"And then he said to them all, "If anyone would come after me, he must
deny himself, carry his cross, and follow me." Lk 9:23
"Hey, Ken," I smiled and waved, looking at Ken and his teacher. "Don't
let me interrupt."
Ken was visibly excited to see me walk into the coffee shop, as he
stood up and smiled awkwardly. When I came back from the bathroom, I
found Ken sitting in the booth alone, his teacher having left.
"Ta chu nar?" I asked, prying into the whereabouts of his teacher.
"He left...I was just waiting for you."
Honestly, I wasn't excited to hear that;I was looking forward to
reading and Ken's assumption of the space to my right as we walked out
demanded the attention I otherwise would have devoted to this task--
"deny himself..."
I invited Ken to sit and talk on a bench near the campus lake.
"That's my favorite one," I said.
"The one out there under those trees?" he asked.
"Indeed, the one as far away as you can get," I answered, although
it was only about 50 yards away.
We walked to the bench and sat watching things happen in front of us.
"This is a great spot," Ken said. "You can see teh whole building
out in front of us and teh bridge over the lake."
"Yeah, and these birds flying everywhere, dipping down to eat the
bugs flying near the top of the surface," I added.
We sat for a few minutes longer without saying much, which I didn't
mind one bit, until Ken broke our silence. "Why did the Father create
humans...make us?"
I kind of turned my head toward him, squinting through the sun--or
perhaps squinting in disbelief that this question had just been
proposed by Ken.
"Um, well, Ken, that question has both a very simple answer and a
kind of confusing way to get there. Let's take a look," I said. I knew
Ken had been searching for some time now because we had had
conversations in the past about the Word and how it relates to our
lives, but here we were sitting on this bench in between lunch and the
next class period watching the birds, the trees, and the flowers,
getting ready to talk together about the meaning of life-- "carry his
cross... "
I turned to The Beginning. Ken read about how the creator made all
things with His words and made humans in His own image, then we
discussed exactly what He wants from humans. We looked at two passages
that talked about sin and Ken said that he understood that he was a
sinner and was not able to accomplish his purpose as a human without
help. With this said, I once more proposed that the Son was the only
one who could bring him back to this place. He agreed. "Okay, I
understand," Ken said, nodding with his quiet consternation. I
realized that I didn't have anything else to give him, so I asked the
only other question that stood left to be asked.
"What does this mean for you in your life?"
"I think I understand some things now that have wondered for a long time."
"So, do you want to put your faith in him?" I asked hopefully.
"I think I do. Yes, I do."
"Awesome! Let's do it." I exclaimed.
"Right here. Right? Isn't there some ritual or something?"
"No, we can right now if you want," I offered. "Okay, I want." he
answered, "but I've never done this before." --"follow me..."
After we finished, we stood up and I hugged him. We walked together
to the ping-pong tables to meet with Jon and Jack, another Chinese
student.
Ken said to me, "Remember the time we were on the train to Beijing
and I told you that
Ken and I asked for faith and that Ken would be cleansed of his
unrighteousness. I'm honored to have seen even a small part of this
process in his life and thank the Father for revealing his heart for
his people through the circumstances of the way he drew Ken and
continues to draw each of us to himself.
............
I'm excited to be returning to the United States in 10 days! Life here
in China is full in many ways, but I am pleased to be involved in the
process of reunion with family and friends over the next few months.
Please continue lifting up our needs as a team for the final week and
a half of our time here:
* For the continued growth of intimacy with our Father and each other
as a team (Tim, Amelia, Jon, Emily, and myself)
* For being intentional with good-byes to our students and friends
around the three campuses that we serve.
* For grading our final exams over this final week --> patience and
endurance in this task
* For reengaging with our families and friends at home
Thank you so much for your steadfast love during our time here in
Baoding. It is an honor to be with you in this project.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Finishing the Teach year!
