Floating into the Stars

Greetings, and Happy New Year to everyone!

This New Year's Eve celebration was the most eventful New Year's Eve of my life. In the morning, Adam (an FOC friend from Hangzhou) arrived to visit everyone here. In the early morning I called a Chinese friend-John Wayne- to help me go to the hospital to get some eye medication. I had pink eye! Two days before I wore my contacts for the first time in over a month, and somehow I infected my eye which spread to the other eye overnight. (It's now healed though, praise the L-rd!) We spent a couple hours traveling around by bus (the hospital was closed for lunch) and eventually we made it back to my apartment gate empty handed. But right next to our gate, was a pharmacy. So we grabbed some anti-inflammatory eye drops. Should have thought of that to begin with! We then grabbed Adam, and we headed off for breakfast street-a massive well-known series of streets with delicious food. But......we missed the bus stop and started to go over the Yangtze River, and then continued a mile after the river. So we had to walk a few miles, over the massive river to breakfast street. We had a fun time maneuvering across the roads like Frogger though! By the time we arrived we were pretty exhausted from all the walking. I got a deep fat fried banana and balls of yummy rice dough covered in a sticky caramel deep fat fried on a stick. Mmmmmmmm! We then headed to Hankou, across the Yangtze again but this time on a ferry (more scenic). It was a perfect day. Very odd considering how bad and cold it has been for the last 2 months. Well, we ended up on the wrong ferry! The boat took us onto another river that intersects with the Yangtze, the Han River. So we hopped off, and spent an hour or two walking the jam packed streets looking for a taxi. Ended up giving up and taking motorcycle taxis! (AKA riding on the back of a scooter with a random person). I love riding the scooters! It is extreme. Swerving in and out of people, buses, and driving on the wrong side of the road, we made our way to Kelsey/Lisa/Steph/Hannah's apartment.

The plan was to watch the fireworks on the bank of the Yangtze River at 9:30pm. Let's just say this plan failed miserably, but led to a more adventurous evening! We all (around 15 of us) headed out on the railway, then transferred to the subway to the river stop. Hundreds upon hundreds of people were walking into the subway as we exited. Once we headed up the escalator to the surface, I saw something that belonged in an apocalyptic Hollywood film. A mass of people were being blocked off from going down into the subway by the military. As we neared the top, a few people started to climb over a ledge, then the police/military quickly yelled them down. They were controlling the amount of people going into the subway in order to prevent a stampede/overcrowding. I had a bad feeling, that we had missed the fireworks! Why was everyone heading the opposite direction? We turned the corner onto the main walking street leading to the river. Thousands upon thousands of people were streaming down the street, unstoppable like a river flooded by snow melt. So many people! We missed the fireworks! It had just ended. But we decided to head to the river anyways! Bad decision. In a train of 15 people (we had a people train race with some other random younger Chinese, which was quite hilarious) we pushed onward, and eventually saw the big park entrance to the riverside.

Most people I've seen in my life! A mass of people. So we decided to go straight into them to the riverside! Above was quite the sight. Hundreds of red lanterns, floating silently up into the night's sky, disappearing into the stars. We pushed forward, until we realized the dangerous situation we were in. It was like the end of the world. Cars and buses were frozen in the street as what must have been 30,000 people pushed away from the river, squeezing through the tiny spaces in between the vehicles. If someone cracked and started panicking/running, it would have been a deadly night. We left as fast as possible. But there was no where to go, just people as far as the eye could see. I have to be honest, I was a bit scared. In Africa 71 people died this year in a stampede after a fireworks show on New Year's Eve. Eventually we made it away from the mass. Thank G-d! We stopped, took a breather, and lit our lanterns that we bought, watching them float away into the sky. A crowd of Chinese gathered as we did so, taking pictures of us, the foreigners. Then we headed to Helen's, a bar, for the midnight count down and a few drinks! First time in my life that I've counted down in a different language. Never thought I'd be doing that in Chinese! Afterwards we went dancing, and eventually made it back home.

New Years Day was really fun. We went ice skating, indoors, in China. Never thought I'd be doing that here! We had a blast, playing with some kids, and skating around.

