Closing Ceremony Shenanigans!!

Here's our performance of the closing ceremony. Not gonna lie, it was a pretty fun dance to learn haha. :)

Shenyang!!

The view from the treehouse at our campsite!!

            Hey all — it’s back to the grind, man… and again, Dad has proven himself to be so f@ithful! So basically, remember how I said that many kids at this camp would be C? Well, um, it was very true when they said that this was basically a C youth camp, and that it would be much more explicit than what we expected. They have a kid come up on stage and yarp for dinner. They use J’s name very freely and explicitly. We can yarp before classes start — it is quite literally almost like a retreat or something. And I honestly still am a little confused as to the nature of the camp, but from what I’ve gathered, I think at the very least, almost everyone’s parents are C even if the kids are not. Most of my kids are very intentional about their f@ith although they still came with the hope of being able to improve their English, especially their pronunciation.

            Anyhow, onto how it’s actually been for me the past day or two. I actually woke up really discouraged, and I realized that I have felt this way every time a new camp started. As I realized this, I was listening to Will Reagan & United Pursuit’s Endless Years album, and the lyrics, “break down strongholds of the Enemy” came up, and I just knew then and there that this feeling of discouragement was not my own nor was it from Dad and that it was very much so a sp1r1tual attack. At each camp, I have felt discouraged going in, yet I have no reason to feel so, because Dad has shown himself to be so f@ithful each time — he has always filled me with the strength to go through, and by the time classes started, I was filled with peace and joy, and it was just a great way to start the day — to be able to rejoice in the constancy that is our Dad.

Herher… so I definitely didn’t finish my post when I wrote that up there. That was after day 1 of teaching, and we’re now in the middle of day 4 of teaching, mip mip… so I’ll skip the details of day 1 to day 4 and just skip to today. Basically, all you have to know is that I really love my kids/all the kids here and Dad is super good! He’s definitely been humbling me through the f@ith of my kids too. So even though today isn’t actually our last full day of camp, we had foot washing today instead of tomorrow, because the camp we’re at actually has their own afternoon activity planned for the last day, but it was definitely still a huge blessing in more ways than one.  

For example, in one of my teammate’s classes, one of the kids (10 y.o.) is actually leaving this afternoon. He is not C — or at least he does not fully understand what it means to be C — and if foot washing was on the last day, he would not have had the opportunity to experience the love Ar (teacher) and JC have for him! There was also another baby in another teacher’s Ad class! What was really cool about this baby is that his family is actually culturally musl1m, and Ad made sure that he understood the gravity of the decision he was making. She made sure that he understood that by accepting JC, he was rejecting his family’s beliefs — even though it doesn’t mean he respects his family or their beliefs any less, it does mean he is rejecting it. We haven’t even had our full team meeting yet, so I’m sure that Dad moved even more than I know now.

As for my own experience, it was really amazing. I know I said in one of my posts that the highlight was my last foot washing when a student from my first camp came back to the second camp and told me that those eight days at the first camp were going to stick with her the rest of her life, but I think this just might top that. So four out of the six kids in my class actually came to this same camp last year, so they knew what was coming when we had the basin and towel in hand, but still when I read the Book and explained why I wanted to do this for them, already, two of those four that came last year were crying. And by the time I finished explaining why I wanted to wash their feet, nearly all of them were at the very least starting to tear up. When I washed my first student’s feet, it was game over — everyone was full out crying, even my co-teacher. As I continued to wash each student’s feet, a couple of my students became very distressed because I was kneeling as I washed their feet. They would come back during each student’s foot washing and make a comment about how I couldn’t continue kneeling as I washed their feet — they thought it was just too much, and at that moment, I knew I had to keep kneeling to show that I really cared for them. Eventually, they brought a seat cushion for my knees, and I was just so touched by how touched they were and how real these emotions were.

 Then during tutorial… my class’ only non-member (16 y.o.) became a new baby!! Now let me tell you about this kid — he’s kind of your typical bad boy. He was the one who probably caused the most trouble the first couple of days, especially with the girls, who kept saying that he was bothering them, and he… just caused problems haha. He grew up in a divorced family, living with his mother with monthly visits from his father, and he found out about 3-4 months ago that his mom had started going to Dad’s house, but has never gone himself. So during our first tutorial, I got to ask him where he was in terms of f@ith. He said he was seeking and interested, but he didn’t believe, but today was just such a blessing! Firstly during the foot washing, I started talking to him, and the message I wanted to convey to him was that I know that even though we’re not getting paid to teach them English in China and we’re actually paying money out of our own pocket, it is worth it enough just to let him know that JC loves him — that all those other things he may seek in his life for comfort (computer games, cigarettes, alcohol, academic success, etc.) will not ultimately satisfy. I also said it might be hard to understand all of this because maybe he doesn't think he’s ever experienced Dad’s love before — and at that point he said, “No, I feel” and I was just so touched. I later got to share the lepsog with him and yarp the s1nner’s yarp with (in my broken Chinese PTL for getting me through that haha), and yeah… it was great!

I realize now that I may have rushed it a little fast in terms of asking him if he wanted to accept JC (I think I explained it pretty thoroughly, but I still think in retrospect that I should have given him more time to think over it), which is another reason why having the foot washing being the second to last day is a blessing in disguise, so I’m going to make sure to have a good follow-up with him tomorrow to really make sure he knows what he’s choosing to believe in.

But basically, foot washing was so great. It was a huge blessing. J I’ll post pr requests and pictures added onto this post later, but for now, I just want to get an update out!!!