This weekend, all of the teachers from IECS met in Beijing with Newt
Hetrick for the last time this school year. This wasn't our goal
coming into the weekend, as we had originally had planned to have an
English Week begin in Tianjin, one of the three cities where IECS has
placed teachers this year. English Week is a time when 10-15 foreign
teachers/ believers come to visit and teach for one week, traveling
and forming meaningful relationships with students as a part of
outreach on the campus of our schools. However, due to the increased
threat of the Swine Flu and the risk of allowing it to spread in our
communities, the schools decided to implement a mandatory quarantine
of 7 days on any visitors, which caused us to eventually cancel all
three trips. Thus, we found ourselves together on Saturday night and
Sunday morning instead of beginning these English Week trips.
At one point Saturday night, I sat with Jon, Tim, Wil Corder, and
Peter Lucas-Roberts. We talked of the circumstances of three canceled
English Weeks that are such a huge part of the vision for the project
we are here to carry out.
"When do we stop asking, 'Father, we want this thing to happen,' and
start saying, 'Okay, Father, you're doing this another way...'" Jon
asked us.
"I think when you start asking for things like you're 'supposed to'
ask, it becomes you setting yourself up for failure. He's going to do
what He's going to do and sometimes asking is His way of getting us up
for it," Wil answered.
"Maybe, then," Jon went on,"when we start asking the way we're
'supposed to ask' instead of from the heart, it ceases to be a
relationship and becomes a distorted view of what's happening."
I thought for a moment and finally said, "I love watching Him teach
the twelve disciples in Matt. 6 and how he begins his asking in the
spiritual realm."
"Yeah, like a praise," Peter interjected.
"Right, and with that he goes on to teach to ask for daily bread and
needs for life: forgiveness, leadership, deliverance."
Wil perked up and added, "And you're asking for His kingdom to come
and His will to be done. Really, you're asking Him for the eyes to see
the circumstances of your life from eternal perspective."
That's really what we were there to do these past two days: keeping
our words simple in encouraging each other after the disappointment of
losing three English weeks. "It's not even so much us," Peter said at
one point,"as it is these students and the teachers who have a desire
to come here and experience this. They're just disappointed. It's hard
to keep getting up for something that keeps letting you down." For
Peter and the team of five from Langfang Teacher's College in
Langfang, China, this is the second straight year that they've lost
their scheduled English Week, as last year's was canceled due to the
earthquake in Southwestern China. Still, we're learning to take our
eyes off of what we're doing and give attention and thanks to the One.
Our time together was rich in mercy and represented a great finish to
a year of teaching and growth together.
Please continue lifting us up:
* For personal relationships with the Father: Tim, Jon, Amelia, Emily,
and myself, along with the teams in Langfang and Tianjin
* For our perseverance through the last month of teaching (our classes
end a week before our return date of June 22, 2009)
* For our English Night at my school, which will take place this
Tuesday. Emily will be speaking about Joy.
* For our common bond and common vision to be the Father, even during
the Summer months ahead.
Hetrick for the last time this school year. This wasn't our goal
coming into the weekend, as we had originally had planned to have an
English Week begin in Tianjin, one of the three cities where IECS has
placed teachers this year. English Week is a time when 10-15 foreign
teachers/ believers come to visit and teach for one week, traveling
and forming meaningful relationships with students as a part of
outreach on the campus of our schools. However, due to the increased
threat of the Swine Flu and the risk of allowing it to spread in our
communities, the schools decided to implement a mandatory quarantine
of 7 days on any visitors, which caused us to eventually cancel all
three trips. Thus, we found ourselves together on Saturday night and
Sunday morning instead of beginning these English Week trips.
At one point Saturday night, I sat with Jon, Tim, Wil Corder, and
Peter Lucas-Roberts. We talked of the circumstances of three canceled
English Weeks that are such a huge part of the vision for the project
we are here to carry out.
"When do we stop asking, 'Father, we want this thing to happen,' and
start saying, 'Okay, Father, you're doing this another way...'" Jon
asked us.
"I think when you start asking for things like you're 'supposed to'
ask, it becomes you setting yourself up for failure. He's going to do
what He's going to do and sometimes asking is His way of getting us up
for it," Wil answered.
"Maybe, then," Jon went on,"when we start asking the way we're
'supposed to ask' instead of from the heart, it ceases to be a
relationship and becomes a distorted view of what's happening."
