I almost forgot to update the blog today. I remembered after we returned home from English corner.
We had 4 people join us for our meeting this week: Cheryl, Katherine, Mark, Sophia. We had 5 people who canceled. That's too bad. Every time our meeting starts to grow, people disappear on us. English corner had little conversation about Higher things. I got to throw a couple of things into the mix and Katherine showed up to ask some questions about paradise, but that was it. I was practically harassed tonight by a girl who felt like our kids should be attending Chinese school and taking Chinese culture classes. She felt like we were being bad parents by homeschooling. She also felt that we needed to broaden our children's horizons. As if living in Japan and then China isn't enough to broaden their horizons. She seems to have this idea that American parents don't love their children as much as Chinese parents do. Ugh. I was just bombarded with people's mistaken opinions about American families and culture. It's never been this bad at English corner before. Several times I thought about just walking away. I made it through though. If you're not up on current events, I suggest that you pick up a newspaper or check on the internet to read about the national news. Things are getting a bit crazy. I won't discuss it too much, but I will say that the recent happenings in the Ukraine coupled with the missing Malaysia flight have caused much unrest here at the university. The students are really concerned about these things, and so am I. The world has never been a safe place, but t
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This week I logged in and was surprised to see that we went from having 16 readers to having 136 readers! That's really quite amazing. I don't know where all the extra people came from, but I'm thankful all the same. I hope that everyone will continue to check in here to stay up on the latest happenings here. Sickness Last week Aolani got sick around Tuesday or so. She had some sort of stomach virus that gave her very painful stomach cramps, intense headaches, and diarrhea. She spent most of the week sleeping and didn't eat very much food. On Wednesday, we skipped English corner because she was still sick. On Thursday, I began to get sick. It hasn't been a fun week. Now Aolani is completely well, but I'm still dealing with the last few remnants of this illness. At least the stomach cramps are gone. I've never experienced cramps like that from a virus. It was very near to birth contractions except in a slightly different area and it was non-stop. I would even wake up from sleep in intense pain. Eating just made the situation worse, so I stopped eating for a day or so. That made the pains slightly less. It was really difficult to stay hydrated. I'm glad that I pushed Aolani to drink more during the time when she was sick, because when I was sick, I struggled to keep water in my system. Anyway, I dread going to class to teach today, but I'll live (I think). I've still got some small pains, but the diarrhea seems to be gone. I'm pretty sure the headaches were related to dehydration and as long as I drink A LOT of water, the headaches don't bother me. I'm still hesitant to eat. I tried to eat a little food last night after our meeting and I found that I was extremely nauseous after only a few bites. The good news is that Colonel and Cyprus didn't get sick at all during this time. I'm pretty sure that Colonel had this same illness last year when he got sick and everyone else in the house was healthy, so maybe he's immune. I'm pretty sure we contracted this illness from one of the students here. My students have been dropping like flies in class. Each week I have a new student who's out because of a headache, stomach problems, or is just sick. English Corner On Monday, March 14, we went to English corner. Not much happened for me. It was a pretty boring night. We carried on a long conversation, but there was very little opportunity to mention any higher learning stuff. Colonel said his conversations were good, so that's promising. Maybe we'll see something as a result of that. On Wednesday, I didn't attend English corner because Aolani was sick. Colonel went after his class ended at 8:50pm. He said he was bombarded with students asking where I was, so I'm guessing his conversations with folks didn't get very far on that night. Requests Colonel has a student named Jack who needs some help. Jack has been to our meeting a couple of times, but remains an unbeliever. Right now, he thinks that