Silk

At one time, the whole process of how silk is made was a heavily guarded secret in China, and anyone giving away information about that mysterious process would be considered a treasonous enemy of the State and duly punished. Making silk happened in China only, and foreigners were not allowed access to any information about the diligent little creatures that were in fact responsible for the front-end of the process, namely, silkworms. Not so, of course, today. Silk is enjoyed worldwide, and the process is celebrated and detailed all over China, for example, in the museum we visited one time in Suzhou. And what's more, it even happened that over this May holiday, we Clarks were chosen by Phoebe's preschool teacher as the Keepers of the Silkworms. So, what goes into such a lofty assignment? Well, mulberry leaves, and lots of them! We brought home a whole plastic sack stuffed full of the leaves (the worms eat nothing else), and were instructed to refrigerate the leaves and keep supplying them to the little munchers. They eat quickly, the leaf vanishing before your eyes, and if you draw close you can hear it happening: crunch,  crunch, crunch. They have visibly gotten fatter over the weekend, and they periodically molt their skin, which Phoebe's teacher said is what is used to start the process of silk-making.

As we move into May, it becomes clear to us that we are winding down,  shedding our skin, too, and about to move on to new adventures. It is a bit terrifying, but exciting, and we look forward to what God has got in store for us, but this place from which we are moving on is dearly loved,  and it is home. We feel loved and accepted here, with our own place in the community in which we fit and to which we belong. Jason's teaching has been giving him such good chances to witness, we have built friendships that are growing and taking on more meaning, and recently, Jason has gotten up at six am a couple of times to go outside and meet with the early morning diligentsia for an English practice club, "the English Union". There he has also had good opportunities to share the gospel. He received this sweet card last week when he attended. The words are endearing, and express the heart of the Chinese with whom we work. Just another bittersweet reminder that we have been accepted and loved by these people, and the skin that we will soon shed is made of pure silk.

What Ministry Looks Like

When I grew up I heard stories about Gene Arnold and others slicing through the Iron Curtain, smuggling Bibles under cars, and having high-speed shoot-outs through the Swiss Alps. I heard tales of the Terry family in the Philippines and even had a wooden toy version of those crazy, colorful taxis they ride there. Most of those were stories I actually heard, but I may have made up some of them while I was daydreaming during the sermon (not telling you which preacher!).

After several years of experience as a "missionary", I've come to realize what ministry really looks like for our family. Sometimes we eat crazy food. Sometimes there's a slightly wild adventure. But usually we wash dishes. And go walking, bake cookies, etc. Now don't get me wrong, there are Bible studies, serious conversations, baptisms, and high-speed shootouts. But more and more I'm learning that the real heart of ministry and the fuel that gets it started is loving service. Lisa excels at genuinely loving people and then serving them in a really selfless way. And it just naturally leads to people who are willing to listen to her and who are eager to open up to her. It's tempting to want to jump right into the "real" ministry of teaching, preaching, evangel-eaching. But Jesus came to serve and love. He waited 30 years before getting to the "real" work. And even then he focused most of his time on those people to whom he was the closest. When I'm in too big of a hurry or just too uncaring to patiently love and listen, it usually results in me not really viewing a person with God's eyes of love, but instead as one more piece in my own game of "Be a Good Missionary".

I used to spend so much time preparing the perfect lessons or designing a "home-run" worship meeting, but my focus (and family) has changed a lot. Rather than "doing" ministry in a really slick, professional way I'm putting more emphasis on "being" the kind of ambassador Jesus wants. There often are no Bible studies or conversion without the hours spent cooking, walking & talking, or washing dishes. To remind us of that we have this Celtic poem up in our kitchen:

Thank you Lord for tasty foods
And the company of friends and family.
     After such times Lord,
Bless the washing of these dishes,
     That they may be clean and ready for another meal,
To be used to break bread and share Your word.

Bibles for Everyone!

As mentioned earlier, I (Jason) have been blessed this semester to be assigned by the school to teach a class about the Bible -- which in and of itself is amazing and blog-worthy.

Of course, the school didn't provide actual Bibles for the students to read. That was left up to me! And well, since I have well over 200 students (mostly freshmen English majors) and since Bibles are pretty expensive and difficult to obtain (especially in bulk), I was somewhat unsure how to proceed.

Long-story-short, it took some time, plenty of research and communication, plus quite a heap of money (nearly $1800 USD / 11,000 RMB), but -- thanks to the generosity of those at Clear Creek -- each of my students now have their own Bible: a nice, complete, bilingual edition, to have and to keep -- at no cost to them!
 All of the students were very thankful and excited just to see and touch a real Bible -- and now they actually own a Bible!

Some background:
Bibles are printed in China by the thousands (more Bibles are printed in Nanjing than in any other place on earth) but they are largely unseen and therefore "unavailable" to the average person. Bibles are not sold in regular bookstores -- only inside registered public churches -- so most folks simply never run across one and have little idea exactly where or how to buy one should they ever desire to do so. Again, the Bible is available online these days (yes, even in China), but most folks would never think to look it up, so even though it's technically there, they aren't really aware of it.

