Open Door

So, yesterday we had a meeting with our old bosses to explore the idea of us staying in China and teaming to work toward a common missions vision. Patrick and I left the meeting really excited. We have had such a heart to serve in China, and we have also had a more specific way in which we wanted to serve and this opportunity seems like a huge open door to live out our heart's desire. I wil keep you posted. 

Progress Report

So, here is the progress. Last week we heard from our lawyer who told us some good news. To recap, one of the documents that is essential in obtaining a certificate of no criminal record from China, and that I don't have is a temporary residence registration form. However, the lawyer informed us that we can apply to the police station for a form for this time that we are in China and that the PSB we accept that. Also, the other issue that we were having was that the PSB wanted to see my expired passport with the working visa in it from 2004-2005, which I don't have. Yet, Praise the Lord, the school that I used to work for found a photo copy of my old passport and the PSB will accept that. Praise the Lord. So, tomorrow I need to take my passport in to get this temporary residence registration form. And then on Tuesday we will apply for the certificate of no criminal record, again. Our lawyer seems to be very hopeful this time and believes that I will have this check in a month. Thank-you for your prayers. 

Entertaining Angels

After visiting Shamian Dao, a small Island that serves as a retreat for foreigners from the cities busy streets, and walking back to the Metro station to head home we stopped to give money to a young lady who was begging on the streets with he baby. My heart completely went out to her. I was trying to think what more I could do for them than give them money. I can’t speak the language so I couldn’t even ask what she really needed. I walked away disappointed that I didn’t do more. I prayed silently and asked God to send someone that could help them.

 

The whole next week I couldn’t stop thinking about this mother and child. Maybe I should have taken them to a store and bought them stuff. But there really was no stores around that would serve their needs. I would have to take them on the public transit, but because I couldn’t speak the language they probably wouldn’t come because they would have no idea what my intensions were. God what do I do. I talked with Patrick and we agreed that we would buy food and walk around giving it out to the beggars on the street.

 

In Guangzhou there are a lot of beggars on the street. So many that we don’t give to all of them. Sometimes we give and some times we don’t but we never really intentionally walked the streets to help the beggars. That Sunday after church we bought food and walked the streets. As we handed out food I was humbled by the gratefulness of most beggars. We gave food to children all the way up to grey haired seniors. My most memorable moment giving out food was one little girl. She looked so sad and almost emotionless. When I brought out the food, she was at first hesitant, but after I told her that it was for her, her eyes lit up. She gratefully accepted the orange juice, steamed bun and some small candies. She sat on the side of the sidewalk and ate with a smile. She was the last beggar that we gave food to that day. As we headed home, I thought about the scripture that talks about Entertaining Angels, I know that we didn’t really entertain any beggars, but could it be that we may have given food to an angel? It is an interesting thought.

 

After that day Patrick and I decided that we would do this again the following week after church, and we did. To our supporters, I wanted you to know that some of the monies that you generously gave us went directly to feeding the poor. We fasted a meal and fed the hungry. 

Hello Moto

Saturday morning Patrick and Amariah had hair cut. Amariah cried the whole time. I felt bad for him so we went and bought him an ice cream cone afterward. We walked along the sidewalk as Amariah ate his ice cream.  We came to a place where there were steps and a wheel chair access ramp leading up from the sidewalk to a second sidewalk lined with shops. Amariah found it entertaining to walk up and down the wheel chair ramp. As he paused at the top of the ramp to get a good lick of his ice cream, a motorcycle had rode up on to the sidewalk and started up the wheelchair ramp, well, at least I thought that it was a wheel chair ramp. For all I know, it could actually be made for motorcycles, but really it looks like the same thing that we would call a wheelchair ramp in Canada.  The motorcyclist saw Amariah and as a result had lowered both his feet to the ground on either side of the bike and began walking his bike up the ramp. Amariah had yet to notice this machine inching its way toward him. But who can blame him for not noticing, sometimes ice cream can be so delicious that the world around us seems to fade away and all we are aware of is our self and the ice cream. Amariah was in one of these ice cream consumed moments.

 

I was shouting at him the whole time to move out of the way, but due to his ice cream moment he failed to hear me.  I couldn’t rush up there and grab Amariah because there wasn’t enough room on the ramp for both the motorcycle and me, yet I wasn’t overly worried because I could see that the motorcyclist saw Amariah and was taking caution. Even still I kept yelling, “Amariah, move out of the way!”

 

Amariah finally came out of his ice cream moment but it wasn’t my voice that brought him back to reality, it was the revving of the moto’s engine. Part way up the ramp the moto driver revved the engine to keep the bike from stalling. The loud unexpected revving sent Amariah running in the opposite direction of the ramp. When Amariah felt he was at a safe distance away he turned around so quickly that the ice cream cone held in his hand was launched from the paper wrapping and sent flying through the air and landed on the ground some distance away. Near by people who saw the whole thing shared their sympathy with the sound of “Ohhhhh…” The moto stopped at the top of the ramp and also shared his sympathies.

 

Amariah ran to the ice cream, picked it up and intended on continuing enjoying it when I intervened by grabbing it from him. I explained that the ice cream was now dirty and that it can’t be eaten. He looked up at me with his puppy dog eyes, completely disappointed and began to cry. My heart went out to him. I caved, and I went and bought him another ice cream. He was once again happy, and so were Patrick and I. Who would have thought that our son would have lost his ice cream because he was scared that he would get run over by a motorcycle on a wheelchair ramp. That’s China. 

RAT!

