Christmas Performance

A few weeks ago our favorite student group invited us to join their Christmas performance and this last Friday it took place at the government church building here in Shaoxing.

Shaoxing 3-Self church building

Even after asking several of the student leaders, we weren't exactly sure what to expect. It turned out that the whole thing was arranged by this student group and the government church people just let them use the building. Different people from the group sang, danced, performed skits, did some readings, and more. Below are some pictures from the evening.

Student group choir

Students singing

Crowd at the Christmas performance

Dale and guys from the student group

Group photo after the Christmas performance

Near the end of the evening, our family was up. We had prepared a short skit based on the Good Samaritan - featuring Seth as the helpless traveler, Caleb as the fierce robber, Lisa as the Good Samaritan, a couple of friends as good for nothing passers-by, and Dale as the narrator. As Dale read in English, the whole story was shown in Chinese on a projector screen. About 200 people were there, mostly young people, but some older people as well. It was a great, fun evening and I'm sure that some of the people there were influenced as God used the evening for his glory. There are lots more pictures of the performance here at our Flickr photo page.

Last, but not least - here's a youtube video of our family's performance.

Student Group

Halfway through the semester, we found a believer in Lisa's class who is a leader at a local student group. Lisa went to their Sunday meeting once, then again, and again... Now Lisa's a regular member of the group. There are about 30 students in the group and they lead & organize everything by themselves except for some traveling speakers who often come on Sunday. They've got a few different small groups that meet during the week and they're a generally awesome family. A few weeks ago they told us that they're planning a big Christmas performance and they asked our family to prepare something. We've agreed and the performance will be this Friday night. We'll let you know how it goes!

Every other Sunday someone in the group cooks for everybody and this last Sunday Lisa volunteered to cook. It's tempting for me (Dale) to dream about things we could do with the group like teaching, helping small groups, mentoring some leaders, etc. But Lisa's a lot better than me and she just shows up to serve and love. She spent most of Saturday buying stuff at the market and cooking for the big group. On Sunday, Lisa went early in the morning along with 3 of our students who we've been studying with this semester, which was really cool. They took all of the food, then around lunch time I went with the kids for the end of their 3 hour meeting. We all ate together, then Lisa and I occupied the kids while they had another prayer meeting. Finally, we practiced for our Christmas performance and came home exhausted. Here are a few pictures of the day:

Prayer before the meal.

The crowd admiring the food before devouring it.

One of the student leaders with Seth.

Everybody eating together (with Caleb and Seth at the bottom).

Season of Joy, Season of Sorrow

I think Cecely has been reporting some already about our Advent / Christmas initiative: to host numerous, small parties, with as many different students as we reasonably can; to have them come over for snacks, songs, and scripture, and to give each person a bilingual New Testament as a gift. I can't keep up with how many of these events we've hosted, maybe 5 or 6 so far. Each one is different from the last, sometimes radically so.

We had one "group", which turned out to be only two people, who practically refused to touch any of the snacks Cec had gone to the trouble of preparing and presenting so carefully; but the Bible reading, on the other hand, went pretty well. Another set of students, mostly the girls we're already studying with, plus a few guests, were more than willing to devour nearly every scrap of food in sight! Cookies, crackers, fruit, nuts, brownies -- bring it on! And they all (even the newest visitors) had a hearty appetite for spiritual nourishment, as well. We read from the Sermon on the Mount (since most had just recently studied the Nativity), talked about the counter-cultural challenges inherent in Jesus' message, and then closed with group prayer.

But not every group of visitors has been so receptive to the gospel. Certainly not our most-recent small group: Their "leader" is a very nice guy, with the rather bizarre "English" name of Naple, who regularly, and entirely of his own initiative, goes to visit and serve the children at a nearby, special needs orphanage. [He also went well out of his way (just this past Sunday morning) to help me recovery my lost cell phone, which is a nearly-miraculous story all its own, a testimony to God's grace, for sure.] Naple was left to invite whomever he chose, so he brought with him his closest classmates, a foursome that call themselves CCND (Coco, Circle, Naple & David), also the Student Union president and 094 former-class monitor, a very lovable and outgoing girl who just uses her Chinese name, Yan (just like our very own Gao Yan), and a boy who plays guitar and has been dying to meet me and get to play music together. So there were the six of them, all pretty friendly and eager to come over. And bearing gifts of Danish butter cookies and fine, handmade chocolate truffles! A great group, as far as partying is concerned. They ate, talked, played with Phoebe; we sang and read the birth story, and they even asked some good questions, mostly about certain historical and cultural details.

