OK, so the reason this is so late is because I have a lot on my plate right now: I gave myself so much to do for my classes that absorb all spare time I have, I’m planning the next two weeks for Beijing and Xiamen, David comes home, EFY giving me issues, and I’m trying to help all my students prepare for their exams and open my apartment for them to come and relax or have company over.
I lost my voice last week in Daoxian KTVing and so I sounded terrible, but my students are loving and forgiving and still listen to me. This past week I taught my students about slang and compliments. Here everyone says things as they think they are. They’ll point and yell to their friends when they see a foreigner, they’ll tell someone they are fat and should exercise and stop eating junk food, and they will knock on your door until you answer it because it is apparently rude to not answer here in China. I taught them about American mindsets on these things, and it surprised them. They all loved the lesson and now use the slang and give compliments to me when they see me, and I hope they give them to their classmates just as much.
So I got accepted as an EFY counselor! They were pretty unprofessional about the whole thing, but I’m happy that with all my extra efforts, checking up, and waiting, I can be a counselor for 4 different weeks this summer, ranging from Nauvoo to Colorado to Rexburg. I’m excited!
Then this past weekend we were supposed to go to Guilin but it was looking like rain, so we decided to all gather here in Lingling to chill. Jacob Harlan (the founder of China Horizons, sort my boss) came and we had a great time together! Saturday Sam, Madi, Twinkle, the Shuangpai girls, and I went to Lengshuitang and walked around and took some pics, which was fun. Twinkle and I came back to Lingling and did a little more shopping for yarn for my class for this week. Twinkle is amazing! She is pretty much the Chinese version of me, if I were to grow up here. Her heart is so good, and she spends so much time with me in my apartment and talking about our lives and seeing pictures, that even though I cannot even passively proselyte, she wants to know how she can serve a mission. I gave her my old camera because it is the first step in documenting her fulfilling her dreams as a tai chi coach, translator, or being like Opra and helping children in Africa, and I have full confidence that she will change the world and who am I to discourage such a strong Spirit? When Jacob and the Dong’an couple came in we went out to eat and just hung out together. Jacob got buttery flavor so we got to eat popcorn with it…it was good! He showed me how to make popcorn in a wok, which I’m excited to do when I get home-popcorn like that is so good!
For my lesson this week I decided to do my lesson on “Making a Difference”. Many people in China feel like they are so insignificant in the big world, that chances are high their dreams will not come true, and that they’ll never be able to make a difference in the world. I decided that I’d take my students outside and we’d get into a circle, and then I, armed with a ball of yarn, would hold onto the string end and throw it to someone in the class, followed by a compliment. Since we’ve talked about compliments and traits of heroes these past two weeks I figured it was a good way to give them practice as well as learn the object lesson. Once they’d get the ball of yarn I’d give a compliment, then they’d hold onto the string and throw it to another person, and so on, creating a spider web-looking design inside the circle. Once we’d demonstrated how the strings crossed and each string when moved will move all the other strings because they cross, I let them play basketball for 10 minutes (so they could have at least 10 minutes total free time for the week), and then we met back in the classroom where I explained the ripple effect and how every day they are alive they make a difference in all the people they connect with, and like a ripple in the water, they can only see the immediate effect, but the ripple goes on and on.