I thought for a moment and finally said, "I love watching Him teach
the twelve disciples in Matt. 6 and how he begins his asking in the
spiritual realm."
"Yeah, like a praise," Peter interjected.
"Right, and with that he goes on to teach to ask for daily bread and
needs for life: forgiveness, leadership, deliverance."
Wil perked up and added, "And you're asking for His kingdom to come
and His will to be done. Really, you're asking Him for the eyes to see
the circumstances of your life from eternal perspective."
That's really what we were there to do these past two days: keeping
our words simple in encouraging each other after the disappointment of
losing three English weeks. "It's not even so much us," Peter said at
one point,"as it is these students and the teachers who have a desire
to come here and experience this. They're just disappointed. It's hard
to keep getting up for something that keeps letting you down." For
Peter and the team of five from Langfang Teacher's College in
Langfang, China, this is the second straight year that they've lost
their scheduled English Week, as last year's was canceled due to the
earthquake in Southwestern China. Still, we're learning to take our
eyes off of what we're doing and give attention and thanks to the One.
Our time together was rich in mercy and represented a great finish to
a year of teaching and growth together.
Please continue lifting us up:
* For personal relationships with the Father: Tim, Jon, Amelia, Emily,
and myself, along with the teams in Langfang and Tianjin
* For our perseverance through the last month of teaching (our classes
end a week before our return date of June 22, 2009)
* For our English Night at my school, which will take place this
Tuesday. Emily will be speaking about Joy.
* For our common bond and common vision to be the Father, even during
the Summer months ahead.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The North Face 100
Over the weekend, I went with eight other teachers from International English and Cultural Studies and two students from Langfang Teachers College to Changping, China--a district of Beijing-- to run the 10 K race as part of a series sponsored by North Face. The race itself was fascinating and challenging for all involved (most of us were running our first race at this distance), but my favorite part of the weekend was being able to be with each other in such a picturesque setting and being able to build community with them, as we live so far away from one another and rarely get to see each other outside of large-group gatherings. We ran the race around the same resevoir where the 2008 Olympic triatholon was held.
I ran the entire race without anyone I knew near me. I had a pace in mind, but (as with many things) it was hard to continue motivating myself to push forward. The most fun I had during the race itself was running by other runners who seemed to be struggling and yelling, "Jia you peng you!" which means, "Come on, friend!" in Chinese. I don't know if doing this was a sincere encouragement to some people walking on the side of the course, but I know that I would be reinspired should someone have done this to me in the reverse circumstances. All in all, everyone ended up meeting their goals. I finished with a time of 56:30.
After dinner the night before the race
Me standing on top of the resevoir
Left: Stretching together before the race; Right: Race faces before the Start!
The Starting line
Wil Corder, Wan Li (student from Langfang, China), and I after the race
Friday, April 17, 2009
Baseball, Catch the Fever!
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to play a pair of baseball games with the Hebei Tigers, a group of rag-tag students from Hebei University in Baoding, China. We played two games total. I got to play catcher and made two errors, but also picked a guy off third base...check out these photos!
The Hebei Tigers vs. The Hebei College of Agriculture
Warming up for the game
on deck to hit
Me not swinging at a pitch
Then, SWINGING!
With the team after the game
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to play a pair of baseball games with the Hebei Tigers, a group of rag-tag students from Hebei University in Baoding, China. We played two games total. I got to play catcher and made two errors, but also picked a guy off third base...check out these photos!
The Hebei Tigers vs. The Hebei College of Agriculture
Warming up for the game
on deck to hit
Me not swinging at a pitch
Then, SWINGING! 
With the team after the gameSaturday, April 4, 2009
Dear friends,
Our first English Night three weeks ago was a spectacular success, with over 200 students coming out to see their English teachers, perform English songs and silly skits, and hear a lecture that I gave at the end. Too bad we couldn't relive it all again!
Or could we?
Because the five of us are the only teachers in Baoding, China currently, our team is forced to stretch between two different campuses (Hebei COllege of Finance and Hebei University) and last Tuesday, March 30th, we got to do it all again!
