The Trip is coming to and end

Sunday
Well, I really do not even know where to begin. I have missed so many days of writing and I am now back in Singapore waiting to catch my flight home. They really kept us busy from morning till night the whole time while I was in Malayisa. Internet access was not all the good either. So I guess I will start with the day after the art show. That was on Sunday.

Sunday we woke up, and went out to breakfast. After breakfast we went to church and worshiped and spent time with the Lord. The church had 3 different services going on at one time. One in Mandarin, Tamil, and English. After church we went out to Lunch and ate some Nasi Lamak, which is coconut rice, with some other little sides to go with it. Following lunch we spent the day at the Malaysian National Art Museum. It was quite nice and I was able to view some amazing works of art. After the art Museum we made a quick stop at KL's Famous Twin Towers. Pretty amazing sight. I have been there once before, but every time I see the masterpiece it takes my breath away. Sunday night we were then on our own for dinner. Bai, Wan-si and I all went out and walked around china town and found a bite to eat. It was quite interesting as I do not speak any Mandarin but we were still able to communicate. I taught them a few words, and they taught be a few words. While walking back to the Hostel, we stopped in another church. It was a Lutheran church that was having a service in both Mandarin and English. They had an interpreter. So it was quite nice to be able to worship the lord with my new friends.

Monday Well Monday was a very nice day as well. We spent the day in the city of Malacca, one of the oldest cities in Malaysia. We spent the day in the history museum where I learned quite a bit about Malaysia. Also, we ate lunch and wandered the streets going in and out of all the little shops and art galleries. It was really nice. I could see myself opening a little gallery there. At about 4 we left and made a stop in punjaya, where we saw some more amazing designed buildings. On the way back, we stopped off and had some Durian. I am not fond of it, but I actually found myself eating it, and not minding to much. If you can get past the smell, its not so bad. We did not get back to the hostel until about 9:00 that night.

Tuesday Ok, I have to say it, this day was the highlight of my trip. We went into the Malaysian Jungle to visit with the Tribes and to do some art work. The children were all so precious. So pure and thankful. I have posted a good majority of my pictures on face book as I know they would not fit on this blog. I really can not say enough about this day trip to do it justice, just that it really was a true blessing for me. Please, if you get the chance, join my face book and see the wonderful experience I had. That evening I stayed up with Bai until about 2:00 am, loading pictures onto my computer.

WednesdayAfter only having 2 hours of sleep, I woke up at 4 am to go to the airport. My flight was at 7 am and it was quite a drive to the airport, plus I had to get there early because it was an international flight. I had a great time in Malaysia, met new friends, and have also been asked to do two more international shows. One that I have already mentioned in my previous post is the show in Cebu, Philippines in September 2010. And the other show will be in Beijing, China on Easter day. I am not necessarily trying to become a well known international artist or anything like that, but to be able to share the Gospel through my art is enough for me. The theme of the show in Beijing will focus on the resurection of Christ, the true meaning of Easter. If it is Gods will, then I will do these shows, but until then, there will be lots of praying and listening.

After arriving back in Singapore and making my way over to Cynthia's where I have been staying. I put down my bags and relaxed, and reflected on the trip I just took. Over the last couple days while here in Singapore, I spent some quality time with Sarimah's family and got to know them a bit better, went to the Singapore Art Museum, did lots of shopping, saw several different movies and ate some wonderful food. I actually stayed quite busy and there were more people I would have liked to visit with but just plane ran out of time. This morning I went to a Baptist Church at the expo center with about 5000 people. It was a pretty amazing service.

Before I end this Blog, I would like to thank all my supporters who made this amazing trip possible for me. I had enough donations which enabled me to take this amazing trip. From the art show to the jungle, to visiting with friends and relatives, I can not thank you all enough. If it was not for you I would not be sitting here right now in Singapore. Thanks for your prayers, and following me on this journey. I am please to have been able to share it with you.

Todd

Today was the day!

Wow, I do not know what else to say. What an honor and a privalege it was for me to come to this show. I woke up this morning, and realized that my roommate Bai does not speak a word of English, so it was quite fun trying to communicate and have a conversation with him. He is a good artist with lots of passion for the lord. I came to found out, that he runs a small home bible group out of his home. He is the pastor. It is illegal to worship as you please in china as it is communist, so they have to keep it low profile, and under the table. I can not imagine that. Well, anyways after we walked around chinatown with another artist that he came with from China, we headed over to the Gallery. We then went and ate some breakfast, and prepared for the show.

