Mike: Puppies, People, and a Party

Boy, today has been a really long day. Today was our last day of teaching. Today’s moral value was kindness and our morning activity (led by the Colorado team – us!) was to have every class come up with some ideas for how we could serve or show appreciation to someone on our school campus, like the folks that cooked our lunches every day, those who cleaned the building occasionally, or others.

Our class broke into groups and came up with several ideas and then went our in smaller teams to work them out. I believe one team wrote a letter of appreciation to someone at the school (either a school leader or someone taking care of the dorm during camp); one group I think made a card of some kind. Our little group went and sang a Chinese translation of the Thank You song (“Thank you, thank you… my friend”) to the security guard at the front gate of the campus. Coincidentally, right as we left, a group from another class also came over to say thank you as well.

Then, this evening, we had our class parties, which was a time for the students, the teaching assistants and our foreign teachers to party! We had impromptu speeches from most of the teachers and the teaching assistants and one student. There was shirt and notebook signing, a little crying, a big cake (it was one girl’s birthday today) and an exchange of gifts between us teachers, the teaching assistants and the students. We even sang some silly songs for the kids too.

Looking back, I think the class party was definitely the best part – the highlight – of the entire trip. It was great to engage with the students some more and express thanks and affection for them and continue encouraging them to keep on working on their English and in who they are as people. It was great to tell students how we had seen them improve over the couple weeks and praise them for who they are.

Looking back, at the beginning of the camp, the students to me were just “Chinese kids”, and like so many other Westerners, I had a hard time telling them apart from one another. Just as we have a hard time telling apart Asian faces, I wonder if they have a hard time telling apart us Westerners as well. So I had a hard time at the beginning in putting names to faces except for a few students that had a distinctive look. But as I have been here, I’ve been able to distinguish them more and more. What’s funny is that now I no longer look at them as “Chinese kids”, but as regular students, as though they were the same American students I’ve worked with back in my church’s youth group. Somehow, the fact that they speak Chinese to one another doesn’t matter any more. These really are some amazing kids!
One final story: Vicky and Leah (two students) bought a puppy from a disabled old woman they ran into yesterday on the street for 40 yuan (about 6 dollars), in order to help her out. Wow. He's so cute.

Vicky (her birthday)



the puppy Vicky and Leah bought

Erin: Karaoke and Fatigue

Well, I guess today and yesterday we’ve really started noticing how tired the students have been getting, as well as how tired we, and the T.A.’s have been getting. Many students don’t get enough sleep at night because they’re playing games, talking, or on the computer, which also keeps the T.A’s up. So, I would like to open this blog up with a prayer request that, even though the camp is almost over, that the kids would be energized and understand how important sleep is in order to learn and stay healthy and happy.

This goes along with the international teachers as many of us (especially me) just get drained by the afternoon and want to take a nap, but instead have to teach. Also, I ask for prayers that we would just push through the last days of camp and finish strong and really fulfill God’s plan for us at the camp. The kids have really been growing a lot though, it’s so exciting to see them blossom and glow every time they understand something or run to the classroom ready for a new lesson.

Moving on to today; today was an especially hot day—every time we stepped outside it was like stepping into a sauna or standing in front of ten blazing fires—it was BRUTAL. Thankfully, God has provided us with air conditioning in the classrooms this year because I’ve been hearing many stories from the English camp last year about teachers dripping onto their lesson plans after an hour of teaching.

Also, this evening the activity was a talent show, and unfortunately I didn’t go because I wasn’t feeling well, but I heard that it was funny, enjoyable, and really gave the students confidence and courage to perform.

After the talent show, the T.A’s and younger international teachers sang karaoke at a KTV next to the hotel, which was a blast, and really fun to just spend some quality time with the T.A’s.

I guess we didn’t really figure out a word or phrase of the day, but apparently this morning Eric (one of the other international teachers) put Joey’s iTouch in Chinese, which, according to Joey “looks really pretty but I can’t read anything!” hahaha

Our TA's in my class 3 are awesome; Mandy and Edelweiss.


Who is behind that fan?


Our TA's during the Talent Show


"I can't use this thing any more....."


One of my favorite students; Jason is sooooo cute!


Our daily ride to the school...and yes, the bus leaves on time every
morning and afternoon having left some of us behind. Then
we have to walk...

Hello everyone! It was another great day of teaching!

This morning we honored our TAs telling them how valuable they are to us teachers. This was to help the students respect the TAs more. Students listen to the foreign teachers well but the TA don’t have much control.

Yesterday we gained a new member to the teaching team, Carey, a British English teacher. We have been working out the kinks as far as our teamwork goes and today teaching went much smoother.

