July 15, 2009
Hello everyone! I'm sorry it has been a couple of days since I have been able to update this blog. my schedule has been pretty busy! I have been waking up at 5:30/6:00am every morning (it's actually been really nice, I have never been a morning person, but have always wanted to be). I usually get to the school by 7:00am to prepare for the day, school ends at 3:30pm, then we have had meetings the past couple days until around 4:45, we leave for dinner no later than 5:30, and then we get home between 9:00 and 10:00pm. By that point I don't have much energy to get on the computer so I apologize for my absent posts, but I am excited to share with you about my past couple days! Next week we will have a lot more time after school. This week we have had a lot of welcoming parties to get to know our T.A.s and have time of fellowship. It has been a blast! We had our first day of class on Monday and the first half of the day was testing the kid's fluency levels. In the afternoon we had introductions to the class, rules, and played games. I ended up having younger kids than I expected, but they are as cute as they can be! I have 17 kids total: 10 girls, 7 boys and all are in kindergarten except four are in first grade. Tuesday, our second day, went well. I had some kids who were enjoying their worksheets so much they didn't want to go to recess so that was encouraging! My roommate and I had talked about how we had been spiritually attacked at the beginning of this week and we know that we will have more days where we feel attacked because we are where God has called us, but we have the God of comfort and peace to calm our spirits and give us the strength to get through it! I know I couldn't get through this experience without Him and I am so thankful for that because I can completely rely on Him. This has actually been a desire of mine even before the trip and God has reminded me of it while typing this blog right now, what a blessing! I have an opportunity to really grow spiritually and nothing excites me more than knowing my precious Jesus more! Today went by really fast. Since our school has not even been open a full week, our building had a government inspection. We had to take our kids to a gym with no air condition and then a kindergarten room for two hours which was hard to entertain the kids without any toys. My poor class was so exhausted and starving by lunch that my kids had two full servings of lunch and one boy had four huge pieces of watermelon! Since we spent most of the day outside of the school I only had 1:00-3:30pm to teach so I had a lot of activities left over. The kids absolutely love the workbooks that the school provided for us tand we can spend a lot of time in them because they have writing, drawing, and singing activities. It is so cute, they dance and sing to the songs in the workbooks. I play the workbook songs while they color and they sing along. It's adorable! After our meeting this afternoon we went out with all of the SMIC staff, T.A.s and the headmaster to a really nice restaurant. The food was wonderful, as it has been every night. I seriously had the best yogurt I have ever had! They make it homemade at the restaurant. It was so light and refreshing I could live off it. We were told that Beijing has the best raisins/grapes, which was in the yogurt. After dinner the T.A.s came over to our hotel to hang out and they did Billy's boot camp video with us. It was fun and they loved it! I'm so excited to hang out and get to know them more! Many of them have already been interested by our faith so it is really exciting to see what is going to happen in the next few weeks with them! My T.A., Nicola, invited me and my roommate to come see her dormitory and she and her friends want to take us shopping to teach us how to bargain. For shopping here you have to know how to bargain because they try to sell to people who don't know. Our guide, Grace told us that we should pay 1/10th of the asking price or it's a rip off. Crazy huh? Anyways, I'm so excited to hang out with my T.A. more! We also got our weekend agendas tonight! This weekend we are going to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was recently renovated and I have heard it is pretty impressive so I'm excited! The 2nd weekend we are going to the Great Wall & Olympic Sites, the 3rd weekend we are going to Temple of Heaven & a Hutong Trip, the 4th weekend we are going to the Beijing Zoo & Summer Palace, the 5th weekend we are going shopping at the black market and every Sunday we will go to Beijing International Christian Fellowship. It truly has been a blessing how taken care of we are! God has blessed us beyond anything we could ever imagine, let alone deserve! I am listening to my a MercyMe song right now called "God with us" and wanted to share the lyrics because it is such an encouragement and wonderful reminder to me that the Lord is always with us wherever we go. (Joshua 1:9)

"Who are we, that You would be mindful of us?
What do You see, that's worth looking our way?
We are free, in ways that we never should be.
Sweet release, from the grip of these chains.
Like hinges straining from the weight, my heart no longer can keep from singing.

All that is within me cries.
For You alone be glorified Emmanuel, God with us.
My heart sings a brand new song.
The debt is paid these chains are gone.
Emmanuel, God with us.

Lord You know, our hearts don't deserve Your glory.
Still You show, a love we cannot afford.
Like hinges straining from the weight, my heart no longer can keep from singing."

"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:58