Intros of our fearless leaders

July 26, 2011

July 20, 2011

Home!

Hey, friends!  I just wanted to let you know that we made it back to the States safely!

 

I (Katie) am home unpacking and doing laundry.

 

Amber is sitting at the airport waiting for her final flight home.  Our last flight was the first one delayed.  Of all flights to be delayed, this one is the best. 

1. Because I'm not on it... just kidding, a little.

2. If she gets stuck here too long, it'll be easy for me to go pick her up again and bring her home.  She won't be stranded in some random city.

3. Her original arrival time was in the middle of rush hour.  Now they get to miss the traffic!

 

We realized from Friday morning until Monday-Round Two (we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner before our plane landed at 8am and then we had to do the whole day over again) we slept 15 hours (that's a generous estimate).  Last night between Monday-Round Two and Tuesday we slept 16 hours.  No middle-of-the-night swimming or sunrise on the Lake... and no complaining about it!

 

We are slowly going through and adding pictures to the previous posts where we mentioned photos.  (Slowly because we had a little mishap with a camera card... it involved my dad trying to help, some tweezers, a trip to Best Buy, and my computer being in the technology hospital for the night... that story is in our final video blog update).  We've also got stories to tell that have not yet been told and video blog updates from throughout our trip.  SO this blog is far from being closed down!  Even though we're back, keep checking for updates, video blogs, stories, and photos.

 

Correction: In an earlier blog I made the comment that there are no international churches in China.  That's wrong.  I misunderstood.  There ARE international churches in China, but an international passport is required for entrance to the church.  Chinese people cannot worship at international churches.  Some foreigners go to international church to worship and some go just to interact with other foreigners.  My confusion came from the fact that foreigners cannot minister in China.  Well, foreigners cannot minister or lead worship in Chinese churches not in all of China.  I think I understand it now, even though it's a bit confusing, so feel free to ask questions for clarifications.

 

Ping An,

<>< Katie

Homeward Bound, The Incredible Journey

Tomorrow is our last day teaching before we head to do some touristy things like see The Great Wall (of China, of course).  We fly back to the States on Monday.  As with these last few days, it's going to be a loooooonnnggg weekend.  However, we look forward to telling some great stories once we get home.  With pictures even!  Thanks for your prayers!

 

Wo ai ni,

<>< Katie and Amber

God's Lesson Plan

One of the ways God has blessed us with an open door to speak about His goodness is through the teaching of different holidays.  Last week Junanita and Amber taught Easter, and God did some amazing things.  This morning Curt was set to teach Christmas.  Since Curt's class comes to Jori's and my (Katie) class next, we prayerfully realized that we may be called upon to answer questions regarding the real Christmas story.

 

That un-folded in a way that we could never have fathomed.  Vernon (the other college student; Curt's TA) came into our room and said due to unforeseen circumstances they didn't finish the Christmas story.  Could we just sumarize the end and field questions?  Of course.  Our planned lesson had flopped first period anyway.

 

So I quickly skimmed the reader's theater script they had been doing and asked the students where they got in the story: Jesus had been born and the magi were asking Harold where they could find this new king.

 

So I sumarized the ending, being relatively brief figuring we had a whole different lesson to teach but not being too brief to as to miss the point.  Then Jori and I welcomed questions.  Boy did the questions come!  We did not even touch on our planned lesson but rather spent the entire class time answering questions.

 

What happened next?

Why did God choose Mary?

Was Jesus a king?

So were Mary and Joseph His real parents?

Joseph was king, right?

Jesus was killed, right?

So Jesus is a god?

Three Gods?

Does God still speak through dreams?

My mom prayed for her toothache to go away and it went away.  She try to persuade me, but I am not persuaded.

How do you make decisions?

Did Jesus talk to special people?

Was Jesus rich?

How do you believe something you don't understand?

What is faith?

There are some people at my school who have that same religion like you.  They're different.  I can see it.  They're calm, generous, and loving.  Always calm.

 

We were flabbergasted.  So many questions don't have pat answers.  So many questions were answered directly by the Holy Spirit speaking through us.  As soon as the class left, Jori and I joined hands and prayed until tears filled our eyes.  It was all an incredibly humbling experience we were excited to share with our team at lunch.

 

But God wasn't done.

 

A short while later in my (Amber's) class, without knowledge of anything that had occured earlier, Juanita and I held what we thought would be a normal class.

 

We were talking about love languages and were discussing the love language of gifts. Juanita had an empty gift bag which she used to ask the students what they most hoped was in the bag. Some said money, food, books, pictures, etc. However, we had one girl in the last class that said she wished a Bible would be in the bag. I immediately was on the edge of my chair, just waiting for the end of class.

 

I had been given a New Testiment in Chinese/English to give out. I knew it was for her. As soon as class was over, I walked up to her and asked her again if she was serious. When I confirmed she was serious about wanting a Bible, I handed her my NT. She at first refused because she felt bad. But after I insisted, she got misty eyed and accepted it with the biggest smile I have ever seen. She was so grateful and so excited. I also connected her with another woman who attends the local church here. It was amazing!

