Peach Blossoms & Other Beautiful Things

I guess this is why we're good friends and teammates with the Clarks. They just posted about the beautiful weather, which is just what I was gonna do.

After two months of rain and cold, the sun has finally come out and God has given us a great spring! One of my unofficial rules for life is to have a half-day retreat by myself once a month. Usually I try to go to some natural place to walk around, be in nature, and get in touch with the Creator. I missed a few months because I was so busy and the weather was so "not-retreat-friendly", so I'm making up for it by going out every Thursday lately!

When we lived in Jingzhou I was usually limited to walking out among the farms and talking to old farmers (which was very cool!). In Shaoxing though, I'm finding lots of beautiful parks and mountains to visit. In Chinese parks, the key is to wade your way past the huge crowds in the front of the park to find the beautiful places in the back of the park that the mob never makes it to.

Two weeks ago I visited the Orchid Pavilion along with 1000 middle school students. It initially had TROUBLE written all over it as I had to bob and weave my way through 30 minutes of giggly, uniformed, young Chinese zombie crowds shouting "Hello!", "Welcome to CHEENA!", and "I love you, foreigner!". When I finally made it past the crowd I found a great mountain with a stream, caves for exploring (until my camera & flash battery died!), and a bamboo forest for a great nap.

Last week I went to Hou Shan for what was proudly called the 17th annual Peach Blossom Festival. This park was slightly less impressive with only 400 middle school students, but still amazing with lots of wildflowers, peach trees, a mountain, cool rock formations, and even a small waterfall.

Going to these places is lots of fun, but it also helps fill me up spiritually and make me feel alive. It's a lot easier to wrangle up conversations with random quiet students when I'm overflowing with energy and praise for my God. We're thankful to live in such a great place and thankful to be able to see His goodness in so many ways.

p.s. There are a lot more pictures of the Peace Blossom Extravaganza and Hou Shan at our Flickr page.