Wo de hanyu bu hao (My Chinese is not good)

This past month we spent time mainly learning the language and meeting up with mentors and other individuals. We gained a lot of insight on how the work is being done here and how its a process. For many of the people out here, it has been a 10 year journey of listening, growing and preparing before even coming out long term. Not that they were idle during those years but actively taking steps towards the future. It has reinforced the wisdom that before you can truly be used to change the world you need to change yourself (actually He needs to change you). There is still a lot of refining that needs to be done in our lives and we are so glad that He is not done with us yet!

On a lighter note, this past month, we are thinking J's language has improved on the street. Here's a common scenario while we bargain for our winter clothes:
-P points out something he likes(without saying anything) and walks away. Then J goes into the store and bargains with the owner in only Chinese. After a good price is agreed upon, P comes in to try it on. Then the store owner always responds to J: "What? I didn't know you were bringing an American friend?! I would have given you a higher price!"

P's language has improved as well! He has gone from understanding 2% of a conversation to 30%.

Random Pictures

Before...
And After...

Maybe we can get a job correcting spelling and grammer mistakes!

Olympic Figures

Pineapple Fried Rice...

It's a Small World!

It's a small world after all!

In a country with 1.3 billion people, its odd that we would see anyone that we know. In the past month, we've randomly run into two people we know from Texas! Usually what happens is, we look across the room a few times with a puzzled face and then flash a UT longhorn sign to see if the other responds. Maybe the Texas, Chinese, C network is more powerful than we thought! Its great seeing people that we know out here and hearing stories of how Dad's moving in their lives and the people around them. We hope to see more Texans in the future! Yeehaw!

But Texas is a Foreign Place:
One question we are often asked is "How come you don't have a Texas accent??". We explained to them that most people in TX(at least the ones we know) don't have an accent but then they always go into a story about that one TX person they met with a drawl. An American here, even compared us not having a Texan accent to, an Australian not having an Australian accent. Apparently, Texas is as foreign as Australia.

Patience is a Virtue

We are learning everyday how to extend patience and grace to others. Dad teaches us this big lesson in small ways.

Here are some ways in daily life:
1) Forming lines and cutting in line does not matter. I can't count the number of times we've been cut in front of...
2) Hacking loogies and funny smells everywhere
3) The number of hours it takes to do a simple task- like paying for electricity
4) Asking others for directions. We don't get it. No one knows where anything is around here. Or are they just not willing to help? :/
5) Having to bargain for almost everything. We never know if we're getting a good price.

Through all of these things that would normally make us mad and annoyed, Dad has been teaching us to love others and their differences. We are learning to embrace the culture and forget our American way!

Train Riding

Train riding has been an adventure! A travel book called the train stations here "mayhem" and we sadly have to agree. Even though we already know C has 1/3 of the world's population, its not until you go to train stations that you really experience what that means.

This is only one waiting area out of many!We took our first overnight train! It was actually a very nice experience and a lot of fun. This train travels at 162km/h. Each person is provided with slippers and a personal tv. We had two strangers above us and luckily none of them snored.

Seeing Growth

The past two weeks have been a real treat. We got a chance to spend time with old friends. They spoiled us with their awesome cooking and hospitality. It was a great time of reconnecting and seeing the work at hand. We really respect them in how they live out their life. We learned a lot from them through the example of their marriage and how they're raising their son.





This post is called "Seeing Growth" for many reasons:

1) P came here when the work first started and J came the year after. Many years have passed since then and we got to see how dad's been working and the amazing fruit that has come about. We were overjoyed to see the blessings! We got a chance to meet with some people and also do some teaching.

2) There was a new addition to their family! The last time we saw him he was only a few days old and now he's over 4 months. He is by far the cutest boy!!

3) Personal Growth- "It is better to have travelled one thousand miles than to have read one thousand books."-a Chinese proverb?

You can only get so far in your walk by just reading. I don't think dad wants us to only read about him and the life he wants for us. But we need to mature past just knowing what we should do and actually begin living it out. Our lives can sometimes be so busy that we fill our time with many unnecessary things instead of with the right things. We have been learning to take daily steps of f_ _ t h in order to experience him daily. We are really glad in our choice to come out here.

Overall, it was really tough leaving our friends but we are really happy that we got a chance to spend precious time with them!

Fairwell Party

While we were there for a month, many short term teams stopped by. Usually they stayed for only 3-4 days. As each group leaves, they perform songs and dances for them. We've been the longest visitors ever so on our last day, they surprised us with a "fairwell party"! They performed songs, dances, a fashion show and funny skits. Some of the skits were even in English and were stories about how we met and our future. We were so impressed and felt so loved!


We didn't know it was possible to grow so close to 30+ people in a month, but we did! It was such a hard goodbye. There were many tears shed from us(well, J) and the kids. But we were so happy that our Dad gave us this opportunity to be with such a special group of people. Even though we were there to teach them, we felt like we've learned even more from them. We can't wait to see how Dad uses them in the future!

They really want us to come back and visit. If we can, we definitely want to and next time we want to bring some of you. Want to come with us?!?!