We had a group interview with the journalist that came. She is writing for Art Malaysia Magazine and will be doing a story on each of us. So we all sat in one little room, and she asked us many questions. We had someone to translate and to help with our china friends. So there was the 2 of them, myslef, a really famous artist from Korea, and a very well known artist from the Philipines. It was a nice interview and we all get to know eachother pretty well.

At 2:30, the people started to arrive. It was really amazing to feel Gods presence at this show,and to see how he works through each individual artitst in different ways. He had his hand on this since this show since the begining and pulled all the artist together for a reason. The reception started off with the Malaysian National Anthem and then a prayer was lead by a pastor. We the had a time of worship and sang 4 worship songs. Their was a poet who read some poems while this lady from the singapore orchestra played the chello. It was really beautifull. After the opening ceramonys, the people began to feel and appreciate the divine inspired artowrks. What a blessing it was for me to be here.

Not only did I share my testimony about 20 to 25 times about how I was in a motorcycle accident and almost died which has drawn me even closer to Christ, and how I love the lord for giving me a 2nd chance at life, But I got to talk about my paintings and explain the different stories in the bible that I put onto canvasas. Quite a few poeple had not learned about these stories I was portraying. For me, I feel that sharing the Gospel was so much bigger and meaningfull to me than selling a piece of artwork. The children that attended the Gallery loved my work, as well as the adults did too. I did not make any sales at the reception, but at this moment I think the show went perfect. I would not have wanted it any other way.

Also, from this show, I have been asked to do another International art show in the phillipines on the island of Cebu, in September of 2010. I told them I will pray about it and see where the lord leads me, and if it is his will, then I am sure it would happen.

After the show, we went out to a really nice restaraunt and was treated to rangdon beef, fish head curry, fried calamaris, pinapple sambal, rice, vegetables and a couple of other tasty foods. It was all very nice. I am not back at the hostel/hotel and will go to sleep and get ready for another busy day tomorrow. They have all of us artist on such a busy schedule......

I am not posting that many pics on here, but I will try to get them up onto my facebook and myspace very soon.

4th day...Off to Malaysia

My day started out by waking up to a car alarm that went off like at 4:30 in the morning, and with my luck I could not go back to sleep. I talked on facebook for a little bit, then fisnished packing for Kuala Lumpur. I left the flat in singapore at 8:00 am to make my way over to the bus station. I made it there on time, but some people were late, so it put us behind schedule about a half hour.

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur abour 4 o'clock. Pastor Kengson met me at the bus station and then took me over to the Hostel/Hotel. Malaysia is really different compared to singapore. It makes me realize how clean and new Sigapore looks. After putting my bags down and got settled in, we went straight over to the Art gallery. I walked in and it was a definatelly WOW factor. I was very impressed. All the art work looks so nice in the gallery. I met the owner, and he showed me around and then he took me and another aritst from the philipines out to dinner. Also, joining us was a writer for an art journal. She interviewed me why we ate, and I will be working with her bye sending her photos of my work and by bio, to help publish my story. I was very excited about this.

For dinner, we had Frog legs, some sort of vegetable with mushrooms, white rice and these wonderfull shrimp. For dessert we had some longan fruit.

It was all very nice. After spending a couple of hours at dinner, the gallery owner took me back to the Hostel where I went to sleep. About midnight, Bia, an aritst from china showed up. He is sharing the room with me. Anyways, So I am here safe and sound, the Gallery is everything and more of what I thought it would be, and I am looking forward to the show.

3rd day in Singapore

So my 3rd day in Singapore was very relaxed. I woke up about 10:00 am. The sleep was much needed. I now finally think I am on their time schedule, and will not have much problems with jet lag anymore. At about noon, Edward and I went out to get some chicken rice. Now this is not just chicken and steamed white rice. The chicken is very very tender, and the rice very fragrant. I am going to try to find some of the base for the rice, so I can cook with it when I get back to the states. Also, the chili is what makes the dish, but it was a little to hot for me. They have some really spicy food over here. After lunch, we came back to the flat, and I took a nap, talked to Sarimah and the kids (they were very excited to tell me about the kitten that appeared in our back yard), got a hold of Kengsen (the curator of the art show)and just relaxed.

At about 5 ish, I walked down to the nearest shopping center. I decided to go see a movie. Silly me, I don't know what I was thinking. I went and saw The Haunting in Connecticut, and talk about a scary movie. I about jumped out of my seat! I think I watched half of the movie with my eyes shut.....

