Christmas!

Christmas time was great.  I was able to spend time with my friends and together we could celebrate the birth of Christ!  We travelled to a city about an hour and a half away by bus.  It was nice to be able to get away from Macau for a while while still being with my friends from Macau!

We ended up finding a local church that was having a Christmas celebration, and we watched the performances as the church members sang and danced and performed skits.  It was a lot of fun!  We also listened to a speaker (speaking in Mandarin, translated to Cantonese) talk about how Jesus came to the world to save us!  The book that I am 'reading' right now that teaches me Chinese Christian characters really helped me, because he used almost all of the new vocabulary that I've learned!  So I was happy that it was in Mandarin because I could understand maybe 30% of what he said, as opposed to the 1% I would have understood in Cantonese!  (My Chinese isn't quite that good yet, but when it comes to Christian things, I understand more, because that's the vocab I am studying!)

We also got to go up and sing a song that basically translates as: "We Love because God first loved us".  It was sung in Mandarin, and I knew 90% of the characters, so I was able to go up and sing with them while reading the music.  I felt VERY proud of myself for knowing most of the song.  There were a few words that I stumbled over, but it was ok!  They never gave me the microphone, so nobody ever knew! :)

I was able to relax a little after the performance.  3 friends and I went to the spa while the others went to bed.  I had gone to get a massage before, so I figured that we'd be gone for about an hour and a half or so.  No.  We were gone for about 3.5 - 4 hours.  Turns out this is a fancy spa.  We got in, and were separated ladies and gentlemen.  My friend and I went into the lady's room where we showered, relaxed in a pool with various water massage features, went into the wet sauna (where I spent less than a minute because I couldn't breathe!) and then showered again, after which we were given special clothes to wear for the massage.  We were then given robes to put over the clothes, and went upstairs where we met the 2 guys.  They had been playing pool to kill some time.  We were then taken to a buffet.  After eating, we went into a waiting room where we each had our own TV and could relax.  Then we were taken into the massage room where we were given a 2 hour Thai massage.  Now, I don't want to tell you this to show how pampered we were: the massage actually wasn't all that great, and I was super tired haha.  But I want to show you that this is not something of high-class in China.  This is something completely normal to do.  The total for this entire 4 hour adventure (that could have lasted another 12 hours had we wanted to spend the night there) was 168 RMB per person, which translates to less than 30 USD per person.  That is so much cheaper than you would ever find it in the States.

The next day a friend and I walked around in the morning and we found an arcade, where we played some basketball, air hockey, and completely failed at the extremely difficult chinese version of DDR.  (They go at diagonals instead of straight left/right/forward/back, and they incorporate the hands.  I also accidentally chose an advanced song hahaha!  And it was all in English too, so I have no excuse!)  We then met everyone else and went to eat lunch.  We were able to meet up with 2 other Americans (who are friends of mine) and a few Chinese who I hadn't seen in a very long time!  We had 2 large circle tables full of people celebrating together.  We then did a gift exchange, and were whisked off to the bus station where we caught the bus back to Macau.  We got there JUST in time to get out of our cars and onto the bus!

All in all, it was a VERY fun trip.  I am tired now, because it was a little busy (there were things that I didn't talk about that happened as well...it was very busy!).  Right now I am in the middle of cleaning my home.  Even though I am not teaching right now, I am still super busy, and haven't had enough time to keep my house clean.  I started cleaning last night, but I still have over half the things left on my to-do list!  Time to get back to work on my house, and then go in to the center to plan lessons for next week and to teach Bible class tonight!




I hope that you all had a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, and that you have great plans for New Year's Eve/Day!

December 21: Doomsday?

For all of you who are not to December 21 yet: I did watch a UFO come and land in Macau. A dragon emerged and set fire to the city, and many glowing skeletons started dancing, following the leader. But then a white dove came and destroyed the dragon, the skeletons turned into fireworks, and Macau was restored. This is a true story. The only needed detail is that it was on a big-screen at a holiday celebration in a park/square put on by the city of Macau with lots of money. So, I must conclude that today will once again turn into tomorrow, and the world will keep spinning, because God is the one who will determine the end of the world: not the Mayans. May God bless your day, and allow this false prophesy to focus your minds not on fear and superstition, but on the promises of God.

Jesus IS coming.  Just not today!  We know what Jesus said here, in Matthew 24:

At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. 25See, I have told you ahead of time. 26“So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man....36“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,^f but only the Father.37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 

Taken from NIV translation found at this link.  Click the link to read more!

Bilingual Bulletin

I just finished a project that I've put off because of how daunting it seemed: translating Divine Service 2 back from Chinese to English!  Before you get impressed, don't.  I have a hymnal.  I just had to match the correct parts of the service to the Chinese.

I did this so that we could have a bilingual bulletin that we have every week, instead of having separate bulletins for the Chinese speakers and English speakers.  That way we can also have a permanent bulletin, which will save paper.

The way the Chinese bulletin was laid out was that the chants were scanned as one photo, and to add the English into the music I had to save each photo as a jpg (which wasn't difficult, but it took me a while to figure out a way to do so as I am accustomed to a Mac, not Windows!) and then cut each line individually, re-insert the photos in the correct order, type out the English, match the words to the notes, and format it correctly.  It was very tedious, but it is done, and I hope that our vicar will approve it, and that we'll get it printed out within the week to use either this Sunday or next Sunday! Otherwise I have some more formatting to do!

We received the biggest care package that this center has ever seen (at least in the memories of all who work here!).  It was spectacular, and full of Christmas decorations, presents, Christmas music, Christmas movies, and sweets that we cannot find here!  It was shared between our two centers! Thank you to CTK for the wonderful care package! It made us happy, and we'll continue to be happy every time we see the items!

Speaking of Christmas, I have been very happy lately because of Christmas decorations. I don' tknow why it makes me so happy, but it's such a warm feeling that I get when I am in the center or walking down the street or in my house looking at the decorations!  I think it's the reminder that Christ came for us, and that he is our Lord!

I received Christmas presents from my family yesterday, and so I celebrated Christmas a LITTLE early, though I re-wrapped some of the items and put them under the Christmas tree :)  The cookies and cinnamon roll that I received, though, went right into the kitchen awaiting a party :)

What are your favorite Christmas cookies?!  Please tell me, because I am looking for ideas of what to bake :)

The Truth

I often try to paint missionary work as exciting, wonderful, and problem-free.  I apologize for that, as I have been trying to keep my burdens to myself.  My other posts haven't been lies: all of the wonderful things happen.  In the midst of the struggles, there are great things.  But I have sometimes left out some of the tough times that I have had, because I don't want other people to read my posts and be discouraged.  I want people to feel encouraged after reading them.

