Happy 200th Blog Post!

(Students writing encouraging words on each others backs).


(One of my students with her paper).



(Words that my students wrote about Miss Laura).


(Students with their papers of encouraging words).


(A note my student Jill gave me).

Friday was my last day teaching for a few weeks. In our last classes, one of the activities we did was to write our names on pieces of paper and clip them to our backs. Then everybody walked around writing encouraging words about each other. It was a hit. I've included some pictures from that activity.

And as another activity to conclude the semester, I asked students what they had learned this semester and wanted to learn next semester. Most were normal, and some students wrote how they wanted to play games outside everyday for class. I was thinking, "Really? And do you actually think your Chinese teachers would do this?" So many of them weren't realistic, but some of them wrote really cute notes. I thought I'd share a few:

"I learned to become more brave and after having Miss Laura's, I'm beginning to think deeply on things. It helped me think in other way like an adult. Miss Laura is a nice teacher and will be nice forever."

"I'm very proud of you--you are a great teacher. In your class you told us what is self-respect, how do we know what is right or wrong, what do we it means to be mature. You are not only tell us knowledge but also tell us how to be a man. So have learned so much in your class. Thank you very much, Miss Laura, you have taught us so much. You are perfect teacher."

"The most important thing I learned in Miss Laura's class is the quality of honesty. Do not try to cheat anybody in anything at any time. Have a true life!"

"Happy New Year, Miss Laura! May your tooth can say hello to the sun everyday."

"I love Miss Laura because she is very cheerful. The most important thing I learned in Miss Laura's class is to be hopeful. Maybe I don't know what my future will be, but I can think about it. Life is not full of jobs and money. There are many other things..."

"Miss Laura's smile always makes me warm and kind. So I would no longer feel timid and afraid. She told me, "everyone is unique and smart." The word encouraged me a lot."

So perhaps my crazy, but lovable students have actually learned a few things this semester! Thanks to Him and your thoughts... :) Thus begins our Spring Festival holiday. I have always wondered why it is "Spring Festival" when it is actually the deepest days of winter. Nothing resembles spring here...

But it does feel like spring in ways that you can't even see. He continues to renew hearts and minds in an amazing way. Joelle and Jodi each have studies of the word that are going on with interested students, and I also started a study this morning. Five students were going to come, but only one arrived. One student was in the hospital having a tooth out, one was trying to pass his driving exam, one was taking an exam for somebody else (something very sad and common in China), and one was stuck in a mob at the train station while trying to buy a ticket home.

But the Father brought one special, lone student. He was the one who didn't really want to come, but he did because he is so curious about everything in life. He is an avid reader, especially about all things science, and thrives on questioning why things are the way they are. Today we just talked about the existence of a Creator, and it was very revealing for him. I think he is searching for truth, but doesn't know where to find it.

Long story short, this student has acknowledged the fact that there may indeed be a Creator, and will come back to the study. Praise Him! Tomorrow he is even coming to the Chinese fellowship with us for the service, and the only place in the city of 4 million where you can buy a copy of the word. He is bringing money so he can purchase his own copy of the word "to keep forever."

Please, please lift him up! I have had him as a student for over a year and a half, and he is so curious. He is also very guarded and rational. Knowing him, he will seriously contemplate what we studied today, which is amazing in a country that is becoming saturated with video games and the Internet. Please just think of him so that he will discover the truth.

It is always unexpected and surprising the way He works and the hearts He works in, such as my one particular students. There is also another student of mine who is a Hui Muslim--the only female Muslim on campus. She said the most interesting thing she learned this semester in my class was about the Son. Wow.

Thanks for your thoughts as always! I'm thinking of you in America, especially as you are freezing!

In the Trenches

(Old campus turning into a pile of rubble).


(The hole we try not to fall into when we leave our apartment building).


(A snapshot from above).


(Poor palm trees covered in ice at new campus today).


(Our school's pagoda in ice).

Living in a "developing" country means that there is sometimes a whole lot of development going on at once, and it almost makes my head spin. I'm amazed at the rapid pace that they can throw up huge rows of apartment blocks, build gigantic roads from scratch, and create whole new communities from the dust. Streets can look entirely different from two months ago, and they can plant thousands of trees and flowers where piles of rubble just stood a few days ago. The streets are usually coated with a wonderful layer of dirt and mud from all the construction projects, and the fact there isn't any drainage. Chickens and dogs run wild through the midst of all of it. Sometimes I think this is what it must feel like to live in an Alaskan outpost during a gold rush. But, alas, it is China circa 2010.

One of the development projects has overtaken the old campus where we live. Sewage and waste water used to run through ditches in the ground which were sometimes covered in places by crumbling cement blocks. They are actually installing pipes for the waste! Apparently they are doing an upgrade in the form of dozens of construction workers yielding shovels, pickaxes, and sledgehammers. One morning they just arrived and promptly went to work digging countless mazes of trenches, turning the place into even more rubble than usual.

The workers are a sad sight. They are working in the numbing cold doing back-breaking work--all with very shabby clothes and equipment. They are probably half my size, because they are so small and lean. When they stop to stare at us foreigners, I make sure to smile kindly at them.

Our campus has never been handicapped friendly, but now it isn't really even normal person friendly. You have to climb on top of piles of rock, leap over the trenches with dirty, murky water sitting idly below, and maneuver around the workers chucking rocks and mud everywhere. Today was even more fun, because it rained last night and then promptly froze. There is a thick coat of ice on everything, which is rare for this far south in China. So at 7:30 a.m., I had to dash all the way to the front gate, trying to leap over the trenches and land on a small mountain of rubble coated in ice on the other side of each trench. Dozens of people were chipping away at the ice on the slick stairs by the buildings. Thankfully I survived this journey. And it sort of adds more spice to my day.

So it was extremely cold today for all my classes. There were lots of icicles--the bamboo and palm trees had layers of ice that looked rather strange on them. Even my eyelashes maintained a layer of frost on them in the classroom, since it was below freezing inside and outside. Most of my students had wind-burn on their faces and there was a girl in one of my classes who had chilblains so badly on all of her fingers, that they were like giant open sores.

What a winter. Thankfully He is getting us through it!