It's a good day.

Some days in China are just pretty super. Today was one of those days. I got a package from one of my good friends who gave me permission to go ahead and open it and so this morning I did. It was pretty awesome. Milk and cookies and directions of how to open them and share them.

I had a good time with G in the morning and had set aside a certain aspect of my day that I wanted to promise to Him. I didn’t quite understand why or how to explain it if anyone asked, but I felt the urge to do it today and just trust that because the Book says so, we should.

First class went pretty well. Tuesdays, I start my new lesson for the week so it’s usually “8:00am Tuesday -give the new lesson. 10:00am Tuesday – rewrite my new lesson plan.” Haha. That’s only been like one time, but I do go back through and edit, fix, tweak, and think through parts better afterwards. As I was about to finish it up I planned on spending some time with Him then doing/finishing my other lesson plan for English Corner after lunch…before the English Corner. But the assistant dean’s assistant came in and told me that my rescheduled class was mistakenly at the wrong time and asked if I could do it this afternoon. …. Sure. So I finished up the reviewing of the lesson. Broke out the good book and started doing some reading. (I know, logically not the first choice of time management – but it’s starting to become more of a habbit.) I had some good time then and started to understand more and just dive in more.

Then I went to lunch with my students. (I’m making them all eat lunch with me at some point so they practice their English and they won’t be as nervous in class, and so I can get to know them a little better. But that means 180+ students, 4 students at a time, is lunch and at least one dinner 5 days a week for 7 weeks. We’re in week 5 now, I think. It started out really good and intentional, but after a few weeks of having the same conversations and getting sick and all the students blurring together, it wasn’t my greatest effort.) But today… He showed up.

“I believe in G, but I don’t like reading the Book” were the first words that came out of her mouth. After a few minutes of the normal awkward silence, I was working through small talk conversation starters in my head that would work well, but then she just up and dropped this bomb on me. I just smiled and started thanking Him. “Oh! Ok. Good to know” were the words I think that flopped out of my mouth. “Do you think that it is important or useful for us to read?” she continued.

“Yeah. I love reading the bible. It tells us what we’re here for. It tells us what life is about. It tells us how much He loves us. It tells us what will happen when we die. It tells us a lot.” They all looked at each other as if it was the “Oh crap, what the heck did he just say? He was talking way too fast and I don’t know those words.” But instead I heard, “Oh! It seems like it’s very important.” A few “co-insidences” with Family member students stopping by to help translate which story in the Book they were talking about and Jessie teaching me the word for “Family” yesterday aided the conversation along. I asked if another one of the girls read the Book. She said yes, but she didn’t understand it. She read about Captain Noah. How He had to punish the world for the bad doings. Throughout the conversation I found out that that is how she viewed Him was punishing – not that she really believed in Him. I asked if she thought the stories in the Book were true or if they were just stories. She said she thought that some were, but not all of them can apply to today. (It wasn’t really this of an in-depth apologetic argument, it was just her trying to think it out.) She thought that He existed in part. The laws (I think government basically) handle punishment, and that He is within all of us (eastern religin). “Hmm. Uh, yeah, that’s an interesting point, I guess.” (Trying to show my non-agreeance yet still acknowledging that it wasn’t her English ability that I was confused with.)

Then she said it. The joyous words I love to here – “Oh. Why don’t you share with us your view about G?” BINGO! “Hmm. (with a smile on my face) I would love to!” I explained how He is love and how He loves us even though He has to punish us. Like a Father who disciplines us, but that we have a broken relationship with Him. I explained how during Captain Noah’s His punishment was carried out, but how He was still holding back all of the punishment from us until He could dump it on His Son. I explained how His son works as an intermediary between us to restore the broken relationship. How even before, He was pursuing us with Love while He held back the punishment. I explained how He came back from the dead to prove He really was the Son, and how we can have this life too with Him. That if we accept His death and submit our life to Him then we don’t have to deal with our punishment and we get to go “upstairs.”