Last weekend I learned that it's ok to share my struggles, and I hope that it can be helpful for you to see that I'm not just living in a dream world: I am living in the real world.  Working abroad is great, and I love it most of the time.  I don't want this to be a discouragement for you, but merely a glimpse into the not-as-glamorous side of working cross-culturally.

So: here we go.

It's been a strange couple of weeks, with highs and lows galore.  I had a retreat over Thanksgiving.  It was less of a retreat and more of meetings, but it was called a retreat.  I was able to learn a lot, which was helpful.  I also got to meet some of the other GEOs from the area who had just arrived a month or two ago.

Other than that, life's been interesting.  I have had so much work to do lately, it's been really difficult for me to keep up with lesson planning, teaching, bible classes, and relationship building.  I've somehow done it for the most part, but I am, in all honestly, exhausted.  I am swamped with more work than I can do. It doesn't help that English teaching is not my passion, though I am doing it at least 40 hours a week. (including lesson planning, meetings, classes, etc).  Right now it is merely a means to be in Macau building relationships and sharing the Gospel.  Yes, it is also a tool of it, but it is still exhausting for me.

I don't have physically too much work: but I am exhausted from constantly being alert and constantly trying to decipher what people are saying, whether they speak Chinese or broken English, and whether it be in class or during relationship building.  Sometimes when I am spending time with my friends and they speak Chinese, I literally tune them out, because I can't understand them anyway, and I just need time to myself.  I know it's bad, but I tune back in once they get back to English ;)

Being completely honest, I'm gonna throw it out there that I am in need of some encouragement.  On paper, nothing is going wrong right now.  I am also not homesick.  I am just going through a rough patch, and I could use some encouragement, whether it be through prayers, e-mails, letters, etc. 

It doesn't seem logical that I am unhappy right now, because I have been surrounded by friends lately, and I even have plans for the holidays. I've been so blessed lately with some awesome friends here.  I got a new phone, and I needed to manually transfer all of my contacts to my new phone.  As I was doing so, I was also arranging my friends into favorites, because there was that option.  As I was organizing it, I realized how many friends I actually have here in Macau.  I feel really blessed.  I didn't even know how to arrange my contacts in my phone because I had too many people that I wanted to put on top!

I have been exercising once or twice daily, which is helpful too.  I feel very lazy here due to my exhaustion: once I get home, I just want to sit down and relax.  I found that I can relax while exercising too, which helps my body AND my mind!  Though I don't get to it every day, reading my Bible is helpful for my spirit as well.  It's possible that that's what's missing in my life: that my personal relationship with God is stagnant...not by his doing, of course, but because of my failure to respond to the millions of blessings that he has given me.

My complaining is not something that I want to make common.  But I want you to know that there are struggles that I face: these are some of my most common issues that I have: mostly a lack of energy.

Please pray for renewed energy and liveliness, and an energetic willingness to share the Gospel.

What a week!

This week has been good.  In some aspects difficult, but good.

It started out with a team from America.  I do not have a picture of the team to show you, because we were too busy to take too many photos!  They came and helped us put on an event called the Silly Olympics.  The students completed various silly tasks, and we kept score and announced winners at the end.  It was fun--and silly!

Immediately after the event, we had a second event.  It was at the same location (our English Center), but it was a different kind of ministry.  This is aimed at people around my age, and it's done in Chinese (sometimes translated to English).  It's run by my friends, and I have somehow managed to finagle my way into the "core group" who plans and leads it.  It was a lot of fun!   Here are some photos from the day.  In the photo from the potluck you can see a few of the Americans who joined us that day!  They left half way through, so are not included in the group photo.

We said goodbye to the team on Tuesday after they joined us in our group classes.  They were a great help and really brought up the energy in our classroom.  My students really enjoyed talking with them, and we're thankful for their time here!

Wednesday and Thursday I had the opportunity to have a friend stay with me, which was really fun!  She had come on Saturday, but stayed somewhere else until Wednesday. I enjoyed spending time with her, and on Saturday we had gone to a Spanish restaurant with 2 other friends.  The restaurant was delicious, and I am so thankful that they were all adventurous enough to try out a new cuisine, which allowed me to eat paella! ¡¡Qué rica!!

On a different note, I did experience something difficult this week.  It was the first time that I really experienced conflict management.  A different friend and I had a conflict due to communication issues.  If you haven't heard before, Western and Eastern cultures have different methods of communication.  Usually they have differences which are laugh-off-able, but occasionally communication breaks down enough to create a serious issue.  In my year (and 3 months) here, I experienced this for the first time.  Thankfully, this friend is also a Christian, so we were able to start the conflict-management with prayer, and ask God to guide us to find a middle-ground.  We did have to use a translator, who also happens to have an impeccably high knowledge of American culture, who helped us communicate and understand each other.  Living in China, it was easy for me to understand the conflict, since I've lived in Eastern thought for over a year.  (I guess I still don't know it well enough, though, to avoid getting into the conflict in the first place!)  It was really difficult for this person to recognize how I think.  At first, I was frustrated, because how can she not see where I am coming from?!  But then I realized that it's just a culture difference, and that this person hasn't spent a prolonged time immersed in Western thinking.  We ended the conversation on good terms, but I just pray that in the future we're able to learn more about changing the communication so that we're able to work in a middle-ground.  I figure that I should probably change my style, since I am a guest in this country, instead of trying to make others change to accommodate for me.  Please pray for me to be able to immerse myself in this way as to avoid another conflict like this!

Care Package

At risk of sounding conceited and asking for gifts, I just want to remind you that if you were planning on sending something here (or to any missionary for that matter!) for Christmas or birthdays that happen soon before or after, now is a good time to send them, as they can take up to 6 weeks for us to receive them, plus there are many public holidays between now and then!

There are a few things that I would like to add to my previous list: Thin Mints (girl scout cookies), Crest cinnamon toothpaste, Buffalo Wild Wings Sauce: Asian Zing &/or Honey BBQ &/or Hot BBQ, and size 9.5 or 10 (41) dress shoes. Those are all things that I am unable to get in Macau, even at the Western/American stores. (You may be asking why I can't get shoes in Macau...I'm a little bit of a giant here with size 10 feet!  I cannot get comfortable shoes here!  I am a fan of Payless shoes, because they're inexpensive and usually trendy!)

I know packages are expensive, but they are truly appreciated.

