sunday we had our first team meeting. It was sadly only the New Hampshirites because the other two were not available to Skype in

We talked about everything from food allergies to voltage issues. China has higher electrical voltage than the U.S. 220 versus 210. Electronics like laptops are made to automatically switch....not so much hair assistants. Our leader, Kim, warned us, "if you're thinking of bringing your blowdried, don't bother. If you are thinking of bringing your straightener, don't bother. It will fry and spark and be destroyed. I know this from personal experience." I think I will manage fine since on average I use such devices three times a year. She also mentioned that it can be challenging to find anyone willing to exchange money if it is not perfect, as in never-been-folded brand-spanking-new perfect.

I'll try to get some photos of the team meeting tomorrow!

Also update on our flights! Our agent sent us a tentative itinerary, but we are all required to respond with confirmation that they put us with the right starting airport and spelled our names right and other such minor details. I obsessively checked my email the rest of the night, but sadly no confirmation that we actually flights booked yet. Maybe tomorrow!

I shall bid due adieu with this:

"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance." 
  — Franklin P. Jones, American humorist

May my team have patience with all the children we meet and advocate for, and even more importantly, may their adoptive families have great patience with them.

Prayer Points:

• That technology will work well for video chat meetings, and that we will use the time well.
• That in the end we will find loving families and nurturing homes for these precious kids.
• That we will be spiritually protected from attacks.
• That I will get in the rest of my necessary funding.

If you want to contribute financially you can do it online here. In the drop-down list select "Storyteller Missions", and under "Participant Name(s)" put Tatiana Martin March'16 Guangdong China Team. Or you can mail a check to America World Adoption, 6723 Whittier Avenue, McLean, VA 22101 made out to AAWA with Tatiana Martin March'16 Guangdong China Team in the memo line.

He Will be With Me

"The Lord, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you or forsake you." (Deut 31:8)

I read that passage and promise the night of January 1st. As I read "He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you" I was confused. How can someone be in front of you and with you at the same time? (Oh yeah, He's God and He's everywhere. Being God lets you do stuff like that!) Then a mental image came to me. Two children walking through a dark passage. A young sister in her flowing nightgown, and her protective and gentlemanly older brother. He is walking in the front with one hand behind his back, she is clutching that hand and hiding in the shadow of his strength and bravery. He is not going to leave her behind! He is also not going to abandon her part way to finish alone while he does something else. The little hero will go before and with his little sister all the way.

God is that and so much more. He is able to protect us and fight off the bad guys better than anyone else. He is there with us. He will never drop our hand and leave us in terror, no matter how many places we go, or how far away they are from home, from our comfort zones. He will lead us and be with us if we will let Him. I am so thankful that God will be leading the way to and through China, and that he will be with me every step of the way.

For those of you who are not going to China, God will be with you too. Remember that every step of your day, at work, at school, with your kids, friends, or parents, in your scary moments and in your happiest too, there is a hand to hold.

Goodnight!

Prayer Points:

• Our agent is actively looking for flights. Please pray that a good set will be found for us. The challenge is compounded because my team is coming from three different states, but are required to arrive in Beijing on the same flight so we need to meet up somewhere mid travel. Also, once the right flights are found we all have to confirm the itinerary by email to make sure our names are spelled right, and we are starting at the right airport and such. Pray that we will all be checking in when we need to and that nothing will be missed!
• We have our second team meeting on Thursday night. Please pray that it goes well (also I haven't forgotten about telling you all about the first one, it's half written and on the schedule for tomorrow!)
• Please pray for smooth visa approval. 
• Continued thanks for the first needed payment and prayers for the rest.

Thank you my prayer worriers! You are invaluable!!

If you want to contribute financially you can do it online here. In the drop-down list select "Storyteller Missions", and under "Participant Name(s)" put Tatiana Martin March'16 Guangdong China Team. Or you can mail a check to America World Adoption, 6723 Whittier Avenue, McLean, VA 22101 made out to AAWA with Tatiana Martin March'16 Guangdong China Team in the memo line

(Photo credit http://www.jkadoptionlove.com/2013_10_01_archive.html)

I Will Be Getting Plane Tickets on Monday!

Hello all.

I am thrilled to announce that I had two surprise donations today and I made it just past the $2,200 needed to secure my continued spot on the team!!! The plan is that we will get all our plane tickets booked on Monday. Talk about a cutting it close!

I am so thankful for this new sign that I am supposed to be going to China. I was starting to feel like maybe I should back out. We have had some people join our team, and I thought maybe I was not needed anymore, and that was why my funding would not come through. I told God last night that if He wanted me to back out, I would. I knew it would be sad and hard, but I want to follow God where He leads and not get so stuck in one direction that I miss a turn I am supposed to make. A few years back God led me to pursue something difficult and competitive. I did and I made it. However, once I got there, circumstances I could not forsee led me to give it up after much prayer. I was confused as to why my all-knowing God had led me to a dead end, but I trusted Him. It was only recently that He showed me that some lessons are learned in the pursuit of something, not in the total completion. He reminded me of Abraham, led to the top of a mountain and brought within seconds of sacrificing his son, but stopped right before. (You can read the story for yourself in Genesis 22) I am thanking God tonight for turning yesterday's tears of sorrow into today's happy tears.

Prayer Points:

• Major thanks that the needed money came in!
• That the remaining needed money will also come in at the needed time.
• That our upcoming weekly team meetings will be well attended, helpful, and bonding.
• That the people in charge of flights will find the best ones for us.
• That we will all be protected from spiritual attacks.

Happy New Year everyone!! 2016 is already wonderful.

A candle my wonderful mom gave me years ago that says "just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly." So thankful that just when I thought my trip to China was impossible, the way was made!