I decided to be a little more upfront about who Jesus claims to be and why He is the Lord of our life. I got some scouring looks from Yan, who I think has had about enough of my thinly-veiled evangelism in class every week, but also some agreeable, or at least accepting, nods from others. When we said they could take the Bibles home with them, Naple was especially eager. Although he claims atheism as his sworn belief, he nevertheless is interested in knowing more about Christianity and said he would read the New Testament "not so much for spiritual, but as literature." [note: We've sometimes found this to translate roughly as "I'm eventually going to become a Christian, but don't bug me about it just yet," so I'm somewhat hopeful.] I guess, as I retell the story, I can say that it went pretty well, really. And after the "religious" portion was over, they still stayed and played and snacked and so on, for another hour. They must not have been too put-out by my preaching. Anyway, it was finally time for them to go, and this is where the story -- for me, emotionally, at the time -- took a sharp downturn: They all started towards the door without so much as looking back at the New Testaments left abandoned on the coffee table. What was the matter, I wondered. Are they doing this on purpose? Should I say something? I hesitated, then spoke directly, just to Naple, with my hand outstretched, "Did you want to take this?"
"Oh, of course. Thanks."
"And what about the rest of you?" I wanted to say, but didn't. And they didn't reach back to reclaim their neglected treasures. They just shuffled and shifted, putting on shoes and coats, making their way unevenly out the door and into the cold.

The party was over. And I was left clutching an armful of unwanted Bibles.

What started me writing this was the desire to share with you some of the ups, and in this case the downs, of our ministry this holiday season. What comes to mind as I try to make sense of these five students literally walking away from the gospel held out to them is Jesus, himself: Born to be rejected; betrayed by those He loved; slain for sins not His own. And what I'm left with is a prayer, that the Father would forgive them and give them another chance -- even to grant them a change of heart and a desire to seek Him -- for truly, "they know not what they do."

Unto us, a child is born; and unto us a task is given. We pray, we share, we love, we wait.
Amen.

Teacher David

God really started opening doors for our ministry about halfway through our teaching semester. We got settled into our new home, schedules settled down, and some of our "contacts" turned into real relationships. One of the most exciting for us personally is David.

David is one of Dale's co-teachers. He is also a nice, incredibly smart guy. Besides teaching English classes, he's also written his own book on linguistic philosophy (what?) and gives lectures on philosophy type stuff. On one of our first days here, David invited Dale to his small 1 room apartment to talk about spiritual things. Since that time, our family has hung out with David several times. About 2 months ago we started studying the Bible with David - pretty informally at first - by watching movies, talking about spiritual things, and reading some random passages. Recently though, David agreed to start reading through Luke and studying it together. It's exciting to study with somebody like David, but also fairly intimidating. We realize that we can never outwit David or offer him half-baked answers to real, complicated problems. Instead of trying to reason him to faith, we're simply going rely on love and God's Spirit. We plan to hang out with David, let our family influence him, and love him in extra godly ways. Then as he reads through Luke we'll point out some things, but mostly just depend on the Spirit to open David's heart and draw him closer to Jesus.

Please pray that God will open David's heart, push past his intellectual pride, and show him how much he needs Jesus. And pray that we'll have the wisdom to not really on our wisdom, but on God's transforming power and love.

Good Soup and Good News

We had Winnie, a girl from southern Guangdong province, and Vicki, a girl from Chongqing, come over last night and cook some wonderful food that they miss from their homes. Winnie spearheaded two delicious soups: one made of pork soup bone and one made of chicken. They were both really delicious and healthy. The broth is dense and nutritious, cooked with the meat, vegetables and potent little Chinese medicinal things. Vicki cooked some tasty cabbage with garlic and a spicier dish that was sort of a Sichuan-style take on curry. All of it was super delicious and we had a great time cooking, talking and eating. Then, we had some time of reading together from the book of Luke and talking about the birth of Jesus. We gave each of them a bilingual New Testament, which they were both really happy and excited to get. Vicki mentioned to us that she has already studied the Bible a few times with a small group of girls, so we have high hopes that she might become a really good disciple. Pray that these girls will read the Word, that they will meditate on it, be willing and ready to discuss it with us, and that they will be able to share what they learn with others.

