Winter has arrived

Today was frigid for Nanchang! The wind is gusting at about a million miles an hour. The classrooms were even chillier and draftier than usual.

This morning I had a great class. My student I wrote about yesterday ended up getting 3rd in the speech competition! I was so proud of her.

In the office I worked on preparing my Christmas lessons for next week. I'm so excited for them, because I think they will be fun and interesting. We are going to sing some Christmas carols, I'll read them the story "Twas the Night Before Christmas," and I am allowed to talk about the true meaning of Christmas!

At noon I went out to lunch with my favorite student, the one I'm always talking about who is homesick. She is so precious. We ate at a crowded restaurant. When we first walked in, there was choking smoke from the kitchen that shrouded everyone in a hazy cloud. We requested to sit somewhere else, so they took us to the far back, where we could sit all by ourselves. I was very grateful not to be choking, but I was more grateful that I could talk to her without thousands of other Chinese around. It's hard to get any space in this country.

We ordered some good food, and we chatted for about an hour. She is the one who found out I was a believer. Because of this, she contacted a random aunt who happens to live in this city and who happens to go to Chinese fellowship. The aunt took her to fellowship and my student also got her very own copy of the Word, which is sometimes difficult to get in China. So we had some good conversations about that, although her English is somewhat limited.

Then we walked to class together, because I was teaching her class this afternoon. That class was also wonderful, and they are probably my favorite class to teach. In addition, it's my smallest class with about 37 students, so I feel that I can talk with them a lot more easily.

Afterwards, several of my students braved the cold, wind, and mist to go with me to English corner. They definitely all get "A"s for the semester! Now I never want to leave English corner because I love talking to my students about so many things we don't or can't talk about in the classroom.

I think I have won a very dear place in their hearts, and they have done the same thing in my heart!