(As I’m telling this story, they’re all pretty fixated on me. Not like “I don’t know what’s going on,” but more like “Woah! This is a story!”) I remembered what another friend had told me about internationals, how they often need it in steps and not all at once, but as I was mid-story I thought about leaving that with them and I stopped so it could settle, but it didn’t feel right. It felt like I should keep going. The main girl said, “So …….” And repeated it all back to me in her own words about what was happening, so I said, “Yeah! Then…” and told more and she translated it again. When I got to the “upstairs” part, she jumped a little bit and said it in Chinese. One of the other girls said, “so what if you used to believe in Him, but now you don’t. Do you still have to be punished?” (Which is an odd thought, if I don’t think something exists, will the non-existent thing punish me? – but I think that was a translation issue and the heart of it was, I’m not living the way I should or used to…what now?) So after a quick check “upstairs”, I explained that it was all about the Son. If we accept Him, then we’ve surrendered and given control of our life over to Him then we will act different. We will live like He does exist and our punishment will be taken care of because of the Son. But if we’ve never done that, then we still have to deal with our own punishment.
After all of this, I thought… “I think most of that translated, but I think I just got excited and overwhelmed them with information and it was more than they wanted to know.” Then she said, “I think you should teach us more about G, about your view of Him. You have a much different perspective and I want to see it.” (pretty much said, I want to see Him the way you see Him.)

She threw out the different culture thing about learning other cultures, and I tried to show her that our religion came from an eastern culture. That it was her culture too, not just ours. (That part didn’t quite translate) but I agreed and told her that I would love to teach her more and tell her more, that I really like talking about that type of stuff. I’m not sure if she will follow it up, but I definitely am going to try.

Afterwards, our Boy and was telling Him the good news and he said, “Yeeeaaahh, for the past two months it seems as if a lot of people are interested in Book. A lot of the campus is curious and wanting to know more about Book.” I just smiled and agreed saying, “Yeah, it’s awesome what He’s doing here.” “Yeaaaah.” He agreed.

Quick second half of the story: in my English Corner tonight, I showed some short films and we discussed them. They didn’t know that I specifically picked out salty films. In fact, I got them from a pretty salty place, but they’re not too direct. At the end of the last one, they were bumfuzzled. They were so confused. One student guessed the man was a master over the girl who he was running and experiment on (most of the class followed her conclusion). But another student stated that she thought the man was “the G” that He was trying to help and wanted to take away the pain and the hurt from the old memory and wanted to give her a new memory. I laughed again. I’d been asking for revelations and wisdom to flow and it was. They went back and forth until the end of the class and I felt the yearning in my heart to share, but I was chickening out. I wanted to but I couldn’t get an opening and I felt like it was going to be too much preaching. “Just let them ask, please let them ask” I asked. The bell rang. “So what do you think about this one?” one girl in the back asked. “Well, I agree with her (pointing to the revelation girl). I see a picture of Him in this. In the past He keeps trying to help her, He keeps smiling at her and wanting to help so I think He’s a good guy. I also think that she does have a lot of pain and troubles in her past memory and I see that He gives her a new start. I see that that is a picture of G, how He takes those with troubles and pain and He gives them a new start. So that’s what I see.” Short, sweet, to the point, and the only way that video made sense to them. It was beautiful. I can’t wait because that girl has her own attitude and own personality just enough that she’s gonna accidentally try Him out and be swept away.

Anyways, I wanted to share how good He is with you. Well, He’s always good, but today it was much more tangible. Thank you for reading all of this and I hope your day is Beautiful. I love you all.

14 Degrees, 3 Classes, and Joy:: Thanksgiving

Today was by far the most unique Thanksgiving I have ever experienced. I figured it would be pretty hard being away, but He was really good to just fill me with joy and love for those around me. I also forgot that it was Thanksgiving a little bit, even though I’ve been teaching about it all week. It’s odd to think about Thanksgiving outside of the U.S. and outside of seeing the leaves changing colors, deer hunting, and a week off of school. Instead, my day started with a text from a student at 4:55am wishing me a “Happy Thanksgiving Day to you! Best Wish!” message. Needless to say I didn’t check that for another hour when I got up at 5:45am.

This week for class I’ve been teaching about the American holiday and culture of Thanksgiving as well as other things they need to learn. We just gave them an opportunity to practice and to incorporate our culture too. I’ve been using an American football in my class to choose students. (I’ll pass it to one student and they answer then they can pass it to someone else and they have to answer. This way everyone has to pay attention and they get to be more involved and active. Plus, they love the football.) It’s funny because it doesn’t really matter how many times I tell them “make sure you say the person’s name before you throw it to them” that doesn’t always register and they just throw it anyways. Good news though, no bloody noses! No one got hurt this week. Whew. Last year as I went home for Thanksgiving break I never expected to be carrying an American football across a Chinese college campus one year later, but here I am.  I felt kind of weird but kind of cool getting to pass a football in class. I kept looking around to see if I was gonna get in trouble, then I realized that I was the teacher. Nice.

