Professor John of Economics, Zhejiang University lives on the first floor below us. John does not own a car. He and his wife grow their own greens in the garden. Each evening he listens to English while jogging in the neighborhood. When he feels a little down, John sings out traditional Chinese songs very loud to feel happy. He asked me to help him improve his spoken English to prepare for a three month study of city governments in Italy.
John asked, “How did you spend time with your family when you were a child?”
“Well, we went to church a lot.”
John wondered, “Were you interested in this topic?”
“Yes. I remember as a child it was very encouraging to sing songs and pray in a church group of 250 people. We would go to church three times a week Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.”
John doubted, “Just go to the church and pray so much?”
“Yes. Also every summer we would go to Little Prairie Bible Camp. Our church would do a lot of work to prepare for camp. Our whole family would help on Saturdays. Mom would volunteer to be a cook. Dad and us boys helped build cabins and the bathhouse, and we would mow grass. The church worked together to maintain the church camp, which built the spiritual life of young people, which served God.”
John very impressed, “This kind of spontaneous organization is good. We don’t have it in China.”
John shifts to teacher mode, “There are two ways to organize people. First, the government organizes people by force. Second, the people spontaneously organize, because they want to. Our government does not want people to organize spontaneously. Our government says, ‘I will organize you. Why do you want to organize yourselves?’ ”
This conversation explains why my students just sit there when I ask them to form small groups and work on a certain English activity together. Only when I go around the room and say, “You, you, and you please make a group,” do they begin speaking.
There is some spontaneous organization in China. The home worship movement is a great example, and the Lord’s power is all the more evident as Chinese brothers and sisters step up to lead.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Clarks: Baby Shower
We had our first-ever baby shower here at the house around the end of February. It was lots of fun, of course, and we received lots of great gifts for Phoebe. The first picture shows the "diaper cake" and pink cupcakes that Jenn brought over.
Next is a snapshot of the party: you can see (clockwise from bottom left) Gao Yan on the couch, Hallie standing near Cecely's mom, Cecely, Heather, Li Wen (aka "Vanderbilt") and her daughter Grace, and Jenn in the foreground on the right. All the other ladies from church (except Elaine) were also there, and Cathy and Tanner Hendrick. A good crowd!
Finally, I've included a cute picture of Cecely and I snuggling under the streamers in the dining room (decorations by Heather).
Next is a snapshot of the party: you can see (clockwise from bottom left) Gao Yan on the couch, Hallie standing near Cecely's mom, Cecely, Heather, Li Wen (aka "Vanderbilt") and her daughter Grace, and Jenn in the foreground on the right. All the other ladies from church (except Elaine) were also there, and Cathy and Tanner Hendrick. A good crowd!
Finally, I've included a cute picture of Cecely and I snuggling under the streamers in the dining room (decorations by Heather).
Monday, March 1, 2010
ShaoXing
GaoYan and I took an overnight trip to ShaoXing. We explored the stone walks following the canals all through the little city. The willow trees are just starting to sprout bright green leaves. Unlike Hangzhou, ShaoXing has so many remaining old homes with white washed walls and black clay tile roofs. Their living rooms are cleanly swept and kitchens neatly arranged. Unfortunately towering concrete apartment blocks circle around the old quarter, so GaoYan asked a group of ladies, “They are not going to tear down these houses are they?”
One lady answered, “O no! My house is safe next to this bridge. This bridge is 800 years old.”
Continuing to wander the canals, GaoYan and I stumbled on to a lion dance celebrating the lantern festival. Several hundred people had stopped to watch. A group of older men smoking cigarettes were vigorously banging on drums and crashing cymbals, while younger men were dressed in a red lion and yellow lion. A little bridge was covered in shining gold cloth and the alley was lined with ornate lanterns at each home.
One lady answered, “O no! My house is safe next to this bridge. This bridge is 800 years old.”
Continuing to wander the canals, GaoYan and I stumbled on to a lion dance celebrating the lantern festival. Several hundred people had stopped to watch. A group of older men smoking cigarettes were vigorously banging on drums and crashing cymbals, while younger men were dressed in a red lion and yellow lion. A little bridge was covered in shining gold cloth and the alley was lined with ornate lanterns at each home.
Spring Festival Visiting
After Spring Festival day there are two weeks of visiting and eating meals with friends and relatives.
1. Julia and Nieve visited from the English department bringing apples, sweet pears, and a monster bag of WaWa junk food for Caleb. We served them some home made pizza.