Dipping into the Word

This season we will be having several small holiday parties, and we will have snacks and tea, sing songs about Jesus, read the birth story from the Bible, and give every attendee a New Testament of their own as a gift. Our first little party was last week, with Justin, Lonny, Xiaoli and Liyuan. We really enjoyed this little time of friendship, singing, food, and discussing Jesus' arrival into this world. They did too. They sang quite well, actually, and they really loved tasting the food, and thought ranch dip was so exotic. It was the first time any of them had ever tasted it. They loved dipping the broccoli and cherry tomatoes into it, of course, but also the Chips Ahoy! We are praying for all of them, that they will read the NTs they received and be eager to come back and discuss more about what we have shared with them. Pray that the seed will grow and flourish in someone's heart.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of those American holidays that we cannot let pass without celebrating.  Unfortunately, we do not get off work in China for Thanksgiving.  So we had to wait until the weekend to get together.  

We had a great thanksgiving celebration.  There was an abundance of food.  We had Turkey, chicken, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, broccoli salad, deviled eggs, broccoli casserole, dressing. macaroni and cheese, scalloped potatoes, glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, apple pie, pumpkin pie, brownies, no-bake cookies, peanut butter cookies, punch, apple cider, and other drinks. ( I think that was everything)

desserts

Lots of people enjoying food and a good time together.  

There were about 30 people in our apartment at one time. Phew!  

We are thankful; we are truly blessed!

Hallie the star

I mentioned in a previous post, that Hallie was in a commercial.  The commercial was filmed over two days.  The days were very long.  We arrived at the first location around 6:30 am and were not finished until 9 pm the first day and  about 5 pm the second day.  Hallie was great.  She got up early and did not complain.

The production director is a Chinese born Canadian living in China.  The camera guy or filming director was from New Zealand.  The main director working for Turner (CNN) was from Singapore and spoke English with a British accent.


The commercial will be shown on CNN in the US and Europe.  It will be about a family visiting Hangzhou on vacation.  It should be on very soon.

It takes a big crew of people to shoot the video for a 30 second commercial.

Hallie on a boat on West Lake with some of the crew and her  "parents".

Wherever they were filming, lots of people took pictures.

Hallie's "parents" taking a picture of their girl.

Simulated sun set.

 

Our Super star!

trick or treat

The Chinese do not really celebrate Halloween.  Like Christmas, Halloween is starting to catch on here.  But it is not really a big deal.  However, for my kids it is a very big deal. It is difficult to get good costumes or even the stuff to make a good costume, so I have to plan far in advance.

I got the stuff for the girls' costumes this summer while we were in the states.  I did not get anything for Liam.  Luckily I found the idea and directions to make this spider costume on the Internet.  Liam thought it was cool, and I could get the stuff to make this costume here!

Eryn was a princess.  She was going to be Rapunzel, but decided that she did not want to wear a wig.  I am glad she told me before I made the wig.

Hallie was Big bird.  The feathers were  boas that I bought at a fabric store in the US

Hallie was big bird and her best friend Bliss was Elmo.  (I made Elmo's hat too)  Jon helped.

Bliss, Hallie, Eryn, Carissa, and Liam ready to go trick-or-treating.

Margaret brought over several kids to all go trick or treating together.  This is not a normal Chinese activity, but she told several families to be ready for us.

I am thankful that the kids were able to celebrate and have a good time with their friends.

pumpkins

Every year in October, we look for pumpkins that actually look like pumpkins.  This year, we were able to find three small orange (and round) pumpkins.  

When we cut them open, they looked like real pumpkins too!

Hallie actually carved her own pumpkin this year!

Here are the finished products!

And here they are all lit up!  They molded in a week--I did not take a picture of that.  

Rays and Pryors visit

I am very behind on my blogging.  There have just been too many things going on the last couple of months!  I am going to try to catch up over the next day or so.  I will probably flood the blog.  Don't forget to scroll down and read the entries from other team members.

Back in October, the Rays and Pryors came to visit China.  We had the opportunity to do some sight seeing with them.

That is a big group of kids!  Poor Liam, he was the only boy!  

We went to a temple.  I know visiting temples is a great way to see the culture, but frankly this makes me feel uncomfortable.  It is just so sad to actually see people worshiping the idols!

