January 26, 2010
5 Things I Miss
What? Dale writing on his web page twice in one week? What's happening here? And that's not all. I got up early this morning to go running, so there you go. As if it wasn't obvious enough, our school semester is officially finished and Chinese New Year is right around the corner. Chinese New Year = lots of fireworks, which leads nicely into my "5 Things I Still Miss About the US". After 5+ years in China, there aren't so many things (besides family & friends) that I really miss, but here are a few exceptions:
1. No Fireworks During Nap time
I've never actually raised kids in the US, but I assume that it's easier for young kids to sleep without fireworks going off. We have fireworks here almost everyday, but the kids can usually sleep through it now. Of course, neighbors chopping vegetables, renovating their apartments, practicing the flute, and dropping fish can also be distracting. With Spring Festival right around the corner, we're preparing ourselves for the onslaught of constant fireworks.
2. Big Containers of Milk
Milk over here either comes in small boxes or really small boxes. Either way, it goes way too fast and makes me feel guilty when I go through a box and a half for one meal. Of yeah - and the crummy spout on the boxes assures that you'll spill at least one pint out of the 3 pint box.
3. Air-Conditioned Classrooms
I'm a big fan of toboggans, thick coats, and long-johns during the winter. I'm also a fan of being able to feel my toes and use my fingers. I'm not asking for 72 degrees in the classroom, just above freezing.
4. Good Pens
During my time in China I've probably gone through 53 pens. I think I found a good pen in a store once, but I can't remember where. What's really frustrating is that I'm pretty sure they're making all of the good pens here and then exporting them. Is it asking too much to just send some of those to Jingzhou?
5. Mountains
There are lots of great mountains in China, just not Jingzhou. We have a hill, but it's actually man-made. A guy from Tennessee needs to climb a mountain sometimes, or at least drive his car up it.
January 19, 2010
Spending Time
Lisa and I really like people. Well, we actually love people. And we love to see people decide to follow the Father and develop a good, close relationship with Him. Even better than that is when we see those people continue their relationship as they graduate, move to other cities, and go through other big changes in life. A sad truth is that many people we reach out to never decide to build that relationship and of those that do, many of them don't continue as their life changes.
But we're really proud of the people who keep growing and keep holding on. We brag about them to our friends, talk about them in newsletters, and look at their example to see how we can help other people follow their example. One of the biggest things that we've found is that the people we've had the closest, most open relationships with tend to grow stronger. I think there are lots of reasons why this is true, but it's something we constantly need to remind ourselves of. Persuading people to frequently attend meetings, studying through a set group of "important" ideas, and doing our part of the work in an effective way are all important things. But in our experience, none of these things necessarily lead to stronger, more faithful people.
One reason why I think building these relationships works so well is that we try to be smart about who we spend our time with. Our habit during our time in China has been to give everyone the opportunity to serve or grow in some way. When we see who has the self-motivation to not just agree, but really do these things, we start spending more time with them and investing ourselves more in their growth.
These days we find ourselves doing more and more of our work outside of "meetings". Part of it is because we're busy corralling kids during meetings, but another reason is that's where the real growth happens. When Lisa has a conversation with someone about something, it often naturally leads to her showing them something from the Good Book. Our friends are more challenged and encouraged by that than by listening to a 15 minute lesson by me. During the last year or so we've spent a lot of our time with a sister named Ya Li. She already has a really strong faith, but by inviting her into our lives she can see more clearly how that faith connects to being a spouse, a parent, a worker, etc. And our relationship is so close that whenever she needs to be corrected or challenged about something, it's not too awkward. Without that kind of close relationship we could just invite Ya Li to meetings and teach her lessons about those things, but we could never show it to her or share it personally with her.
A big barrier that has to be overcome everywhere, but especially in China, is connecting our faith to our everyday lives. Most people here have the idea that religion is either for desperate dreamers or is just something that should be remembered on special occasions like holidays or deaths. We hope that we can connect our lives to others by eating together, hanging out, and honestly showing our family life. And by showing how our faith weaves through all of these things and by trying to point our entire lives towards the Father, we hope to lead the people around us closer to Him as well.
December 9, 2009
And Here It Is, December
It's been about a month since we wrote, so we wanted to catch everybody up. Right now there's really just one thing that we hope you can be praying about. During this whole semester we've been asking the Father to give us opportunities to reach out to Dale's students, love them, build some relationships, and tell them about Jesus. Over the last several weeks, a few students have stuck out because of things they've said in class or their unique attitudes. We weren't sure what we wanted to do with these students, but we finally decided that since we were asking the Father to help us find these students and since He was answering those requests, then we should work hard to take advantage of these opportunities.
For most of these students, this is their first year at this college and they're really busy with classes and mandatory study halls all during the week. As a result, we decided to start a new meeting on Saturday nights just for these students who don't (yet) believe. One of our closest sisters here, Ya Li, helps us a lot. Each week about 10 students come, many of them hearing about the Father and Son for the first time in their lives. Some people aren't very interested and don't come back, but some do. Either way, more and more people are coming into contact with the Truth and we're thankful that we are able to have a small part in that.
Please be praying that more students will come to hear the Good News, that their hearts will be open, and that they will come to believe and obey the Truth.
We appreciate and love you all. If there are any ways that we can be praying for you, please let us know. We've put up lots of new pictures (mostly from the summer) over at Flickr. Go check them out if you're interested.