Rain, false gods, cheese and toilet paper. Day five.

Today was different. It rained all day, which made some things even more challenging than before. Imagine streets littered trash, filth, poop and only the Lord knows what else, and then pour a bucket of water on it. And then make a puddle of it. And then step in it. Yep.

Of course, I brought everything with me today BUT an umbrella, so a couple of times we just got downright soaked. But, it also cooled things off quite a bit which was a huge blessing.

This was the second day of the English camp. These students are not strangers to us anymore and that changes things. It is starting to become apparent to us which students are believers, and they are few. Which leaves so many that are not. We now know that the red necklaces that dangle around many of our friend’s necks have a Buddah, or some symbol of another god, concealed under their clothes. When we talk to them in Literature class about Jane Eyre and the topics of death, eternity and God, we are getting more honest answers now that the students are more comfortable with us. But that is also tough, because many of them feel that the concept of God and heaven and hell are silly. So silly that some snicker with laughter. Not to be cruel to us, but simply because they have lived their whole lives believing in nothing. They have never been taught religion of any sort, and for many this is the first time, ever in their lives, that they have even thought about the subject.

Some of the students shared with me today that they have grandparents (usually one set or the other and not both) who they remember being believers. They don’t know how they came to believe in God, but they think that their prayers and belief in heaven and hell are just silly quirks of the ancient old Chinese people. The concept of God and eternity seems to have literally been stricken from the minds of two generations of people.

Of course as our knowledge about these sweet people grows, so does the depth of our relationships with them. Although many of them do not understand what we believe, they still accept us as friends. We go to lunch with them and talk just like any friends would. Our differences in belief, or their lack of any belief, doesn’t seem to hinder friendship, and that is unique. I think as Americans we tend to only be comfortable surrounding ourselves with like minded people...........which is a shame because then how will anyone who doesn’t believe, ever come to belief?

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15

After our classes (and some awesome afternoon games) were over for today, we had a short break for dinner and then we had a girls night/ guys night. The dudes all went by bus to the city to eat at Pizza Hut! Apparently it is very new to the city and most of the students have never been, much less ever eaten pizza in their life. They have no cheese here…..such a sadness.

Headbands game! (sort of)

The girls night was an awesome time of hanging out, eating cookies (which they never have because they don’t want to get fat) and pizza (leftovers the boys brought us) and tea. Mandi sang a song and Lynn and I shared a little about the concept of self worth and who these girls are in God’s eyes. I shared a good bit of my story, and many of the students (and a few of the foreignersJ) seemed to have been really affected by it in a good way. It is always awesome to see God make beautiful things out of the ashes of pain in someone’s life. We taught the girls how to make friendship bracelets. I hope they will continue to wear them and think of this time we had together and what we shared with them.

We are now back and exhausted again. Tomorrow we will roam all over the city on a scavenger hunt with the students……I hope I can keep up with them!

China:

-They have no toilet paper. At least not in the bathrooms. If you plan to need it, you better bring it with you.

-They don’t flush toilet paper down the squatty potties. Guess the pipes are too skinny for the population. So all toilet paper goes in the trash can. All.

 -They have no napkins in any of the restaurants. If they do have napkins, it is actually just toilet paper. Circle of life.

English camp, line dancing and a concert on the grass. Day four.

Today was our first day of English camp! We have worked so hard to prepare for this camp, and I think we were all a bit nervous as to how it would go.

We started with a super fast 30 minute sweaty walk through the city, through the slums, through the market and then through the campus to get to our building. We bought bananas in the market and some type of bread, egg, slaw, spicy situation (doesn’t sound good but it is) and ate on the way.

(all pics below from along our walk to campus each day)

When we arrived we found the large classroom where we would start and end our days together as a group. Some of the students were already there so we had a short amount of time to get our bearings and get ready to start. I was responsible for kicking us off with introductions, which I was very happy about! I was able to use my loud mouth and silly attitude so much in Africa, and I have been terrified that I would …..terrify the soft spoken Chinese! BUT GOD has orchestrated it so that what I am good at can be useful here as well. So, we each told the 60 or so students who we all were. When I told them I was a mommy, they all said “Awwwwwwwe!. Such sweet spirited people.