January 2nd 18 of us took a day trip to some hot springs in a city that is 2 hours away by train. But we took the G train, part of the largest and fastest train network in the world! It travels at 200 miles/hour. We made it there in 20 minutes! So smooth, so fast, so advanced! It was a great day soaking in the natural springs, and I also got a massage. Relaxing. While waiting for the train back home, next to the tracks, I saw the G train heading straight for us. It looked like a silver bullet. Within seconds, even though it seemed really far away, it raced by us like a rocket ship  Literally, it sounded like a rocket ship taking off! Fastest thing I've seen on land, probably won't ever see anything move that fast on ground ever! It's hard to describe the site. It was incredible. We all cheered and screamed like our team just won the Super Bowl as it whizzed by at 200+ mph. Headed back home after a full day and had a Study here on the book of Philippians. Always a refreshing time leading Studies.

All in all, I had a great last day of 2012, and a great start to the New Year. May He blss us this New Year as we remember what He's done for us!

December Update!!!

December!

Wow! I've been really bad at blogging recently. It's probably because I'm used to living here now. Every day is different, with new challenges, but I go days at a time not realizing that I'm living in China. Anyways, here are some highlights of December:

1. I got to preach and lead my second ch-rch service! Such a rewarding experience.

2. I shot a new music video!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's done. It'll be on YouTube and Facebook soon :)

3. Had a celebrity-like experience at the first annual English corner (where Chinese people come to speak and practice their English)  at Andy's college. Basically it was me, surrounded by 50 people who asked me tons of questions about life in America! They asked me to sing, dance, and share my experiences. So I did! After everyone whipped out their cameras and took tons of pictures of me, and with me. Kind of weird! It would be really annoying being a celebrity after 1 hour or so.........

4. I lead my second adventure study! We spent the day biking to Forest Park, went zip-lining, saw the monkeys, and enjoyed dinner afterwards. The topic was "G-d's Creation." We had 30 minutes of personal dev-tion time, during which myself and Jason (a new friend coming to our studies)  got to discuss the G-spel message, the Law, and we had a really deep rel-gious discussion. It was great!

5. Andy and I went on yet another random adventure with our new friend, Liangjun. He told me at lunch one day, that he was going to buy a $94,000 BMW! He also told me I could drive it fast once he got it. AWESOME! So on one Saturday, Andy and I hopped in a taxi with Liangjun, and went on a 1 and a half hour taxi ride to a huge luxury car dealership outside of Wuhan. We hopped into a BMW (the backseats) and Liangjun in the passenger seat. The saleswoman drove us to a long stretch of road with cars, bikes, and people scattered around. Liangjun turned around and said, "Be careful, we go fast." Andy and I were baffled. What could possibly happen? The saleswoman gunned it, and we went from 0-90mph in probably 8 seconds! Felt like we were taking off in a rocket! Then she slammed on the breaks as hard as she could! All of my stuff sitting on the seat flew off as Andy and I flew forward due to the force created by slamming on the brakes. We started laughing really hard, then she did it all again! Flying past mother's carrying their kids, and street food stands, we zoomed by at 100mph in the new BMW. Quite the fun experience. Afterwards Liangjun asked if we rode horses (random, right?) We said a couple times. He then told the taxi driver to take us somewhere. We ended up at a massive horse racing stadium. Since Andy really had to go to the bathroom, Liangjun lead us past guards, red tape, and into the stadium "VIP" area and into the Jockey locker room. We ended up using that bathroom. When we left a group of the midget jockeys got in a big fight! That's something I wasn't expecting to see when I left to go shop for BMWs! We tried to ride some horses nearby, but they were closed so we headed back home. Anyways, it was quite a random day of adventure!

6. Celebrated the end of the world (Dec. 21st 2012, the day the Mayans 'predicted' would be the last day) by going out for drinks, then out for dancing!

7. Had a massive (almost 200 people) Christmas party for all of our Chinese friends. We read some     g-spel messages, sang some Chr-stian Christmas songs, and celebrated the real reason for the season with a lot of people who have never heard about Jes-s. May He work in their hearts!

