Visiting the Old Homestead

One big to-do item before moving to the US for our family was going back to Jingzhou, Hubei. Seth and Caleb were both born there and that's where we lived & ministered for 6 years before coming to Shaoxing. So last week we took a couple of trains and made it back to our Chinese hometown. Our little Jingzhou is all grown up now and even has its own train station!

The weather in Jingzhou is much hotter (and much colder) than Shaoxing and the weather did a real number on us while we were there. Thankfully, a swimming pool that Lisa remembered was still open and we were able to go swimming a few days.

More importantly, we were able to visit a lot of people. We went to Seth's old pre-school where he got an overwhelming reception from his old teachers and classmates.

We hung out with a few of the Christians who are still around from our time there. Lisa volunteered to adopt someone's child. We also got to eat a meal with Derek's family. His mom was sick with cancer last year and this year, but is now doing much better. When Derek asked her why she was better, she quickly smiled and said, "God!"

We also got to visit the orphanage that Lisa & the boys used to go to every week. While we were there, a group from Harding also happened to be there including Jake's sister who told us lots of embarrassing stories about him that we promised not to share in public!

On our last day in Jingzhou, we also got to eat with some of our old neighbors. Our kids all grew up together and played together in the hot Jingzhou sun for several years. Even though our kids don't remember them at all, they had a great time running around the restaurant yelling Chinese and playing together.

One last highlight was getting to eat with Rob & Hannah Johnson during the trip. They are living in our old apartment building at our old school and doing really well. They love Jingzhou, are fitting in well, and seem to be getting into a good China groove. They also cast their vote (along with the Taylor family) for Jingzhou to be the new "go to" place for future individuals from Clear Creek who want to come work in China!

We've got a lot of other stuff to do before heading back to the US, but it was great to re-visit our China home and kind of close out this chapter of our lives.

Friday Night Ladies Children Study

On Friday night, we now have eight moms coming to the study. We have added two additional members, Tongtong’s mom and YiYi’s mom. Grace, Linda, and GaoYan take turns leading the ladies studies. In May, we have been studying a Bible based parenting book call “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by Tedd Tripp translated to Chinese. It is a very good book. It teaches parents not just to correct the behavior of a child, but to lead and correct the heart. It reminds parents that our children will either believe in God or worship the idols of a material world. Their acknowledgement of God and relationship with God will shape their view towards everything. The book used the example of Joseph. He was sold as a slave by his brothers. He was in prison and forgotten by his friend. However, he did not turn bitter and hateful. Joseph knew that God was with him everywhere. He forgave his brothers. All the moms are amazed by the knowledge of the Bible. YiYi’s mom went home and read Matthew 5-7. TongTong’s dad said to TongTong’s mom, “I see a change in you. You have been a better wife to me and better mom.” We are all encouraged by the Friday night Bible study and see God’s hand working in our group.

Children's Day at the Little Sheep Church

XiLe MaMa invited us to the Little Sheep Church for June 1 Children’s Day celebration. The Little Sheep Church meets in a small movie studio among renovated warehouses in northern Hangzhou. It is a really cool place to visit. I’m guessing there were at least 500 people all packed in. Their church had prepared well. Attendants helped park cars in the little alleys around the warehouses. A line of people welcomed us at the door clapping and saying “Jesus loves you.” Each child received a gift bag of toys and snacks. Four hosts played games on the stage with kids and performed a short drama about surrendering your own objective to stop and help others. Finally the celebration ended with praise and worship songs. Caleb loved it. Joy sat back with me and GaoYan, but she had fun eating snacks and wearing the glow in the dark glasses.

Our new apartment

I wanted to make another video of our apartment and I wanted the kids to help.  Hallie did not want to be on camera this time, so she offered to be the camera girl.  Eryn and Liam show you around.  We filmed some of this weeks ago. Hallie also did the editing.  When the video was finished it was 9 minutes long.  That is too big to be uploaded to the blog or to Facebook, but it is ok on Youtube.  So here is the link to the video of Youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtqR4KEwy4E

In the video, the shower doors look really dirty and there are still some boxes to unpack.  But if I waited until everything was perfect, I would never get anything finished.  I hope the video does not make you too motion sick--Hallie swings the camera around a little bit.  You could always come see us in person. We will see you all in a few weeks.