Our meetings are continuing as scheduled, but since the end of the semester is here, our numbers have dropped. This is normal and we totally expect them to drop down to 1-2 people or none at all. It's par for the course in China. We even experienced this in Jingzhou where we had a large group of believers who were locals. They stopped coming even though they were adults and didn't have classes. It's the most frustrating part of the work in this country. Basically every year you start fresh. Sometimes that's a good thing, but most of the time it's bad.
We only had 2 people join us during the morning meeting: Cheryl (the Canadian teacher), and Mark. In the evening, we had Mark, Katherine, Ken (Katherine's guy friend), and Sophia. Ken is one of Katherine's classmates. He doesn't speak or understand much English at all. This is the thing we were worried about even before we came to China. This is the time that we need a translator or we need to be able to translate on our own. Since there were 3 other folks here who could understand a bit, they worked together to translate for Ken. This is an interesting thing because sometimes Ken would finish the translation before they could. He clearly understood what was going on, so I guess it was working. The hardest part was when the conversation veered off topic, as it usually does when Mark is around. We often have discussions about the difference between the Muslim faith and Christianity because of Mark. He is a sort of researcher of religions and often tries to compare Christianity to other beliefs. One day I hope that he'll realize that it's not enough to compare the religions in order to truly understand them, you actually have to become a part of that faith system in order to get it.
Anyway, whenever Mark asks a question, our conversation is thrown in all different directions. During these times, it's almost impossible for inexperienced translators to follow the conversation. We use words that are unusual to them because of the different types of discussions we have and sometimes the conversation is too fast for a few of the lower level English folks to follow completely. Most of the folks tune out when politics comes into play as well. The younger generation of girls seems uninterested or uneducated on this, but Mark is very well versed and often wants to know what a believer would do during certain situations mentioned in politics. We always have to be prepared for him. He really makes us think and also makes us search for the diplomatic answers. Sometimes we can't say the things that we want to say because it's anti-something or other in this country, so we have to phrase our answers carefully. China has a big brother too, and he's always watching and listening.
Outside of our meetings, nothing is going on here. Colonel and I are searching around for some nice birthday gifts to exchange in January. His birthday is on the second and mine is on the fourteenth. It's always difficult for us to buy for each other.
As for our Christmas gifts, we want to thank everyone at Edgehill for sending us that huge box. It was by far the largest box we've ever received in our lives for any occasion. Almost everything inside was wrapped so it was even a surprise for us when the kids opened their gifts. Aolani was really happy with her Bible. For weeks she's been bothering me about having her own Bible. She sat with us during our meeting and was happy to read from it. She was showing everyone the pictures of the princesses inside of it too.
Cyrpus was also happy this Christmas, but mainly because we finally bought him the one thing he's wanted for 2 years now - a Nintendo DS. We found a cheap one at a Chinese online site and had a friend buy it for us. We decided that it wouldn't be "his" DS, but rather the family's DS. This will be great for the plane trip home. They will each have their own DS to play and give mommy and daddy some time to rest.
We happen to have a second DS that was given to us by Colonel's college buddy, Kyle. We miss him a lot. He's a nice guy. He signed up to join the military and gave us his old DS before shipping off. That was several years ago, probably before we went to Japan, but I can't remember exactly. We've used that DS well to study both Japanese and Chinese because they have some games called My Japanese Coach, and My Chinese Coach. It's a great way to learn the basics of a language and it's fun. Kyle has often supported our various endeavors, and I hope that all is well with him.
Anyway, there's not much else happening here. The winter cold is taking it's toll on our e-bikes. The batteries have to be charged almost every other day unless we don't go anywhere or do anything. Colonel and I are both studying. He's doing some online classes and I'm doing some distance education classes. I'm on a fast-track program to get my Bachelor's in 2 years, my Masters 2 years after that, and my PhD 2 years after that. Basically, a 6-year course. Hopefully I can stay on track. I'm almost finished with my first year and I'm about 1 class behind everyone else. When I have to teach, it's very difficult to get time to study. I'm playing catch up over this holiday and I plan to get ahead so that when the next semester starts, I won't have to struggle too much. I have to take my first test before we leave for return to the USA in the summer. About 65% of the people fail the test (they post your scores online for everyone to see), so here's hoping that I can get it together before then. Humiliation is bad enough, but online humiliation is pretty awful. The good thing is that I take some online courses to get me up to speed. They teach me much faster by using videos, and allowing all the students to chat and ask questions about the material. This isn't required by my school, but it sure helps me since I'm a novice when it comes to the vocabulary used in my lessons. I spend more time reading my dictionary than reading my lessons.
Colonel is taking some online religion courses. I'm not sure what his plans are. Maybe he just wants to brush up on some things he learned, or maybe he's preparing for some certifications he talked about getting in the past. We'll see what happens there.
Last, but not least, we're still getting together some info to give to the elders at Edghill. There's a lot of compiling of information on my part, as well as getting together some more personal info about the folks here to share with you all in America. Of course, we have the permission of everyone who we study with here. They've all agreed that you can know certain things about them and even lift them up to the Father. So, that's good.
Sorry there are no pictures this time. Maybe next time. I've been taking a lot, but it's become quite difficult to get them to upload to the website, so I'm looking for another option. I've also recorded our meetings, but I can't just upload the audio here. A lot of the info is sensitive stuff, or restricted stuff, so we're very hesitant to just put it online for everyone to access. I've got to find a way to share it with you guys at home. Otherwise, it may just have to wait until we return to the US.
That's about all. Guess I'll give you another update in a few more days.