As I gave them this speech, the Spirit attended the classes. Students that had the most difficult time trying to understand the instructions for the yarn game even will all my gestures and simple words understood the message I was saying fully. The Spirit needs no human interpretation, for He speaks to the heart, not the ear. This is the first time I can recall ever having been part of a miracle like this. I guess you could say it was the gift of interpretation of tongues on their part, and it was incredible. All my students were thoroughly touched as I told them I’d remember them all forever and miss them when I went home because they have changed my life forever and I’m a different person because I know them. Some cried, others said I was very wise, but all of them said they’d never forget me and they all love me. Right before this week of teaching, Sunday, I decided that I not only wanted to play the “Make a Difference” game outside with the yarn, but I wanted to give them something as well to remind them of the lesson. Sunday afternoon I started making bracelets from the same yarn I was going to use for the game. I just cut them a little more than wrist circumference, and tied 5 knots in them. The middle knot represents them. The yarn itself represents their life, and the two knots on either side of the middle represented the people in the past who have touched their lives the most and the people who will touch their lives in the future, respectfully. It has taken me all week long to do them, which is the main reason this update is late. It takes me about 1.3 minutes to do each bracelet and I did a total of 720+, so thankfully I got some help finishing them for the end of the week. This week’s lesson by far has been the most productive and impressionable. They got to learn a game, practice English, have a few minutes of freedom, feel the Spirit and my confidence and love for them, and then they received a bracelet to remind them of this lesson. The understanding, love, trust, and strength from their eyes totally made this time in China completely worthwhile if not anything else! Oh I love my children. I love teaching. So those are a couple obvious miracles. The other miracle was the weather. See, the reason we didn’t travel this past weekend was because it was supposed to rain all weekend and all this week. Well I prayed in faith that the weather would be nice and sunny instead so I could teach the message most effectively, knowing full well God had a hand in my lesson planning. Well it cleared up just in time for my classes on Tuesday-it was sunny, but some of my students still complained that it was too hot. I adjusted my prayers a little for Wednesday that the weather would be “comfortable”, and it was. It only increased my testimony that God really pays attention to the details of our prayers and wants to remind us that He knows best. So that is what, at least 3 solid miracles this week?! I love being a part of them!
As well as those miracles, I came across a foreigner who works here in Lingling…you know what foreign passport means? I CAN SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH THEM! HaHA! She’s a black lady who lives in Lengshuitang but works here at a daycare in Lingling, and this Monday I’m inviting her to have FHE with Sam, Madi, and I, and we’ll have a picnic and just talk about life…and when Nikki talks to people about her favorite things….happy day! So pray for me. ;)
This upcoming weekend David comes home, so you’ll bet I’ll spend some time talking to him. All of my friends and students here in China know he’s coming home, so they are all happy with me and want to meet him. I love this culture! This next week I’ll go to Beijing, and spend a week there with my cousin Robert Tate, who has lived here for over a year. He has helped me with my tickets to and from Beijing, and he has planned some amazing things-he is the coolest ever! I feel so spoiled already. Living here for so long and knowing the language and culture is definitely a sweet hookup, so I’m in good hands with good connections-I won’t even have to pay for a hotel in Beijing-he has a friend there we will stay with! I will leave for Beijing Wednesday the 3rd, and then I’ll spend the week there, be able to attend the actual branch for church on Sunday (!!!), and then I’ll head to Xiamen the next week to travel with Madi and Sam (I have 2 weeks off while my students test). Then I’ll come home, well back to Lingling, teach 2 more weeks of classes (or however many they tell us at last minute-that is how they do things out here), and then I’m planning to come home July 2nd, because I couldn’t get my flight changed to a more convenient date. Can’t believe I’m coming home. I really don’t want to, but being an EFY counselor, seeing family (including extended), and David are good incentives.
I love you all! Thank you for all your prayers!
Pic 1: Madi coming in from the rain
Pic 2: A man pushing his kid's stroller in the street
Pic 3: Chinese clothing (anything with English on it is cool)
Pic 4: A statue
Pic 5: Jacob making wokcorn in my kitchen!
Pic 6: Our beautiful school this Spring
Pic 1: Chinese recycling
Pic 2: Jake, the boyfriend of my student Stella (shh, don't tell, they aren't allowed to have bf's/gf's in high school). He showed me some magic tricks.
Pic 3: Jake messing with my er hu
Pic 4: Stella, me, and Jake (you can see my bracelet project in the background)
Pic 5-8: Madi and I decided to get hair makeovers.
Pic 1: More Madi-Nikki fun
Pic 2-4: The Yarn Game
Pic 5: Madi enjoying the remains of the knotty yarn!
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