Halloween 2013

This year for Halloween, we were able to go to two different Halloween parties!  The kids were really excited about them.
While we were in the States this summer the kids decided what they wanted to be for Halloween, and I was able to buy the appropriate clothing.  Liam and Hallie wanted to be ninjas, and Eryn said she wanted to be an artist.  I bought Liam and Hallie some black clothing and black scarves to wrap their head and face.  They can wear clothing even when they are not dressed as a ninja.  Eryn just needed a painting smock (an adult shirt I bought at Goodwill) and a beret.  She had a blast painting her shirt!

The first party was at Jon's school.  It was ok.

Liam as the blue-eyed Ninja

Eryn as the excited artist

Hallie discovered, it is hard for a ninja to sip a drink while in costume

Some foreigners invited us to the second party.  Annie told me it was a party for her church group.  This party was also very close to our house.  It turns out that it was in a villa (house) where the local LDS (Mormon) groups meets.  They are really nice people and we had a good time.  The kids got to spend some time with some other foreign kids.  This group meets at the same time we do on Sunday morning.  We have run into some of them as we are leaving to go eat after our worship. Some time I will tell the story of how we met these folks and got invited to the party.

As part of the party, the kids went trick-or-treating (in different rooms of the house).  They got a respectable amount of some good (American) candy.

We all had a really nice time visiting with (mostly) Americans and meeting new people.

The kids are already talking about what they want to be for Halloween next year.

"pumpkins" the kids and I made for the foreign party

Witches fingers (cookies)

The kid's candy haul on Hallie's Bed

This is the group from the party.
Can you find us?  Hallie is almost hiding behind Jon

Pizza with Caleb's Teacher Wang

It was our great honor to welcome Caleb’s Teacher Wang and her daughter to our house to eat pizza. In China, when the teacher comes to visit, your house needs to be spotless and everyone on their best behavior. It feels like the president is coming. Teacher Wang has been a teacher 26 years and we are thankful for Caleb to have such a patient Chinese teacher. Teacher Wang’s daughter spent a year studying fashion design in New York City and developed a taste for pizza. She loved it, while Teacher Wang smiled and pretended to eat the pizza. Funny, Joy was not shy to sit in teacher’s Wang’s lap while we played a game. GaoYan did not hold back in sharing our Christian belief with Teacher Wang and her daughter. We prayed before eating. Teacher Wang’s daughter lives in Shanghai, so we talked about some church groups she could visit. Teacher Wang told us Caleb’s classmates are planning such and such activity on Sunday. We would like join the activity, but we go to worship God on Sundays.

What Ministry Should Be

Sometimes my ministry veers off track to organizing people, hoping for a good turn out, maybe a little stressful trying to make more people happy. I felt refreshed to read this essay from my student named Jo describing her grandmother, a unique person in her family.

I have never seen a person more smart than my grandmother in my life. Although she even never went to primary school, she is almost a goddess on the land who can solve all the problems of her neighbors. Every afternoon, I can always see “someone” in her house. They usually come with deep wrinkles between their eyebrows, and they are easily bursting into tears while they are speaking. My grandmother seldom breaks in and only looks at their eyes sincerely. Then instead of giving suggestions from “the old,” she will end up their meeting with a pray. However, the ones who come with sorrow and worry always go back home at a brisk pace. I was so surprised at her “super-power of comfort,” so I poured all my questions. She smiled and said, “Actually I did nothing. What I do are only two things. First, prepare a hot tea and a hankerchief before the meeting. Second, listening. Then I will tell all the things what I heard from people to the Almighty. He will do something for his people.” My grandmother is a devout Christian who devoted all her life to help others, and in turn, she gains respects from others. From her great deed, I know it’s bad to give advice to other at random. Usually listening is more important than suggestion. Now, I become a good listener of my friends.

Listening and “telling all the things what I heard from people to the Almighty” who loves us. This is what ministry should be.

Moving a couch

The other day, we looked out the window on the back balcony and noticed some ropes hanging down from the roof.  We looked out and saw some men preparing to hoist up a big and heavy looking couch.

They wrapped the 

couch and tied some ropes to it.  They used a bright red blanket to protect the sofa.

Then they pulled the couch up using a pulley system attached to the roof.  

The couch made it's way slowly up through the air, past our windows. 

This was an interesting distraction on an otherwise busy but uneventful school day.

We were not the only ones that stopped what they were doing to watch the couch make it's way up!

Tidal bore

One of the great things about our new apartment is that we have a fantastic view of the Qiantiang river. It is nice to sit on the balcony and watch the river.  In the evenings, when the weather is nice, we like to take walks along the river. 

The river empties into a bay, and the unusual shape of this creates the world's largest tidal bore. You don't know what a tidal bore is?  Well, I did not either.  Basicly, during the high tide, the ocean backs up into the river. In October, this causes a rather large wave. " The tide rushing into the river mouth from the bay causes a bore which can reach up to 9 metres (30 ft) in height, and travel at up to 40 km per hour (25 miles an hour). [The bore is] known locally as the Silver (or Black) Dragon." Wikipedia

We knew it was the time of the year that the bore happens, but we did not know exactly when it was.  For a few days, we had been seeing people show up along the river int he late afternoon. Then on the biggest day, there was a huge crowd.

We went up to the top floor of our building to watch.  At first we just watched out the window, then we made our way to the roof.

Can you see the bore coming?  It is that wave across the river.

 Here you can see the wave breaking along the banks.

The noise you hear in the video is the wind and someone's AC near where we were standing.  You can see the wave breaking on the far side of the river.

Some years the bore is much bigger, and it is much higher at different places along the river.  It was nice to be able to see this without having to be in the huge crowd.

mountain

October 1st, is Chinese National day (kind of like our July 4th).  Most businesses and schools have a week off.  It is a great time to recharge you batteries and take in a little traveling or sightseeing.  Of course, since the entire country is also on holiday, many scenic and tourist spots are very crowded.  We usually avoid West Lake at this time of the year!

Josh and Yan organized a short trip up a local mountain.  It wasn't exactly crowded, but there were more people climbing this mountain than usual.  

We walked up hundreds of stairs through some nice trees.  

This was the view from the top.  Can you see West Lake?  We took some pictures from the top of the mountain.  Maybe Josh will have a picture of our group.  Then we walked back to a (mostly) deserted pavilion.  There we sang a few songs and prayed for this city and God's work this coming year.

After we climbed down from the mountain, we ate a meal together at our beloved "round restaurant". (This mountain is close to our old apartment).

Will you continue to pray for the city of Hangzhou and our involvement in the Lord's work here?

Typhoon Fitow and flooding

On October 7th, we were hit by a typhoon.  A typhoon is just a hurricane, but they call them typhoons if they develop in the western part of the Pacific Ocean.  We experience some weather from a typhoon almost every year.  This year, our province was hit pretty hard by typhoon "Fitow".  It did not storm too badly in Hangzhou, but it rained a ton!

It started raining on Sunday and rained all day and all day on Monday.

Jon went into work Monday morning.  After he got there, the boss called and told everyone to go home.  So Jon came back.  It was raining pretty hard, the wind was picking up, and some places were already starting to flood.  This is what he looked like when he came in.

He had to walk/wade through some flooding, and his umbrella did not make it.

We stayed in the rest of the day and on Tuesday, but on Wednesday, Jon went into town to the school.  He took the bus, but the bus only took him so far, and not the normal route.  Once he got off the bus, he walked about a block and then took these pictures!

I heard it rained 8 inches in about 24 hours. In less than a week, all the water was gone and things were mostly normal.