money is the most important thing in life. Last week, Jack had trouble concentrating in Colonel's class. Normally he's a great student, but this one day, we has very distracted. Colonel asked Jack what's going on and Jack started crying in class. He told Colonel that his father is in the hospital. Jack wasn't very clear about the problem. Maybe his father's legs are broken or were amputated, but it is clear that he can no longer work. Jack has been forced to get a part time job to provide money for his family and for his own education. He is working every day from 2:30pm - 11pm. Unfortunately, the students have classes from 2:30pm - 8:50pm, so Jack is missing a lot of his classes. As it stands, he will probably fail several classes and may have to drop out. On top of all of this, Jack is not being allowed to visit his father. He's very worried and can only talk with his father over the phone. It appears that Jack's family is trying to "protect" him from the truth of things. That's probably why Jack wasn't able to clearly state the problem with his father - he doesn't clearly understand it himself. This is a very Chinese way of handling situations. They think they're helping you by hiding the truth, but it really just causes more inner turmoil. To make matters worse, Jack has a new girlfriend (she came to our meeting with him a few weeks ago). If Jack has to drop out of school, this girl will no longer be interested in him. The Chinese girls here can be very opportunistic. If it appears that you won't be successful, educated, or have money, then they leave you for someone who has these things. This also puts stress on Jack to maintain facade that he's got things under control. Jack needs you to talk to the Father on his behalf. At this moment, Jack needs the peace of mind that only comes from the Father. He is worried, stressed, and saddened by this situation. St. Patrick's Day Class Last week, I did some classes about St. Patrick's Day. It turns out that the history of St. Patrick is based wholly in Catholicism. This is a good thing and a bad thing. I focus on the good part. This is one lesson where my students hear a lot about the Good Book and lots of higher learning things. I don't know if any of it sticks, but it's not for lack of being taught. One thing of particular interest is St. Patrick's teaching using the shamrock. If you're not familiar with it, you should check it out. After my lesson, I gave the students 2 questions. 1. We've been talking about courage this week. How was St. Patrick courageous? 2. St. Patrick is remembered for building many schools and teaching about [the Father] in Ireland. When you die, what do you want people to remember about you? I have a guy in my class named Zheng Wèn Shuang. He's very opinionated and speaks English fairly well considering he's a freshman. His listening is not always so great though. Anyway, in class he asked me the second question. I told him that I wanted to be remembered for being kind and for giving up everything to teach about the [the Father] and [the Good Book]. He asked me how I could do this and if it was very difficult. I told him that it's quite easy and that people come to my home to learn about these things. He insisted that it must be difficult. Our conversation ended there and we continue on with class as normal. After class, Zheng Wèn Shuang walked behind me as he was leaving and said in a very low voice, "I'm going to miss you Mrs. Kelly." He didn't pause to hear my response or give any sign at all that he had even spoken to me. It was very strange and actually made me worried. I couldn't stop thinking about that for the rest of the day. I had a very ominous feeling like maybe something bad was going to happen to me or to him or something like that. Of course, there's always the chance that I said to much too openly or taught too much in my class. There's also the chance that his intention didn't come across clearly with his words since he is still learning English. It could just mean that he'll miss me soon because I won't be his teacher anymore in a few months. He has admitted openly in class to having a bit of a crush on me (despite my insistence that it's not good for students to speak to their teachers in this way), so it could be related to that. I don't know what it meant, but it really gave me cause for pause. It made me re-evaluate what we're doing here and remember the risk that we're actually taking. Sometimes things seem too easy and relaxed, that we forget that there is danger and there are people who would like to