Posted in by Timothy Weisemann on 11/19/2007
In about about 4 hours I will boarding a plane and on my way back to the States!!! I'm excited for the moment, but I'm sure soon enough its going to hit me just how much I will miss all these beautiful friends and this incredible life that I've been so blessed to have lived for the last 11 months.
I know that I have not blogged in a long time and for the last time I will again apologize for the lack of time I have spent posting blogs this year. Its just been very hard for me to make myself spend much time on my computer instead of out exploring and experiencing all that the cultures have to offer.
I will probably post some blogs when I get back home, so this isnt the end. Also if any of you want to hear me talk about the year, get in touch with me and you can take me out for lunch, dinner or something.....I'll probably be up in Georgia,Alabama and Tennesse hoping to hangout with some of my dearly missed friends....But when I get back I'd love to hangout and hear about your year and tell you about mine.
We are about to head out to the airport as a group for the last time...... See you all soon!!!!!
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Posted in by Timothy Weisemann on 10/11/2007
So I just wanted to let you all know that I am indeed alive. I had a good few weeks in Cambodia, working with at an orphanage and just wandering around the area we lived in and making new friends.
We arrived in Hong Kong yesterday and we will be leaving in a few days after sitting through some briefings and a race day I think I will be going somewhere cold with Muslims or maybe doing something at a University. And thats really all I can say about what I'm doing this month.
Sorry about not blogging in awhile, I just have been struggling with really wanting to write and put up blogs or really even go online, I kind of took a break in Cambodia from internet for few weeks. Unfortunately I will also have no access to the internet for the next few weeks until we get back to Hong Kong.
Once again, sorry for the long period of silence from me. It just means that we will have more to talk about when I get back to the States. Thank you again for all your support and prayers and I hope you continue to lift me up in this last month. We will be coming back to Hong Kong and spending I guess a week or more processing all thats taken place this year and going through some Life Planning material that sounds like it is pretty helpful. I'm really looking forward to being able to spend some time thinking about this year and being able to focus on seeing what all I've really learned.
I will try to put a blog up before we leave with some photos from Cambodia.Thanks again for all your prayers.
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Posted in by Timothy P. Weisemann on 9/17/2007
So me and Ryan spent like 6 days in Malaysia and I spent most of my time hanging out with some new friends that I made the 2nd day while eating at the restaurant, Nandos. My waiter, Kash, asked me where I was from and when I said Florida, he quickly asked me if I knew the band, Underoath (they are from Fl.). And I responded with a yeah, I know the old singer, Dallas and from there we talked about bands from the States and eventually we had coffee after he got off work and I ended up staying at his crowded apartment all weekend. By crowded, I mean there was like 14 or 15 people staying in a pretty small apartment.
One night I went to see there band play in a tiny little studio and to
my surpise like 60 people showed up at the tiny little venue. After
they played, 3 of us ran through the rain, caught a train and ran
towards the National Stadium to see I guess the Final game in the last
of 3 Cups in Malaysia, between Perak and Kedah. It was pretty awesome,
the Malay people were so into the game and were so excited to see a
white person at the game. I got my photo taken with many random crowds
of strangers in the stadium. It was really a great time. Kedah Won
3-0!!!!
I'm having some issues with some other photos from the trip(like they disappeared off my computer) but I will try to put up another blog about my short time in Malaysia. Because I really fell in love with my new friends and all the random Malay people that I met and I really loved the mix of Islamic, Indian and Chinese cultures in Malaysia.
I will be leaving on Tuesday for Cambodia, we got held up in Bangkok because an ATM machine kept the team card, but he got it back today, woohooo....Oh, if anyone reading this is wondering how you just started getting updates from me, I was starting to get questions from friends like, So are you done with the World Race thing?? So I figured, I'd add some people to my update list and avoid any further questions... Hope thats ok.... I miss everyone back in the States! Only like 64 days until I come back!
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Posted in by Timothy Weisemann on 8/20/2007
The last 4 or 5 days our team has been living in a village called Ban
Din and we spent 2 days clearing land for a future church. But what I
really enjoyed was just walking around the little farming village and
hanging out with the people. I mostly played with kids, took photos ,
had them draw in my book and sang songs occasionally.
We also had church on Sunday with the people and it was really amazing, the church had a breakthrough. Relationships were restored and Christians from another village asked forgiveness for how they treated the Pastor and his wife. About a year ago they were told to leave the village they had long been living in and ministering too. But yesterday God healed the relationship between the two families!
 Yesterday Thailand held its first ever National referendum to chose a
new Constitution. It was amazing to see how excited most of the people
in the village were, including the kids and teenagers, they all sat and
watched as they read off every single vote that had been cast in the
village yesterday. The choice was limited to yes or no. The people of
Thailand narrowly chose yes over no.
As I hung out around the voting area, I also noticed quickly that most of the men were pretty much drunk. It was really sad, but I think it was just a normal Sunday afternoon in that regards. But I really felt love for the men and had fun with them. The morning church service only had 4-6 men, the rest were woman, a ration that sadly seems to be true everywhere I have been this year.
I really loved our time in Ban Din, the Christians in the village just radiate with light, but there is still so much darkness in the community. I am glad that the Pastor and his wife will again be coming to the village almost every weekend, leading bible studies and church for Ban Din and the nearby village.
Today we are head toward the Burma border, to get our Passports stamped in Burma and pray over the country and its something God has been laying on Ray's heart (the Missionary we are working with).