8. I got to be Santa Claus and got paid to do it! Childhood dream come true haha It was at a really fancy restaurant. I went into private dining rooms 'ho ho ho-ing' and handing out candy to people. Took alot of pictures with people too. Really fun! Then ate at the restaurant. Absolutely delicious! Mmmmmmmmmmm

9. F.O.C. Christmas party on Christmas day. Sang all of our favorite Christmas songs together, praising Him for the gift of His Son! Then had a gift exchange, and out for lunch (Papa John's Pizza!) Afterwards some of us watched Christmas movies all night at our apartment :)

Our goofy Christmas photo :D

10. Teaching others about the real Christmas story at our B-ble studies was a big highlight of the month. Really encouraging, and an awesome priveledge to do so!


That's all for December, may He blss you as you remember the real reason for the season!

To G-d Be the Glory!

Today we went to the wedding of two of our Chinese friends who often come to Studies. It was a Chr-stian wedding which was awesome! We (all the FOC teachers) got to sing To G-d be the Glory, In Chr-st Alone, and another song for the ceremony. I was very inspired by how courageous they were to have a Chr-stian wedding, amongst all of their Chinese friends and family who were mainly not  Chr-stian. Such a statement on their part. "We are Chr-stian, and we are proud of it!" There was a sermon, pr-yer, and the singing of the songs.

It took place in a hotel, and in typical Chinese fashion despite being a Chr-stian ceremony (people smoking, talking during the ceremony, and with a massive feast of Octopus, frog, turtle, and other foods). I was very inspired by their wedding though, and how they showed everyone there that they are living their lives to His glory, having Chr-st at the center of their lives together.

A good thing that should be remembered daily, He is the center of our lives. Even if the crowd opposes you, you should not only fearfully make know the mystery of the G-spel, but also faithfully live to His glory.

Suits, burgers, and skyscrappers!

This last weekend I went to Hong Kong by myself (I was supposed to go with the other 3 FOC teachers 2 weeks ago, but my school didn't give me my paperwork in time) to get my work visa (otherwise I'd be kicked out!) Hong Kong is a different country than China...almost....it's the equivalent of Puerto Rico to America. They speak a different language-Cantonese-have different laws-like no eating or drinking on public transportation-and you have to go through customs to get into Hong Kong.

The first day I spent applying for my visa, and exploring the city! What an incredible place. Truly a modern marvel. The whole city has been built up just in the last generation. WOW! Towering buildings spanned the entire harbor, sandwiched between steep mountains and water. I went to all the major tall buildings, and also ventured into one of the world's best places to celebrity-watch (according to Yahoo News), the Mandarin Oriental. I felt very uncomfortable surrounded by rich foreigners wearing business suits and drinking tea, so I darted out of there! In fact, it seems that the entire city population is businessmen/women wearing fancy suits, carrying briefcases, and speaking........ENGLISH! YES! I was able to speak English everywhere in HK. Everyone knows it. After walking around the city below I took the tram up to the top of the mountain for a bird's eye view of the city. I spent half the day up there, hiking the mountain trail with skyscrapers immediately below, and eating western food (McDonald's and Burger King). After watching the sun set, and looking at the city lights, I headed down and to Katie's (a WELS Kingdom Worker in HK) apartment to spend the night!

The next day I went to the visa office, picked up my visa, and had the entire day to explore some more! So I went across the river to view the harbor from the other side. Walking along the pier I enjoyed the cleanliness of HK. They have extremely strict laws of no spitting, J-walking, littering, or eating/drinking in public transportation. HK doesn't want to become like mainland China, dirty and polluted. I then hopped onto the extremely convenient-easy to understand metro (one of the most advanced in the world, I once saw a history channel special talking about HK's metro) out of the city and into the mountains, to check out the world's largest Buddha! I took the 3 mile tram into the mountains, and started exploring the little commercialized "Disney World" of a village atop the mountain. It was a tourist trap. In the map it said you could see the tree Siddhartha famously sat beneath when pondering life's questions. I figured it would be a very religious/well-known site. So I found the tree, took some pictures because I figured it was a very historical site, and then felt one of the leafs. It was PLASTIC! I immediately started walking away. They flat out lied on their brochure! Oh well. I then checked out the Buddhist temple where monks sang and chanted away to their golden statues, as tourists stood nearby taking pictures, and then I headed to the big Buddha.