Front: Robert, a student at Hebei Financial College. Left to Right: Jon, Amelia, Tim, Emily, Cameron, Ryan at English Night.
We entered the room about an hour before show time, expecting to have to do a little bit of set-up and practice, but instead we walked in on a pile of cords and a large speaker, but no projector for the musical slides to be found. Frantically, we searched for ways to pull off our English Night without the proper equipment--it's truly a merciful thing that we are not allowed to do these types of things without appealing to the true source of our help.
"He easily could have let us go through this arrogantly, knowing that we'd already done the whole thing once," Jon and I later surmised. He didn't--he forced us to ask for peace that logistical matters would work out--and, if they didn't, that we'd quickly find that late-night copies aren't too expensive, after all. Either way, trust is just as necessary on this microcosmic scale.
Things did work out: we got our projector and held the English Night. For the lecture itself, I had the great privilege of talking to the and teachers present about "Love in action" (see attached Power Point slide for the lecture slides). What impressed me the most about the presentation was how much the students responded to a story that I shared with them about a time when I was in Colorado, working for a camp there for part of the Summer and had the chance to work with disabled students who were visiting for a week.
"The truths I was saying just kept becoming more vivid and real as I talked," I said later to my team, "like He was revealing them to me even as I taught them to everyone listening."
We talked later about how amazing it is to have two rooms on two different nights where students are hearing important and life-giving words spoken from people who really care about them, instead of learning about some of the other sources of English learning they have, like 'Prison Break' re-runs and magazine articles teaching them to "Beware of Advertisements!"
Our friend, Cameron, helped us with technical equipment and afterward, Jon thanked him.
"Ahh, I'm just an assistant."
"Well," I said to him, "so are we."
Our first English Night three weeks ago was a spectacular success, with over 200 students coming out to see their English teachers, perform English songs and silly skits, and hear a lecture that I gave at the end. Too bad we couldn't relive it all again!
Or could we?
Because the five of us are the only teachers in Baoding, China currently, our team is forced to stretch between two different campuses (Hebei COllege of Finance and Hebei University) and last Tuesday, March 30th, we got to do it all again!
Front: Robert, a student at Hebei Financial College. Left to Right: Jon, Amelia, Tim, Emily, Cameron, Ryan at English Night.
We entered the room about an hour before show time, expecting to have to do a little bit of set-up and practice, but instead we walked in on a pile of cords and a large speaker, but no projector for the musical slides to be found. Frantically, we searched for ways to pull off our English Night without the proper equipment--it's truly a merciful thing that we are not allowed to do these types of things without appealing to the true source of our help.
"He easily could have let us go through this arrogantly, knowing that we'd already done the whole thing once," Jon and I later surmised. He didn't--he forced us to ask for peace that logistical matters would work out--and, if they didn't, that we'd quickly find that late-night copies aren't too expensive, after all. Either way, trust is just as necessary on this microcosmic scale.
Things did work out: we got our projector and held the English Night. For the lecture itself, I had the great privilege of talking to the and teachers present about "Love in action" (see attached Power Point slide for the lecture slides). What impressed me the most about the presentation was how much the students responded to a story that I shared with them about a time when I was in Colorado, working for a camp there for part of the Summer and had the chance to work with disabled students who were visiting for a week.
"The truths I was saying just kept becoming more vivid and real as I talked," I said later to my team, "like He was revealing them to me even as I taught them to everyone listening."
We talked later about how amazing it is to have two rooms on two different nights where students are hearing important and life-giving words spoken from people who really care about them, instead of learning about some of the other sources of English learning they have, like 'Prison Break' re-runs and magazine articles teaching them to "Beware of Advertisements!"
Our friend, Cameron, helped us with technical equipment and afterward, Jon thanked him.
"Ahh, I'm just an assistant."
"Well," I said to him, "so are we."
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Who walks out through these streets tonight?
I sit at my desk tonight, outside surrounded by those
who have done and still spare the time to doze
and wonder: "Who walks out through these streets tonight?"