We will be staying near a long term Burmese Refugee camp in Thailand.
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Posted in by Timothy Weisemann on 8/4/2007
Today we spent the day traveling around Bangkok and visiting three Buddhist Temples, and for some reason I did not pick any photos of the the actual temples, just people praying in them and a few random street shots.
I really am loving the Thai people, they are incredibly beautiful and very warm and friendly(despite most of these photos of them, which they are very stoic looking, since they are praying.
Our team leaves tomorrow night for Chang Mai and we will be driving through the night, should be fun. I'm sad to leave Bangkok without having been able to really explore it and take in more it has to offer.
Anyways, I don't have much time to write tonight, its been a very long day of traveling around this incredibly large city.
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Posted in by Timothy Weisemann on 8/3/2007
After a long break from writing, I finally feel like I again have something to write about on here.
Since my last entry our team has mostly been spending our time with the Children at the Shelter. For the most part we play with them, throw them around, go down slides with them, try to help keep them from wondering to far or getting hurt outside.
I've been spending every night that I can with them and trying to help get them to bed, but really my presence probably got them more excited and kept them from sleeping.
I've always loved kids or at least thought I did, but I've really learned a lot this month about younger kids and how tiring and frustrating they can be, especially when there is like 15 of them.
Words or Phrases that I've been uttering far often this month;
No, get down from there, stop hitting her, give him his toy back, please stop pulling my hair out, no you cant take anymore photos, I already gave you two neck rides, You cant go play until you eat all your food.
But I've totally fallen in love with them, some more than others and I'm once again very sad to be leaving. Tonight I was asking my favorite little girl, if she was going to miss me and at first she was like no And I was like, Mary your making me sad, I'm going to miss you, do you not like me? And eventually she was like yes I'm going to miss you and then, she starting saying, Take me with you,please. Take me with you, please….over and over until I began really wish that I could take her with me.
She will be going with me, just not physically.
To hear the stories of these kids and to see how good they are doing to me is amazing. Most of them have HIV and/or TB but are being treated with ARV meds. that have hugely improved there health.
Its been a very different experience than I originally hoped to have in this country, but its been great to learn how to love young kids, which I never really felt very comfortable doing until now. I also learned a lot about patience and how having long hair is painful thing around kids.
I am in Bangkok now and my team will be heading North to Chang Mai on Sunday night. So far I'm really glad to be back in Asia again and am really excited about the last 3 months. After Thailand, our team will be heading to the Philippines!
Its been awhile since I've thanked you all for your support and prayers, but I just wanted to say that I am so incredibly blessed to have such an incredible group of people back home lifting me up and I again apologize for not keeping you as up to date as I should be doing.
Oh and sorry to anyone who had problems finding mysite, because they moved me to the correct team and it seems that the address got changed to http://timothy.theworldrace.org
Instead of my full name, I was a bit confused when I went to my address and saw that no blogs had been posted, I thought it had all dissapeared completely...
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Posted in by Tim Weisemann on 7/11/2007
~~~Since arriving in South Africa I have been struggling with the fact that I wasn't able to stay in Swaziland for the rest of our time here in Africa. It's taken me some time to accept the fact that I would be here in South Africa. While there are great things happening in South Africa, my heart was captured by the people of Swaziland. Not only did I fall in love with the people, but I was also beginning to see God's heart for the orphans of the country. I caught our leaders vision and really want to be part of what God is doing in Swaziland.
~ So it was hard to be told that I had to stay with my team and head to Rustenburg, S. Africa. It's a continual struggle and something that has been hard about this year. Constantly seeing where God is at work and then having to move on to a new place. While it has been awesome to see and be a part of what God is doing in so many different places, its tough to always be on the move. I know I will continue to have my heart broken every time I leave a country and I would have it no other way. God's path for us is full of twists, turns, short stops, and if you're as blessed as I have been, a big loop around the world.
~ As far as my time in South Africa, as usual God did not make a mistake, even though I really thought I was supposed to be in Swaziland, South Africa has been really good, our team has really been blessed and we are doing a good amount of practical things like the painting at the Seminary and now3 of us are helping out at Shikwaru game park whose funds support orphan care programs in the Rustenburg and surrounding communities.
~ Today I spent the afternoon organizing and arranging a storage area that was a big mess but now is actually a functional place where things are easy to find. Annie prepared a wall and painted it and Josh helped put up a ceiling and built a place in the storage area for them to load the guns.
~ We also got to ride out and see the Game Park, which is always awesome. Its realty beautiful out here, its looks more like the image of Africa that most people who have never been before have in their minds.
~ Tomorrow we are getting up early and unloading a huge container off an 18-wheeler that is full of boxes of food and some blankets for the orphans from the States. Then I'm going to help organize photos for the Game Park so they can get more photos on their site. I'm hoping to talk them into letting me go out and take some nice photos of the different accommodations before we leave on Friday.
~ Shikwaru means Place of Peace, and its lived up to its name very well. Though this weekend there is a group of Muslims taking over and hunting. I am hoping that somehow I can stay and do a little photo story on them. They all wear their white outfits during the hunting, and they don't shoot to kill, because they have to pray for the animal before it dies and then slit the throat. I think it could be interesting to see it and follow the whole hunting process. I just really want to actually do something with my camera besides cute kids, animals and scenery.
I'm having problems getting photos upload from here, so for I dont have any pictures to show you.
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