Flashes Before Your Eyes

Wow! We can't believe we're leaving China in a week. It has gone by soooo fast! About a year ago, we had a going away party with our small group at Nick & Leslie Foster's house. Many tears were shed that day. At the end of the party, we were all sitting in a circle talking. Our small group was talking about what they'd miss about us, and we were expressing how much we'd miss them. Then, Josh Oakley says to us, "A year from now, you're going to be sitting with a group of Chinese, and they will be sharing these same thoughts, about how much they'll miss you, and how much you'll miss them." Well, that came true, this past Thursday night. We had a group of christian students over to the apartment for a kind of going away party. We have had this group over a few times to sing, pray, read, and just fellowship with each other. We shared with each other how sad we were that we were leaving but how happy we were to be able to meet with them and study together. For the past few weeks, we have been really making an effort to introduce those who we have been studying with, with the already established, strong student christian group who meets at our school. This past Thursday Ricky & Kerry, two students who we have spent a lot of time with, came to the apartment. Ricky & Thomas have studied a lot, and talk often, but on Thursday night Ricky had an opportunity to meet these Chinese student Christians, It was a great opportunity for him to ask questions, pray,read,and fellowship in an environment where there was no language barrier. It was encouraging to hear the students exchange contact info with Ricky & Kerry. The Christian group informed us that they will continue to reach out and include them in their activities.

As we have mentioned before, from time to time in class we present to them a proverb or parable for them to read and discuss. This past week we introduced the story of The Prodigal Son. After reading the story to them, we had them share with us what they thought. Most of the classes had mixed feelings about the story, some students thought it was a good example of a fathers love, while others were angry that the father forgave the son so quickly. After we had them share with us what there feelings were, we then took it a step further. We broke the students up into groups of 3. We then assigned them each a role (Father,younger son or older son). The students then had to write about their feelings if they were this person in the story. They then discussed those feelings with each other and then with the class. After that part of the activity, the majority of the students then saw the story as one of unconditional love and forgiveness. For homework each student had to share this story with 3 other people.

Ricky, Jaguar & Black are three students who Thomas has gotten really close to over this past year. These 3 students are all seniors, and graduated a few weeks ago. Much like some American seniors, they all wanted to celebrate with doing something wild and crazy together. They came up with the idea of bungee jumping, after I had shown them a video online of the worlds highest bungee jump. So 2 weeks ago, Thomas, Ricky, Jaguar & Black travel down to an amusement park called Hangzhou Paradise to celebrate graduation by all bungee jumping. I have to say that I was more nervous than I actually thought I would be. I think most of it stemmed from the fact that the guy giving me instructions on how to fasten the harness, and what to hold on to, was speaking only Chinese, and I was getting it second hand through lose translation. But as I sit here and write this blog, I have to say Im glad that I did it with the guys, however im not sure I would do it again.

For those of you who don't know China, they like to make sure they go out all when they are on center stage for the world to see. The 2010 World Expo(aka Worlds Fair) is being held in Shanghai this year, and they expect over 75 million people to visit during the 6 month event. That is over 416,000 people per day. Last Tuesday & Wednesday Callie and I traveled to the Expo with 2 students (Mike & Aileen)along with about 415,998 other Chinese people:) We were able to visit over 30 different countries, and have a taste of some Mexican, Argentine & Italian food. Although we were exhausted after 2 days of walking non - stop, we had a great time hanging out with Mike & Aileen, and getting to experience the EXPO.

That was a quick wrap up of the past few weeks. This next week im sure will be tough, as we start to pack up and say our goodbyes. According to timerit.com we have 7days 10hours & 41minutes till we leave China. See you soon!!