Curse No More

Go Red Sox!!!!!

Friends or Projects?

We've been reminded of an important distinction recently. We visit with a lot of students. With teaching and the family, time gets taken up quickly when you're also trying to spend a lot of time in lunches, etc. We were talking recently about how we've started to enjoy people as friends and not mere students. Just the other night, we had some of the most amazing time of laughing and joking with some student-friends. The conversation was so natural, I almost said to them, "You're so American," but really, people are the same everywhere, wanting to laugh and tell jokes. In this case, we simply were not having communication-language problems. We were understanding each other easily, but I equated that with being American, which was an incorrect assiciation.

Anyway, we've felt good about the amount of time and quality of timethat we've had with Chinese students. I have felt a pressure (within myself) to do more, and more, and more. I ask myself whether I'm doing enough. But in our discussion, we were reminded that here, we are to live life as we would anywhere. We are to have meals and time with friends, not projects. Every conversation does not have to lead to something more significant and meaningful that the simple enjoyment of each other's company. We have a tendency to approach people with agendas of different sorts. You know that you may be treating a person as project, rather than a person, when you have a conversation with them, and after you've said your piece, communicated your agenda, you have nothing else to talk about. That's a good indicator that we're forgetting to simply love and relate and enjoy our friends.

Divine Wine

We had one of our Chinese friends come over last nightto make desert and watch a movie with us. She brought us a gift--a bottle of wine.

She told us that the wine company advertises that it's the only wine that you can share with God.

Being Loved & Finding Joy

"Most of us have grown up thinking that being loved means being made much of. Our whole world seems to be built on this assumption. If I love you, I make much of you. I help you feel good about yourself. It is as though a sight of the self is the secret to joy.
But we know better....we know this is not so. Our happiest moments have not been self-saturated moments, but self-forgetful moments. There have been time when we have stood beside the Grand Canyon, or at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, or viewed a stunning sunset over the Sahara, and for a fleeting moment felt the joy of sheer wonder. This is what we were made for. Paradise will not be a hall of mirrors. It will be a display of majesty. And it won't be ours."
J.P., TPoJC, #49, p. 117

True joy is the satisfaction of that which is most perfect, most good.

Suits and Shorts

The Chinese students respect theirr teacher a lot. Much more than most of us could understand since we tend to not respect our teachers all that well.
It's a professional relationship at least at first.

A few weeks ago, I invited a couple of guys to have have dinner with me at a local restaurant. When I saw them waiting for me down stairs, I thought, "uh-o". Both of these guys were in suits! I was in shorts and wearing an untucked, casual shirt. I may of had sandles on too....I can't remember.

Well, I was hoping I hadn't come across offensive. I had never had this issue before. I've done the dinner thing with students a bunch of times, but this time, they thought they should dress up for some reason. I still can't explain what they were thinking. Anyway, I didn't draw attention to our definate difference in dress, but it eventually came up. So, I tried to cover it up by letting them know that I was honoring them by dressing casually, b/c that meant that "We were freinds". Of course, I meant that, but I had to be a quick thinker on that one.

Homecoming gift

We had some students come over to our apartment who had not been here before. The wanted to show kindness to us by bringing us a gift.

They brought us 21 bananas.


Ya, we'll be eating banana bread a lot this next week.

random student habit

The Chinese students' textbooks tend to be more like workbooks. They have material in them to read, but they have lots of exercises to do. Well, Brad gives in-class exercises for them to do from the textbooks.

Interestingly, they refuse to write in the books. If there is a chart to fill in or questions to answer, they will NOT write them in the book; instead, they will find the edge of a scrap piece of paper and write answers there. Often a sheet of paper has so much small writing on there from the various classes and their various textbooks, that it's indiscernable what they've written. It intrigues Brad everytime when he tries to give an assignment. Because of their refusal to write in their books, they'll forget their answers when called upon moments later.

P.S. Yes, they own the books and it's not against any rule. Every now and then, you'll see a few stray markings in a book, but it's not the norm.

Selah's elevator check

Brad gets a lot of mouth ulcers. He gets them on a regular basis and when he gets them, there will be 5 at a minimum up to 12 and 15. So when Brad gets near mirrors, he often checks to see if and how they're healing.