On a different note, the city looks and sounds different today: it's much more crowded and a whole lot more noisy.  We have the Grand Prix in town, and though it's exciting, it makes it a little 麻烦 (Máfan: troublesome) to get through the city.  Since all of the buses that I normally would take had to change their routes due to the race track that was built on the major roads, I decided to just jump on the first bus that came that was headed south.  It was worth it: I managed to get to work in a relatively good time.  It took 45 minutes instead of the normal 25, but I was expecting an hour.  That also included stopping along the way to pay a couple bills.  So I'd say it was not too bad!

Hopefully I'll have more information to add later in a new post, but for now, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or would like more information about care packages, the Grand Prix, or anything else that I am doing/encountering in Macau!

Lots of Activity!

I haven't stopped going for a long time. I have been spending a lot of time with my friends doing some relationship building, and spending about twice that amount of time at the office working.  Classes have been good, but sometimes I have been yearning for ideas for some of my lower level and/or lower aged classes.  I'm praying for a solution to my problem with my kids Bible class, and I just pray that it comes soon, because the kids don't speak English, and I don't speak Chinese.  But I think the message usually gets through, and they spend time in a Christian environment, so it does more good than harm! :)

I had a great conversation with a friend today about what Christianity is, and what it means to me, and why I am a Christian.  This person and I discussed their faith that is developing, and I learned what this person was feeling about becoming a Christian.  It was such a great conversation that I was not expecting to happen, but God is always working in the lives of the missionaries and Christians here to talk about Him!

I think that I'll be going to bed earlier than normal tonight. It's been a while since I've gotten a good nights sleep.  I had a slight accident the other day and ended up quite sore afterwards. (By slight accident, I mean that my clumsiness finally did me in and I ended up on the floor--long story for another time).  That, along with having friends over until 2am some nights has kept me from sleeping well, and has kept me yawning throughout the day.

I can't complain, though, because I am sooo thankful for having that time with friends!  Being a people person, it really energies and uplifts me to be around others, and so even if I do not get any sleep, it's worth it! The other night I went with some friends to a young adult gathering at a local church...not a worship service, but a time to get together, have fun, and praise God.  It was in Cantonese, and my Cantonese is quite...bad, but it was good.  We played a fun game with chop sticks and a ping pong ball.  I was actually kind of good at it...not to brag or anything! ;)  Afterwards, we went upstairs and we had a huge turkey dinner!  That was quite a treat, because turkeys are very rare here and quite expensive.  I was soooo happy to have a piece of turkey! :)

For those of you on my newsletter list, my inability to stop has pushed my newsletter back this month.  I should hopefully get it finished soon!

Thank you for your prayers and encouragements!  Please pray for me to have more conversations like I had today (mentioned in the 2nd paragraph), and for God to give me an idea for what to do with Christmas and teaching my friends about our customs!  I am thinking about having a tree decorating party at my house, but I will be gone for Thanksgiving: so I am thinking that maybe I'll do it the weekend before Thanksgiving :)  Yes, I know...a little early, but I don't mind!  I LOVE Christmas, and would love to extend the season!

Have a great day, everyone!  For those of you who might call me or want to Skype, just remember that daylight savings time has caused me to now be 14 hours ahead of Central time instead of the 13 that I was a week ago! :)

Happy Party

Some friends who typically get together to spend time together and to share their faith with other friends call their gathering the 'happy party'.  Here are some photos from happy party number 4, which was so big we had to take it out of our homes and we got together at Concordia English Center.

In this first photo, I'm (obviously) playing guitar, while the girl in the middle is singing and the girl on the left is signing it in Macau Sign Language. If you can read Chinese, the words are on the screen.  It says 'you and me are the Heavenly Father's loved...'...and that's the extent of my Chinese skills right now.

The second photo is a photo of all of the ladies who showed up wearing plaid (or something along the lines of plaid.)

Hello everybody, how do you do?

If you've ever sung the song mentioned in the title, then you will easily know what I will be describing.  For those of you who have not: The chorus of this song goes, "Hello everybody, how do you do, how do you do, how do you do? Hello everybody, how do you do? God loves you today!"  The 'verses' go on to say "If you like _________, say hi" and those who like said object will respond with "Hello everybody, how do you do!", and after 4 different objects, you go to the chorus again.  For example,

"If you like red, say hi"
(those who like red say:) "Hello everybody, how do you do!"
"If you like blue, say hi."
(those who like blue say:) "Hello everybody, how do you do!"
"If you like green, say hi."
(those who like green say:) "Hello everybody, how do you do!"
"If you like black, say hi."
(those who like black say:) "Hello everybody, how do you do!"


Sometimes it doesn't translate well, though.  I sang this song with my kids Bible class which is fairly low English.  After I said "If you like red, say hi"  They responded with an unconfident "hi?"  So I ended up saying 'hello everybody, how do you do' every time to help model.  Confused yet?  They were too.  I realized after starting the song that it was going to be difficult. They did end up catching on, though, in a way.

We had just read the story of Samson and Delilah, so I sang:

"If you like Samson, say hi"
** unconfidently** "Hello everybody, how do you do"
"If you like Delilah, say hi"
**insert cricket noises**
"If you like the Israelites, say hi"
**unconfidently** "Hello everybody, how do you do"
"If you like Jesus, say hi"
**super loud, in fact screaming** "HIIII!!!"

Even though it wasn't the model that I wanted them to follow, they said the right thing :)  It made me smile, and I hope this story makes you smile too :)

Awkward elevator ride, anyone?

How to have an awkward elevator ride:

1) Get a neighbor who doesn't speak your language, and whose language you don't speak.
2) Have many awkward 'conversations' (if you can call them that) leading up to said awkward elevator ride.
3) Meet neighbor in lobby.
4) Say hello. The extent of both of your language skills in each other's language.
5) Ride up 16 floors in silence together, at one point exchanging the obligatory 'have you eaten?'
6) Get off the elevator, say "I don't speak Chinese/English, Goodbye."

Yeah...that happens a lot. I think it's time to learn Cantonese.

**For those of you who are saying: "hey...I thought she spoke some Chinese?!" ... I am learning Mandarin, not Cantonese.  That may change soon, though, depending on my plans for next year.

Jeremiah

I am going through a 1 year Bible, and unfortunately it's taken me 2 years to get through it--not exactly the plan, but I ended up almost catching up with the month.  That a little beside the point though.

The re-arranged Bible goes through in order, but starting from 4 places at once.  I read Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, and New Testament every day.  For the Old Testament, I am at Jeremiah.