Then we began our classroom rotations. We are teaching a grammar class, a writing class and a literature class. So, we basically teach the same thing, 3 times to 3 different groups each day. In literature (where I am working) we are studying Jane Eyre, which is amazing because it has given us great opportunities to talk with the students about forgiveness, God, death and eternity. They have no concept of eternity and they don’t think about dying. It just isn’t something that is of any concern to them, which makes it difficult to have gospel conversations if you have no sense of death or eternity! So this book was a GREAT way to start off our week with some deep thoughts, which thankfully come from Bronte (the author) rather than any of us, making it easier to have deeper conversations.

our classroom

Once all of our classes were finished for the morning, it was time to go to lunch. A group of girls asked me to go with them and we had an awesome time. One of the main goals of the camp is to teach English, but also give the kids a chance to practice their conversational English as well. Tomato and egg on rice is my new favoritest thing ever. Then we had a short time to sit and rest before going back for the afternoon session.

I was put on the spot and asked to fill up as much time in the first afternoon as possible, although I had only prepared for about an hour! But, loud mouth and silly is what I do and so I did. We played a couple of games, and then we taught them line dances!! Luckily, a few of the girls on the team are actual dancers and were able to help me out since I am just the loud mouth……oh yeah and I have a fractured knee! But it went over great and everyone had a lot of laughs, fun and exercise! Did I mention it is as hot here as at home, but they have no air conditioning…….wow.

Once day one was over, we had a little down time to eat dinner and chat with each other and some of the students about how the day went, and some things about them and their lives.A little girl came and sat next to me at a picnic table after we had eaten dinner. She was so shy, but she just came up, smiled, sat down next to me and read her book. I think God knew I just needed some interaction today with a 6 year old little girl. 

 Then it was off to the library lawn where Mandi and Ashley did a concert for the students, and about 100 other random people who gathered around to see what was going on! They did some of Mandi’s songs as well as some popular songs that the students knew. It was really awesome because they had a blast, but there is also some super good stuff in Mandi’s songs, and we gave them all a copy of the lyrics…..planting those seeds!

We are now back at the hotel and about to sleep. The weather, and our schedule each day really drains us. But, I think this is such good work…..even better than I had imagined. These students are from all over China, so hopefully believers will come out of this camp, who will then go back to their own home towns…..and multiply. Such an amazing concept…….who came up with it? Oh yeah, that was Jesus.

 China:

-Men wear things like black t shirts with a rhinestone zebra on the front…..and they own it.

-Giant piles of trash everywhere. The people leave trash wherever they want, because they know the government with pay someone to come behind them and clean it up.

-When you take their picture, they hold up a V for victory, but I don’t know what their victory is in.

Look at those cheeks!

-Babies don’t wear diapers. At all. Until they are (squatty) potty trained, they wear pants with a split in them, so that when they need to go, they just squat down and have at it! Craziness. So when you see a grandma carrying a baby around, their little brownish butt cheeks are peeking out for the world to see!

Food, rest and China church - Day three.

We woke early Sunday morning after about 5 hours of sleep. We went to the apartment of some fellow Americans and had some great time in the Word and worship in their home…..and they had coffee…halleluiah. Apparently, they don’t “do” coffee in China. Didn’t get that memo.

After we left there, we walked a pretty good way, got on a bus, and then walked some more to a restaurant. The buses here are neat. And by “neat” I mean “packed like sardines with people who can’t recall their last shower and if you don’t get on or off in about 1.3 seconds you WILL be left behind”.

The restaurants are weird because they have rooms with room numbers, sort of like a hotel, but it has a table for a group to sit in the room. They have big round tables with a lazy Susan in the middle. We had everything from Chinese “meatloaf” (actually really good), to potato noodles, garlic cucumbers, eggplant, fried green beans, rice and some more stuff I couldn’t identify…but ate anyway. Thank goodness I already knew how to use chopsticks, because those who didn't nearly starved. There are no forks. It was a huge feast and it was awesome!