Tonight one foreign teacher from each team went to help the TAs do skits with the kids. I went and got to see firsthand the disobedience. Thankfully, we were able to help control them and it ended up being a great experience.

Please pray that in these last days of camp we will have a lasting impact on the kids and TAs.

I’m sad to be leaving in just 3 days, I would love to stay another month or two and see more of this beautiful country. It is so incredible here. The friendships I have made with teachers and students are amazing. It will be so hard to leave them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO! Can’t wait to see you all back home!

One of my students in class #5



A Chinese pagoda on top of the hill close to our hotel

Joey: Prayer

Ladies and gentlemen! Good morning, afternoon, or evening! We hope everyone is doing very well.

Today we started our second and last week of teaching with an assembly about “courage,” our day’s moral value. I liked to applaud our own team’s courage for coming on this trip and facing the unknown in China, especially the younger members. They all have toughed out the different challenges with facing a different culture while showing their incredible faith they have in Christ Jesus. They have done an amazing job being the “hands and feet of God” with the children and TA’s. Erik and I are very proud of what the team has accomplished beyond the many barriers that we face with the Chinese children and TA’s. Glory be to God!

Again, I like to thank you for your prayers and encouragement! We love reading your responses to our daily blogs! There’s still work to be done in this city! Good news is you all can help through your prayers. We ask that you continue to pray for the Chinese in this camp. You might ask, “J-Scoo [Joey], please tell us, what shall we pray for?” Well, great question; allow me to explain…

- Positive attitude as we get more and more tired

- God to continue to draw the students and some of our non-believing TA’s closer to Himself! One TA in particular named, Annie. God is doing amazing things in her heart; she is very close to becoming a follower of Jesus.

- Continued good health for the whole team; so far so good J

- For Jonathan to STOP loosing his stuff, like his wallet and his back pack with important documents/I.D.’s….cough, cough. (No worries, he found it the next day. :-))

- And, that I will find deodorant because I ran out…the team would appreciate that

I would also like to thank Mark Seifert for taking time out of his busy day in California to post our blogs everyday! You’re the man, Mark!




"I really need to find some deodorant..."



Our "three musketeers" in my class.



With Jonny who lives in Chengdu and knows fluent Mandarin. I'm jealous!!!



On our hike to the Buddhist Temple on Saturday.



With Erin and Tammy in front of our hotel.

Tammy: Hiking and American Food

Well today was a fun and crazy day because we went to a church service and it was very interesting. They had an awesome choir. I loved listening to the women sing. After church we got a tour of the church and we went to McDonald’s for lunch. Joey thought he ordered a Big Mac meal, but instead he ordered 5 cokes. Then we went to the school and played water games and then Jonny and Connor started the water fight, which ended the activity after we dumped water on each other for a half an hour and I slipped and fell really hard on my side. I’m OK! I couldn’t stop laughing. We all got massively wet! One of the cool things that we did at the end of the day was that we had a good worship and prayer time with all of the teachers. Thank you everyone for your prayers and we all are having a ton of fun teaching the children.

Word of the day: Scrumptious

“Wait, I asked for five cokes?????” – Joey at McD’s

Katherine: Hiking and Teen Questions

Hey everyone! It’s Katherine! I’m excited to tell you about another fantastic day here in China. Since today was Saturday we didn’t have any lessons and instead went with the kids on a hike to a temple. I don’t usually like to hike but it was actually a lot of fun since we got to talk more with the kids and explore the temple area with them. After lunch we played “sit down” games like Uno, the “human knot,” and “hangman.” The kids really seemed to enjoy the games and wanted to keep playing even after it was time to go. Then tonight we did an activity called “teen panel” where Eric and David Li (from FL), Connor, Johnny, Jonathan, Erin and I, answered questions that the kids had written down. We received questions like, “what do you like to do on the weekend,” or “what is your high school like?” Erin was once asked to sing a song. All in all today was another great day! Thanks for all your prayers and support! See you all in a week!

Word of the day: Shrelk

Quote of the day: “When I grow up I want to be like Rejean!” – Said by Erin and Jingle

Teaching in class 4


With one of our TA's from my class 4


Oh those peppers are sooooo hot!


Talking with students


With our team


The Nanchong Middle School where camp is taking place


With my dad at the Hua Mei office in Chengdu

Tammy: Cockroaches and Yoga Balls

Today was a fun day. The kids learned some more English and today’s lesson was on “respect” learning how they can respect each other. I am having so much fun in China. The Chinese kids are very different from us in how they think and in what they do. Yet God is really working in these kids.