Sitting atop a hill the world's largest Buddha was quite a cool site! I decided to run up all the stairs. It was fun, but I ran on the opposite side that I should have, and after reaching the top I noticed some people praying/bowing their heads to the Buddha. I feel kind of bad, but it was good exercise. I walked down, caught the gondola back down, and headed back to HK for dinner with Katie. I ate a delicious shrimp curry with rice. We then checked out the light show on the harbor. The entire city skyline's night lights have been synchronized to music. I've never found beauty in a city until this night. It was truly beautiful! Seeing such a bustling, busy, huge, clean, technologically advanced city flashing and blinking to music was mind blowing. Beautiful. We then headed back and hit the hay. The next day I relaxed, watched TV, and went shopping to buy western food I can't find in mainland China (Doritos, Twix, tortilla chips, and a New Zealand beer I've been looking for forever, Speights!) Yummmmmmmmmm....I hopped on the train in the evening and headed back to Wuhan. Great trip!

Run Forrest, Run!

11/16-11/18/12

This weekend we went to Hangzhou, to visit our fellow brothers and sisters, to run in the Hangzhou International Marathon (we ran the 6.8K race), worship Him together, hike in the tea fields, and rappell down an 8 story building!

This blog will be short and sweet I just now decided :) It'll be a "Top Ten" list describing the top 10 things about this weekend (in no particular order).

1). Hangzhou is beautiful! It was nice to get away from the 'real' China in Wuhan, to a beautiful/green city.
2). Western food! I ate so much delicious food that I haven't had in 3 months. In one day I ate 3 Bic Macs, fries, cheese, and some delicious desserts.
3). RUNNING IN A RACE!!! I am very very happy and excited to have been able to run in this race. It was a blast. I haven't run a race since my marathon in May, and it was an exhilarating experience running a race in China. Pretty funny though, because there were so many people wanting to take pictures with me after the finish line, tons of photographers taking pictures of me, and a lot of people just wanting to talk to me. Still haven't gotten used to this yet, kind of weird and awkward! I must look like a foreign professional runner ;) The finish was fun too. It was me and another Chinese guy. I was about to breeze past him into the finish, but he did a double take. As soon as he saw me he took off sprinting. So I let him get ahead a bit, and after a few seconds I took off! Passed him before finishing. The race was a beautiful course too. Around a part of the famous West Lake. It is considered China's most romantic area, and I can see why! With temples and pagodas peaking out from the tree covered hills lining the lake, the warm autumn day was full of red, yellow, and orange trees. Great race.

The Wuhaners. 

4). Hiking the tea fields. Incredibly beautiful and peaceful place. We hiked up the tea fields from a small village, and had a cup of tea afterwards.

5). Rappelling down an 8 story building. The guys we stayed with are avid rock climbers, so they have a sweet setup on their roof to repel down. Scary at first while stepping out onto a little ledge with 8 floors beneath  but epic. As I was repelling down I went by a window with an old lady doing her laundry. I greeted her in Chinese and she greeted me back without surprise (considering I was a foreigner a foot away from her window repelling down, I was surprised that she wasn't surprised)!

6). Fellowship with all the FOCers! A large group of us gathered in Hangzhou for fellowship. Seeing everyone again was great. Fun people.
7). Group w-rhip service. With over 50 people jam packed like sardines in a small apartment, sitting on the floor and anywhere we could find room, we sang, pr-yed, listened  and reflected on what He has done for us. It was great.
8). "Friends" replica coffee shop. We visited a replica coffee shop and apartment from the TV show "Friends." I haven't seen the show that much, but it was still pretty sweet!

9). New backpack. I got a sweet, legit, hiking backpack for $50 USD. A big one. I love it.
10). Great people, places, and a great G-d!

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).   

Trains, camels, and warriors!

I will try to keep this as short as possible.