have us stop doing what we're doing. At any rate, it's in the hands of the Father and I'll leave it up to Him to take care of. Weekly Meeting On Saturday, I got a text message from my old student Jasmine. She asked if she could bring a friend to our party this week. Haha. I forgot that in Jingzhou, the students often referred to our meeting as a party. It's funny how that word has finally reached us here. I told her she was welcome to bring anyone she desired to bring. On the day of our meeting, we had a very good turn out. Katherine and Jane were the first to arrive. They must have walked over together. We sat and chatted for about 20 minutes and then began to wonder where everyone else was. Eventually Jasmine showed up and she had 2 young ladies with her. Their names are Lì Lì, and Xuè Nà. Cheryl came just as we were about to start. Then Mark showed up after we'd finished singing. In total, we had 7 people visit with us. The discussion was pretty good. We talked about 2 Cor 10:3-6. I think it was a good choice. Especially since Mark has his fascination with the terrorist attacks that have been happening throughout China. Everyone stayed on topic and we didn't have any weird side conversations happening. Everyone got stuck on the definition of a few words such as grace and strongholds. Luckily, we have a Chinese-English dictionary made specifically for higher learning issues that clearly defines these terms. It's very helpful when our meetings are happening in 2 different languages. Lì Lì, and Xuè Nà had some troubles understanding the English, so Jasmine translated here and there for them. I was very proud of my old student doing such a great job translating. About a year ago, she wouldn't have tried such a thing. If only I could get her to come every week. We're still searching for a translator, but very few people are willing to commit to coming every week to do this. Terrorist Attacks There have been several stabbings in Yunnan China. It's not very near to us. The police were able to catch some of the people, but 6 escaped and are at large. It's a dangerous time here and many people are worried. The truth is that these guys could be anywhere and there could be more. China was caught totally unprepared for this situation and has no task force or anything like that to handle it. Mark informed us that the women in that area are afraid, so they've begun to wear Burkas so that they will look like Muslim women. Their hope is that this will protect them from the attacks. There is a large Muslim population in China. Even in this city, there are many Muslims. They have restaurants that serve only Muslim food. They also have special enclaves where only Muslims live. For the most part, they're very kind and friendly, but in my mind, I always hear a caution alert when we come into contact with these people and places. The truth is that anyone at any time could cause complete mayhem in a place. They don't have to be a special race or religion, but because of the recent happenings, everyone is on guard. Please pray for the continued safety of our family and people all around the world. We need the Father to protect us all from these types of attacks. It's a terrible way to die and because of the lack of faith in this country, the people who die are lost forever. My Thought for the Week I've been meditation on some verses each week that stand out from our lessons. Here's my thought from last week. It's continuing on through this week as I continue to think about the true meaning of this sentence and the depths of knowledge that are found inside it. It truly is a sentence that demands introspection. "If the light that is in you is darkness, how great then is that darkness!" This week I'm making sure that the light inside me is truly "white" and not some sort of "gray" color that is just a little brighter than the darkness around me. Self-examination is always good and always needed. At our meeting we had some new people. First we had Rose join us. She was one of Colonel's students from last year. She joined the family a few months ago. It's funny because she told Colonel about it last week at English corner. She claimed that she didn't know Colonel was also a believer. I don't know how. He told his students almost every class and he taught them verses in class that came straight from the Good Book. It never fails, no matter how much we try to make it clear to our students who and what we are, or how much we tell them, they don't seem to hear us. I don't know what we have to do to make it more clear to them.