The boys got really dirty today, especially Connor, when they were playing soccer with a big red yoga ball…haha. After dinner we had a big dance party with the kids and it was a lot of fun. I did not stop dancing until the dance was over and I got really hot and sweaty. When I got back to the hotel I took a shower and when I was about ready to blog for today there was a cockroach in Erin’s and my room and it was really big and Erin killed it and then flushed it down the toilet. She was not even scared. Well, maybe a little scared and man it was so big; it sure scared me when I saw the cockroach behind my suitcase.

Today’s word of the day is “never mind” and all the TA’s thought it was really funny.

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you he raises to show compassion For the Lord is a God of justices blessed are all who wait for him.” - Isaiah 30:18

I love you all,

Tammy

Stephan: 2nd Day of Teaching

What a difference a good rain shower makes. The temperature today has dropped considerably as we had much rain last night and today. It has been quite comfortable (69F today) and we all have enjoyed a reprieve from the heat.

Today was our second full day of teaching and all of us have connected with our kids well and are falling in love with them. They are all precious and we pray that in some way we may reflect the love of Christ that will draw them to Him. One of our lessons today included the story of the the prodigal son and it was interesting to see them act out the story and thrilling to be able to incorporate into today's curriculum a parable that our Savior used to demonstrate the deep love of the Father for all people.

One of the most meaningful interactions for me with the kids comes at the end of the day during 30 minutes of unscripted fellowship time where the kids and teachers can talk about anything they would like. The kids ask us interesting questions about life in the USA which, at least in my class, have all revolved around school, our education system, and relationships. How we raise our kids, how we teach values, and who our first love was. We also enjoy lunch with our kids in the cafeteria when we can interact with them on a more personal level.

An incredible blessing for us has also been our TAs (teaching assistants). They are young, energetic, sweet Chinese gals and guys, some who love Jesus, that help us in so many ways. Please pray for these Chinese young people that God would continue to draw them to Himself and that He would use them mightily among their peers.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers. The team continues to be in excellent spirits and we are all healthy.



Katherine was teaching on "family" today and introduced me as her father.

Mike: First Day of Class

Today was our first real day of classes. We started getting to know our kids better and them us. One thing you notice while here is that most of the kids are pretty shy in class, but by the end of the day they started opening up much more. They are a great group of kids. Our class name is "Monkey King Kongs" and our class motto is "Never say never!"

Today, like other days, we got to try out some new and interesting food. For instance, this morning was my first PB & J in China! Hmm... Not sure it's quite what I'm used to back at home. Good enough.



At dinner, Catherine, Connor, Joey and Jingle tried some really hot peppers. There was a lot of sweat and red faces. When we told some of the students about it, they were pretty shocked that they had eaten them. It's one of the hottest peppers they have.

Jon: First Day on the Job

Ni hao!!
Hello all! I would like to start by thanking all of you for your continued prayer support. For all of you following this trip, every thing is going great. The food is amazing and everyone is having a blast. The city of Nangchong is "dirty but it is a beautiful dirty." The landscape is amazing and the people are so friendly.
So today was our first day of meeting the students and testing them to find the right class placement. As one of the testers, I met a lot of the students and was amazed at the wide variety of skill that the kids had. After testing all of the kids, we went outside and played some games like capture the flag and red rover. It was at this point that the heat and humidity really hit me. It was all good though.

After the games we all went up to the cafeteria where we ate lunch with the students. I have to say the food is still really good. After lunch the teachers all walked back to the hotel where we had a one hour break... Praise the Lord for AC. We then had a planing time where we got together with all of are other teachers in our class and prepared for the lessons. After dinner we went back to campus and played an A-Z scavenger hunt with the kids. It was a blast. The quote of the day is: "You were for right," made by Katherine. That is pretty much all from here. Please continue to pray for us all and until next time Xie Xie and Zia Jian!

Today our team had a fantastic day; we started out with some additional training/orientation from Joy, the HMI camp director, in the morning. All of us had to check out of the hotel after breakfast and walk with our luggage from our hotel to the HMI office (this is the reason why I always say, "travel light"). The orientation was very helpful and I know our team will do a fantastic job ministering to the 65 students who will attend this year's camp. After a sumptuous Sichuan lunch we traveled from Chengdu to Nanchong (about a 3-hour bus ride straight east) where the English camp is going to be held. The city has 8 million people (about 4 times the size of Denver including the suburbs). It's just amazing how large the cities are here in China. The weather has been unseasonably cool (today it was in the high 70's) because of some major rain the last few days. So our team is very thankful. After we checked into our hotel we walked to a local restaurant for dinner. After dinner it was off to the Nanchong No. 1 Middle School to take a look at the facilities in preparations for tomorrow's first day. We also met some of the students that will be part of the camp which was a perfect way to end a perfect day.

