Baby Bird

GaoYan's Dad is like a big kid. He found a baby bird that fell out of its nest. GaoYan’s Dad saved the baby birds life, because a neighborhood cat would have eaten it for lunch. So Caleb, Joy, GaoYan's Dad and all of us have been feeding the bird grasshoppers for the past week. Caleb and Joy take turns carrying the bird on a stick walking through our neighborhood to a grassy place where we catch grasshoppers. Living in our neighborhood four years now, we have kind of become like we know who we want to talk to and pass on by the other folks. With this baby bird we are talking to everybody. “Look at those kids carrying a bird on the stick.” “Isn’t it going to fly away?” “What kind of a bird is it?” “What does it eat?” GaoYan's Dad freezes little bits of meat on a fishing line, then at night catches crawdads from a creek to feed the baby bird. If you have a flashlight you can shine the light right down to the bottom of the creek and see the crawdads crawling. One night the flashlight ran out of battery. Three students came by trying to catch crawdads for their pet turtle. They had a really bright light, but no meat and fishing line. So GaoYan and her Dad worked together with the three students and caught loads of crawdads that night. Caleb and Joy really love the entertainment and responsibility. Caleb and Joy even fight less with each other since the baby bird has been around. I thought we should call it Larry Bird, Caleb calls it Spiderman, and Joy calls it Baby Jesus.

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

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.

Parenting

Discipleship is complex, because people are complex. It's like parenting. I knew that, even before becoming a parent. I knew that disciples were my kids.  But after having a child, it's clearer. Your disciples swell your heart with happiness and a good kind of pride when they take their shaky, but amazing, steps of faith. Your disciples worry you when they enter seasons of doubt or depression. You hurt for them when they face temptation. You rejoice for them, and breathe a sigh of relief, when they fight off that temptation, and yes, then you sleep better at night. You see choices they are making that you wish they wouldn't, but sometimes...they just won't take your word for it. They have to learn things themselves. And sometimes we agonize over how to "raise" them. We blame ourselves sometimes, for the weaknesses we see in them, and that hurts. What do we instill in them, exactly? Distill our faith to its essences, and what is most important? It is this that we hope we have passed on. We are always trying to get in one more lesson, connect them to one more Christian that might help mentor them, emphasize one more scripture.

Like with parenting, there are opportunities for giddy joy. We felt like we couldn't stop smiling the day that our disciple, Wang Hao, met and was encouraged by one of the Taylors' disciples, Derek. Wang Hao's victories are ours. We also felt such a sense of satisfaction when he decided, of his own accord, to attend a Christian retreat in Shanghai, and came away refreshed and strengthened.

The highs and lows can be roller-coaster-like, but God's truth reassures us that it is He who called them in the first place. It is He who cleansed them and instilled His own Spirit in them. He loves each precious one He calls more than we have the capacity to. He can and does minister to their hearts. If I am taken from this earth, even, their relationship with Him is something eternal. It exists apart from me, and is maintained by God, thank God.

What a blessing it has been to serve God in His ministry to the Chinese. And what a joy to know that when my plane takes off in 20 days, God will still be doing His work in countless big and small ways in China.

Studying with Maggie

I am amazed at the way that God opens doors. Often, in fact, there is a door to a person's heart that can be opened by no one but Him. I have been humbled by this lately while ministering to my English teacher friend, Maggie.

We have been friends with her almost the whole time we have lived in Shaoxing. When we met her she was quite pregnant, and we invited her up to pass on some outgrown baby clothes to her. We kept hanging out, and these two years we have done a lot together and helped each other out. I knew she was a good friend, and any time I had a good chance to bring up God or the Bible, I did so, but with little hope. I figured she would just be a friend and never develop interest in spiritual things, like so many adult friendships here turn out. Mostly, we just talked about normal daily stuff. I continued just enjoying time with her with little to no hidden agenda.

But thru a series of events, she began experiencing difficulties with her family, her mother in law in particular. I gave her a study Bible and asked her to read the book of Ruth and tell me what she thought. It's still kind of a mystery to me what is going on in her mind, but about a month later, she was ready to visit a church, she said, and was excited to study the Bible with me in my home. We had some good studies about Jesus life and teachings. She studies a bit, and then stares off into space for a moment, utterly lost in thought. It is hitting her in a really deep place. It's an amazing gift from God to get to see this, which I didn't expect to see...