 

Today, the rain has been almost nonstop. Therefore, our group sat around one classroom waiting for the rain to stop. This is when God put the puzzle pieces together, revealing himself to us. I told my story from class and the gift of the NT. When I showed Katie and Jori the picture of the girl and I, those two became giddy! Katie proceeded to explain their class. We were praising God together! It had been a rough morning for some and we defintiely felt Satan trying to attack our team. However, God trumped Satan and made today an AMAZING day!!!

 

God is good all the time.

 

Love,

Katie and Amber (with Jori, of course)

An Eventful Saturday

Saturdays here aren't much different from in the States: more relaxing but more people out.

We started our Saturday morning with a trip to a "spa."  Some of us wanted our nails done, some hair cuts, and some massages.   The place where we went didn't do all of those things.  Instead Amber got a head and shoulders massage that was REALLY good! 

Katie got her hairwashed and a head/shoulders massage.  Juanita got her haircut, and Jori waited patiently until she and Juanita could go get their nails done.  After our events at the hairplace, one of the stylists told our interpreter that he'd like to style my (Katie) hair... for free!  I said sure.  After all, it's only hair and I need a cut when I get home anyway.  How badly can he mess it up, right?  I'm not sure if he was interested in me, my blond hair, or the fact that I'm an American... but I let him go for it.  Since I don't speak Chinese, I couldn't tell him that my hair doesn't hold curl.  Well, what did he decide to do?  Curl my hair... It was huge and poofy when he was done but had decreased to only a wave by lunch and just a mess of hairspray by dinner time.  Juanita, Jori, and Heather (our amazing hostess/ interpreter) left us at the hair salon, and Amber and I are proud to announce we hailed our own taxi, told him to take us to the hotel, and successfully told him where the hotel was when he got lost.  We're really proud of ourselves.

After lunch we went back to the tailor shop for our fitting.  Some of our clothes are done and look amazing.  Other articles need a bit of retouching.  Namely... my clothes... You'd think with the size of Chinese people that they'd be used to people my size... apparently not.  My pants are a bit looser here than they are at home, so I wanted to make sure the clothes will fit at home, too.  I don't know the Chinese word for engordar (to get fatter) but I now recognize it... it starts with a "p".  Even though the tailor only speaks Chinese and we only speak English, communication was achieved!  And it wasn't all a game of charades either.

We had a little bit of time to go to a market nearby.  We've both been to Central American markets and were kind of expecting something like that but maybe without the bright colors... yeah, it was nothing like that.  The layout was similar (minus the peddlars everywhere!) but all of the items for sale looked like they were purchased at the dollar store.  We are definitely not in a tourist area... they sold screw drivers, notebooks, lightbulbs, power strips, everyday clothes... no soccer jerseys, cute spoons, handmade anything... Although we did buy a few souvineers.

One of our students treated us to an authentic Chinese meal.  The best fake Chinese food I've (Katie) ever had was in Nicaragua... This was the best REAL Chinese food we've ever had.  In China it is normal to order one dish per person plus one and everyone shares.  Our hostess couldn't decide and ordered five dishes for the three of us... I might have to go back to the tailor and get my clothes resized again... We ate:

1. Chicken.  Delicious!  But it did have the head still on it (which Amber didn't see and Katie didn't bother to tell her about!)

2. Green beans and eggplant: AMAZING!  (Katie's favorite)

3. A plate of veggies: celery, mushroom, walnuts, peppers.

4. Meatballs (Yes, Momma Ax, I ate them).

5. Shreaded "pie"... basically real lo mein. (Amber's favorite)

On our walk home we saw an American in a Korean restaurant.  This is the first American we've seen since we've been here (besides the nine through our organization, of course).  Like good Chinese people when you see foreigners, we both stopped and stared at him.  He was staring back at us... so Katie waved.  His face lit up and he waved back.  We foreigners have to stick together!

We walked through the main square of this city.  China comes to life at night!  There were people everywhere!  Roller blading, dancing, playing Chinese hacky sack, selling things, talking, walking dogs, etc.  We even saw some Deaf people Amber wasn't brave enough to talk to. (Amber interjects.....KATIE didn't try either! Plus after the fail in the bus station trying to communicate, I wasn't up for trying at the moment...but if it makes Katie happy..the next Deaf person we see, I will attempt communication.)

There were two little girls playing a traditional Chinese game where one girl holds the strings and the other jumps over and/or on the strings... We didn't really get it... but Katie tried it.  The girls were shy and I'm sure laughing inside at this dumb American trying to play a game she doesn't understand.  I gave those two girls bracelets and then more kids came... I think I gave out ten bracelets.

A little while later we saw a little girl playing Skip-It.  Now THAT I understand.  So I tried it.  The girl was just in awe of this American using her toy.  Her father was laughing at the American whose foot was so big she had to take her shoe off to get the Skip-It off... I gave her a bracelet, too.  I figure if she shares her toy I can share a bracelet.

Back at the hotel we saw some really drunk men... We hid in the stairwell while they took the elevator up to their room.

Just a normal Saturday here in China...

Love,

Katie and Amber