So as I walked up to my first class, I met 5 of my students standing at the doorway waiting on me. “Hmm… Odd” I thought. “Good morning!” I said to them as I waited for them to make the next move. They smiled at each other and then back at me… (often typical behavior when they don’t know what to say or what I just said.) Then one looked up in the awkward kind of “something’s going on” way and said, “So… how are you?” I started to laugh and about lost it. It was the most natural English move they have made all year. After a few minutes, they said, “please come in.” and as I walked in I see Christmas lights and plastic ivy strung across the decorated board that says Happy Thanksgiving! on it.  Man, I was so tickled. I was so excited. They made me so happy. They all cheered “Happy Thanksgiving!” to me at once. I was so tickled I got distracted and couldn’t think of what I was supposed to be teaching them. I texted Dave and asked him to bring a camera over so I could get a picture and at the break they parted the Red Sea of chairs so I could get a picture. So when I motioned for them to get into the picture too they all giggled with excitement and rushed in.  They’re so cute.

Then at lunchtime they had a special dinner fixed for us and they had turkey! Haha. Nah, just kidding. I ate rice. But it was good rice. At lunch, I did get a text from one of my students that I was so touched about. I wanted to put it in my next newsletter. “I open my wallet, find no money. I open my pocket, find no coin. I open my life, find you, then I know how rich I am! Forever my Friend and my teacher happy! Thanks-Giving Day!” I thought awwwwwww. This so sweet. We were talking about being rich and love and what’s more important over the past few weeks and I thought, man, He’s really doing work and they’re seeing Him working in their lives.

Then, I was almost late for my second class and again someone was waiting for me at the door. As I walked in they all cheered “Happy Thanksgiving” then followed it up with a very rhythmic clapping chant (I wish I got it on tape, but no dice.) They had hung lights up on the board and covered the entire board with pictures and writing that they did. “Happy Thanks Giving Day” The same girl who had sent me that beautiful text had also drawn an awesome picture of a turkey on the side of the board. For someone who has never seen a turkey or anything like that, it wasn’t too bad. It was definitely my favorite. I said, “I feel bad about erasing all of this to write the stuff down for today.” Then they pointed out one of the personal chalkboards that was on the side… so I agreed. I figured if they went to all that work then I could manage for one day to write on the little board.

One of the joyous little ideas that my students and I get to partake in is the famous Hand Turkey. That’s right, bringing back the Hand Turkey from elementary school. So I made a turkey on the board to show them how it’s done and fill out the fingers. The first one is always their class number. The second one is J-man. I get to tell them “My relationship with G is the most important part of my life and pretty much why I live so I am very thankful for J.” Then one student said, “hu?!” so I repeated myself, then said his name in Chinese (they love it if you can say anything in Chinese…or try to say it in Chinese). Then someone else said, hu? So I tried to repeat it with a question attached so that they could help correct me and then the whole class kicked in to help my pronunciation like they normally do, but this time, they got the picture.  In fact, as I was walking around checking on them, I’ve noticed a few students write G on their fingers and it makes me smile. I try to make a note of who it is so that I can follow it up later. But today one student just stopped me and said, “How do you spell G-sus?” So I gladly knelt down and helped her spell it. As I got up, I noticed the girl sitting next to her also had G on one of her fingers and it just made my day even better.

At the end of the class, I showed them a short youtube video of Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and they were astonished. They were amazed and huddled around it. It was pretty awesome. Today was a day that I really enjoyed getting to be a teacher. After this second class, I switched buildings and had my English Corner. The plan was to talk about the differences in East/West, but as I walked in carrying an American football their attention was distracted so I scraped that whole lesson plan and just made it about Thanksgiving. The best part was the activity where they must pretend they are a turkey and they have to convince me that I want to eat their partner and not them. (I made the rule that you can’t call anyone fat, but be creative.) They were pretty good. “well she is much more beautiful than I am and she has very white skin. It is very soft and you want soft skin on your turkey.” Another student commented, “You should eat him, because he is healthier than I am. He exercises so he is healthy and … and I will eat less food than he does, so if you eat him, then you’ll save money.” One girl accidentally sacrificed herself saying that if we at her, then our English would improve. Hahaha. Awesome.

To end this beautiful day, all of our team got together and had turkey and mashed potatoes and rolls and corn and a typical thanksgiving dinner. Just kidding. We had rice. We did go out to a nice restaurant and it was mmmmmmm. It was good. I am very very thankful for my team and getting to spend time with them and that each of them are here helping and fighting, and just getting to talk about stupid things we’ve done and funny things students have said…. Such as that beautiful text that I received earlier in the day. Yeah, well, when I got out of my English Corner I had that same text from 5 other students. I told the team and they all got it too. Sweet, but not too original...or grammatically correct, but it’s all good. I guess it’s a popular one at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. So we finished up our night by playing some cards in Dave’s room and just getting to spend time with each other. Tomorrow we’re meeting up with all of the other foreign teachers with our organization and going to actually have turkey and having a legit potluck.