It's really been hitting me hard lately when I read Jeremiah.  If you've ever read it, it talks about how the people of Israel were going against God, and were burning incense and worshiping other gods, in addition to other things.  God punished them by delivering them into the hands of their enemies and in effect destroying their livelihood.  There are a few things that really struck me hard.

The first thing is the harsh words used for the non-Christians.  Now, I know that if you do not believe in Jesus Christ you will not go to Heaven.  But for some reason that's not as pungent when you don't have non-Christian friends.  For the longest of time, most, if not all, of the people that I came into contact with were Christians.  I went to a Lutheran grade school, a public high school (where I found a group of Christian friends), and a Lutheran university.

Now, I am in the 'real world', per say.  I live in an environment where most of the people that I befriended and run into on a regular basis (or non regular basis for that matter) are not Christian.

This makes Jeremiah's message even more painful for me to listen to.  Jeremiah 14:11-12 states: “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.”

Of course, this is taken out of context.  This is not how we should treat non-Christians.  But once we die, this IS how non-Christians will be regarded in God's eyes.  I do not want this to be the fate of my friends.  I wouldn't even wish this upon enemies. It's just a harsh realization that God is serious about those who follow Him will go to heaven, and those who don't will go to hell.

It also struck me how God told Jeremiah how he was angry that the people were burning incense to false gods.  You know, all of this in my mind was old-fashioned.  Something you only read about in the Bible.  Then I moved to Asia.

Here, incense is burned to ancestors and to gods alike.  It's normal to do.  It's expected.  I just get to thinking about what this is in God's eyes.  It's no different from Jeremiah's days...the people are following false gods--are following nothing--instead of following the Triune God.

It hurts me to know that my friends are doing this.  It hurts me to know that they are not following God.  It hurts me to know that they will not go to heaven.

Please pray for my friends.  Also, pray for everyone else who does not believe in God, who sent Jesus Christ, also true God, to die for our sins, and who rose again from the dead to unite all believers together in heaven one day.

**If you are from Asia and are reading this, please know that I am not attacking your culture.  I am stating that the traditional worship found within the Chinese culture (and many other Asian cultures) is not in line with what God wants us to do, and should be separated from the term 'culture'.  Asian culture is beautiful, and I am happy to be living in it, but the worship that so often comes with it is not pleasing to God.

Anger?

I am usually a very go-with-the-flow kind of a person, which is why my anger today caught me by surprise.  Even when I realized I was angry, I couldn't help it, and wallowed in it for a while.

So here's what happened.

Going home, I have the option of taking the 10B bus from my work bus stop to a bus stop 2 or 3 blocks from my home, but that backtracks about a mile or so, taking the 10, 28a, 28bx, or 28b on a route without the backtracking, but to a bus stop 4 blocks from my house, or taking the 3 or 28a to the ferry terminal, transferring busses (which is free...and important for my story), and getting on the AP1, 10B, or 3A from there to take me back home, with the AP1 dropping me off pretty much right at my door, and the 10B and 3A dropping me off at the aforementioned stop 2 or 3 blocks from my house.  (...deep breath...)

So. Today, I took the 28A to the ferry terminal, and transferred to the AP1.  As I got on the bus, I scanned my bus card, and lo and behold, I got a long beep instead of a short beep.  Short beeps are the normal sound, and a long beep means something went wrong and it didn't scan.  I tried it again, as sometimes it just doesn't scan correctly.  I tried it yet again after receiving the long beep once more.  The bus driver told me in Cantonese that I have no money. (Remember: I am transferring busses, which is a free service in Macau).  I kindly responded in Cantonese that I have money. He then decided that my answer was not good enough, and apparently my responding in Cantonese (correctly, mind you) meant that I did not know what he was saying, so he shouted "no money" in a way that it took him 4 shouts for me to realize that he was in fact speaking English.  He then said, "PAY MONEY! PAY MONEY!" and (lightly) hit the change collecter.  I proceeded to (not quite as kindly as before) tell him in Mandarin (as I bitterly pulled out my wallet to find some coins) that I have money on the card, and I just took another bus, I shouldn't need to pay money, and I don't know why it didn't work.  I threw the change in, and walked to the back of the crowded bus.  Even if my card had no more money on it, the transfer should have been free, regardless of my account balance

I was not happy!  I realized that I actually was angry at that point.  Had I known more Chinese, I probably would have added a few more words in there expressing that frustration.  (Not the bad ones, don't worry).  But I just didn't understand why my bus card wasn't letting me transfer busses.  I of course was not angry with the driver, but he wasn't dealing with me kindly, so I didn't feel bad about not being so kind to him.  In that aspect, I was in the wrong, and I know it.

I realized I was angry, and I even tried to quell it by rationalizing with myself: it's only 3.2 pataca, which is less than 50 cents. Still: I thought about calling the bus company and complaining, and demanding my 3.2 to be refunded to me.  Then, I realized how crazy I was.  My anger subsided a little, until I went to the grocery store to figure it out.  I went and bought a few things since I was there anyway, and she rang up the groceries, I paid, and then I said in Mandarin: I want to add money.  She just ignored me completely and went to the next customer. I figured, well, maybe she just wanted to do that customer then will come back to me.  I waited 'til she was done with him, and then tried to get her attention, but she ignored me again.  AHHH

Sometimes I feel that even knowing the language, some people just refuse to help me.  I don't understand.  I learned how to say "Why are you looking at me, do I look like a monster to you" in Mandarin class today.  I need to memorize that so that I can say that next time someone stares at me because I am speaking seemingly perfect Mandarin. (I say seemingly, because supposedly my pronunciation is "amazing" but my vocabulary is quite poor.)

This all went down half an hour ago.  I'm over it now, but I just hope that next time, I don't get so angry about it.  I think later I'll be able to laugh about it and just add it to another adventure during my time abroad!

Fireworks

On Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to spend with some friends.  We ate dinner together and went to watch the fireworks!  There were a total of 25 of us for dinner, and about 20 for fireworks!  Macau hosts a fireworks competition where different countries put on a fireworks show, and at the end there is a winner.  This fireworks are compliments of France.  It was beautiful!  Here are a few photos from the event :)  The USA will compete this Saturday, which I will attend, pending available free time!

You know it's tourist season when...

Well, the weather is getting nicer.  The rain is coming less frequently (though ironically enough it's raining now), the nights are actually cooling off, and the humidity is only at 70 or 80%.