Anyway, Rose came to our meeting. She brought a friend of hers named Gao. I don't think he's a believer. He didn't speak much English and Rose was translating for him. It turns out that Rose doesn't own a Good Book, so we gave her one. I don't know how you can join the family and not have your own Good Book to read. It doesn't make sense to me. At least she has one now though. Our normal visitors showed up as well: Cheryl (the Canadian teacher), Jane, Katherine, Mark. We had a good discussion from John 6. No one really had too many questions during the discussion. At the end of the discussion, Colonel opened it up for questions about anything. Of course Mark asked about Muslims. That lead to a long drawn out discussion. Last week in Kunming (the Hawaii of China) they had a terrorist attack by some Muslims that killed some folks and it's been a big news issue here among the students. Mark has some deep obsession about the Muslims and why they do the things that they do. It's quickly becoming a long boring issue in our group though. Mark constantly asks about these things and it pulls us far away from the Good Book. Several people who came to join us on Sunday were showing signs of annoyance with Mark. I think it's time for Colonel to chat with Mark and ask him to save those conversations about Muslims for English corner or some other private discussion. I'm a little worried that it's getting out of hand. Anyway, we'll see what happens. Hopefully Rose and Gao weren't turned off by this turn in the conversation and they will return. I did hear Rose inviting Jane to come join her at their congregation. I'm not clear on where that is. Hopefully we can find out and work together with the members from that congregation. We've really needed the impact of some Chinese believers. In fact, when Mark learned that Rose was a member of the family, he became adamant that she wasn't. He asked her several times in English and she responded yes. Then he asked her was she sure and how she knew that she was a believer. She told him several times that she was and finally had to explain to him in Chinese before he would leave her alone about it. Mark, and many of our visitors, refuse to believe that the Good Book is for Chinese people. They think it's a Western belief and not for Chinese people. Despite our protestations, they believe what they wish to believe. That's why it's so important for us to have native believers to help our group grow. English Corner On Monday night at English corner we had some good discussions. Colonel's group got very deep. They talked about a news story that happened about 4 years ago in China. A young child was hit by a car. She was laying in the road and no one helped her. Eventually a street sweeper came and "cleaned" her up out of the road. It was a big inhumane situation here. The students want to know why a thing like this could happen in China. Colonel explained that it's because this country is trying to get rid of religion and replace it with science. Science teaches that people are only just a little better than animals, so why should we care for each other or treat each other with love? It also teaches that there's nothing after we die, so there's no consequences for our actions (especially the ones that no one sees). It sounds like a good conversation. My conversation was more relaxed. I had a lot of questions about my nationality. People here often think that all black people come from Africa. Even though I tell them I'm from America, they still want to argue that my parents or grandparents are from Africa. As far as I know, neither my parents nor my grandparents have even been to Africa before. It's possible that someone in my family is from Africa, but to be honest, I just don't know. My grandfather on my father's side once told me that my ancestors on his side come from England. He showed me some pictures once and explained to me about some people. I don't know about my grandmother. She never did talk with me about family or anything else that I can remember. She died before I was old enough to think about those kind of things very deeply. Anyway, I'm kind of tired of the discussion. It does help to educate the Chinese folks a bit though because they seem to think that all dark people originate from Africa. I'm a believer that this is not the case, especially if we believe what the Good Book says about all people originating from Adam and Eve. Our conversation jumped from thing to thing. Eventually I brought it back around to the Good Book. I asked Sailing to join us again. She's only come once, but never returned. I keep asking her and she keeps reluctantly agreeing. I know she won't come just yet by her reaction. I told her that she should come. She's always so excited to see me and talk with me at English corner. She asks great questions about Higher Learning things. I told her we talk about these things in detail at our meetings. I hope that she'll come. Prayers We have a lot of things that we need prayer for. We have a lot of paperwork to get straight before we return to America. There's also some fees involved with renewing the visas for the kids. There's also some confusion here about what papers we need to return home. The school here says we need something, but they can't say what. When I contact the Embassy in New York, they don't answer my question and then refer me to the US Consulate in China. When I try to contact the folks in China, the phone numbers don't work. It's a bit frustrating. Also, we need to get money for our Chinese lessons. We haven't decided on a school. Colonel and I are torn between two schools. I want to go to one in Shanghai and he's looking at one in Chengdu. We talked with the guy who made the Chinese Made Easier books. He basically pushed for us to go to a school that uses his books. He's no longer in China, so he couldn't answer many of our questions about Chinese schools. He just pushed the fact that one month of lessons isn't going to be enough to speak well. He continued to say that Chinese takes a lifetime to learn (which we already knew). We also know that there are people who have become fluent in Chinese by attending language schools over a period of 3-4 years. So it is possible. maybe we won't be able to read and write Chinese, but we could definitely learn to speak well. We need help with this choice. We've been talking to the Father about this. Hopefully we'll make a decision soon as we need to register and pay the fees before June. Lots of schools offer a discount if we can apply before the end of March. We're hoping to do that. Last, we need some prayers about our return trip to the USA. Some of the plans that we had for housing, transportation, etc., fell through. We definitely don't want to spend 1 month sleeping on an air mattress on someone's floor. We've been there and done that for much longer than 1 month, but I have to say that it is an uncomfortable situation for everyone involved. We'll see what happens though. I was really disappointed this week when we only had 2 people show up to our meeting. We can't seem to get a consistent number this semester. One week it's high, the next week it's low. I'm confident that it will get better though.