So, I was walking down the street during my break between 2 English classes that I teach. I just happened to look down right when I was about to step on a rat. Of course I squirmed and screeched like a person in disgust. When I was done I stood there looking at it waiting for it to move. It was just lying there on the sidewalk, breathing and looking like it was staring at me. So disgusting. I was afraid of being the first to move because all I could picture was when I moved he would move and head up running over my foot or something worse. After a few moments I braved it and ran past the rat. After I wondered if it was injured and that 's why it didn't move. YUCK!!! YUCK!!!! YUCK!!! I really didn't care, I was still grossed out by the thought thatI almost stepped on a rat. I am thankful that I looked down on the ground at the time that I did to catch myself, just inches away from doing something I really wouldn't want to do. God had my back, I am sure of it. 

MUP???

Well, it is 4am and I can't sleep. I have been up since 1am and I don't know why I can't sleep. I usually interpret my inability to not sleep as God telling me to pray. I have been praying and now I don't know what to pray for and I am longing to hear His voice. 

Patrick and I connected with a missionary couple here yesterday that we had met 5 years ago here in China. We didn't spend alot of time with them 5 years ago, but there was something there that made it feel like we have always known them. Even after a brief visit, spiritually we seem to have bonded. They are a part of a mission organization called MUP, Mission to Unreached Peoples. I just finished reading up on them and I was really impressed with what I read. I could see my self with an organization like this. Next to YWAM I have never really pictured myself with another organization. If I am to join a mission organization I need to be passionate about the vision, the focus and besides YWAM I never really had that before. But, I don't know. Maybe MUP is something Patrick and I could pray about. Our hearts our so passionate about spreading the Gospel, yet our efforts to join YWAM at this time have not worked out. We have been doing the work that we can do at this time, helping out with a homeschooling program, and fasting a meal to walk around the city handing our food to the beggars. It has been good, but we are still feeling a bit lost, unfocused. Lord I pray for your guidance. 

The Brief Update

Review:

March 12 Thursday- discovered that our phone was on silent, so we missed some important calls from the school. We returned them with the result of getting an appointment for this day with the principle of the agile kindergarten, San. She was nice and tried really hard to get us to sign a year contract, which we do not have peace about doing, so we had to turn her down. However, we did except a substitute position for 2 weeks in April. She also said that she would talk to some parents to see of they were interested in some private tutoring while we were here.  San said that she would work with us to help get the papers we need. She has some contacts with the police.

March 13 Friday- I got a tutoring job for Saturdays

March 14^th Saturday- In the morning I tutored a 15 year old boy, who is moving to New York, in conversational English. After Patrick, Amariah and I headed to town to see if we could find a travel agency. We did find one, only they weren’t open on the weekend, so we went to Shamian dao instead. We walked around the shops, and ate ice cream. Then when we went back to Agile we bought all the unfamiliar chip flavours and tried them all, ten in total.

March 15^th Sunday- Patrick went to church early to help set up. Amariah and I arrived later. The sermon was based on 1 Cor. 13, a good reminder of Love being the bases of our ministry. After church we talked with some people that we knew years ago. We also got introduced to 2 people that run a homeschooling program and were looking for help. We agreed to meet them at their ‘school’ and see what kind of help we could be for them.  Later Patrick and I decided that we would buy a couple of bunches of bananas and hand them out to the beggars. We ran out of bananas quickly and started to buy food from near by convenient stores to feed the hungry. Patrick and I decided that we would fast one meal a week, buy a bunch of food and hand it our to the hungry.

March16 Monday-We went to Cong hua Hot Springs.

March 17 Tuesday- Patrick went and got more pages put into his passport and Amariah and I went to the homeschooling school and agreed to help them on a daily bases with 4 of their students.

March 18^th Wednesday- Patrick, Amariah and I went to the School and helped out with the 4 kindergarten students. Amariah also loves to play with them. We also got very frustrated trying to a bus back to our apartment. It took us over 2 hours to get home.

March 19^th Thursday- Went to the homeschooling school again and had a blast. We then later met up with our old bosses who just returned from Canada. We went out for dinner with them and had a very encouraging time discussing our passions for missions in China. On the way home, Amariah threw-up in their vehicle. He seems to be feeling better now. We aren’t exactly sure what caused him to puke, but it could have been a combination of many things that happen this day. 

Yesterday we had the best time as a family. We went on a day trip to Cong Hua Hot Springs, about it took us about 4 hours to get there, and then 3 hours to return. While we were there we had the best time relaxing in the springs. I think the best part was playing with Amariah in the water. So cute. 

I got another job, Praise the Lord. This is teaching 2 hours a day at local school. 

A Job

I got a job. I am tutoring a teenaged boy in conversational English every Saturday morning at 10 for one hour. I am also goingt to be teaching Kindergarten for 2 weeks in April when the teacher has to return to Canada for that time. So, yay, I will be the substitute. It isn't much, but a job is a job and we are very grateful. 

Laundry Day

I brought my handy norwex cloths on this trip, however, due to my inability to read Chinese, I don't know what detergent I can use to clean them. 

I love how the washing machine is out on our second balcony off the kitchen. And check out the tube going into the drain in the floor. Even so, the whole floor still floods everytime the washer drains its water. 

I can only hope that I guessed right on all the settings and that our clothes our actually getting clean. 

Sadly, we have no dryer, so we have to hang dry our clothes in this humid environment. As a result, our clothes never actually fully dry. 

To answer the ever pressing question of our toilet situation, yes we do have an American style toilet this time. 

Welcome to Our Apartment

Welcome to my family's continued adventure. Sorry for the change, for some reason I can't access xanga here so I started a new blog. Enjoy.