This week has been a great week. I feel like this week I have gotten my life back on track from the chaos of the past few weeks. I have been able to make a schedule for myself in studying Chinese, reading, and building relationships. This week many doors have came open! It has been great.
This week I also had to judge an English competition. That was pretty exciting, except them calling me up on stage and I had no clue what to do. Tonight there was a big English party. At the party each of the foreignors were required to come up with a game where there English would be practiced. For my game we played "packing the sardines". Actually it was another name but I won't say. Anyhow you guessed what I did. I made some squares out of ducktape on the ground and the group who had the most in it would win. It was very exciting to see them crammed together and fall. I know that they enjoyed it just as much as I did. Each of these things are just a few of things that we do here in China (this is why I added this).
Anyhow, tomorrow I will head to Xiangfan and visit some of my friends. There I hope to build relationships for next year, if that is where I am suppose to be. Well I hope that you all have a great week and GB!

Students Departure

This past week has been a little hard for me. My students that I have built great relationships with, taught, and studied with leave today to go to the Philippines. I know that this is not the final goodbye to many of them because I do hope to see them again. However, It is always hard to say goodbye to close friends that you will not see for a while.

In their final days at the school I took time to hangout with them. I had alot of them come over and just hang out. Some of my students that I built closer relationships with came over, watched a movie, and stayed with me longer asking questions.

I know that many great things will happen to them and I know that seeds will continue to grow. I ask that you think of them and lift them up. I know I have been greatly blessed by meeting them and I hope that their life was just as blessed in meeting me.

A week in Xiangfan

About two weeks ago, I know this is a little late, we were visited by a great man by the name of Wess Gunn. I am greatful that he came. He came as if he were Santa, he brought great gifts such as Cheeze Its and cds of Buddy speaking.

This weekend was a great refresher and helped me get my focus to where it needed to be. I had to make several decisions such as what I was going to do next year and other things that I had been debating on doing. However, I have decided that next year I will stay in China. I do believe that it is in my best interest to move to Xiangfan. We are also hoping that Bill and Judy can come live in Xiangfan as well, so that we can have a centralized location. Last time it was somewhat complicated for Bill and Judy so please lift them up about the whole process.

I want to say thanks for all of you who sent the encouraging videos and comments to us. Please continue to send us emails, because they mean so much to each one of us! Thanks and I hope to hear from you soon! GB

Language school

Zhongwen Xue Xiao (Chinese Language School)

On January the 14, I started language school in Kunming, Hunnan Province, China. This place is known as Spring City. It is suppose to be sunny each and every day with the weather of spring. I have only experienced about 2 of those days so far, which have been great blessings.
Keats Language School i have come to find out is somewhat challenging, although i think it is because the Chinese language is so confusing. Here I have already learned about 50 to 60 characters and more than 100 words. The most difficult thing for me though is the grammar. I am having a difficult time with structuring the sentence. I know that this will come easier as i practice and because i have a great teacher, Liu Shu.
I hope that during this time, while I am at language school, you will be lifting me up about learning the language! If you need anything lifted up for you let me know.
I hope that in this New Year you all will be blessed!
Also if you have any lesson plan ideas that i might could use next semester let me know!

Happy Birthday!
I had one of the best birthdays ever this year. My class and I had a big party on January 5. I taught them how to do the electric slide, cha cha slide, hokey pokey, and the limbo (how low can you go, obviously some of my students found out their best talent). They all got to have a little bit of birthday cake and enjoyed it. I also received some of the most amazing presents ever: paper michete book, ancient historic kite box (the kites of one of the girl's hometowns), coffee mugs, caligraphy material, lebron james bogglehead, iron picture, and much more.
The next night, on my birthday, we had cauzones in my Jeremy's apartment. Janina's (the German teacher) birthday was on the 7th. So then we went downstairs to Tara's and they threw us a surprise birthday party with all of our Chinese friends. We got to play games such as a pin the tail game and also cranium (we won, i think the first time ever). It was so great to have a multicultural birthday. This is one day birthday that I will not forget. I will post pictures as soon as they are available.
Thank you also for your birthday wishes!

Christmas in Chiner

O how great Christmas is in China. I want to say thank you to LM, Dad and Leigh, Mike and Mom, and Heather for all the great and wonderful presents that I was blessed with. I would like to say thank you to the rest, who sent me greetings for the holiday to show that I was not forgotten and I was missed!

Now I want to tell you some things that made my Christmas worthwhile in China.

This year I had Christmas lessons for two weeks with my students. It was exciting to tell them about the origins of Christmas and to see their opinions on the matter. Later, on the 23rd we had a Christmas party where we drank hot chocolate, played Dirty Santa, and watched the Grinch Who Stole Christmas (They were also impressed by the beautiful Christmas tree display). At the Christmas party they not only had fun but they were also able to donate toys to the orphans, which a group of friends and I will go visit this weekend.

On Christmas Eve, I went to eat with a friend, went shopping for presents to give others, and hung out with the group last night. Yesterday I was able to hang out with my friend, Mick, with similar interests. I then proceeded to go on a shopping adventure throughout the city of Wuhan (I guess China is the place to be if you are a last minute shopper because nothing closes, lucky me). Later on we played Dirty Santa and cooked a fabulous meal, Calzones (I'm not sure if you can call that a meal but it's me so I did). When we finished supper we had a guys' night where we just hungout and talked.

Christmas Day, today, was definately different than what I had expected. I had a great Christmas and I was not as homesick as I thought ( I know that He was helping me through this time). I got to wake up early and prepare for breakfast. My Dad called and I opened my presents on skype which was actually kind of cool. I was with my family when I opened my presents, who would have ever thought?! I then went upstairs and had a huge foreignor get together, as well as Jeremy's family, while we ate breakfast. We all had purchased each other gifts and gave them to each other. We opened them and it was very funny to see what we got (for example: I got a poster that teaches me the Dinosaurs in Pinyin, great gift). Later on this afternoon, we cooked again and had delicious barbecue chicken (not normal in China!) which made me drool all over myself. As soon as we had finished we had some of our Chinese friends come meet with us and sing Christmas Carols and other songs. We also shared the great gift of candy and pies which we received from back home. What a great Holiday!

For all of you at home, I want you to know that I miss you and love you. May you have as great of a Christmas as I have. Be thankful to the one above for what you have and I would like to say thank you for all your encouragement. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! As the Chinese would say have a "Happy Everyday!"

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was fabulous. I learned how trully to be thankful, maybe part of that was because i had to cook (that is not normal for me). I not only learned to be thankful for food but most importantly the gifts given to me everyday and how to see Him in each day. We all went around the table and said what we were thankful for. Even though I missed my family, it was a true family experience that helped me grow. I hope your Thanksgiving was as filled with blessings as mine was, if it was not then you may need to put on some new spects. May He fill you in everyway! The picture of us above is of me and the mashed potatoes that my great friend, Jeremy, helped me make.