Jojo is Missing.

        I can't find Jojo. He's been missing the whole semester. I've tried to txt/call him, and even used the Chinese instant messenger QQ (which is how I stay in touch with a lot of students). I'm not sure what happened--I thought we were becoming good friends.

I met Jojo at English corner last semester (where a lot of students go to practice English with each other once a week--we're obligated to attend, but it gives us opportunity to meet students we don't teach), and we seemed to hit it off well. That night's topic was sports, and after we exchanged phone numbers and emails, I would meet up with him about once a week to have lunch and talk. He helped me to buy a new hard drive for Rebecca's laptop, and we even had a couple of "philosophical discussions" over the course of the term. 

But now he's gone. Vanished. I assume it's because he was a senior and only had a senior project left in order to graduate, and perhaps he stayed home to finish the spring term. However, I'm afraid I might have been less than a freind in Jojo's eyes.

It's quite normal in Chinese culture to "befriend" someone in order to acheive a goal (the equivalent of the phrase "wine and dine" comes to mind), and this seems to happen all the more to English-speaking foreigners. The unfortunate truth is that it takes a long time to earn a Chinese person's trust (but when you do, it's usually for life). And it's not unusual to lose contact with a person when a need is met (in my case helping practice English for some standardized exam, interview, etc.)

I suppose the point is that sometimes it is hard to know for sure whether a person really wants a relationship, or they just have a need. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really hurt or angry, I understand that is part of relationships in this culture (and others)--as confusing as that may be. However, it does make it difficult to discern when to put energy and time into a relationship with hopes of developing it on a spiritual level, when, in fact, it ends up as nothing but free English tutoring.

Jojo is gone, and he's not the only student I've lost touch with from last semster. I think positively about these people, looking to meet up with them again, realizing that it does take "40 touches" sometimes to finally get through to someone (see Kevin's blog here). But it does make me a little gunshy with the next person that wants to hang out. Father, help us discern these situations and always be willing to put our trust in you when meeting someone new.

Transform

This week I have found myself doing a lot of things I would consider "upkeep." We haven't spent much time with students (aside from lunch today with Clover and Cheryle), and I feel like a lot of time consuming tasks are being done without visible success.
For example, I've been trying to get our website back up to date. Some of you may laugh if you've noticed that it hasn't been updated officially since October. However, we are learning that this is a bigger endeavor than we anticipated at the start, and no one had ever sustained a website prior to this year--something new we're learning.
Additionally, we're learning how to communicate better with people back home. A lot of people have put time, effort, and money into making sure the seven of us got here and are effective. We don't always stay in contact, but we know we owe it to those people to keep them informed. We've tried various things (i.e. the website) and are also trying some newer methods (email newsletter also in the works)--again, a learning process.
Also, a lot of trial and error has gone into the rest of our Work with students and friends--oftentimes very frustrating for both parties; and we find ourselves feeling inadequate or failing at our purpose--yet again, a process to learn from.
Last night, we met (a group of teachers who get together over dinner for our Wed. night study) to discuss the activities of our 1st century predecessors. One thing that I realized through that conversation (Acts 2:42-47) was that we have been learning this whole year how to be more like those people--just twenty centuries later.
In other words, this whole year has been a process of transformation--as individuals, married couples, a team, etc. I'm glad to find the father doing this to us. I'm not ashamed of our work this year, even though we don't have the numeric success that many consider so important. I am reminded that we are called to be faithful, not successful and that our Father takes care of the increase, not us.
So whether our failures have been in communication with people back home or with our studies here, I count it all as part of the transformation process that makes us as a group that much more experienced for the long term service we have committed to in our lives.

A Walk in The Park

Last Saturday we had a great opportunity to bond with some of our newly found brothers and sisters. The week before Rebecca and I had visited with a couple of brothers and they had told us about a great trip they had during the winter break, helping out victims of the earthquake that occured over a year ago in the south. They went on to tell us how much they enjoyed studying with us, and would like to spend more time with us. We shared their sentiments, and said we would like to do more with them. They also told us that the following Saturday was a planned day in the park with some brothers and sisters, and they wanted us to come--so we agreed.

Satruday rolled around, and we went with Stan and Juliane to meet them at the park near the West Lake. After a little trouble finding the exact location of the park, we found our brothers, only to discover that the group was actually about thirty students, most from our university--all brothers and sisters who studied together and met somewhere on our campus! We were excited to meet them, and they us. We played games, told jokes, and took pictures for most of the morning.