2. HaiBin, her husband, little boy, and in-laws invited us to eat lunch at the Hot Fish restaurant in our old neighborhood. They are moving to Beijing so we will miss them.
3. We brought chicken curry over to Cambridge’s house one night. They are also expecting a baby just a week before us. Their five year old boy suffered brain damage at birth. We are always amazed and encouraged by their love and patience. Cambridge shot off Roman candles with us on the way home.
4. A mother and daughter who attend our Friday night study invited us to their home with a big gathering of friends. They served turtle and eel. We watched the Winter Olympics and Caleb tried to run from their big black poodle.
5. DongHong invited us to his new home with a group of his friends. DongHong is the university president’s driver. He is the kind of person who shakes your hand for a long long time like you have been friends since childhood. For the past six years DongHong has been renting in a 4 square meter apartment, no kitchen, no shower for just over 10 dollars a month. DongHong is so proud of his new home.
6. Just after the snow we visited the bee keepers who live in tents at the bottom of our hill. Their teenage children were visiting, so we brought big bags of snacks. We thought we had gotten away with giving a gift, but a few days later they stopped us and gave a free jar of honey. I raced back down the hill with money to try and pay for the honey, but that turned into some polite pushing and “No No No keep your money.”
7. On the Lantern Festival we ate lunch with LiJun, the stem cell researcher, and family. They take us to fancy meals when we eat with them, so GaoYan got an expensive fruit basket and we gave some books to their son Eric. Always wanting to give more, they sent us home with Eric’s old bike for Caleb to ride.
1. Julia and Nieve visited from the English department bringing apples, sweet pears, and a monster bag of WaWa junk food for Caleb. We served them some home made pizza.
2. HaiBin, her husband, little boy, and in-laws invited us to eat lunch at the Hot Fish restaurant in our old neighborhood. They are moving to Beijing so we will miss them.
3. We brought chicken curry over to Cambridge’s house one night. They are also expecting a baby just a week before us. Their five year old boy suffered brain damage at birth. We are always amazed and encouraged by their love and patience. Cambridge shot off Roman candles with us on the way home.
4. A mother and daughter who attend our Friday night study invited us to their home with a big gathering of friends. They served turtle and eel. We watched the Winter Olympics and Caleb tried to run from their big black poodle.
5. DongHong invited us to his new home with a group of his friends. DongHong is the university president’s driver. He is the kind of person who shakes your hand for a long long time like you have been friends since childhood. For the past six years DongHong has been renting in a 4 square meter apartment, no kitchen, no shower for just over 10 dollars a month. DongHong is so proud of his new home.
6. Just after the snow we visited the bee keepers who live in tents at the bottom of our hill. Their teenage children were visiting, so we brought big bags of snacks. We thought we had gotten away with giving a gift, but a few days later they stopped us and gave a free jar of honey. I raced back down the hill with money to try and pay for the honey, but that turned into some polite pushing and “No No No keep your money.”
7. On the Lantern Festival we ate lunch with LiJun, the stem cell researcher, and family. They take us to fancy meals when we eat with them, so GaoYan got an expensive fruit basket and we gave some books to their son Eric. Always wanting to give more, they sent us home with Eric’s old bike for Caleb to ride.
Monday, February 22, 2010
She is here!!!
At about 9:48 AM this morning Phoebe Ruth Clark was born! She weighed 2.5 kg or about 5 1/2 pounds and was 50 centimeters long, or 19.68 inches. She is precious! Mom and baby seem to be doing well.
The happy family!!!
The happy family!!!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Clarks: Pregnancy Update
Here’s what has happened recently: During the early evening of Feb. 4th Cecely started to experience some moderate bleeding and we ended up spending the night in the hospital for observation. We were sent home and did fine for a few days, but again on the 9th had to rush to a nearby hospital and then be transferred by ambulance to our main hospital when a second episode of bleeding occurred. Cecely spent four days on intravenous medicines to control early contractions, which had caused placental bleeding. The doctors also administered daily steroid injections in order to speed the baby’s lung development, just in case she needed to be born right away. As it has turned out, everything has calmed down (only very slight bleeding and contractions since then) and we now expect the baby to be delivered by c-section sometime this month, although no date has been set [SEE NEWS FLASH BELOW]. For now—and from here on out—we must stay in the hospital continuously for observation and prenatal care, and through birth and recovery. Needless to say, it can get boring in here. But we are well taken care of and have had daily visitors to keep us company.