September 29th - Oct. 1st- Today marked the beginning of our 7 day vacation, for Mid-Autumn Festival! (A holiday celebrating family). We were headed to the northern part of China, to ride camels in the Gobi desert, and to see the 2,000+ year old Terracotta Warriors. We departed Wuhan with our backpacks full. Getting on the 590 (the bus we needed) was basically impossible, because everyone, and I mean everyone, travels during the breaks. Each bus that came by was packed like sardines, so eventually we squeezed in to the point of not being able to move! An hour and a half later, after meeting up with the fellow Wuhaners coming and catching another bus, we boarded our first train. The first train ride was a 6 hour standing train. Ugghhhh! It wasn’t too bad standing for hours, until one of the stops. A bajillion people all at once boarded and we were on our tip toes, basically lying on top of the people sitting down. Chaos continued as people pushed, shoved, and squished their way onto the train. While standing pressed up against some Chinese people sitting down, a guy started talking to me in English (he is around 20 years old). He ended up helping us when the train conductor told us Americans to move to a different train. While talking with him I was thinking about giving him an English name, Paul, because Paul (Saul) was converted to be a Chr-stian in the B-ble. I asked what his name was, and he said, “My name is Paul.” Wow!! He also goes to a university that is only 10 minutes away from our apartment!  So I got his QQ # (an instant messaging website that everyone here has) and invited him to get supper with us sometime in Wuhan. G-d willing he will want to come to our Studies once we invite him. G-d works in mysterious ways! We then spent the night in the city we stopped at, and caught a 22 hour sleeper train to Yinchuan (way better than the standing train, we had a bed). After playing some cards we headed to bed.

Oct.  1st – 4^th- Finally in Yinchuan we had a full day to explore the city. Yinchuan is substantially smaller than Wuhan, with less people, less pollution, and fewer skyscrapers. It is still a big city for American standards though. We had a massive lunch with all the Wuhaners in typical Chinese fashion (a big rotating glass disk in the middle that you rotate, with all the dishes on it, then you grab with your chopsticks whatever you want and put it in your bowl to eat). The last dish that was brought out was a big chicken platter, head and feet included! So I nibbled on the head, then the feet just for fun. Really tough, didn’t have much meat either. We finished up, and explored Yinchuan. First we headed to a miniature version of Tiananmen Square (a big square of cement in the center of town, with a temple at the front). One funny aspect of Yinchuan is that since it is way smaller than Wuhan, people stare at you 10 times more because foreigners are “rarer” in smaller cities. They also really really want to take a picture with you! Every single time we stopped to take a picture, people would start to gather around, and then ask to take a photo with us. During one of our group photos in the center of the square, in the 1 minute we were organizing ourselves, around 30-40 people gathered around us. A couple girls asked to take a photo with us, so we obliged. As soon as we saw everyone else start to get their cameras out, we ran away! Literally, we ran away. Turning around, and running was the only thing that came to mind, so that’s what we did! The rest of the day we walked around, explored a big garden area with tens of thousands of flowers all over, and then finished the day with supper and a movie.

In the morning we headed out on our main adventure for the week, the Gobi desert camel treck! Us 10 Wuhaners headed to the tour company’s building to meet up with the other 20+ Friends of China workers. After arriving, it was really awesome getting to see all the other new teachers from all over China that I had gotten to know well during our 3 weeks of training in MN. Hearing all of their stories, and meeting all the other FOC returning teachers was awesome. It is truly a logistical wonder that we all made it, from all over China, to this tour company’s building at the same time. Wow! The 30 of us headed out on a 3 hour bus ride to the desert. We sang praise songs, and enjoyed catching up. So great being together with fellow brothers and sisters in Chr-st for this trip (including some Chinese friends too that came along). As we drove up to our departure site, we could see 30 camels in the distance with sand dunes behind. It was pretty exciting! We got out, and loaded onto our camels. I named mine Jude. What I first noticed of these massive beasts is that they poop, fart, and pee quite frequently! It was funny though. Sitting atop the camel, between its two humps, was surreal. We headed out in the best camel caravan ever, up, between, and over the tan sand dunes through the heat of day. It was really relaxing, bobbing up and down while looking out into the distance. Sand dunes rolled off into the distance as far as the eye could see. At first it was slightly uncomfortable sitting on the camel. I am not a very flexible person, and sitting on the camel/blankets required quite the stretching of my legs. Let’s just say that now I am closer to being able to do the splits than ever before in my life!

 

We eventually made it to our camp site for the night, a low spot between multiple dunes. We went sledding down the sand, and played the most epic game of ultimate Frisbee EVER! The playing ‘field ‘that we used was probably at least twice the size of a football field. Not only that, but we put the goals atop two dunes that were on opposite ends of the ‘field,’ with a dune ridge in the middle! So the entire time we were running, falling, and diving up and down steep sand hills. Ridiculously hard, and fun. I think we lost though. After dinner, and as the sun began to set, I found a great spot on top of a dune overlooking the vast landscape of sand. It was a great time for reflection, d-votion, and pr-yer. A group of friends joined after a little bit, and we watched the sun creep closer and closer to the horizon until it disappeared into a golden glow. Definitely in the top 5 sunsets that I’ve ever seen. We then all gathered for d-votion, and song. With all 30 of our voices united in the dunes of the Gobi desert, we praised our Father and thanked him for such a blessing. After setting up our tents, we hit the sack. The night was cold, but not too bad.