Our study is well under way, having now covered the major stories of Genesis and Exodus (creation, the fall, Noah, Abraham, Moses) and moving this week into the Gospels of Jesus.

Lives are being, and will continue to be, touched by this special opportunity -- given by God as a sort of "going away" gift, it seems.

Thank you, once again, for your generosity and support of this mission. God bless you. 

Here's the stack shortly after its arrival. Those boxes are heavy, let me tell you! It was quite a project to purchase, receive, and then distribute them -- but well worth the effort!

You Don't Have To Be Afraid

Walking through the school gate one of the security guards called out, “Wei, Wei.”
I did not have Caleb or Joy with me so I had time to talk. This guard’s uniform looked sharp, more official like maybe he was a manager of the university security?
“Do you still organize a church group meeting?”
Um, ba, da, um, um.
“Don’t you host a Bible study?
听不懂 I don’t understand.
You live up there on the hill in 水木清华 apartments right? (I had just read Peter denying Christ three times, so I better fess up.) Yes just with some friends in our neighborhood.
“I know. How many people do you have?”
At most 10, all are our neighborhood friends. No students.
“I know. You came to the 留下LiuXia church with your wife 高艳 a few years ago.”
I asked “Do you go to the LiuXia church? Do you believe in Jesus?”
“Yes I do believe in Jesus,” the security guard replied. “God bless your Bible study group.”
“Thank the Lord,” I said. “I was really afraid of you asking all those questions.”
“If you believe in Jesus, you don’t have to be afraid,” the sharp dressed security guard assured.

Work It On Out Now

Since deciding that this is our last semester in China, we've been adjusting the way that we spend some of our time in our ministry. Good missionaries will tell you that good missionaries start working themselves out of a job the first day they arrive in the field. Good missionaries will also tell you that good missionaries don't refer to themselves as good missionaries. :-) The idea is that we as missionaries will one day be leaving and the ministry we do should always be done with an eye towards our inevitable departure. In the past, we've fallen victim to building church groups around ourselves and even causing people's faith to depend too much on our presence. Then when we left, those groups and those people's faith came crumbling down.

So when we arrived in Shaoxing we made some tough, sometimes counter-intuitive decisions about the way we were going to work in order to make it easier for us to transition out in a smooth way. We didn't start our "own" group, but instead chose to work with existing Chinese groups. We also didn't allow any of our friends & contacts to isolate themselves, but have encouraged them and sometimes forced them to interact with other believers in order to help them belong to a real Family and not just ours.

And during this last semester we've been trying to further cement people's relationships with other people and get them more deeply involved in local groups. Almost all of the young Christians (people like Shirley, Shao Fang Ying, and others) that we've worked with have been able to make some good, Christian friends. And most of the other students that we've been studying with (like Hawk, Cici, and others) have also been able to connect with other groups who will be staying here after we leave. In the meantime, we're continuing to hang out with the same people we've been discipling and loving in order to help them as much as possible while we're here. But we're also happy to see them spending more time with other people and finding other ways to continue in their journey of faith. There are still a few newer friends who seem very promising and may be able to make some quick progress in their faith, so we plan to study some with those individuals. But for the most part, we're in a season of transition - not just for our family, but also for the people we've known here.

Please keep our friends in your prayers - ask that they'll be able to build long-lasting relationships with others here in Shaoxing. Also ask God to continue putting them in situations & meeting people who will draw them closer to God and more committed to life in his Kingdom.

Some more Candy

    I don't have much to add about what Josh already told you about Candy, except that the majority of her actual Bible studying was done by other Chinese christians. Taffy started studying with her but then the group on Tuesday night pretty much took over.  We are very excited to see our Chinese friends teaching others.

Here Shane is taking Candy's confession.

 Here he is baptizing her! 

Afterwards, he was pretty excited!  It is a blessing to see others on fire for the Lord!

Candy

Candy was baptized back in the middle of March. I was surprised because Candy has been away in Ningbo practice working as a senior student, and we have not seen her for a while. Shaquille O’Neal and Candy were high school classmates. So Shaq introduced Candy into our group because she was a university student at the same university as Taffy O’Neal. Taffy was an American studying Chinese last year. Candy and Taffy studied the Bible a lot one on one and at the Hardin’s home Sunday mornings. Candy and Taffy also took part in the mid-week studies with the JiuLian group. When Candy decided she was ready to be baptized she contacted the JiuLian group. Shane was asked to baptize Candy. That is the first time Shane has baptized anyone so he was nervous about saying the right words. Shane brought his friend HaiLong (Sea Dragon). HaiLong spoke up and said Shane has been encouraging him for two years to take part in our worship and Bible study. HaiLong feels, “Now something is stirring inside me to believe in God.” Many people came to Candy’s baptism including Bill Gates, who we hope will decide to give his life to Jesus and get baptized soon. Did you catch all those connections? Praise God for His work in the body of Christ.