A personal highlight for me is that I get to experience this trip with my younger brother, Stephan, and his daughter, Katherine from Florida. Both have fit in very well into our team even though they are not from Grace Chapel. It is fun and very meaningful to minister in China together with them.

Thanks for all your prayers on behalf of our team; everyone is excited to get camp started tomorrow. We want to "educate with love and serve with humility" (the motto of Hua Mei). We love and miss you!

Nanchong No. 1 Middle School




Orientation at the HMI office in Chengdu.

Erin: Arriving in Chengdu

Well, today was a great day; we met the rest of the team, the Huamei staff, and the TAs. Everyone is so open to meeting new people and hearing about where you’re from and what you like to do. Since some of the team is from Switzerland and Germany, we’ve joked about how the Chinese students are going to have a funny accent—like Chinese/Swiss/German haha. It’s a little nerve racking to think about teaching these students and not really knowing what to expect, but we know that God will take care of everything and the Chinese students will understand what we teach in the way that God wants them to. Some of the best parts of the day were practicing camp songs with the teachers, especially “Respect”. Katherine and I were probably the only people in the room who sounded so ridiculous, but I guess everyone liked it =] --or maybe they were just laughing at us... The TAs did a “fashion show” today so that we could remember what not to wear at camp, and it was so exciting to see how they act in a classroom setting and how fun they can be. We’re all still getting used to the time difference here, and it doesn’t help that the beds are SO HARD! Its upsetting sometimes when you wake up in the middle of the night wide awake and the beds only make it harder to try to fall back asleep. Also, mom if you’re reading this I’ve already spilled two drinks on the trip—my water on Jonathan (Jingle) on the plane, and most of my oreo milkshake on myself this evening, I know…typical me haha.

Connor: Temple of Heaven and Pearl Market

Hey everybody! Connor here. Today was pretty awesome. We started the day by taking a trip to the Temple of Heaven. We played some Frisbee and drew a lot of attention, which was great. My favorite segment of the day came next with our visit to the Pearl Market, home of everything imaginable in fake form! I came back to the hotel with a Rolex watch, a pair of Oakley’s, a big brass dragon statue and a crazy-insanely-awesome in every-way-imaginable laser pointer, all of that for a total cost of $130 US haha. How is that for a deal? Later, we took the plane to Chengdu where we are now staying in the Zenec hotel!

Word of the day was “Diabolical.”

Quote of the day was “Your teacher [Erik] never stop talking and very loud” -Chinese person on plane (from Beijing to Chengdu).

Joey: Beijing

Hello everybody!
First, I would like to say thank you for your prayers and helping us make this trip possible. We all couldn’t have been able to be part of this trip if it weren’t for you! Thank you!

We first started off our day with a “continental” breakfast while watching the rain fall outside our hotel, but the rain didn’t stop us. We still went to the Great Wall and later the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Luckily, when we were walking on the Great Wall, the rain stopped and scared all the tourists away so we had a cooler day and pretty much had the wall to ourselves. God definitely blessed us with a beautiful morning. We were also blessed to see a remarkable view of the mountains that surrounded the portion of the wall that we walked. I’m sorry to say, pictures can’t do justice. Tammy already went through half of her memory card because the view was so amazing. I don’t blame her because who wouldn’t want to take a lot of pictures of this good-looking group with the Great Wall behind us? We finished our visit with a first-class lunch at Subway! Delicious as usual.

After taking an hour break at the hotel, we took the subway to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. I think most of us finally realized that the Chinese don’t mind being in our personal 3 ft. bubble. Unfortunately, the entrance into the Forbidden City closed right before we arrived, so we weren’t able to walk through. We were still able to take pictures of the front of the city and have a small history lesson from Erik about the Chinese government and Tiananmen Square. While walking across Tiananmen Square, the ladies were bombarded with dozen of requests to have pictures taken with the friendly locals. A Peking Duck dinner followed our national monument visits. For our first authentic dinner, everyone seemed to enjoy it! Connor, Katherine, and Jonathan decided to eat the duck’s brain…I’ll let you ponder that for yourselves. We finished the night with ice cream at the locals’ favorite gourmet restaurant: McDonalds.

Everyone is doing well and enjoying the “cooler” weather due to the rain. We’re definitely excited to meet the rest of the teachers and students that we’ll be with for the next two weeks. We’re also extremely eager to be the hands and feet of God and being a light to the people who don’t know Jesus and His love. Again thank you for everything that you all have done to make this trip possible and for the prayers that give each one of us the strength and the compassion to live out God’s purpose. Much love and tell the Rockies to pick it up again…