 

 In the morning we drank some coffee made by one of our 5 guides, and packed up. Today we spent the whole day trekking across the desert, with a couple breaks. During one of our longer breaks I hiked for about 30 minutes to the biggest dune I could see in the distance. After getting there, I looked up at the peak of the big dune which was a perfect pyramid. I hiked to the top, and sat down for some quality B-ble time. From atop this dune I could see everywhere. The shapes of the dunes, shaped by time and wind, were beautiful. Winding, twisting, and turning through the harsh scenery. Undisturbed sand dunes are really fun to look at. I hiked back, and we rode until supper time to our camp for the night. This evening was a little unpleasant. A big storm had rolled in, and brought with it ridiculous winds! Let’s just say that eating supper while standing, with chopsticks, with sand blowing everywhere, is slightly hard. It was kind of comical though. After sunset and supper the men headed out for a men’s d-votion. Since our d-votion dealt with the burning bush, we had to make a fire. One slight problem though, the wind was blowing like crazy! After a long time of attempting to start a fire, Adam took out his Axe body spray and used it like a flamethrower. The fire started right away, and we started to throw tons of dry bushes on top. At one point we had probably 6 feet of dead bushes piled on top of the huge bonfire that we had created. The flames whipped about in the high winds, and we marveled at what we had created. D-votion was great, and we had a great pr-yer. When the fire started to die, we ran frantically around looking for bushes. Running back and forth we grabbed bushes and threw them on the fire. This normally would be dangerous making such a huge fire in the wind, but we were surrounded with miles and miles of desert. Nothing could catch on fire! Plus, we were in a valley of dunes. This whole situation was a great illustration for me personally as well. We need to feed the fires of our souls! For ourselves, and for others. We need to continually run to Him and His Word and supply ourselves with kindling. Without this continuous process, of running through the windstorms of our lives and supplying wood to burn, the fire will die and go out. The same goes for spreading His Word to others. We need to continually kindle the fire, and then trust in His power to bring others to fa-th. It was a fun bonfire, and eventually we made safely to our tents to sleep. The last half day we spent riding our camels to our final destination. Once there we hopped on a bus and back to Yinchuan. A successful trip to the desert indeed.     

Oct. 5^th-7^th- This is kind of getting long, so I will summarize the last few days! We rode a train (14 hour sleeping train) to Xi ‘an, and played card games with some really cute kids on the way there.

 

In Xi ‘an we went to see the Terracotta Warriors, thousands and thousands of sculptures of an massive army, buried to guard the first emperor of China. These ancient marvels are over 2,000 years old. While looking at them, I caught myself multiple times with my jaw and eyes wide open. Only 10 feet away, I could barely believe the history that was within a stone’s throw away. Truly breathtaking.

 

The rest of our time in Xi ‘an consisted of walking around the town, and buying probably the coolest souvenir I’ve ever bought. We went (on the recommendation of a Yinchuan FOC teacher) to buy some Chr-stian scrolls. The lady that creates these beautiful scrolls has a beautiful faith, and she told us stories of how even though she loses face (a Chinese way of saying losing respect) for being so openly Chr-stian, she knows it is G-d’s plan for her to do such work. We shared with her our faith and encouragement, and she did the same with us. We were basically almost all in tears when she was telling us of her fa-th and how important it is to her. A great bl-ssing from Him for us to meet her.

 

We then explored the ancient Xi án city wall ( a 12 mile wall surrounding the older part of the city) walking on top of it for a few miles. Eventually we hit the sack, hopped on a 15 hour sitting train ride (not a sleeper, which was really uncomfortable, loud, and bright-they never turned the lights out). We met some pretty cool Chinese people though and had fun playing the card game Mafia with them. We arrived in Wuhan, sp-ritually refreshed after an epic week of camels, sand, history, and traveling.