Hello muddah, hello faddah,
I'lll work at a school in China.
It will be so entertaining.
Once I get a chance to catch up on some sleeping.
So far my experience feels like I'm at camp. It's been 5 days since I've seen you mother and father.
Travel time to Harbin, China – 35 hours over three days
The train ride was the most notable experience. It took 19 hours to get from Beijing to Harbin. I was not entirely sure what to expect, but I was told by some ladies at our hostel in Beijing that they hate the train. Great.
I know why now.
I. squatty potty on the train.
2. cart ladies. Women come shouting down the aisle with unrecognizable food every 2-4 minutes. They ran over my toes only 3 times.
3. giant ashtrays at each seat. That means smoking is allowed.
4. oversized luggage for each one of us. 46 giant backpacks and 46 day packs and 46 bodies and some random instruments. Yeah, it didn't fit well.
5. sleep. I wish.
But in the end, it was entertaining. I was able to sit by some Chinese ladies that fed me and laughed at me as I attempted to ask them their names and used drawings and charades to communicate with them. We sang Happy birthday together in Chinese and took pictures together. They let me sing Jesus Loves the Little Children in Chinese to them. They were so kind to carry on conversations with me as if I could understand them. I answered them as if I knew what they were saying to me.
Mom and Dad, we are very blessed to be staying in an apartment in Harbin that has a shower, beds and a washer! This is not what we expected. That night we had the option to go do some sort of ministry if we felt we had the energy. I really didn't, but I wanted to go anyway. The small group that went took an hour bus ride to a university to make friends with the new freshman and make plans to meet up with them later by getting contact information. Cool enough.
But upon our arrival we noticed that there was over a hundred students cheering and shouting for us. We were paraded in front of the students and I basically felt like a star as I smiled and waved. I wish I had dressed up and wore my tiara and sash for the event, not my jeans and t-shirt.
We were then interviewed over the loud speakers and then asked to have a dance off with some cool Chinese break dancer. Oh boy! After that we were broken up into small groups to chat. I sang Do Rei Me with them from The Sound of Music. They bought me coffee ice cream and warm soy milk. I got a picture with every single one of them. I got to encourage them about having a healthy self-image and then in the end I was able to invite them to meet me later this month. I have 34 contacts to call who are all so excited to meet me later.
I had a girl tell me that I was the first foreigner she had ever met. So what we are about to do with this ministry is going to be very important. I know that we will have a great ability to speak into the hearts of many students. There is a great sense of interest and excitement around us "foreigners".
Our main contact, Jake, has such a huge vision for his church. He loves the ministry of Paul who was not afraid to share his faith everywhere and anywhere. This ministry has no fear in sharing Christ even on the streets. We will be starting our projects with Jake on Monday and I'm very excited for what we are about to do.
I have a couple of requests, momma and poppa. Can you pray that I get better? I have a pretty rough chest cold and I know it was because of my lack of sleep and my allergies from the plane ride that developed into a cold. We are here at a great time for Grace Baptist Church's ministry because college has just begun. So we will help jump start some great connections with the new students. Pray that we connect with the right people who are being drawn by the Holy Spirit. I am loving these young women who truly seem to want a healthy way of viewing themselves. They seem to view themselves as "fat" and that what they see in the mirror is what gives them their value. Pray that what God has revealed in my heart about how He is the only who can give me value will be used to give Him glory.
Camp is going well.
Dearest faddah, darling muddah, I love and miss you.
ps- Facebook, gmail and skype are all blocked, but I"m not entirely sure at this point. I will communicate as much as I can figure out. I also haven't been able to see much that you have said to me if you have. That makes me sad. Perhaps if Lori Dyer sees this she can send me her email address to my yahoo account so I can keep in contact with my church. I think it might work. Not sure yet though. [email protected]
The posts I make might be full of mistakes and possibly not well though out since I've not had the time and I have to post things quickly. So my apologies.
