The Suite Life of Team Real+

This month my team gained a new teammate.  Now, being a team of eight, we had to split in two in order to have a more effective ministry.  So, my new mini team is just four: me, Sarah, Austin, and Ben.  And I get the wonderful title of mini team leader! 

My mini team is helping our contacts fix up the apartment they are going to be moving into.  The building is a new apartment complex, but unlike in the states, it is less than move in ready.  So we spent the first few days cleaning, sweeping, dusting, removing paint and stickers from the door frames, and such.  Then we moved on to painting and after that we’ll put in the floors and build some furniture. 

The other half of my team is doing friendship evangelism.  They go around town and to the park to meet and talk to anyone who speaks English (or who is willing to try to communicate via google translate) and make friends.  Hopefully through those friendships and our actions they will long to know what we have that they are missing. 

For our time in China, my team is living in a hotel.  Let me just say, it’s no Hilton.  Each room is equipped with two beds (a bit bigger than a twin, but smaller than a full), a bathroom with a shower head and drain in the middle of the floor, a tv with one English channel that disappeared about day three, a hot water heater, and maids that only clean your room once you move out.   

I have nothing to complain about, we have beds, a hot shower, and electricity ALL the time, but it’s definitely an adventure spending a month living in a foreign hotel.  The biggest adventure is eating.  Since we only have a hot water heater in our room, it’s oatmeal for breakfast, ramen for lunch and out to eat for dinner.  Some people on my team found a wonderful restaurant across the street that we eat at quite often.  At first it was a lot of pointing at people’s food and charades, but now they know exactly what we want.  Even though none of them speak English, we still have some wonderful friends at that restaurant.