It’s so odd to be
sitting in our apartment in Kiev, Ukraine, trying to think about what to write
about things that happened such a short time yet a lifetime ago. Ok. Time
to rewind the mind, go back in time, and relive it!
That first day in
Harbin was chaotic. The fact that our two teams were split among three house
churches and were living separately set me up for an interesting few weeks. The
main church where I lived is called Omega. I lived there with two of the girls
from my team and two girls from the other team. In a surprising move (to me, at
least), my team leader chose me to be her point person and I ended up being a
mini team leader for the following two and a half weeks. Let me tell you, it
really changes your perspective and the way you think about, perceive actions
and reactions, and have to take in both the big picture and all the small ones
that make it up. I learned a lot, though. I learned that I need to be more bold
and speak things out when I see them instead of waiting and hoping it will go
away because I don’t want to cause conflict. I still need to figure out how to
be able to say it in and with love, though. I learned that there is a lot more
involved with how the finances work and I’m so thankful that one, I’m not a
finance person, and two, that we have amazing finance people to work with.
Also, I don’t mind leading but I definitely need to learn to be more of a
servant leader as opposed to a dictator (which is much more of my style thanks
to that oldest-child-and-only-girl syndrome). I appreciate my team leader’s
wisdom, discernment, and leadership much more and understand why respect and
support is so important. I loved being able to be in charge and the independence
it brought but I didn’t always care for the added responsibility. It served to
make me more aware and intentional, both of which are good.
So what did my days
actually consist of? Well, it was different every day. On most days, I would
wake up between seven thirty and eight, make myself oatmeal and a cup of tea
then retire to a small sofa chair to journal, read my Bible, and converse with
God. This month was much better for my conversations with God and He really
taught me a lot. I’m currently working through different areas of the Old
Testament and Proverbs and it’s giving me a lot of insight (and some major
questions) into wisdom, discernment, and history. My tolerance and new love for
kids has been tested and tried and this month was no different. Most mornings
consisted of working in daycares and teaching English to kids from ages 2
through 11. Lunch was eaten out, sometimes with college students whom we had
met at English corners or different events. Afternoons always varied. Sometimes
it was napping, other times it was meetings with students. Dinner was sporadic
and often more of a snack. During the week, evenings consisted of private
English tutoring or more daycares. One student in particular was really
interested and his parents had me over for several meals in return for extra
sessions (duck, dumplings, spicy fish stew, vegetables, eggs, rice… and some
amazing deep fried sweet potato covered in caramelized sugar).
I discovered that I
somehow can now paint and reveled in the artistic expression. For outreach to
the college students, we had a spa night and a movie night and were constantly
inviting students to church as well as to study the Bible with us. Honestly,
China isn’t as closed of a country as the western world thinks. In Harbin, both
of our teams openly told everyone that we were Christian missionaries, what
church we worked with, and passed out invitations and cards. I’m pretty sure I
could have stood on a street corner and shouted the name of Jesus at the top of
my lungs and not been arrested. Let’s see, what else… Oh, yeah! I got to
dance!!! A few of the students had a dance club at one of the colleges and I
went there one Saturday morning and learned a type of waltz. Another day, a
group of them came over and I taught them some East Coast Swing. YAY! And I saw
the Ligers at the tiger zoo and ice sculptures and baked apple cobbler and sang
karaoke at KTV and experienced snow for the first time in twelve months.
The train ride from
Harbin to Beijing was so much more enjoyable! We had sleeper cars, beds with
clean sheets, plenty of room for our backpacks, the restrooms had toilet paper
and sinks with hot water… it was like we had moved up to first class! Ahh…
Debrief passed quickly. Since I’ve seen the majority of the sites in the city;
I ended up spending the majority of my time at the markets. I went the first
time for myself but all the trips after that were to take others there or to be
a personal shopper and buy things for those who couldn’t go because of meetings
or excursions. By the end of those four days, nearly every vendor in that
market knew me and most did not like me because I knew the lowest prices and
would get them because they simply would not let a customer go 😛 The actual
debrief included some unexpected team changes, good briefing sessions, and
awesome worship. God has really blessed this squad with so much talent and
varied giftings! I’m really starting to appreciate it and I’ll definitely miss
it when the Race ends for me.
So that is my time
in China in highly condensed form. Next up – Kiev, Ukraine! 😀
