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…

Made it Safely!

The team has made it safely to Beijing. More to come soon.

Travel Day

So we have arrived in Seattle and are waiting for our flight to Beijing to take off. The team is doing fantastic. Some things we are learning about each other: Tammy has the same middle name as our leader's wife's middle name (Lynn); Joey can't figure out how to "blow through his nose" to get his ears to pop (not very fun); oh, he just told us that he has finally equalized; Jonathan's nick name is now officially "Jingles"; and most of us are already tired even though we haven't even left the USA yet. Yet everyone is in great spirits; thanks for praying for us. More later....

New Year, New Prayer

Hey all and welcome to our 2011 China Trip blog! You can see below is last year's trip and how God blessed us in a city called Baozhong. This year we are off to Nanchong. It is east of the capital of Sichuan, Chengdu, and far west of the cities most familiar to everybody like Shanghai and Beijing.

We leave tomorrow and thought the best way to start this whole blog up would be to publish our prayer requests. Take a look below and we can't wait to keep you updated, so tell your friends and family to follow us on this site.

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 “faith, hope and love”

Connor – our luggage to arrive safely and good health; develop a closer relationship with God while in China

Jonathan – that God will prepare me for the trip; that we will show love to the TA’s and Chinese students

Mike – stay flexible; to not get grumpy; not get selfish or isolated when things don’t go the way I want to

Tammy – getting packed up on time; that God will calm my nerves during teaching

Erin – good health; feeling comfortable with what God puts things in front of us; not being afraid of the unusual “happenings”

Erik – that God will soften the hearts of the students who will attend the English camp; for Teddy’s healing so she will be able to serve as a TA at the camp

Joey – pray for the TA’s and AA’s that God would prepare their hearts; that we trust the Spirit with potential barriers