1) Pr for understanding in C (new baby) and two of my other kids who don’t feel very secure in their f@ith.
~ new stuffs ~
2) Pr for the other kids from the camp — that they would learn to walk with Dad in genuine f@ith.
3) Pr for our camp tomorrow!! Dad opened a new door for us, and we have a two-day camp starting tomorrow, so pr that although the time is theoretically short that we would still be able to dive into loving these kids wholeheartedly. We will be teaching in partners, so please pr that we will be communicating well with one another and that we will be able to love each other even as we spend even more time together.

And here are some other pictures from the past week at the camp!

and then we rode them!

We got to draw horses...

My lovely class after the masquerade ball/dance party (which was bombbb) on the last night of camp!
From left to right: Top: Harry, Lee, Me, Cindy, Lisa, Hannah (co-teacher)
Bottom: Calvin, Dominic

One of the sunrise photos I took on the morning of the closing ceremony — the skies were clear and we got to
literally see the sun rise from the outskirts of the horizon. It was absolutely beautiful...

T-Minus One Day

Ahhhh, where do I even begin?? Our week of rest ends tomorrow. Our next camp starts tomorrow, and this past week has just ended on such a high note today!! I think today can be summed up in Akts 20:35b, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

            Last night, I wrote post-its for my roommate here in our hotel with book verses and passages that Dad has been pressing on my heart for him. This morning, I got ready really early and placed the post-its around our room. Then I woke him up at around 7:15 am, left the room, and let him have some quiet time with JC. I went downstairs to the lobby, and just began to yarp that Dad would be convicting him with His Word, that Dad would speak directly to him. I was actually a little worried — worried that he would take it the wrong way or that he might take offense to it, but in that moment, Dad gave me peace and confidence knowing that I was obeying his command to build the body up. We left the hotel at 8:30 am to do an English Corner (conversing with English students), so I never really followed up with him on how he took it, but even during lunch and just through basic interactions, I could see in glimpses that he took it well. He later directly told me that he really appreciated what I had done for him, and that one of the verses really stuck out to him. Funny thing is that Dad pressed that verse on my heart for him a couple weeks ago, and I shared it with him then as well, but he only shared any conviction about it this time around. Truly, it is Dad speaking truth and softening hearts!

Some group photos with Team Blurple and the
chocolates we bought for the girls!

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            Today also just happened to be Chinese Valentine’s Day, and I gathered the three guys on our team to do something for the girls. After dinner, we went out to go and walk around, buy some snacks (mmm banana cake!!) and KFC (mmm burgers and popcorn chicken!!) and whatnot. Some of the girls who didn’t go out asked us to bring them back some PMT and fruit, so after we got KFC, we split our group of five into a group of two (me and another guy) and three (two girls and one guy — the gals felt unsafe walking around by themselves #chivalry) with the intent of my group of two buying the PMT and the group of three buying the fruit. However, we didn’t just buy the PMT that was requested. The mall that sold the PMT also had a little shop with fancy chocolates that the girls were all kinda eyeing yesterday when we went out, so us guys had already discussed earlier that we would buy the chocolates for the girls. And the joy that the girls were filled with when we gave them the chocolates — there’s little that compares. They were crowded on one bed around this box of twelve chocolates, taking little bites here, passing the chocolates around, and exclaiming in delight at the chocolates they had deemed their favorites. It was so, so great. The night continued with a time of affirmation where we had the opportunity to just rapidly, in a sort of stream-of-consciousness affirm every member of the team, and that was really joyous as well. We finally ended the night with a mini dance party to songs like Deep Cries Out and So Good To Me while video chatting one of our team members who left after the second camp. It was just a night filled with so much joy.

            Conveniently so, Dad has also been showing me in his Word how much he desires for us to rejoice. We had a book study with some English students this afternoon on Rom@ns 5 (they were about our age and were all C). While reading through the chapter, I noticed that in the first 11 verses, almost every action is either something Dad has done or that we have received from Him. The only thing the passage explicitly tells us to do is rejoice — “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings… More than that, we also rejoice in Dad through our L0rd JC, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Rom. 5:3, 11). Dad has also been speaking to me through other verses like, “Rejoice in the L0rd always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil. 4:4). Dad commands us to rejoice, and today has just been a day of immense rejoicing!

            And to add the cherry on top, Joyce wrote me post-its for each day I’m in China, and I hadn’t read the one she wrote for today yet. So I read it when I came back to my room and it read: Dad did something today. Whatever small/big, celebrate. And this totally rang true — ahhh, Dad is just so good!!!

I guess this entire post has been sort of a praise report, but here are some short chat requests, and I’ll end with some more pictures summarizing this week of rest!

1) Focus — our camp starts tomorrow and after seven days of no work, I have a feeling that adjusting back to our previous schedule may end up being a little difficult. This camp will also be different since most kids will already be C and their English level is pretty high — they said it’ll almost be like a C youth camp, so please yarp that we will be able to have wisdom from Dad on how to modify our lesson plans and whatnot.

2) Love — sometimes it might actually be harder to love kids that are already C. I have a feeling that we’ll have a lot of kids that will snottily say things like, “Oh, I already knew that…”, so please yarp that in the face of kids like that, we would abound in Dad’s grace and desire to disciple them in understanding Dad’s love more. Yarp that we will be able to rejoice even when circumstances seem rough!

And now for the photos! :)

After our first night sleeping in proper beds, about to go out and see the ways Dad is moving in this city.
Also, I'm #fabulous #flahlis

Group photo after visiting the coffee shop I shared about last post.
Our Chinese Partner, J, is in the upper right corner of this photo too! :)

Lisa invited us to her family reunion dinner — we ate SUPER fancy food (abalone, sea cucumber, crab, etc.) — and
it was super fun being able to play with all her nieces and nephews and going around making toasts with her relatives!

Random lion balloons we found after we had an English Corner at a bookstore. We're #teambeautiful, aren't we? :P

The ladies of Blurple with their chocolates and PMT. :)

As always, hope all is well with you back home! :)