Pilot - Part 1

Tonight, we started a new outreach for some students. Me (Callie) and our friend Bethany (who lives down the street from us), are huge LOST fans! We were brainstorming different ideas on how to reach certain students outside of class. If you're a LOST fan, you may know that the show has many B.ibl.ical references. So, we thought it'd be a good idea to have some students over to our apartment to watch some LOST, then have a discussion. In our discussion, we plan to include some verses from the Good Book that relate to the show, and discuss certain life topics.
So, we had some difficulties deciding which students to ask to come. Of course we couldn't invite them all, because our apartment doesn't hold 250 people! Bethany and I hinted at it last week to some of our English major classes. Basically saying, "If anyone is interested in practicing English outside of class, please send me an email, and we'll let you know the details." Well, that didn't go over well, we had NO responses. Then we tried again the next week....NO responses. So, Bethany had class this morning and basically said, "If anyone wants to get together tonight to practice your English, please let me know." About 15 students raised their hands, but they weren't for sure if they could make it or not.
So, at 6:00 this evening, we went to meet the students to walk over to our apartment. First, about 4 showed up. We thought, "Ok, 4 is a good group, maybe we can get more next week". The 4 told us that there were more on the way. Well, there ended up being 25 that showed up! So, we had 25 students, in our tiny apartment, all crowded around our tiny TV, watching LOST tonight!!! Bethany and I were just looking at each other and laughing the whole night. A couple weeks ago, we were struggling to find students who were interested....now we have 25!
We watched the Pilot episode tonight. Basically it's about a plane crashing on an island, and how all the survivors were all working together to help save each other. So, our discussion was about helping others. We told them the very famous 'quote', "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." We asked the questions like: "What does this quote mean to you? How does it feel when someone helps you? How does it feel when you help someone?" They really seemed to like the discussion, and told us about their Volunteer group at school, and the things they do. They thought about some other ways they could help people in their daily life.
I think most of them plan to come back next week, and a few of our students may join in. I just can't help but laugh at this whole situation! Organizing things in China is just not the same! :)