An American with a heart for the nations.
"And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me!" -- Isaiah 6:8
Email: chinaroadie-at-gmail.com
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(updated 6/2-2005)
I realize that the new Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Something or Other, is now out in the States. I didn't know that a new movie was coming out, let alone so soon. One good thing about living here is that we are both insulated from all these new things coming out, and yet we are able to get these on DVD sometimes before they are released to the general public.
I was reading some reviews about this new release yesterday, and found out that one of our team mates bought the DVD the same day. I haven't seen it yet, I'm waiting for the weekend. But sometimes the quality of these DVD's leave a lot to be desired. They are filmed inside a theater with a video camera and you can actually see the shadows of people get up and walk out! Or if you turn the subtitles on, they are from another movie entirely. Actually, we won't be able to see the movie because it is unreadable in our DVD player. They spend so much time making these elaborate cd covers, and discs, yet sometimes these pirated videos don't work!
In my mind, there is only one Star Wars, and that was the first one released in 1977. My young mind was captivated by the images. It is the greatest movie I ever saw, next to The Lord Of The Rings.
TLOTR is probably one of the greatest movies I've ever seen because it gives accurate image to the SECOND greatest book I've ever read. I've read the Lord of the Rings trilogy three times, but I've read the Greatest Book ever written more than that.
Anyway I guess I kind of have a Frodo Complex.
Check out the pictures. Here is a jutting rock on the way up to one of the eastern peaks of Mt Tai, called Fan Rock. It reminds me of Middle Earth in a small way.
Another view of Fan Rock from an Eastern peak, looing down.....
Frodo Climbing with Sam from TLOTR, it looks awesome. this is one of my favorite scenes....
Me.......
.
It’s important to lift all things up to God in prayer. As Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:17—18,
“Pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.”
There are so many things that I’ve learned while serving in China. Many of these things I can’t relate outright here & now. But one thing I do know is that God is faithful, God is strong, and that God will never leave us nor forsake us.
When God does answer prayer, the parable from Luke 17:12—19 comes to mind. Here ten lepers were healed, and then nine went their way, never looking back to the One who healed them. One did see that he was healed and recognized the hand of God. He turned back and gave thanks. The leper happened to be a Samaritan, not a Jew, and his faith not only saved his health, but his soul as well.
Leprosy was an awful disease to suffer from 2,000 years ago. I can’t imagine the pain these people suffered. However, I do know how painful a toothache can be. A few years ago when I had this kind of toothache, it steadily worsened, and I needed to get a root canal. A couple weeks ago the same pain started to grow, and I began weighing my options. I even looked for a dentist in Beijing.
I know there were many people who prayed for me over this, as well as my own prayers. What a privilege to take these things to God, knowing that He hears us. While God may not answer every one of our requests right away, how humbling it is when He does answer.
Well, we had our 15 minutes of fame. Actually, I believe the station is TATV, and not CCTV. That would be Taian TV network, and not the national affiliate. We were supposed to have a practice session on Wednesday with the actual performance on Saturday. On Tuesday we learned that the actual performance would be on Wednesday! Good thing we're flexible!
We were told to arrive at 8:20 in the morning to go to the TV station, but Wednesday morning they called us early and said a change of plans-- be there earlier. One thing you quickly learn in China is to either be flexible and have a good attitude, or go crazy. I choose the former.
We arrived late because we knew it wouldn't make a difference. Try getting four people ready to go out the door in the morning. It's not something easily done.
The TV station and all the kindergarden kids were made up professionally. Everything looked great with the flashing colored lights, and the smoke machines. There were even bubbles raining down during one number!
We went on third, and I think we did fairly well. We only went through the song once, and it was only a minute and a half. A1 just stood there, and A2 kept looking back at the lights and smoke. They are going to have another performance Saturday just for the parents, and they want us to do it again. They suggested that maybe we could "Talk to our 2 year old, so he won't look back next time."
Yeah. Right.
I'll post some pictures of the show next week.
I enjoy shooting photos with black & white. Here's a round up of some recent pictures.
An alley in Zibo. Every city in China is famous for something. If you've never heard of a city, or don't know where it is, it's common to ask "what's the city famous for?" Zibo is famous as the home of Pu Song Ling. This famous writer from a few hundred years ago wrote scary stories involving beautiful women that changed into foxes after enticing men. He had a well on his property, and offered refreshments-- as well as stories-- to travellers. He was a chinese Edgar Allen Poe.
