Beside Quiet Waters

The past week and a half I have had a bad cold, which kind of stinks. It must be some different strand that I’m not used too, some Chinese version of the cold, because medicine doesn’t seem to be helping. A couple coworkers mentioned that if I go to the doctor, they will fix me up really quick (via blood transfusion or something like that-hooking me up with needles and pumping me full of glucose). I think they said glucose, I’m not sure…..but I certainly want to avoid needles at all costs!

But teaching has been going great (other than having to sing/chant/talk all day with a cold haha). The kids are a lot of fun and really cute. B-ble studies are awesome, and we’ve had some new Chinese friends that we’ve randomly met come to join us. Seems like they want to come every week too, may He work through His word in their hearts!



One of my students!

 

10/27/12 to 10/28/12

Last night Andy and I went to Jess and Nicole’s for an American dinner. It was delicious! We had some ranch chicken, corn on the cob, and brownies. Mmmmmmmmmm! We then learned and played the Chinese game Majiang. Pretty easy after a couple times. After heading back and taking some Nyquil, I hit the sack.

Majiang!

In the morning I woke up feeling like a million dollars! That stuff works miracles. It’s good too because today I led our first adventure B-ble study. Since I love the outdoors and adventures, I wanted to combine the two and have a once a month adventure B-ble study. So today we met some Chinese and American friends, and rode our bicycles 6 miles to the Botanical Gardens alongside East Lake. It was a beautiful sunny day. It wasn’t hot, but rather it was a nice autumn temperature. Weaving in and out of cars our ‘bicycle gang’ made it out of the city and onto the scenic road winding around the lake. Once there, we hiked 15 or so minutes past calm ponds, old buildings, and through woods to our semi-secluded B-ble study location that I had found 4ish weeks earlier while exploring. It was two benches in the woods, next to a little waterfall and stream.

 

The theme of this study was “Beside Quiet Waters,” a study of Psalm 23. We read through the section in English and Chinese, and then talked about questions anyone had of vocabulary or questions in general. After ten or so minutes we went off by ourselves to have some personal meditation/reflection/pr-yer time in a peaceful spot of our choice, with a “worksheet” of questions I prepared to reflect on. It was relaxing, and great reflecting on J-sus as our shepherd. 20 minutes later we came back together for a discussion on our thoughts, answered some questions, and ended with a pr-yer and song. Towards the end of the study, Liangjun (our new Chinese friend who I randomly met on the street) asked what “and I will dwell in the house of the L-RD forever” meant. I had another Chinese friend translate what I was saying since his English level is probably a 3/10, as I explained the hope we have in Him! G-d willing he will come to know J-sus as his Savi-r in the future! We finished up our study and grabbed lunch on the bicycle ride back. Kelsey, Andy and I also explored a sports university nearby, did some off-road biking to get across the lake on a wooded “lake divider,” (I don’t know what it was, a cement 20 foot wide divider in the lake, covered in trees) and hung out on a dock with some fishermen. A successful first adventure study!

 

P.S. We’ve seen some unbelievable things on the streets of China. Pooping children, (I’m sorry I had to say it! I should have written a disclaimer before putting that out there…) amazing motor scooter skills  of balancing large objects, and everything in between).