Mandi trying (and not succeeding) to teach Sarah to use chopsticks.

Steaming hot water.

Tons of food! And it is SO cheap!

Corn situation with sugar.

Funny rooms you eat in.

Then we spent some time preparing as a team for the English camp. Lots of details to still be worked out, but we start tomorrow and I think we are ready! I think…..

We walked through the University campus (which is beautiful) along the “path” to our hotel. It isn’t a path so much as it is a 30+ minute walk through sketchy areas, markets, piles of trash etc. Once we got back to the hotel, we walked some more, hopped on another bus and went to a restaurant that has caramelized fruit. It is crazy because the restaurants don’t have doors, they have long plastic panels you walk through, like you would see in an industrial size freezer. To get to our “room” in this particular restaurant, we walked through one section, out more plastic panels into a shady alley way, then back in to another part of the restaurant to eat. But, it didn’t matter one bit because caramelized fruit with egg fried rice is the business.

Caramelized fruit. You have to QUICKLY dip it in water and then put it back on the plate so it doesn't all stick together.

We put all the best chopstickers on the job.....you can see Sarah smiling and watching in the background :).

We are now back at our hotel and in the bed. So exhausted.Like falling asleep in mid conversation at dinner exhausted.

A few observations about China:

-Apparently, a long time ago, some China grandmas realized that the water was making everyone sick, so they boiled it and it stopped making everyone sick. So now, they won't drink water unless it is steaming hot. Seems they never figured out that once you boil it, it is safe. It doesn't have to STAY hot. So all the water here is steaming hot. Very, very steaming hot.
-Lots of designer, well groomed dogs roaming the streets. Didn’t expect that one.

 

-Unlike Africa, these people really hang on to their kids. In Africa they seemed to just roam free (I guess because there were so many more of them) but here they are always holding the hand of an adult or being carried if they are small.

-The streets are crazy with buses, motorcycles, cars, bicycles, and people

-Tons of watermelons. They are everywhere. Apparently they are the only way to stay cool because they have very little air conditioning. And more fruits and vegetables being sold in all the street markets than I have ever seen.

Literally trucks filled with watermelons everywhere.

-The women just seem to be out an about for a normal day, but they are all snazzed up in high heels and short dresses.

-Everyone smokes. Except for the babies. Or at least I didn’t see any smoking babies.

-Africa people are so excited to see mzungus. Even if they don’t care about what we have to say to them, they just think we are awesome with our light skin and hair. These people seem completely indifferent to the fact that we are even here.

Journey to China - Day One....and Two.

14.01 hours is long time on plane.

30+ hours, 4 airplanes and 1 van later we are finally here! Our trip has been blessed with on time flights, and no lost luggage…..so that alone is wonderful!

Tofu on a plane (morning or otherwise) is a very bad idea.

First glimpse of China.

It has been dark since we arrived so not much to tell about the city thus far, except that it looks a lot like any downtown, just with a lot of neon lights…..that all say something or another in Chinese. The roads are normal and paved (a nice change from Africa) but they drive even worse than New York cab drivers.

We will be staying in a hotel off campus, rather than on campus as we had planned. However, this is China and so these things happen. Apparently it isn't legal for foreigners to stay in certain hotels in China. They want them all in the nicer hotels to give the world a good impression of the country. So, the accommodations are much nicer than what we expected (aside from the beds that feel like a coffee table with a sheet on top)......but we are not going to complain!

View from our hotel window.

The mountains here are beautiful!

PLEASE NOTE: For security purposes, I won't be posting any specifics about the city we worked in, the University, or the American teacher we worked with. So, some of the posts may seem vague.....but it is vague for a good reason!

Ready to rest and get started tomorrow!

Blessings!

jennymo

China!!!

Hello all!

Just wanted to drop a super quick line to let you all know we are fine and safe! We are VERY busy every day and have hardly any access to internet or phone, which isn't what we expected. But, things are great and I will update here when we get back to Korea on Saturday!