These streets, we speak, find well-trodden busees alight
and meeting on feet that stream through gravel
to the music of green-tinted taxis' horns.
Branches hang themselves from sheared trees in plots
every ten steps, their knots healing from the scourge.
Bicycles, primitive like the early day's creation, ride
their passengers to where the bikes will take them.
The observation happens by me like understated
hunger rising under intentional conveyance and fasting.
Thoughts let themelves come in and sip
a drink of coffee among the furniture dressed
for far-more welcomed guests. Instead, he
spills his coffee on my rug. The rag in my hand
blots, not scrubs, away most of the stain.
"Someone taught me that," I think.
It took six days to take a world asunder
and speak a land where lightning's thunder
can be felt by me and by my sons with wonder.
I chose to be killed and after three days rise again:
What will you do tonight in full view of this?
Who will carry my banner?
Who will share in this suffering?
The top of the mountain's grandeur
speaks of soft, warm breezes that curl
around my bare feet, and hers, and we stare
at the twilight nigh behind the Appalachian stairs.
This quaint moment and she are but
quiet memory among these nobling sons:
a two-by-two square of men who dare
to forsake the safe pavement's thoroughfare.
"Live it out," we speak through bustling streets
with words and eyes some here have never heard or seen.
"If this whole thing gets messy," we say and pause.
"When this thing gets messy, remember where we've been.
Give thanks and do not forsake
the giver for the gift of the day."
who have done and still spare the time to doze
and wonder: "Who walks out through these streets tonight?"
These streets, we speak, find well-trodden busees alight
and meeting on feet that stream through gravel
to the music of green-tinted taxis' horns.
Branches hang themselves from sheared trees in plots
every ten steps, their knots healing from the scourge.
Bicycles, primitive like the early day's creation, ride
their passengers to where the bikes will take them.
The observation happens by me like understated
hunger rising under intentional conveyance and fasting.
Thoughts let themelves come in and sip
a drink of coffee among the furniture dressed
for far-more welcomed guests. Instead, he
spills his coffee on my rug. The rag in my hand
blots, not scrubs, away most of the stain.
"Someone taught me that," I think.
It took six days to take a world asunder
and speak a land where lightning's thunder
can be felt by me and by my sons with wonder.
I chose to be killed and after three days rise again:
What will you do tonight in full view of this?
Who will carry my banner?
Who will share in this suffering?
The top of the mountain's grandeur
speaks of soft, warm breezes that curl
around my bare feet, and hers, and we stare
at the twilight nigh behind the Appalachian stairs.
This quaint moment and she are but
quiet memory among these nobling sons:
a two-by-two square of men who dare
to forsake the safe pavement's thoroughfare.
"Live it out," we speak through bustling streets
with words and eyes some here have never heard or seen.
"If this whole thing gets messy," we say and pause.
"When this thing gets messy, remember where we've been.
Give thanks and do not forsake
the giver for the gift of the day."
Comments on Bernard Madoff
Today I read an article on www.yahoo.com called "Madoff Pleads Guilty and goes to jail in handcuffs." Certainly, the implication of this man's dignity being stripped from him is real, but what struck me most about the article was that he was "avoiding eye contact with swindled investors" as he left.
Somehow over several decades, this man convinced himself and others that he was legitimately building a firm, but ended up barren in the end. Boy, do we ever see that in his eyes here. The gretest irony is the use of the word "firm" at all, as it became clear that his hope was only in scrapping the icing off of styrofoam cakes. For a man so close to the end of his days to lose even the hollowest respect for myself and others, it magnifies the duty and the fruits of peace in risking even the most awkward of situations to keep your conscience clear before man.
Somehow over several decades, this man convinced himself and others that he was legitimately building a firm, but ended up barren in the end. Boy, do we ever see that in his eyes here. The gretest irony is the use of the word "firm" at all, as it became clear that his hope was only in scrapping the icing off of styrofoam cakes. For a man so close to the end of his days to lose even the hollowest respect for myself and others, it magnifies the duty and the fruits of peace in risking even the most awkward of situations to keep your conscience clear before man.
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