Chinese is very difficult

中文很男！

Here's an example...see photo below.  Enjoy the fun, and I will write another update later!

Thank You!

I just want to write a very quick note to say thank you to all of my supporters!  By the grace of God you have helped me raise more than sufficient funds for this year, and it will give a HUGE boost into next year!

In Cantonese, I'd say "Doe G-A lay moon!"

I especially wanted to thank the Anonymous donor, because I cannot send you a card (because I don't know who you are!).  Thank you for the gift and sacrifice that you have been making to help me be here in Macau!

Busyness!

So this week has been really busy, which is a good thing, I guess!  As you know if you read my last post, I had some friends over last weekend.  It was great to see them, but sad to say goodbye.

The week after they left was fairly normal: just getting into the groove of classes again with a new student added to the mix, plus a bunch of make-ups last week who had cancelled the week before.

On Friday we had the blessing of having 2 ladies join us at the bible study who are from a university in Alabama, studying pharmacy.  They had come 2 weeks prior, to.  They came to Macau for a month, and we were happy to see them!  But they invited me to go to China with them to walk around Zhuhai for a while.  It was a lot of fun--only one of them actually went to China, but she brought along another friend who teaches at an institute that's actually only 2 blocks away from where I work!  It's pretty cool.  But we had a good time walking around, finding a fresh market, and also seeing THE tourist spot (the fisher lady statue) and then walking through a park with an amusement park inside it.  That all went down yesterday.

Today, I got to see a baby :)  I got to hold him too!  I miss babies: it's been so long since I've been able to hold a baby, and I was so happy to have that experience, even if it was for less than 5 minutes.

I then went shopping and found Dr. Pepper: I hadn't had Dr. Pepper in a VERY long time!  I am so excited!

I got home and watched a little bit of TV and made myself another treat--a taco salad!  But then I got motivated to clean as soon as the clock struck 12.  I don't know what it is, but the only time I feel like cleaning is after midnight.  I cleaned the stove...at least 3/4 of it.  I left the burner that I don't use as often to clean later.  I can't believe that my stove is actually silver and not a dull yellowish brown color (the color of oil splatter...also the color of most chinese kitchens after a few years of intense cooking).  It looks great.  My fingers, on the other hand, are super dry and wrinkled from all of the CIF cleaner, and the sponge is demolished haha.

I think that's about it.  Enjoy the relatively short post: with relatively being the key word!

Mid-March updates (With photos!)

Well, I have lots of news to tell you, so hopefully this will be quick and easy to read :)  I am including pictures, but they're all from walking around town with Meredith and Hannah (talked about in the last paragraph).  You can click on any photo to get to a slide show of all of the photos in this post! :)

I got to go to Hong Kong to see some of the people from South Dakota who went to MCDH on a mission trip.  It was great to be able to see a few people from back home, and to chat for a short while!

I got the opportunity to attend a Chinese wedding! The couple was very beautiful, and I was blessed to be able to share the union of their lives!  Now, the wedding is not the same as in our culture.  They get married before the wedding.  They go to a government building and sign their marriage paper.  Then, they are officially married.  Later, on a date that is the luckiest for the couple (determined by their birthdays, Chinese zodiac, and more), they have a party to celebrate their marriage and publicly declare it.  The morning is full of fun as the brothers (groomsmen) and the groom must earn their way into the bride's house.  The sisters (bridesmaids) come up with various silly tasks that the brothers and the groom must complete before letting the groom in to take his bride away.

The family is there with them, and the family gives the bride gifts of gold to wear at the party that evening.  (speaking of wearing things: the bride will wear a traditional red dress earlier on in the day, but in the evening she wears a beautiful white wedding dress, or if not white, she wears a beautiful ball gown/formal dress.

Later that evening, the family and friends gather at a restaurant, sitting at many round tables.  Upon entering, the guests give a red envelope to the bride and groom filled with money (a lucky number of money, of course!  NEVER 400RMB because that would wish death upon the new couple.  Numbers with 6's and 8's are good...especially the number 168, I hear, though I do not know the reasoning.) The bride and groom then process in after the guests have been seated, and they make their way to the front.  At the wedding I attended, confetti was shot over them at numerous spots as they processed.  They have a small ceremony in the front of the room and recite vows to each other.  They bow to their families, bow to their friends, bow to each other, and thank everyone for the support--especially their parents.  Then comes the food.  The food comes out family style to the tables, and guests eat the food, which includes a small (but entire) pig, lots of seafood, and some chicken.  Red bean soup was served for dessert, and was delicious.  Here's something different from American culture--the guests can take home the leftover food from their own table--because it's served family style!

After the wedding ceremony comes a party for closer friends and younger family members.  We all went out to Karaoke afterwards and had a fun time singing songs and playing games.  Overall, it was a wonderful event.

I also had an opportunity to go to a friend's birthday party.  We went to the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate.  (She is not  from China, so wanted to eat food that was a little more familiar to her than Chinese food for her birthday)

We had a great social event called Practice Makes Perfect: more to come in my newsletter on this!