Looking down from TaiShan.......
Looking up TaiShan.....
Dragons bring "Good Lucky" ..........
And back home again after a day out.......
The old Beatles song runs through my mind as I write this post. There are actually people and things that I will always remember after living in a place for a while. The top few things that I remember about living in some places follow:
Let's face it. Trash 'aint pretty! But here in the PRC you can put a pretty face on a trash can, and create (almost) art.
For example:
This trash can blends into its surroundings so well that people don't even know it's there! Notice the trash arround the can.
This trash can is cleverly disguised as well!
Here is another trash receptacle that takes on a cute character....
Rubbish containers can also blend the colorful elements with the environment.......
And of course there is the industrial version.....
This is the one right next to our flat. If you're ever in the neighborhood, just run up the stairs there and go up to the building on the right. We're on the second floor, 'yall drop by now, here?
June 1st happens to be International Children's Day in the People's Republic of China.
Many things happen on this day. Children are honored and there are many school programs with fun activities aimed at youth.
The kindergarden that Suzanne works at is having a program too, and they approached her to present something that we would probably do on our "International Children's Day." Well, we don't exactly celebrate this "International" day, but will do something to take part in the festival. Oh yeah. They said it was going to be on television as well.
Apparently CCTV, the national television syndicate here, is going to be filming the show and I'm told that it will be broadcast nationally here in China. So, if you happen to be in China, or have access to satellite, you can see us perform our hit song: Brush Your Teeth!
This is no joke. I even made large colorful cardboard toothbrushes!
My Posts are not showing up..........
Every time I consider God’s faithfulness and compare it to His, I will always come up short. But we’re reminded in scripture that “If we give up on Him, He does not give up—for there is no way He can be false to Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13, The Message version.
Here we are with only six (6!!) weeks left to go for this semester. Then we will spend another week in Beijing before returning to the States. Just coming to China has been a huge leap of faith. Every new situation I face I realize that I need to rely on God and His strength to see me through it. Putting this into practice in China is one huge place to rely on God’s faithfulness and His strength.
I’ve seen this as we are making plans for our return back to America. My university paid me for one (my) return airline ticket home, and we needed to buy four tickets back to the Seattle/Portland area. The cash for one ticket came right on time as we were booking our tickets through an agent in Beijing. However, in order to pay for them we needed to transfer the money to him through the bank. This is one point where we have to rely on God. We don’t exactly have the full amount to pay for four tickets back to the States, and looking at our credit cards I found out that
¨ One expired!
¨ The other was cancelled due to someone using its number back in the States!
That left one ATM card to take out a cash advance and transfer the cash to Beijing. Now, everything in China takes so much longer to accomplish. Any little mundane task is tedious just because it’s so time consuming. I went with one of my students to the Bank of China, and she helped me accomplish withdrawing the necessary cash, then converting it to RMB (¥ ) and then depositing it into someone else’s account.
A week went by and I was starting to wonder about the tickets arriving. Well, the tickets did finally come after I reminded myself that God will see us through our time here. We still have this huge amount on our credit/ATM card and we don’t have the $ to pay for theses tickets. Thus, I continue to remind myself and pray that God will be faithful in taking care of us while we are in His will.
Pictures from Weihai.
At the park on the Yellow Sea......
Next, at the Zoo. This is one of the best zoos I've been to, other than Portland & San Diego. The animals appear to be well taken care of and quite healthy. You walk on a walkway above the animals and look down. Zoos are often compared to prisons, and I've heard that the zoo in Beijing is the death row of zoos. If I carry the comparison further, this zoo is a country club. However, it does have its problems. Bears dance for food and people throw all kinds of things at the animals. I saw grown men pour water over and over on the animals just for a laugh. I felt like pouring water on them and laughing. The zoo keepers kept live chickens in cages above the tigers, and would toss one into the cage below. People thought this was funny as well.
We spent a wonderful time playing on the beach on the Yellow Sea. However, no matter where we go we're always in the spotlight. This might appeal to some young people who lack for attention back in the States, with us it's unwanted and troublesome. We have our own Papparazzi, and people are constantly taking pictures of us without asking permission. In many ways, we are like some of these animals in the zoo we visited. People will come up to us while we are trying to have some quality family time and snap their fingers at the children. They then laugh when the kids get upset.
As you can see, this guy was only 3 yards away from us and just started snapping away taking pictures of my kids. This is typical no matter where we go.
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