The week in review

This week has seemed like one of the longest weeks in a while. It has also been one of the best. I basically felt like I was on a battlefield the whole week. It was a constant fight for energy, truth, and justice in many ways. I was constantly reminded to rely on Him for strength and the right words to say.

I think the enemy knew that we would be teaching probably our most important lessons of the year this week- about the true meaning of Christmas. I was pretty prepared and ready to go. My cold still lingered (after 3 weeks of dealing with it), I was feeling a little melancholy from missing family for my second Christmas in a row, and it is back to freezing in the classrooms.

But the joy of teaching about the Son who came to earth made it all more than worth it. Where else would I rather be than being able to teach about Christmas in a communist country's classroom? I talked about the "secular" part of Christmas, but focused primarily on the "sacred" part of the holiday. My students are sophomores so they heard a lot about it last year, but I think they still learned a lot this year. Their hearts are extremely open, and despite my poor words, they are more intrigued than ever.

During a homework exercise, many of them wrote questions directed to me such as "Why should [the Son] save the world?" and millions of other similar questions. I have been carefully writing responses back to all 190 of their unique questions. It's actually pretty overwhelming, because they are so curious. Sometimes I feel like if I say the wrong thing that they will forever be turned off to the truth. But I know that's a lie! At least they are hearing the truth and He will speak to them how He will.

On Friday morning I also got to talk about Christmas with a class of sweet freshmen girls. One of the teachers on the other team was sick, so I filled in for her. It was refreshing, because I was reminded of how eager they were to soak in this news. And I basically presented the Good News to them. Maybe I could be a professional Christmas lesson-giver. That's probably one of my favorite things to do in the world... :)

Please remember my students, especially the dozens of very interested students. Lift them up so that the seeds of truth in their hearts will grow and flourish. I hope that they will come talk to me if they have more questions.

We also started final exams the last couple days of this week. Yesterday was rather dramatic in one of my classes. We have discussed cheating probably 600 times--how it is wrong and does not help them in the long run. It is a constant battle, because cheating isn't necessarily seen as wrong here. Cheating for a friend is especially seen as okay. In China you help your friends at all costs. Some people even take huge, nation-wide exams for each other. No officials ever bat an eye.

But in my class, at least, I intend to maintain some sense of fairness and justice. I have repeatedly warned them that they will receive zeros and probably fail the class if they cheat. Despite those warnings, there were two cases of blatant cheating. In each instance, they weren't sorry they had cheated, but were mostly humiliated at being caught. I ripped up their papers right then and there without flinching. At first they were in shock and in disbelief. When they realized I was serious and they had just failed they both stormed out of the classroom. After that, nobody dared to cheat--especially in my other classes where word of the exam-ripping quickly spread.

The students who studied did well, and fairness won out, at least for that day. It is frustrating, though, that the grades I give them don't actually matter in the end. The head teachers or secretaries will change the grades I give if they have favorites. Nobody is allowed to fail even if they never come to class. Sigh... Hopefully the students who actually try and have integrity will do well in life.

So it has been a long and challenging week. He gave me a lot of courage when I didn't have any. It was difficult to teach all about Christmas. What if I get in trouble? What if the Muslim girl sitting in the front row doesn't like what I'm saying? What if I say the wrong thing about Him? And it also took a lot of courage to stand my ground in trying to promote fairness in my classes. It would be easier to look the other way, like most Chinese teachers. But He gave me the confidence to look everyone in the eyes all week and to stick to justice and truth, even if they were all relatively small matters.

Well, that's the update for now from my tiny corner of China. Thanks for your continual thoughts!