Office: BEFORE

New Classroom: AFTER

Along with that nice weather come the floods of tourists.  I recognized the peak in the tourist season when it took me longer to go around the city on the 'beltway', if you can call it that, that it would have to go through the city traffic.  Now, don't get me wrong.  It's not that the beltway is more crowded (though it is).  The problem actually comes when the bus turns on a road that during tourist season is flooded with a sea of tour busses, large tour groups j-walking, solo tourists j-walking, city busses trying to complete their route, taxis, and private cars.  Did I mention that this is a 2 lane road?  The tour busses park on the road, and the rest of the busses go super slowly and one must stop as the other passes it, so as to not bump side mirrors.

New desk: AFTER

This one block of traffic makes it take a very long time to get to work.  I failed to remember this this morning.  Though I was not late, I did not have the time to stop at work before going to the restaurant for a team meal.  Speaking of team, we have a short-term team here, and I am super pumped for them!  They're so energetic, and it's encouraging to be around them!  They were determined to finish 2 days' work in one day (which they did!) by converting the teacher office into a classroom, moving the assistant principal/teacher into the main room with our secretary, moving the secretary's desk to the pastor's desk, moving the pastor's desk to a new place to be my desk, and moving the 2 part-time teachers' desks behind me (our backs are to each other).  Now, I share a room with 5 others: 3 part-time teachers, 1 pastor, and 1 accountant.  I think that I will have the room to myself a lot, though, as they all work other jobs or go to school.  I just added the photos, as you can see to the side.  Some of my friends made my desk ;)  I used to have a bulletin board, but now I had to get rid of it, but now I have a glass cover on my desk so I can put the photos right inside! :)

Penguins, anyone?

I saw this craft project on the Internet, and thought I'd share it with all of you.  It's too cute to keep to myself!  I was trying to think of who to try it with, and I am thinking that maybe I'll suggest it for a youth night that we have coming up, or maybe with a group of friends my age.  It could be fun either way! :)

We had our Friday night Bible study tonight, and I think that it went well overall.  We have 4 classes, and I teach the little ones.  I was running a little behind with my planning due to a last minute addition of a science project, and a frantic search around town for matches, so I was tracing and cutting patterns 'til the last minute.  Some students came early and offered to help.  It was kind of fun doing the crafty projects with other people, so maybe that's where the urge to share this penguin project came from!  Speaking of from, I learned how to say it in Chinese today.  It's 从, pronounced cóng (but the 'c' makes a 'ts' sound.) Anyway, I think this post has gotten random enough!  Enjoy the pop bottle penguins, and be sure to send me photos if you end up making them!

New dish rack! :)

Today, I finally bought a new dish rack, which I've needed for a year to replace the old rusty one, but just never got to it.  I finally realized that it's probably not the most sanitary thing to be eating out of dishes that had been resting on rust for a few hours at the least.

Inspired by the shininess of my new dish rack, I ended up cleaning my counter and tidying up a little, and then I made cookies! (After which I had to clean again haha!)

Classes begin tomorrow, so I should be getting to bed about 2 hours ago!  I hope that you all have a wonderful day, and for those of you starting school, I pray that it goes well!

The Adventures of a typical Monday!

So today was semi-typical.  The title may be slightly misleading, but the events that happen happen quite often, and Mondays are always a surprise as to what's going to happen that day! :)  Here's this Monday's adventure!

Today, I went to meet up with a girl that I had corresponded with via Facebook...a friend of a friend.  We met up with each other at a hotel that I did not know the name of in Chinese.  Being the not-so-punctual person that I am, I was running late, so I decided to take a taxi.  Someone had told me that the taxi drivers normally know what Rio Hotel is in English, so I decided to try it out.  I said, in English, "Rio Hotel", and he said, "hai bin doe?"(where?) I said, "Rio Hotel... le ji mm ji?"(do you know?).  His reaction came in Chinese (which I missed because all of the above is Cantonese, but I am learning Mandarin.).  I realized I was gonna have to work for it.

In Cantonese I told him a street that was near, and then I switched to Mandarin which is more comfortable.  I told him. "wo bu yao qu 'ba king guy', wo yao qu 'rio hotel', dan shi wo bu zhi dao pu tong hua zhen me shuo" (I don't want to go to Beijing Street, I want to go to the Rio Hotel, but I don't know how to say it in Chinese.).  His Mandarin was significantly better than mine (go figure) so I didn't understand all of the response, but he was still determined to get an exact location out of me.  Our conversation continued like this, but eventually I said, "wo xia liang zham yao xia che" (I want to get off in 2 stops...and then I said in Cantonese..bus stop).  (I'll stop writing the Chinese Pinyin...just know that this conversation was all in Mandarin).

He asked me if I wanted to turn after the bus stop, and I said no, no, go straight.  He went straight, and I told him, TURN LEFT HERE! and then at the end of the road, I said, "This is the Rio Hotel.  This is where I want to go.  Turn right and I'll get out."  He was like, "ohhhhh Rio Hotel" (slowly, as if trying to memorize it for next time).  He said, "Your Mandarin is not bad!"  I responded "I'm really sorry. It's very bad!" (It's not proper to say thanks for a compliment.)  He then insisted that it was really good and easy to understand.  I was flattered, but honestly, I felt overwhelmed at that point.  I was just glad that I knew how to say left and right! :)

I ended up meeting the friend, and it was great.  We went to a new Starbucks that I had no idea existed, and we enjoyed some lime and berry refreshers and a wonderful conversation!  Earlier today I had also had lunch with a friend, and we officially became prayer partners and partners in evangelizing to our group of friends that has been forming recently. Now, I'm off to make a sweet potato and chili with a side of veggies, compliments of my mother who bought the chili for me, and taught me that sweet potatoes and chili are amazing together!  Thank God for a great day :)

Back in Action!

Click on the photo.  Can you find the green
blob?  That is a friend of mine!

When I went home for home service, I hit the ground running.  When I came back, I thought I was going to have a nice quiet 2 weeks to get over jet lag, and to test out some new computer programs for my newsletters. (By the way if you have any suggestions, I'm open to them!)  Key word: thought.  The day I got home, a friend met me at the ferry terminal to help me get my bags home.  The next day, I met up with some missionaries coming and going, and we all spent a jolly day together eating Japanese food, watching bungee jumping, and playing Zilch (a VERY fun game, by the way!)  I haven't really played that game outside of home, so I was ecstatic to be able to play dice.  I am a HUGE fan of games.  Especially ones including dice and cards, so I was happy to have people who would play with me!


The next day was Sunday, so I went to church with 2 other GEOs (from out of town), and then we went to the English Center, one for an exit interview, and one for orientation, and me to...well...hang out!  We played more Zilch, we worked on setting up a new laptop, we ate Chinese food, we ate Portuguese food, and I feel like we did more, but I can't be too sure.