Selah has learned from her dad. Now, whenever we get into the elevator to come up of go down, you'll see her looking into the elevator mirror, pulling down her lip, checking the inside of her mouth.

weekend struggles

We wanted to let you all know that we could use your thoughts on the weekends. Almost every or nearly every Sunday since we've been here, we've faced some kind of personal, spiritual attack.

What I mean is that each weekend, we have found ourselves sick or in some other kind of physical or emotional pain, EVEN THOUGH ALL WEEK we have felt great, and on the next day, Monday, we feel good again. Literally, like clockwork, when Sunday comes, we face attack.

This week it has hit on Saturday. Carrie has been throwing up constantly and Brad is aching, coughing, and fatigued. The kids are always untouched.

We need your prayers. Thanks

Selah comment of the week

She's alwayss saying something funny, and usually dramatic:

This week she told us, "I long to rest" and "That stresses me out"

Some meaningful conversation

We had a wonderful time tonight with students. We visited with some young women (post-graduate students) in our home for desserts.

They were so inquisitive. In their class, we discuss a lot of philosophical, ethical, and meaningful topics because Brad is trying to teach them abstract conversation skills, since they are advanced english learners.

It has spurred on a lot of excellent questions. Tonight we were asked what is the meaning of life and how would we define beauty.

In class, Brad has explored with them various topics about values, beliefs, and meaning. In the process, they have seen the meaninglessness of many things in life. In a way, they are on a journey like the ancient king Solomon, who examined his life in his autobiography.

One student said that she hurt inside (in her heart) because she has been thinking hard about what is truly important and has found some things lacking meaning. We shared with her the lyrics of a song we have heard that says, "Everybody says they need just one thing. What they really mean is that they need just one thing more." If we strive for something with so much energy, but find it unsatisfying, then that thing was not what we really wanted in the first place.

We would all do well be to be reminded that our hope in life is to pursue and enjoy that one thing, which completely satsifies.

The kindergarten incident

Today we picked Selah up from school and we were met by the assistant director and one of her teachers. They told us a story in Chinese and were laughing histerically. So we deferred to Selah to translate. Selah said that they said that she took off her jacket and shirt in class today and went the whole morning in only her pants. Topless, the entire day at school! The Chinese already think American's are incredibly immodest (of which I can't disagree) Great...I'm sure they were thinking "boy, those American's teach them young."

Loving in the Mundane

We've realized much in the few months that we have lived in China. One of them being how to love. Now we haven't got it all figured out, but feel like many of the Truths laid out for us make more sense today than they did yesterday. Why? Because first of all He loved us first. That alone should drive us to respond in love towards others. If He's going to entrust us with much, then first He will entrust us with little. What is being entrusted with a little? It's loving the store clerk, the water man, the fruit seller at the market. It's serving the janitors, our families, our friends. If we cannot be trusted to love in this way, He will never trust us with the bigger things of Him.

So many times we see loving others as a burden. Usually it's because we're too busy looking at ourselves and our own needs to notice that others are in need.

Carrie's Birthday

My first birthday in the Motherland...i'm now 28. I got some great emails and e-cards. Even a snail mail card! That night, Brad took me out to a German restaraunt. The wait and hostess staff were all dressed in traditional German garb, which was really funny, them being Chinese and all. Not speaking the language, we didn't know how it worked. There was a buffet type thing in the middle, so we partook. After a few minutes they brought over some incredible meat on a skewer. And the meat just kept coming. We had tofu rolls (which I'm not sure are German) and pizza too. But we don't eat a lot of meat here, so our stomachs were really happy for the time being. I did eat a chicken heart, tasted good but was hard to swallow because of the mental picture.

We celebrated with the other birthdays for the month with our teammates last night and got some great gifts and played games. It was a great day.

Highway of Death

Random thing--

We have this road outside our campus gate where there are a lot of restaurants... and the local market is there too. There are two directionsof traffics with each side having about 4 lanes (remember: lanes don't really exist here, they're just decor) for a total of 8 lanes.

Everyday we have to cross the road to get to the market, with unpredictable, fast cars honking on their horns daring us to cross. It's really like the old game "Froggert"--you cross one lane at a time, with kids at hand, hoping an opening appears b/f another car, bike. or bus comes.

We call it the highway of death.