Blessings,

jennymo

The good news and the bad news. And the good news. And the bad news.

The devil (or the debil as my kids call him) has been working HARD on me this week friends. BUT, that tells me that I am doing something right or else the old debil wouldn't be paying a bit of attention to me! ; ) So, I have compiled a list of the bad news and the good news......a pros and cons list of sorts.......to show you (and me) that even when the debil is after you, the good usually outweighs the bad!

The Bad News:

-My mom broke her foot on Tuesday. While I was at work. Trying to get a lot done before I leave the country. It is I can't put any weight on it except to go to the bathroom broken. So, needless to say, she has required A LOT of my help this week. Like I had to drag her from our garage to the front door in the wagon because she couldn't get in the house. Can you say bad timing? It reminds me of the time I had my gallbladder removed and was sooooooooooo looking forward to a couple of days of outpatient surgery earned rest, when she decided it would be a GREAT time for her appendix to almost explode....but I digress.

-The kids and I went to the ortho doc to get MY knee looked at on Monday. It has been hurting more and more since my 5K, and since it has been operated on before, I wanted to be sure I hadn't done something major to it. I went back for the results today, and I have a stress fracture. In my knee. A big one. Doctor says wear a brace, which isn't nearly as bad as the boot I wore for 5 weeks....remember that?!?! It seems like sooooooo long ago. ; ( Anyhoo, he says stay off of it for 4 weeks and I should be good to go. How will I resume my training 4 weeks before the marathon and pull it off? Great questions. Let's talk about it after I get back from CHINA. Where I am going tomorrow. The day after now.

- While trying to rush around and get work done, doctor appointment done, and get home to take care of my 2 kids and 1 ailing mother, I locked my keys in the car. I haven't done that in forever. Luckily, I was on the phone with my BFF Gina while I had a bit of a come apart.......in the parking lot......in the rain.......and she came and got me. We found my spare key and all was right with the world. Just a really bad time to loose......time!

-I haven't packed. Not one thing. But I am just about to start shoving this mountain of stuff into that tiny red carry on size suitcase in the background. Wish me luck.

The Good News:

-I am blessed to be a part of a GREAT team going to China tomorrow and once I get out of my house, preferably with all of my stuff, and get to the airport I will become totally stoked! Please pray for our team!

-I really thought my MRI results would show something that would put me out of the marathon all together. It is a huge praise for me that I still have a really great shot at finishing this thing with my team.....well.....waaayyyyyyyy behind my team. BUT, I said from the very start that if I could get up to 5 miles I knew I could do it, and I reached 5 miles right before my knee became to painful to run. So that is a blessing. I may finish last.....but I just want to finish and I am super stoked that it is still a possibility. I AM STILL IN THE GAME!

-I MET MY PRE-CHINA FUNDRAISING GOAL! This is huge folks. I have become CONSUMED with fundraising and training because God has made my heart CONSUMED by this cause and the children and families that it will help! I knew I couldn't fully leave this behind and focus on China if I felt like I was behind on my fundraising. God is great and I not only met my goal but exceeded it!

-I have an amazing family and amazing friends that I know will take care of things while I am gone. I have stuff lined up for Friday & Saturday for the kids, and then they will be with their dad all next week, which will give Emmy some much needed down time for her foot to heal.

-I have a wonderful church family and an amazing small group. I feel so blessed by them all!


-My cousin Rhonda told me that what I am doing with my life right now would make my gradmother, Gera Mae Clark, proud. That is the best news I could have gotten. <3

-The debil may try and try to keep me down, but I have a KING who died so that I might live. So I'm gonna keep on keeping on as long as He allows me to do so!


See? The good always outweighs the bad!

Please pray for us as we travel and for my mommy heart and my kiddos while I am away.

And if you are one of the few people who actually read this blog, could you leave a comment and let me know you read this? I could really use the encouragement right now!

Blessings!

Watch out Asia, here comes jennymo!

P.S. If you were to happen to want to donate to my marathon fundraising for Project Hopeful while I am gone, just click the link below : )