I am happy that the Rays got to witness Jane (middle) being baptized.  It was really  a special day.

I really liked seeing the men here.  Please continue to pray for the husbands of the ladies that are studying and worshiping with us.

Guest Blog: the Russells

This past week, Marti and Ray Russell from Clear Creek were visiting China. I asked them to write something about how they saw China.  We have been here long enough that we do not see it as other people do.  Ray wrote this before he left our house.  They continued their adventure by taking to a train to ShaoXing, staying a couple of days, and then taking another train to Shanghai.  They are at a hotel in Shanghai right now and will fly home tomorrow evening.  You should ask them about their trip!

Here's the guest blog:

This week my wife Marti and I have had the unique experience of spending the week in Haungzho. As our week with the Davis and Hardin families come to an end Jennifer asked me to write down some thoughts and reactions to our first time in China. The first thing I would like to express is our gratitude to both families for allowing us to intrude their homes to experience what life is like. They have been so gracious and loving to us while we have been here. Now to the experience....

First, China is very different from what we imagined, it is full of life and is very modern in many ways. It is not however at the same level as we are when it comes to toilet hygiene. That may have been our biggest challenge when in public. Another challenge is of course the language, in many countries you are able to function through reading text or finding an English speaking individual, China is not one of those places. The language is so different that it is very hard to get where you need to be without a base knowledge of Chinese. We also realized the modern amenities we take for granted like clothes dryers and dishwashers, these things make our lives so easy and the lives of the families here in China so much more difficult. The final thing we have notice on the negative side is the second hand smoke! China has not received the news that smoking will kill you yet and they do quite a bit of indoor smoking!

On the positive side, the food is outstanding! From the first morning where Jon took us to street a vendor the eating experience has been fabulous! The food is full of flavor and so very healthy, it is also very different from American Chinese food. I was also able to go to class with Jon and Josh this week which was a great. They both allowed me to to answer questions and ask questions Of the students who were so excited to speak to a 'real' American! Also I was given a Chinese name meaning 'so very handsome' much to Jon's chagrin. These students were fun to interact with and I was even given a demonstration of real Chinese hip hop dancing, if only I had thought to video!

Finally, is it so very obvious to both of us that God is at work through the team here. The study I was able to experience was amazing and the believers here truly want to serve and follow. God is blessing these families and the work they are doing here in China!

Thanks for sharing Ray.  We had a great time with you!

Blind Massage

Joy is growing bigger and heavier and we have to climb up to the sixth floor. She likes to wiggle around and tries to slip down from our arms to climb the stairs on her own. It’s a receipe for back pain. GaoYan’s back muscles tightened up to where she could not move. When she walked pain shot through her back and legs.

Some ladies in the neighborhood had taken GaoYan, just a week earlier, to a blind massage therapist. We gently eased into the car and went back again. Across from the market you turn right into a little alley then make a left into a tiny littler alley. The assistant saw us limping along, a surprised look came to his face, and he ran to open the door. “Slowly, slowly, take it easy.” GaoYan sat down on the massage table, and I tried to help take her jacket off. “No, no. Let her do it,” the assistant stopped me.

Then the Therapist entered the room. He had served in the army as a massage therapist. His sunglasses and hair cut reminded me of Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Very confidently he moved around never feeling for tables or bumping into anything. The attitude in the shop was strict and organized. The Therapist went right to work strongly massaging GaoYan’s back.

“Yes, the pain is right there. Will I be able to walk today?”
“Yes,” the Therapist grabbed the opposite side of the table for leverage and drilled his elbow into GaoYan’s back as if intending to break up a chunk of concrete. GaoYan screamed out in pain. “Your back is cold. You don’t have enough 气 (energy flow) in your body.” His life size picture advertisement looked like a kung fu master. Massaging her knees he observed “You have a cold. Are your knees sour?”
Finally, the assistant held down her legs while the Therapist held her shoulders and twisted GaoYan’s back in the direction of those curly slides at the playground. “Pop, Pop.” The Therapist announced “好 (Good)” and waved his hand partly like a military salute and partly like I’ve healed you and I’m finished with the massage.

The massage lasted nearly an hour. GaoYan rested a lot, moved slowly, and her muscles were tight for several more days, but no more severe pain. I’m thankful to have my Sweetie up moving around again.