After the movie, I came back to the flat again. Watched some TV, then went out for dinner. I had Carrot Cake and Quay Teow (rice noodles). The carrot cake is not really carrot cake at all. In fact its not even cake. Its made with rice flour I think, and they stir fry it with lots of different spices. Anyways, however they make it, it sure tasted good. I will definitely have to find a recipe for that. After dinner, I walked around a bit more and then came back to the flat to pack for Malaysia. The one thing I do know is I really miss having Sarimah here with me...its just not the same with out her.

2nd Day in Singapore

I was going to write yesterday but the Jet Lag kicked in really hard, and I was super tired. Anyways, yesterday was nice. I woke up early, 5:00 am and could not go back to sleep. It was really like 2:00pm states time. At about 7:00 am, I follow Cynthia to her work place where I met up with Salmah, Sarimah's sister. I showed her some pictures of the kids, gave her a couple of paintings, and discussed meeting up with her for lunch. After that I went out on a walk around the city. I went to Orchard Rd. which is the Main shopping street in Singapore. There is shopping center after shopping center. I walked through the underground shopping centers and the new shopping centers which go up like 1o stories tall. At about Noon I headed back to meet up with Salmah for lunch. We went to a little Indian food place and I had rice briani, nan bread, chicken Marsala, poppadoms, and some okra. It was very nice.

After lunch I walked Salmah back to her office and then walked a short ways to the train station. I decided not take the train after I realized it was a 7 to 8 hour train ride and about $100 plus for a ticket. I then Jumped on a bus and took it over to Beach rd, where there is a lot of travel agents. I bought a Bus ticket to Malaysia for $30.00 and it will only take 5 hours to get up there. So I leave tomorrow morning at 9:30 am.

After I bought my ticket, I got a little lost and just started walking again. I walked through some residential areas, and then by a large Mosque. No worries though, I asked some people where I was and Singapore is small, and I just found the nearest MRT train(Massive Rapid Transit} and jumped aboard. I took the train to Bugis St. where there many many street vendors and little stahls selling everything from T-shirts, souvenirs to fresh durian and sugar cane juice. The smell of the durian was everywhere. It must be in season. After spending an hour or so at Bugis, I then walked over to Boat Quay/Clark Quay, which is a little river/riverwalk with lots of small restaurants and night clubs.

About 7ish I met up with our friend Tina.
She was watching over her nieces boutique store, and so we just hung out there and ate some more Indian food. I left there about 9 to take the MRT back to Cynthia's. I am glad Cynthia is at the last stop, I fell asleep on the MRT (The Jet Lag was killing me) and when I woke up the MRT was coming to a stop and announcing that this was the last stop. I got back to Cythia's and fell off to a much need sleep.

Made it to Singapore

Well, Its about 2'o'clock in the morning here. I have reached Singapore with no problems, just a little sleep deprivation. I have been awake for over 26 hours, and took a very full, 18 hour flight, with a lay over in Japan. I do not have any pictures as I did not take any on the plane or at the airports. Our friends, Cynthia and her husband Edward met me at the gates of the airport. I will be staying with them while I am here in Singapore. As we left the airport the familiar humidity hit me like a brick wall, and I started sweating immediately. I always forget how humid it is here. Tomorrow, I plan to go out and purchase my train ticket to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That is where the art show is taking place, also it is my intentions to eat some good Singaporean foods.......When I do post pictures and you want to see them a little larger, just click on them. I am going to be posting all small pictures so I will be able to post more.....

The start of my trip

So my little adventure begins. I spent the day with my family at the local swimming pool and then came home and finished packing. My brother Jason arrived about 5ish to pick me up. He lives in Santa Monica and will be taking me to the airport tomorrow to catch my flight. On the way over to his house, we started talking and he decided to take me up in his little plane as a little going away gift. He is a pilot and also teaches people to fly. I was happy and nervous at the same time. We arrived at the Santa Monica airport and we checked over the plane. He has been flying for over two years now, and this was the first time I was in one of his planes, a piper cherokee. We jumped in, and took off down the runway. WOW! Totally amazing! It was a little bumpy at first, but I guess thats normal. It was really neat to be flying over LA in such a small plane. LA is HUGE! It seemed like it just went on forever and ever.



We flew up the coast a little bit twoards Malibu, where he even let me take control of the plane. I was a little nervous, but he said I did really well. I only flew the plane for about 5 minutes. But that was pretty long enough for me, my hands were sweating!!! Anyways, we flew around and he showed me some homes of some of the movies stars, flew over Dogers Stadium, past the Hollywood sign and then back to the runway. What a way to start my adventure. Good times!!!!!