NEWS FLASH!!! The date has been set! Dr. Wang wants to perform the c-section on Monday Feb 22nd. Please pray that everything goes perfectly during the surgery, that the baby is healthy, and that Cec recovers quickly.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Clarks: Zhou Li
Zhou Li (Jo-lee) works in a massage parlor. She spends about 12 hours a day, 28 days a month washing and rubbing people's feet. As far as we know, the place she works is totally legitimate—it’s not an undercover brothel, in other words—although, that’s not to say she doesn’t deal with her share of lecherous men making inappropriate comments and unwelcomed advances.
Zhou Li’s family—her parents and daughter—live several hours away in her hometown. She was young, too young, when her daughter was born, and the man was apparently not interested in being a long-term father, so the girl is being raised by her grandparents, while Zhou Li works here in Hangzhou and sends money home.
She’s not seen her daughter in quite a while, and with only three days off work for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), she’s unable to make the trip home this year. She misses her very badly but is able to talk by telephone fairly often and reassures herself, when we ask, that her daughter is smart and cute and is doing well.
Zhou Li is excited for us to be having a daughter. When we first met her, we were still telling ourselves and others that we had no intention of having a child. Now all that has changed, and we are only days away from seeing our little girl born.
A couple days ago, Zhou Li spent one of her three vacation days riding the bus from her neighborhood in the southern part of the city all the way up here to where our hospital is located. She called and said she was on her way, but it seemed to take so long that I eventually assumed I had misunderstood her. When she finally arrived, we realized what had happened. Before coming to see us, she had gone to a supermarket nearby and bought gifts for us and the baby. She brought us large packs of strawberries, kiwis, walnuts—expensive things we would rarely buy for ourselves. She also gave us three pieces of baby clothing—two precious “onesies” and a fluffy pink jumper—all of which happened to be the same brand as what I had just bought a few days before. Really nice and attractive stuff, and somewhat costly. We figure that she must have spent at least 200 yuan (about a tenth of her monthly salary).
And all of this… the effort, the expense… for two foreigners who just happened to treat her like a person, talk to her, ask about her life—while indulging ourselves in a foot massage. All of this, despite the fact that we’ve only seen her a handful of times, only exchanged a few phone calls and text messages, and only seen her once outside of the massage parlor. All of this, despite the fact that she is not a Christian and, unfortunately, has not had even one Bible study with us yet.
This is just Zhou Li.
This is just the common amazing grace that God gives, in unexpected and marvelous ways, through surprising and unsuspecting people, to each of us day by day.
Zhou Li’s family—her parents and daughter—live several hours away in her hometown. She was young, too young, when her daughter was born, and the man was apparently not interested in being a long-term father, so the girl is being raised by her grandparents, while Zhou Li works here in Hangzhou and sends money home.
She’s not seen her daughter in quite a while, and with only three days off work for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), she’s unable to make the trip home this year. She misses her very badly but is able to talk by telephone fairly often and reassures herself, when we ask, that her daughter is smart and cute and is doing well.
Zhou Li is excited for us to be having a daughter. When we first met her, we were still telling ourselves and others that we had no intention of having a child. Now all that has changed, and we are only days away from seeing our little girl born.
A couple days ago, Zhou Li spent one of her three vacation days riding the bus from her neighborhood in the southern part of the city all the way up here to where our hospital is located. She called and said she was on her way, but it seemed to take so long that I eventually assumed I had misunderstood her. When she finally arrived, we realized what had happened. Before coming to see us, she had gone to a supermarket nearby and bought gifts for us and the baby. She brought us large packs of strawberries, kiwis, walnuts—expensive things we would rarely buy for ourselves. She also gave us three pieces of baby clothing—two precious “onesies” and a fluffy pink jumper—all of which happened to be the same brand as what I had just bought a few days before. Really nice and attractive stuff, and somewhat costly. We figure that she must have spent at least 200 yuan (about a tenth of her monthly salary).
And all of this… the effort, the expense… for two foreigners who just happened to treat her like a person, talk to her, ask about her life—while indulging ourselves in a foot massage. All of this, despite the fact that we’ve only seen her a handful of times, only exchanged a few phone calls and text messages, and only seen her once outside of the massage parlor. All of this, despite the fact that she is not a Christian and, unfortunately, has not had even one Bible study with us yet.
This is just Zhou Li.
This is just the common amazing grace that God gives, in unexpected and marvelous ways, through surprising and unsuspecting people, to each of us day by day.
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