Anyway, only Katherine and Cheryl showed up. We talked about the woman at the well. Katherine didn't understand how we could see anything deeper in that story than what was presented. She's still learning to look for deeper meanings in the stories we study. On Monday, we went to English Corner. My little group immediately started out with Higher Learning type things. One guy asked a question about the meaning of love and how you can show love. That began it all. He left shortly after he asked the question, but everyone else continued with the conversation. We eventually talked about the greatest love of all and the impact that it has on our lives today. I was impressed by some of the questions I had that night. Sailing is still coming and actively engaging me in Higher Learning discussions, but she still doesn't come to our meetings. She's so interested, but won't invest in joining our group. I hope that will change in the future. On a different note, I had the idea while we were talking at English Corner to record the conversation. So, I have a very rough recording of one of our talks. There's a lot of background noise and other audio issues, but you can hear the main thoughts going on and the students asking questions. I have no idea how to get this to anyone in the States. Perhaps we'll do a few more of these recordings and then use them in our presentations once we return to America. Colonel also met up with one of his students from last year at English Corner. Turns out that she joined the family a few months ago at a congregation somewhere in this city. She's a new baby, but she boldly told people at English Corner about her belief. She said that she would join our meeting on next week. That would be a great step in the right direction for us. We desperately need some native believers here to help spread the word and help others to understand that Higher Learning isn't just for Americans - it's for everyone. Please pray for us concerning this. I really hope this student shows up. I had some interactions with Jasmine (my student from 2012) this week. On Saturday I received an email from my school about exam fees. They gave me about 3 days to pay the fees and send in my exam application, so I had to call up Jasmine to help me. We spent a few hours on Monday running around before my class trying to transfer money from here to India. That was a hassle, as usual, but we got it done. Then on Tuesday, Jasmine had to help us transfer more money to pay for our airplane tickets. The total cost came out to 29.680 rmb ($4847.32). We went on and paid this out of pocket so we didn't even have to touch our fundraising money for this. Isn't that awesome? We'll be leaving China on June 23, 2014 at 10:50 a.m. and arriving in D.C. on June 24, 2014 at 2 p.m. Unfortunately, we have to spend the night in the South Korean airport. That will be a first for us. We'll see how that works. We'll be staying in America from June 24 until July 24. We found that the price of the tickets didn't change at all to stay for 1 week or 4 weeks. The biggest trial will be finding a place to stay, buying food, and traveling to different congregations to tell about the work. I'm not sure how we're going to manage the details of everything, but I trust in the Father to work it out. We are still working on the details of Chinese lessons. We're definitely going to get some in August, we just don't know where yet. I've been talking with a school in Shanghai for about 2 weeks. They're very helpful, it's just so expensive. We're looking at a cheaper school in Chengdu. We know some other workers like us who went to school there for a few years and greatly improved their speaking ability. Colonel is biased toward that school, while I actually want to go to the Shanghai school. The Chengdu school is cheaper, but it's cheaper because we'd only be getting 80 hours of classes instead of the 120 hours of classes that we'd get at the Shanghai school. I feel like that's unacceptable. We need to make optimal use of our time to study. Anyway, we'll see how this works out. Every night we're asking the Father to guide us in the right direction with this decision. It's not just a one time thing and if we find the right school the first time, we'll have to return many times for several years to really get the language down. Chinese is one of the world's most difficult languages. If you don't believe me, google it! |
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