Monday was fun too.  The new GEO had never been to Macau before, so I showed him around the city, starting in Taipa, and working our way to Macau proper.  For lunch, we met up with a friend of ours, and we went to a hotel...for Portuguese food, I think...probably more like Macanese.  Then, we walked over to a Christian book store that I had never been to yet, and it was cool to look around and see familiar CDs and books and such.  Then, we headed over to the deaf center to see what our friend does at work.  It was nice to see her at work.  While we were there, we planned a party for that Thursday.

Sharon and I pose with a free class student: the
same one that I'll be playing badminton with on Sat.!

Tuesday...When I left America, I left without a China visa.  I was sad to do so, because the best visas are gained whilst in America, but long story short, I had to get my passport back before they could attach a visa to it.  So, on Tuesday I prepared the paperwork for the visa, and on Wednesday I went to the embassy to turn it in.  It won't be a great one, but it will be multiple entry, which will be good.  Later that day, I taught free class. It was such a wonderful class!  I felt in control of the classroom, and I felt like the students really learned, and were interested in what they learned.  I feel like it was a success!

Wednesday was an early morning, and I observed our new teacher teaching a class.  He did well, but we only had one student, so we threw plans to the side and worked a little on that, and she helped with Chinese as well.  And we did some free talk.  Then she and I went to grab some "da bao" (take out) and we brought food back to the center to enjoy.  It was soooo delicious!  We had dumplings and some wonderful combination of noodles and spice.  Yumm :)

Thursday started out as a semi-lazy day.  I finally got to rest a little in the morning, but then I darted over to the store to figure out what I was going to make for the party that evening!  I made a chicken-rice casserole, which translated in Chinese as cheese rice (cheesy fan.... yes, cheese in Chinese is cheesy! Just not spelled like that).  It was good, but I added a LITTLE too much rice, so it was dry.  Oh well...better luck next time! :)  The party was AMAZING!  We went to Sharon's house because there was plenty of room for hosting.  I brought my guitar, and we sang some great songs!  We ate a potluck dinner (as pictured below), and we had lots of fun! We listened to some people share about Christianity, and why it's important to them, and we had a lot of fun!

Friday was a day for me to play miss fix-it.  I had some lights that weren't working for one reason or another, my shower hose broke that day, and my garbage can had been broken for about 6 months, but I finally decided to get a new one.  I believe there were a few other things as well, but I don't remember.  I was very proud of myself for fixing everything.  It was a day to get all of that done, plus relax a little, and then I had free class in the evening, where we finished watching Soul Surfer which they had started the week before, but not finished for technical reasons.  It all worked out, and we were able to watch, and then share how the movie showed someone relying on her faith after a tough situation, and how through that she was able to get back on her feet...or in this case, her surf board!

Today should be fun as well.  At 5, I am meeting a friend and we are going to play badminton.  I am super excited, as I haven't actually played badminton in the entire year that I have been here, even though it's the most popular sport in China!  So I am prepared to be laughed at, and to fail, but it will be fun nonetheless!

I hope you were able to make it to the end of this gigantic post, and I hope to keep you updated more often in the future, and not one entire week in one long post! :)

Goin' back!

Hello!  I have mixed feelings right now as to whether or not I should say that this was a quick trip.  On one hand, it went by so quickly.  On the other hand, it was a really long time.  I was on a month long trip, which is longer than I normally take.

I am currently in the Denver airport on my way back to Macau.  I fly from here to San Francisco, and then on to Hong Kong.  After that, I'll take the ferry to Macau.  There is something that could change that, though: there is a typhoon in the South China Sea right now.  If the winds are not cooperating with us, then I might end up delayed somewhere in the world.  I think it'll be ok: the typhoon was not in the path of the plane, but it is only 200 kilometers out (which means there would still be some pretty strong winds).  So as for now, i am just waiting in Denver to get to San Fran to learn more! :)

While I was at the Sioux Falls airport, I wanted to gate check my carry-on.  As I was waiting for the attendent to be free, I overheard her saying that she was unable to speak to this man because he doesn't speak any English.  I looked at him, looked at her, and asked: does he speak Chinese?  She looked at me, and hesitantly said yes, and I told her that I speak a little Chinese.  She said...wow, that would be great...much better than trying to translate it on the phone.  So she told me what she wanted to say, and I was prepared to bashfully bow my head and say that I didn't know how to say that, but as she kept talking, I knew how to say it in Chinese!  So I told the man the information, and we had a small conversation back and forth.  As this was happening, some other airport workers who knew about the situation came in from whatever they were doing with the airplane, and as they looked at me and looked at the man, I glanced over and saw their jaws drop.  All 3 were just staring at me like, how in the world does this girl know Chinese?  And so after the man thanked me and left to go sit down, they continued to look at me curiously, and I told them that I live in China.  Later on I explained to one of the men that I am a missionary in Macau, and that I am learning Chinese, and was just thankful that I actually knew the words that she wanted to say to the Chinese man!

I don't think this was a coincidence.  Now, this is such a small thing, but it's the little things that build up to make your day go great or poor.  This lady was noticeably frustrated, so I was happy to be able to lighten the load a little bit.  Plus: I need to get back into the habit of speaking Chinese!  It's been a while!

As I am waiting here, I remember that the Denver airport has a Jamba Juice, so I am off to get a nice fruit smoothy as I wait in line.

I want to say thank you so much to everyone who hosted me while I was in America, and I hope that I will get to see you during my home service next year, especially if I did not see you this summer!  And remember that you're always welcome to come to Macau! :)

Home Service

It's been a great home service so far--I am half way done, both with time and also with presentations.  If you are in the Sioux Falls area and would like to meet up with me in the next 2 weeks, please comment, or somehow get a hold of me!

I have been presenting at various places across Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and even Florida!  I am arriving back in South Dakota today, where I will remain for the rest of my home service, unless I take a quick trip to Iowa or Minnesota, which is doable, and possible.

Some people were wondering what to send me in care packages.  The best thing about those is the surprise of what's in it ;)  I can get most things in Macau, but there are a select few that I cannot. Just in case you'd like some suggestions... by all means you do not need to include all!

• Root Beer (Regular or Diet: no preference.  But A&W or Barks or Sprecher is the best!)
• Peanut Butter M&Ms.
• Cinnamon flavored gum
• Letters
• Beef Jerky (you can get it in Macau, but it's different)
• Trail Mix
• Candy bars
• Peanut Butter M&Ms
• 1000 Grand
• Milky Way
• etc
• Powdered soup mix (such as Chicken Tortilla Soup)
• Crystal Lite packets
• Taco Seasonings
• Barbecue Sauce (Famous Daves or Buffalo Wild Wings Honey BBQ are my fav's!)

