Estimating.... traveling....

A family from Bethany who was logged in on July 26, 2005 reported that their case worker estimates that they will travel anywhere from mid to late November. We didn't get logged in until December of 2005. There's a possibility it could be next spring before we go... We'll just have to wait and see. Depending on how things go, we'll likely have to re-apply for our I171 immigration form (filing cost is $545). Like I said, guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Highlights (newsletter part 4)

- Forming relationships with Christians in China

- Worshipping with our students in Chinese and English

- Having delicious Chinese food for almost every meal (Henry ate a duck foot!)

- Climbing the Great Wall

- Learning “Jesus Loves Me” in Chinese

- Developing strong relationships with our teaching team

- Singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” really fast and erupting in laugher with our morning group

- Leading worship before and after English lessons each day

- Witnessing the passion that Chinese Christians have for God

- Hearing familiar hymns like Amazing Grace sung in Chinese

- Learning more about the history and culture of China (and of our future daughter)

- Being treated to Peking Duck

- Buying cute squeaky shoes and traditional Chinese dresses for our future daughter

- Squattie potties & split pants

- Getting even better with chopsticks

- Seeing Pekingese dogs all over the place!

- Being immersed in a different culture

- Hearing Chinese spoken everywhere

After Christmas?

Many people are trying to make predictions about how long families are going to be waiting for their referrals (to be matched with a child). There's really no way to tell how long or short things will go. Apparently one large agency is predicting the time frame listed below. LID stands for the date your application was logged in at the Chinese agency. (Our LID is December 5). If things go like this agency is predicting, we would not be matched until around March or April. We can't say for sure, things could pick up a bit. Either way, it's not very likely that we will get a referral before Christmas.

LID 7/14/05 to 7/28/05: August referral (13 month wait)
LID 7/29/05 to 8/12/05: September referral (13-14 month wait)
LID 8/13/05 to 8/29/05: October referral (14 month wait)
LID 8/30/05 to 9/13/05: November referral (14-15 month wait)
LID 9/14/05 to 9/28/05: December referral (15 month wait)
LID 9/29/05 to 10/13/05: January referral (15-16 month wait)

A Typical Day in Beijing (newsletter part 3)

7:30 A.M. delicious Chinese breakfast in the guesthouse restaurant

8:10 On the bus to Kuanjie Church

9:00 - 11:00 Whole group time (learning Scripture and worshipping together) and Small group time (English lessons)

11:15 Walk to a local restaurant for lunch

12:30 On the bus back to the guesthouse

1:30 – 5:30 Lesson Planning, Free Time and Supper

5:30 On the bus to Gangwashi Church

6:30 - 8:30 Whole group time (learning scripture and worshipping together) Small group time (English lessons)

8:45 On the bus to our guesthouse

9:45 Free time – often bedtime!

Sightseeing and Free Time (newsletter part 2)

Although we spent a lot of time teaching and preparing our lessons, we did have a nice amount of free time each day. Our group was quite adventurous and had a big list of all the things we wanted to do during our stay. We came up with a master plan/schedule so that we wouldn’t miss a thing. This kept us pretty busy but it was worth it!

During the first weekend in Beijing we spent time at the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace and The Temple of Heaven. We also had an orientation session that weekend. It was all great but we were SO tired!

We took the first two teaching afternoons off and then jumped into our own busy plans. We spent free afternoons and evenings doing a variety of activities like: bowling, shopping at the Pearl and the Silk Market, foot massages (OW!), the Beijing Zoo, Hou Hai Park, Full Body Massages, the Night Market, a Hutong rickshaw tour, and some more shopping.

On the weekend, between our two weeks of teaching, we took a train to Chengde which was a mountain resort for some Chinese emperors. The architecture there is beautiful and quite different from buildings in Beijing. It was fun to have a weekend adventure!

Teaching (newsletter part 1)

This is part of a newsletter we wrote about our work in China. This article is about our teaching experience. The two pictures are of our evening and morning classes.

The stated purpose of our trip was to teach English but it was much more than that. In fact, the relationships we formed with our students were more important than any English lessons we taught. While teaching English made it possible for us to come, worshipping together was what really reinforced our unity as members of the worldwide church of God. We were blessed by the love and warmth we were shown by our students.

The two groups we taught were quite different. Our morning group was a group of mostly older people who spoke no English and were very eager to learn. We taught them Psalm 23, the Beattitudes, many worship songs, and basic English vocabulary. The students were very appreciative and encouraging to us and loved teaching us “Jesus Loves Me” in Chinese.

Our evening group was made up of high school and college students who all spoke English quite fluently. They wanted help with pronunciation and new vocabulary. We enjoyed teaching them, and especially liked playing Uno and just sitting around and talking with them.