I had the wonderful opportunity to host two wonderful young ladies who I met at orientation...and they came at the same time!  Hannah was here for one week (left Sunday), and Meredith {who lives in Kunming, Yunnan, China} was here for 3-1/2 days (left Tuesday).  Speaking of Hannah, you may be wondering why she left after one week, when I had been talking endlessly about being excited about her coming to Macau.  Well, long story short, there were some complications, which led us to the decision that Hannah needs to be placed somewhere else close to here.  She will either go to mainland or to Hong Kong.  Please pray for her as she makes that decision.  If you want to learn more about what happened, visit her blog by clicking here.  I am still very excited for her to be here, and I think that wherever she is placed, it will expand our impact here in South East China!

Recent News

 

 I had a fun treat to be able to go to Hong Kong to visit some friends and supporters as they went to a local school on a mission trip.  It was great to be able to see them and experience a little of what they do and see when they travel to Hong Kong to help with MCDH.  The girl eating ice cream with me (left) is Amber, and the guy in the next photo (right) is Pastor Sterzenbecher from Black Hawk, South Dakota.  Their team was a blessing to the school, and I could tell that they have a passion for helping out!

 Recently I have also had the blessing to attend a friend's wedding.  I didn't get many great photos, because of my camera's inability to take clear photos in darker settings, but here is a photo of the traditional first course in a wedding dinner: roasted pig.  We ate the skin off the top, then they took it away and chopped it up, and we ate the rest of it.  The wedding was beautiful, and the food was good.  It was also fun to sing Karaoke with them afterwards!




I also had a fun time at the Hard Rock Cafe with some friends for another friend's birthday.  On the left is a photo of a mural made of drumsticks at the Hard Rock Cafe in Macau.  It was fun to listen to American live music and then wander around the casino for a while looking for cake :) I then took a taxi to catch a bus--fun day

 I also tried my hand at Chinese cooking.  I made 煲仔饭, which is clay pot rice.  This was my first time making it, and it turned out pretty well!  It tasted delicious, but next time instead of steaming the egg on top I will just crack it and mix it in right away so that it cooks from the heat of the rice and not the steam! 

Women's Day, etc.

Hello!

Today (March 8)  is Women's Day in China.  It celebrates how valuable women are to society, and was set in place 100 years ago to try to help women gain equal rights in society! So today is the day to say "Man, I feel like a WOMAN!" :)  We celebrated when one of our students and his wife brought us cheesecake for the holiday!  It was great!  In mainland China, women get the day off of work.  Many schools are off today because of that...even in Macau!  But most women still have to work (like me), cause it's not a mandatory holiday for the employers to give ;)

Well, things have been changing around here!  I have been advancing a little more in Chinese (both languages, but especially Cantonese) in the past few weeks than I have been in a while.  I had many people in Hong Kong look at me in extreme surprise wondering how I learned Chinese so well, and exclaim "WOW!! le zhong mun hoa hoa!" (Your Chinese is so good!)  or "Wow!! You sound just like a Chinese person!"  Of course, I think they are being just a little lenient on me, but it's still extremely encouraging!

I have been formatting my work computer (that just got moved to my desk last week!) to my preferences...adding my newsletter program, changing the desktop, and arranging icons and folders to my liking. That's great :)  I like making it feel useful to me.  I'm still working on getting the Asian script installed and working so that I can type Chinese when needed.

I have been listening to KLOVE a lot via their online streaming.  I even sent them an e-mail thanking them for their wonderful online streaming, because it really helps!

On a less positive side, I've been in a lot of pain lately, because of my back.  I haven't been to a chiropractor in about 7 or 8 months, and my shoulder is really feeling the pain, which leads to my neck, which causes migraines....boo.

The weather is now Spring.  It's the rainy season.  Though it hasn't been raining while I have been commuting,  the ground is soaked as I walk by, and I often fall asleep to the sound of rain.  There is also cardboard all over the ground!  My dehumidifier is running whenever I am home, which helps!  Also, I have stopped wearing 10 layers, and am only wearing 1 layer today, which is great!  I even have short sleeves on!  I do have a jacket just in case, though!

The internet has been down for a while, so we ventured out of our offices and worked on a few things in the office.  It's back up now, so I can update you all about the events!

I've found myself on top of things lately.  It's been a good thing!  I am able to plan for my classes a week a head, and am able to stay organized and such!  Tomorrow we are teaching the story of Ruth and Naomi to the kids--finally--a kid-friendly lesson!  Unlike last week's Hosea and Gomer!  (for last week I changed it to a child who ran away from home again and again until finally she went to jail and the parents had to bail her out, then changing it to many people--us--who run away from God, and God comes to us and dies on the cross to pay the price for our sins!)  This week we will be singing "We Love (CLAP CLAP) because God first loved us!" and playing follow the leader, and talking about how Ruth followed Naomi wherever she went, and put her trust in God!

This is getting long, so I will post later about Hong Kong and all that awaited me there! :)

To all of you women out there: HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY!  You are a wonderful daughter of God, and He loves you so much, and has made you beautiful: not only on the outside, but on the inside, where He has washed you clean of sin and its ill effects!

To all of you men out there: Say something nice to the women in your life today to remind them how special they are to you, and how God created her beautiful just the way she is!  Men, sorry, there is no Men's day in China, but God created you beautiful too--from the inside out! :)

March Newsletter

My March newsletter is up and ready to view--click here or visit the link under the "Newsletters" tab on the left of the screen to see it!  It got a little pixilated during the upload, but it's still readable :) The photos are just grainy.

Have a great day!

Tomorrow I am off to Hong Kong until Monday.  I should have a post up about that soon afterwards with pictures! :)