So now it’s time for bed so I can get up and cook. (No classes tomorrow! They gave us the day off for Thanksgiving.) But for now here are some of the pictures of my wonderful students and the wonderful day. Thanks for reading all of this. Happy Thanksgiving. I love you all very much and am more thankful for you than you can imagine.

My first surprise of the day is the decoration and lights that my 8am class provided.
Fruit is an important part of Thanksgiving I guess. :)

My 8am class - they are such a group of sweet hearts. I love them.

My second class surprise of the day. I love the "Thanks --> Giving Day"
You can see how there wasn't a lot of room for me to write.

This is the awesome turkey I was talking about.
I know teacher's can't have favorite students, but it was drawn by one of my most memorable students.
I love that they labeled it, just in case I couldn't figure it out.

My afternoon class and their creative background.
I may also love them a little bit too.

They loved the football. During the break, they would pass it around just to touch it and check it out, then get their picture taken with it on their cell phones. It was pretty cool.

Never dreamed.

Not once last Thanksgiving Break did I dream that one year later I would be carrying an American football across a Chinese college campus to teach them about Thanksgiving.

I guess dreams really do come true... even if they're not yours to start with.

I should be more thankful...

I'm learning more and more that I should be more thankful about things, even the little things. Especially the little things. Today, (Sunday) we went to a nearby fellowship like we do most Sundays. I've been kinda crappy about it the last two weeks because I've been very tired, the whole lesson is in Chinese, and I have alot to do that I'm not doing and it normally takes most of the morning. But this morning I got up and just had to sit and ask for a desire to do it, for a desire to go, for an excitement of getting to go.

None of my students went with us today, but some of the others went so I could enjoy them being there. I sat down next to a man who was in love with Him. Probably 40's in age, and I'm guessing a in the upper-middle class (sucessful, but not rich). Didn't speak a word of English, but his gestures was that of a learning. He sang loudly during the corperate songs and still sang during the solos. Although his voice was not in tune, his heart was, and therefore, his singing was beautiful. During the message he sat forward and opened up to take it all in. He knew the songs by heart so it seemed as if he had been there many times before and probably knew a good bit of the message, but he was still drinking it in like it was new.  I sat there asking that I could be like this guy, no matter what age or financial situation that I would sit forward in excitement of a learner as if it was all true and new. I then looked over to see our new brother who just heard the famous 3:16 for the first time. Without saying a word, I could tell he just fell in love with it a little more. "Woah! Have you seen this?" seemed to be his actions. He quickly wrote down the words on a piece of paper to memorize and keep later as a treasure like he had J-man's last words in Matthew's Story (the G.C. - go to all the world and tell them the good news.) I realized how often we take for granted the passion and the excitement of these truths.

After the main part they had a special focus for college students. There were about 16 with the 3 mei guo ren lao shi (American teachers). We got to give our own self introductions. I broke out every piece of Chinese I knew. Ni Hao. Wo jiao Abram. Wo shi lao shi. Wo shi mei guo ren. Wo ai ye su. (Hello. My name is Abram. I am a teacher. I am American. I love J.) I'm pretty sure I messed that up too, but they understood and laughed and clapped anyway (the Chinese way. :)) During our Boy's introduction of himself, he went onto tell them that he had accepted and was now a family member. He also went onto to say that many of you probably have been reading and knowing this for many years, so I need your help and have many questions for you, so I hope you'll help me. (Man, such humility and hunger. It's so beautiful.)

After this our new Boy really wanted to go out for pizza. Really really wanted to. I was so confused why he was so persistent to eat it. I mean, I'm ok eating it because it's western food and pretty good. Once we got there, I realized why. It was the first time he had ever had pizza. :) It was a brand new place so they gave us 20% off as an incentive to spread the word and let people know. They also gave us deep fried ice cream...scoops, for free without even asking. It was awesome. They gave us a knife and fork (such a normal thing for us) then he got a little giddy and excited. "I've never used this before" he said as he picked up the knife and fork. :) haha. It was beautiful. So we got to show him how to use it to cut the pizza. Then after about 3 bites we decided to eat it like real Americans and just grabbed it with our hands, but he preferred to use the knife and fork. haha. (I understand - we prefer using chopsticks over a spoon when we eat too.) It was so much fun to see and watch and be part of.