Around noon, Isaachar, the brother I've become closest to, told us in his broken English, "We now hand out papers and share good news with people." I had some inlcination of warning about this before--we had sent txt messages asking what we were doing and if we needed to bring anything--but only now it was clear that they had come to the park with purpose. We said our goodbyes and left to meet some other teachers for lunch.

       We found out later that they were canvasing the park, looking for people interested in hearing Good News. We are encouraged and inspired by the self-motivated efforts of our new family! We want to find our role in their work, and help them as best we can, without interfering with the good things they are doing. Father help us!

Organized.

This term my life has become much more organized. I've set out to do better with classes, contacts, and my schedule, in order to be more efficient in my work. I've found that technology I already possesed, has really helped me achieve this. 

I'm thankful that my wife and I invested some personal funds into iPhones the year before we came to China. We knew we were coming here, and we counted the costs to see if it would be a good investment--and it sure was. I'm now able to synchronize all my contacts and addresses, along with my schedule to my phone and computer, and even online. This may seem simple, but it greatly helps when you have contacts on both sides of the planet.

Organizing my classes was also an important objective for this term because it makes teachiing more efficient. Being more efficient in the classroom and making lesson plans makes me a better teacher, as well as gives me more time to do the things I feel are important.

I must also share with you a valuable computer application that has helped me accomplish this feat. It's a Mac program called Bento (after the Japanese box set meal), and it has been  a tool that helps me do the work better.

Getting On Our Knees, in a Critical Way.

Last Saturday a group of us got together to talk about our work. We've worked hard to stay informed about the work of each of our 7 china friends during the year, in case there is anything we can do to help them. However, we branched out and met with a few extra workers that share our same goals and interests. The result was almost three hours of intensive updating, strategizing, and most important, talking to our Father. We share our "short lists" with each other, mentioning people by name and sharing our expectations and desires for those people. Needless to say, we've already seen fruit-bearing from our 3 hour session. 

One of the critical elements to any work is talking to your Father, and we are seeing hard evidence of the benefits of this. I'm sad to say this is one area of the work that I have severely lacked in most places I have lived. But thankfully, this group is more in touch with him, and we encourage each other to keep talking to him. 

At home, it's easy to let this area of your life slip and slack off. In th field, it's a must, or your work is dead. I ask my Father that I won't lose touch with him when I get home, and that my siblings at home will do a better job of talking to Him.

Apparently, I'm a Good Teacher.

I got an email this week from our foreign affairs office. They reported that the student evaluations of the foreign teachers came in. According ot the results, I was the second highest rated teacher among undergraduate classes. I'm not sure how I got to this point. I never really viewed myself as a good teacher, in fact, I've decided recently that I don't ever want to teach--it seems the best teachers don't really teach but just ask questions that others can use to teach themselves. I've also mentioned Before that I want to improve in the classroom. 

Whatever the case, I'm thankful to my father for giving me such great opportunities, and I hope this is another opportunity for me to continue "teaching" others more important lessons than how to correctly pronounce a "TH" sound.

GOOOAAAALLL(s)!!!

in most soccer (or more accurately "futbol") countries, nothing is more exciting than hearing that word screamed in euphoria by a sportscaster. I have personally found myself yelling this word inside my head  since school began--but more out of frustration than delight. I always feel like a new term is a new start, a new beginning, a chance to reinvent yourself all over again. Thus, I really wanted to lay out my goals in order to better myself, and make my work more effective all around.

this is what I've decided:

1. Get organized- from my address book, to class records, to contacts I meet and study with, I need more organization to be more effective with my time and energy.

2. Blog more- as alluded to in my previous blog, I need to be better about iforming people of what's going on.

3. Follow up/through- I have made plenty of contacts and built a lot of relationships already this year. I need to keep up those relationships and improve on them. Following up and being proactive to get invovled in people's lives will help this.

Overall, this has already been a highly successful year (not in numerical terms-that's never been important according to The Book).  We have found ourselves being transformed in ways we never would have imagined over a year ago. Out teamwork has sharpened us and made us accutely aware of our progress in our personal development. On a personal level, I am happy working here and allowing myself to be transformed more and more like the image of the One I follow.