PLEASE DO NOT SEND: anything that would expire after a month without refrigeration.  It can take up to 6 weeks for packages to arrive, depending on the postal service's sending time in both countries.  Examples of things to NOT send are:

• Milk...or other dairy products
• Most homemade cookies (unfortunately)
• Bread
• Apple Pie
• Pre-made soup...wouldn't travel too well ;)
• I think you get the picture... :D

I think that's about all that I have for now. I appreciate your support both in the past and in the future! :)

I'm going to America...zhen de ma!?

I still cannot believe that I'm going to America. The Chinese writing in the title means "Truth?!"

It's all surreal, but my bag is packed, and I'm ready to go!  I just need to get my backpack packed and the liquids sorted out.  Maybe a couple more shirts and pants in there since it's only 41 pounds, and not 50 yet.

I guess that with it being 2am, and me having to leave at 6, and there being a pretty epic thunderstorm outside, I will probably save sleep for the plane.  Hopefully I can make it 'til 11:30!  I'll just get a coke in the morning or something.

The last few days have been spent saying 'see ya later' to many people, and also helping out where needed, but mostly just packing.  I only had 1 class and 1 free class this week, so I was able to focus on getting my house ready to leave, which included doing a whole bunch of laundry.

I am gonna miss the rice, and the sweet and sour pork, and the chopsticks.  I will just try to make up for it by eating the fake Chinese food in America ;)  It won't match up though.  That stuff is super unhealthy, and the stuff here is more healthy than that.

And that thunderstorm that I mentioned before: man. It's insane.  Just sayin.

Honestly, I don't have much left.  I just want to unplug my valuables (aka this computer: 之个手提电脑。)  Hopefully I got the right characters.  There are things that I know how to say but not wright.  I'm not literate yet, but I am slowly getting there ;)

Ok, time to do something. Like maybe wash dishes or something. Not sure yet.

Next post: from America! (Or Hong Kong, if I get bored!)

Dinner and a Witness!

Last night I took part in something that I haven't done directly.  I took part in an evangelism dinner.  Friends were invited who are Christian and non-Christian alike with the purpose of sharing the Gospel.  It was all done in Cantonese, and I speak very little, so some was translated for me, and some I experienced with non-verbal communication.  It was a lot of fun!  The conversation flowed really smoothly, with a mix of serious and light parts of the conversation.  It was really engaging, and wonderful to experience.  I got to share my testimony (parts of it for the first time) and it was translated into Chinese.

It made me think: when do most Christians in America do something like that?  (And I'm including myself in it.)  When I was in America, I never took part in anything like that.  It got me thinking: wow. What an impact Christians could make if we all were so active in our faith like this group of women that I had the pleasure of sharing last night with!  I thank God for these women, and the testimony that they shared with me by openly sharing to other people!  I felt so inspired by them and their eagerness to share Christ's love, and I would urge you to do the same!  Invite some non-Christian friends over with the intention to tell them the wonderful news that Jesus is the Christ--the Son of God, and that He died on the cross to pay the price (death) of our sins, and rose again, so that we can live again with Him in heaven!

What a week!

This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind.  Where to start...

We had to say goodbye to a good friend and coworker at the end of June, so last week was the first week we had without her at our center.  She did a lot of work, so trying to figure out exactly how to do her job took a while, but I think that we made it through the most difficult part...in addition to being the first week without her, it was also the beginning of the term, which involved keeping track of payments and student schedules.  It wasn't a huge deal, but last week was just very busy.

So on Wednesday, I was scrambling to get my house ready to have guests from Taiwan!  They arrived on Thursday and left on Sunday.  I was so happy to have them come, and it was honestly fun to have roommates for a few days--even if it was 6 of them!  There were so many, and though all of them had some knowledge of English, one spoke fluently, a few spoke a little less than that, and the rest were beginners.  However, it was great for me to practice my Mandarin.  As I believe I posted a few posts ago, I've just recently become confident enough to talk to people other than my coworkers and teacher in Mandarin, even if they speak English.  They were a joy to host, and they did some wonderful things at our center!  It was so great to have them here, and I thank God for their willingness to do evangelism here!

On Saturday while the team was working at the center, I was entertaining!  I had a few friends come over for supper. I made lasagna and apple pie, and we played Uno and Yahtzee!  It was a lot of fun. Most of them liked the lasagna--some didn't but I don't take offense to that. It's their first time to eat something like that!  The noodles fascinated some of them! :)  The apple pie was a big hit too.  I said, "You don't get much more American than Apple Pie!"

Sunday after the team left, I was able to spend some time with a friend who I haven't spend one on one time with yet. It was a lot of fun! We went to dinner and then walked around Macau in search of green!  We found a park where we saw a badminton court, and we made loose plans to play badminton in the future :)  We also went to the water reservoir to escape the sounds of the city for a while and look at the large open area where the water is kept.

After that, I went to a friend's place where I had a midnight snack with 2 old friends and 2 new friends!  We had some great conversation that led to worship!  We sang a Chinese song.  I sang the characters that I new and hummed the rest.  I did a lot of humming ;)

Monday, I went hiking with 2 of the friends from the previous night.  We got a little sun burnt, but it was worth it!  After hiking, we met up with another GEO from a sister center who came to Macau for the day, and we went out for dim sum where I met 2 students.  It was really busy, and they had just finished eating, so  they gave us their table.  After dim sum, we went shopping, and then to a park, and then out for a drink.  On our way to get some coffee/tea, we ran into another student of mine.  I ended up ordering an almond milk.  It was really good.  I got a white syrupy liquid filled glass, and a small metal creamer cup full of...something brown.  Probably the liquefied almond powder.  I mixed them together, and it was delicious.  I will probably order it again!


After drinking tea, we parted ways, and 2 of us went to a show called the House of Dancing Waters.  It was amazing.  The way that people move around and dive into the water and so on is just amazing.  The technical elements are amazing also.  The stage moves as if by itself in a beautiful, quick, and fluid way where it sometimes completely covers the pool, and sometimes half way covers it, and sometimes leaves it completely open for divers to dive from what seems to be 3 stories high! It was amazing to watch.