The last cool thing that I wanted to share with you today is the Chinese character that I learned today. (Probably only the second one I've learned since I've been here. (Exit being the other)) It's Yesu (G-sus)

耶稣 -  (Yēsū) - "G-sus"  

The characters that make it up are "fish" and "rice." I know that doesn't make any sense to you and me, but in the Chinese culture, fish and rice are known to be essential for life. ..... Get it? So if rice and fish are essential to life, and you put the two of them together and they make the characters for G-sus, then what even the centuries old language is saying is that He is essential for life.  :) Yeah, it's that good.

 Thanks for reading. I love you all and think about you quite often. 

Getting back on the horse...

I didn't really fall off of the horse with this blog, but I have been off of it and I hope to get back onto it and be a more "frequent rider/writer" than I have been lately. This update might be a little bit longer, but I'll try to keep them more frequent and short.

SNOW! As you have seen by the last pictures that we got our first snow a few weeks ago. We cracked the first week of November and the heavens opened up. A few inches the first night, then two days later a few more inches, then the next day a few more inches. We probably had 6-7 inches by the end of the week. The downside to this is that the students have to go out and clean up the sidewalk. If they don't have class, their job is to clear the sidewalks. So after the first snow all my students loved the snow. Now, they're not as big of fans of it. Yeah, any sidewalks, concrete or roads are cleared by shovels, wooden signs (which are flipped and used as shovels), and those giant wisk-broom-looking things. I asked one student and they said, "well, if we didn't clear the snow, then the school would have to pay someone to come and do it." My thought was, "well duh, you're paying a lot of money to come here, they can afford it", but I guess it's a different mindset here.

I gave them midterms last week. They had to do group presentations about a topic we had covered in class. What's worse is that I had to grade them on pronunciation, grammar, and fluency. Man, I don't know who was more nervous them or me. I think it took me about as long to figure out their notes and grade during the class after the presentation as it did for them to give their presentation. I was so glad when that week was over. I feel bad giving these sweet little kids a bad grade. (Alright, some of them who don't pay attention in class, it was easier to drop them down a few points, but the ones who try and just don't do very well, it's difficult.)

It was pretty cool because He knew I was freaking out about having to judge and grade them, so He signed me up to be a judge for Foreign Song Competition for the Bilingual department.  I should have probably guessed that I was going to do something when my students kept asking me if I was coming or not.
So I showed up and they asked me if I could help judge. I said, "uh, ok. I guess I can if you want me to." Then they showed me to my seat with my name tag and score sheet... nice. The song Foreign Song Competition was pretty interesting. I really enjoyed it. There were some contestants who could have been on American Idol, one for her good ability and one for her...spunk...and dancing. The only downside to this competition was the fact that it was for the bilingual department... aka not just English. So when they sang in German and Japanese and Korean it was difficult to give an accurate reading of whether it sounded native or not. There were German, Japanese, and Korean teachers there too judging, but I still had to vote. Jordan helped me vote and we thought that most of them sounded pretty legit to us, so we treated them alright.

The last thing I wanted to let you know about is our new Boy. Man, he growing so fast. I'm so glad that the Sprite has cracked open that noggin of his. It's just flowing with questions and comments and insights and all sorts of things. Less than a week after his Birth, he finished up Matthew's story and fell in love with our Hero's last words. "Go to all nations... and surely I am with you." Our boy wrote it down on a piece of paper and was telling it to his classmates during class- this is what He said and this is what He promises and ..... He's going at it. It's amazing. He's not just like excited about what he's learning, but he's being intentional and seeking out people and saying "I want you to experience this joy. I don't want you to go there, but I want you to be in the Kingdom." It's beautiful. In fact, we're about to go watch the Passion for the first time with him and two others who are in the seeking process. It's going to be hard, but good. Just asking for open hearts and understanding.

Love you all and wish you could see what's happening here.

P.S. as a moment of truth. I tend to wait til things are on the upswing or going better to email people back or blog or do different things. I don't want to wallow it in or express it. So if it's been a while or if I haven't emailed you back (and I'm just behind on that anyways) or things are kind of quiet - I might be having a rough time and could use some extra vertical thoughts. Thanks.

First SNOW!

Even though it's been cold enough to snow many many days for the last month, we got our first little covering. So I wanted to put some pictures up that you could enjoy it too. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to tell you about what's going on because I have to give a oral mid-term in less than an hour. Gulp. I don't know whose more nervous them for giving it, or me for having to grade it.

The view from Jordan's room on the 6th floor over looking the campus at 12:30am this morning.

The view out of my window at 7am this morning.