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...

Dinner with Serenity

The first Christian student who ever came to our house in Shaoxing a couple of years ago was a girl named Serenity. When she recently found out that we were moving back to the US, she and some other girls from her student church group wanted to cook a farewell dinner for us. So last week they came over to our house and cooked for us. It was pretty special and unique because they bought all of the supplies, cooked everything by themselves, and washed dishes. They insisted that we just hang out and enjoy!

Through the evening we got to talk with the girls more, especially Serenity (above in white) and Zhou Zhou (above in blue). Serenity was just baptized last semester and Lisa's studied some with Zhou about baptism, but she's not quite ready yet. Serenity shared about her recent experiences with serving in the church and a change of heart she's had recently. Last semester she felt too busy serving and was planning on focusing more on her English studies this semester. But during the spring break, she felt moved to totally commit to serving in the church and being content with whatever God had in store for her. Since that decision, she's actually felt less busy serving in the church and she's also felt more joyful about it.

Serenity shared this experience with us because she really feels like God is leading her right now and working in her life. Even though she was sharing her own story, it really spoke to us about our future move back to the US and our need to contentedly accept God's plan for us. Serenity said that just like God asked Abraham to totally commit by offering Isaac, but ultimately had other plans, we should have the same attitude about our work & life back in the US. It was kind of surprising and really encouraging to get such advice from one of our students!

This sort of evening also really reflected our way of doing ministry. There was lots of hospitality, talking, and hanging out together. People had some fun, shared life together, and at some point during the evening the Bible was brought out in response to something that we talked about. We read and discussed in Philippians 2:13 about how God gives us the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Lisa was further reminded of God's work in Serenity a few days later. Lisa was on her way to attend a student Christian meeting on Sunday morning and she met Serenity in the teaching building. Serenity had woken up early to study some before going on to her own church meeting. A few minutes later, Lisa met five or six students walking in another direction. After talking to them, Lisa discovered that they were on their way to their "part-time jobs" where they would impersonate other students and take important tests in their place. Some of the students were ashamed to admit what they were doing, but others insisted that there was nothing wrong with helping your friends and making money at the same time (even if it is obviously wrong to all the rest of us)! Within just a few minutes, Lisa had seen a stark difference between young girls like those and Serenity.

We're really proud of young Christians like Serenity and the other girls who cooked for us. We were also honored by them and reminded of why we love this ministry so much!

Dancing

One of the fun things about moving is getting to know a new area.  The other night we went to a new area that we heard was a good place to eat and shop.  We started to walk back to our apartment and we came upon a HUGE children's playground and a large square where people were dancing.

Every evening, in public squares or open areas people with gather together and dance.  Usually it is middle aged ladies that dance, but in this place there were men and younger folks too.  I will attach two different videos so you can enjoy this  Chinese phenomenon.

Girls' trip to Shanghai

I had been telling the girls that when it got warmer we would take a day trip to Shanghai.  We got up early and took the bus to the train station and took an 8:00 am train to Shanghai.

 This is a picture of us on the train.


We planned a day of shopping and eating some things we cannot get in Hangzhou.
We rode the subway several times.  Eryn liked to stand by the pole and hang around.

 She liked to spin around the pole.

 She caught me trying to take a picture!

One of our favorite treats in Shanghai is going to 7-11 and getting a Slurppee.  These slushy treats are only 5 or 6 yuan!

We spent the day shopping, eating, and just having fun together.  We went to a Western grocery store and bought some  DrPepper.  We enjoyed these drinks on our train ride back to Hangzhou.

We saw these pretty little flowers in a small garden.  I just thought they were pretty.  Hallie took this picture with my phone.

We are blessed  that we live close enough to take a quick trip to a cool place like Shanghai.

Moving

I posted here that we found a new apartment and we were moving to a new area in the city.  We actually moved April 29.  It was a holiday so many people including Jon and Frank had a few days off.  I thought it would be a good idea to move and have a couple of days to unpack before Jon had to go back to work.  

To prepare to move, we had to get lots of boxes.  We asked at a few small grocery stores and some would just give us boxes, but one charged us 1yuan a box.  We visited that store a couple of times a day for a week or so collecting boxes.  

We needed a lot of boxes.  We have been living in China now for about 5 years.  It is astonishing how much stuff we have accumulated over that period of time.  

 Eryn and Jon had fun playing with some of the boxes one evening.

 This is a little dark, but it is the living room ready for the movers to load up.

 This used to be Eryn's room.  Jon took apart the bunk beds to make moving them easier.

It took one more truck load than it pictured, but these two trucks carried our stuff to our new apartment about an hour away. We are thankful that it did not rain.

We were very blessed to have lots of help this day.  Our ayi came by and helped finish packing, as did Shelly (Shao Li) and Jane ( Gu Wen).  When we arrived in Binjiang with the trucks, Heather and 3 other American couples helped unload the truck and carry boxes to our new home.

We are nearly totally unpacked now.  I hope to have a video of the apartment to upload the the blog by next weekend.

Now Jon has to commute a lot further to his job at the University.  Please keep him in your prayers as he tries to finish the semester and commute about 11/2 - 2 hours (one way) 3 days a week.

We are excited about the possibilities for the Lord's work here in this area and we are very thankful to be a part of it.

Some pictures from Easter

Jon and Elaine

It was a beautiful day!

Shane and Josh telling the story.

The kids started lining up to go look for eggs

off they go

Can you find the egg? The egg hiders had as much fun as the egg hunters.