After that, I went home to rinse off and to get some ingredients, then I went to the store on the way to a friend's house, and cooked dinner for 2 friends.  (I know I'm ambiguous with the word 'friend', but I want to protect the privacy of my friends, and I'd prefer not to mention their names as this is on the Internet).  It was a delicious dinner.  We had dumplings, black pepper chicken, and a Chinese vegetable that I don't actually know the English name for.  After doing the dishes, we relaxed on the couch and watched House on Pearl TV (Hong Kong's English TV station).  It was a lot of fun, though it was a very busy day!


I was talking with Serena, and we decided that it's because I'm leaving.  I've been craving having this time with friends for so long, and now that I'm leaving, it's finally starting.  So hopefully it will still come together like this when I get back in August!


Today has been less eventful, but it still involved a half an hour conversation with a friend who works across the street from me.  It was great :)  I've just been having more conversations and hang-out sessions with friends lately, and I feel very blessed :)  Many of the people who I spent time with are Christian, and I think that during all of the times, the conversation naturally flowed to Faith in one way or another.  I was able to share some things and encouragements to those who are not Christian, and to give and receive encouragement from those who are!


What do you feel blessed about lately?  How's God working in your life?

Friends and Apple Pie!

I am having the most terrible time sleeping, so I will just blog!

The apple pie that I made from scratch today!

It's been a really encouraging week so far.  A friend/student was baptized this week!  His family attends a local church, and he is the last of the family to convert to Christianity.  We are so happy for him, and I was blessed to be able to attend the baptism!  It was really encouraging to see so many Christians gathered in one area, and for them to sing loud and proud praise to God!  It was even a special service: at 8pm on a Monday, and there were tons of people!

I also was able to reconnect with some friends this week.  In addition to seeing some that I have not seen in ages, I was able to somehow convince some of my friends to come to my house on Saturday.  We're gonna have supper and play some games.  I even baked an apple pie!  I just hope that the crust doesn't get soggy in 3 days.  It is so delicious though. I'm excited to eat it!

3 CUW grads!  Elliot is married to CEC staff member Serena,
and Bob was here as a short-termer: he left on July 2.

We have a team from Taiwan coming to help out our center.  The team has about 14 people, not including the vicar and his family from HK who is leading them.  7 of them will be staying with me for 4 nights. They arrive tomorrow (well, since it's 5am I guess that is today!), and will stay 'til Sunday.  My house is super clean.  I took all of the storage out of the small bedroom and put it into my bedroom so that they wouldn't feel like they were sleeping in a closet.  I hope they are comfortable.  I only have 4 beds, but 2 of them are large enough for 2 people, and I also have a couch.  I also have mats that we can put on the ground to provide a slightly more comfortable sleeping environment than sleeping on the hard wood floor.

I hear it's been quite hot in America.  The heat doesn't really match here, but it sure is humid!  I have been emptying my dehumidifiers quite often...about once a day, now...and their water capacity is about 2 gallons.  That's a lot of water coming out of the air every day!  4 gallons total from my apartment!

The view from a park that I walk though to get home.

I have uploaded my most recent newsletter.  Feel free to check it out by clicking on the link in the column on the left.  Enjoy!

For now, I think it's soon time to go back to bed.  I don't know what it is.  Maybe I just got to excited with all of the cleaning of my house and baking apple pie that I can't sleep.  At least I don't have to be up until 11 or 12, though!

Stay safe tonight with the fireworks!  Happy 4th of July! :)

Video

Just in case you haven't seen it yet, here is the video that I made!  

Besides this post, you can also find it on the Macau Facts page!

Mid-June Updates

An unusual view of Macau: from the top of the lighthouse
which is often closed to the public.

It is already past mid-June.  That went fast!  The count is down, and there are 3 weeks and 5.5 days until my departure to the states!  I hope that those of you who are graciously hosting me are eagerly anticipating seeing me and hearing about Macau this summer, because I am eagerly anticipating sharing about it!

This month has been so busy.  I worked on creating a video to send out to the summer camp that I worked with for a long time, and that was a lot of fun.  I just have 2 things to edit, and I can then send the video out to everyone :)  I might get some help from my brother at home, as he's an editing major, and it could look much better than my amateur work!  (I'll upload the video to the internet soon.  I seem to have misplaced the file, and it took a LONG time for it to upload to the blog, so I aborted and left work.)

A roller coaster that I was able to ride!

I also had a few Skype presentations.  If I am not able to see you or your church or group when I am at home, please consider scheduling a time with me to present via Skype!  Also, there are a few other missionaries that I could possibly send your way who would love to share, and who are in need of funding for next year!

Last Friday during our free class, I was able to talk about Pentecost. (Yes, I know..we're a little behind in the calendar!)  We had fun putting flames of fire on our heads, and creating wind socks to catch the wind, and remind us of the Holy Spirit coming in a great wind!  We also sang the song "When the Spirit says sing you gotta sing!"  It was a fun, active song that helped get energy out, and also taught us to listen to the Holy Spirit!

Most of my students took their exams last week, and some of them are done with school now.  (Some take exams before actually being done with the year).  I am excited for them, because this means that a major stress is gone!  Exams are taken very seriously here--more so than in the USA.  It is a lot of pressure, and it could bring a lot of shame on the student and possibly their family if they do poorly, so there is a tremendous amount of pressure.  I am so thankful that they all got through it, and now can have time to relax!

I am looking forward to the Dragon Boat Festival happening this coming Saturday.  There will be dragon boat races at one of the local lakes.  Also, I have a friend from college visiting that weekend, and it should be a fun time!

No, this does not dispense straws.  It's a
chop stick dispenser!! :)

My Mandarin is slowly improving.  I have classes every week, and every week I gain a little more confidence in my ability to speak some!  Today I learned how to say 'above', 'below', 'in front of', 'behind', 'inside', and 'outside'. These, though very simple, caused me a lot of stuttering in class haha!  It was fun, though!  "wo de shou ti dian nao zai tai zi shang mian!" (My computer is above the table!) "shui zai zhe ge bei li mian" (water is inside this cup).  It's great to be able to describe it!  I even attempted (and slightly failed, but still attempted almost successfully) to communicate the concept that I forgot my phone at home, and when I was riding the bus to work, I realized that I forgot it, so had to get off the bus, go back home, get my phone, and then go back to work.  It was a struggle, but I actually did a fist pump when I finished it.  And my teacher was proud of me! :)  It was a great day of 普通话课。 (Mandarin Class)

I think that's about it for my updates.  For those of you that I will see this summer, I look forward to seeing you!  For those that I will miss, I regret that I am only home for a short time, but I hope to catch you on Skype and/or next summer!  Please let me know if you are free when I am in your area (schedule found in the June newsletter).  Keep an eye out for one more newsletter before I leave for America!

God's Blessings!