GOOD news of GREAT joy! :D

Somedays the Father just blows your socks off... or in my case today, dries your socks off. That's right, after rain every day for the past week, with our clothes getting ever dirtier and no place to dry them well, He has gifted us with an afternoon of bright warm sunshine! The sun brought a smile to many faces...

...but the REAL great news is that the Son brought even BIGGER smiles to us this evening. Every night, we have a time for team sharing. Usually, one person shares his/her personal testimony and we pray for that brother/sister together. Father has used these "family" times to the true glory of His name...what we've heard and learned has been nothing short of amazing. During tonight's gathering, not only did we get to hear yet another story of His grace & love, but we also celebrated a Very Special Occasion -- one of the TAs from Chengdu (they have been invaluable in helping us get through these weeks) has decided to give his life over to Him!!! WOW. We are so humbled and honoured that we were invited to be part of this significant step.

For more details, please email one of the team members... We can inform you that his name is Edwin. Please remember him. If you wish to address a short message to him too, please leave a comment and I'll make sure he receives it. ^^

Longer update with more pictures later! Here we are about an hour ago, our whole team (minus our illustrious leader who took the picture) plus the TAs ... very sleepy but very, very happy. :)

May I thank you once more for your faithfulness in talking to our Abba about our various requests...here He is, answering us.

I have a new name

Bobby Wawa. All the girl kids call me it. So here's the story.

Remember the blog thing I wrote on my personal blog about how Korean people always get so confused about my name and call me Barbie? Apparently, Bobby sounds like Barbie in Chinese (Mandarin or Sichuanhua, I'm not sure). And wawa means doll. So they call me Bobby Wawa.

My shoes are wonderful. I bought them on Boxing Day. I needed shoes with good ankle support, so I got some basketball shoes. The guy at Sportcheck told me about these great vents on the bottom that let my feet breathe. All the guys there bought this shoe for playing basketball. Sounds great! I got them cheap because it was Boxing Day!

In Vancouver, this vent "feature" sometimes felt like a bug. Whenever you step in a puddle, you can guess what happens. Here in ZJ, where it has been raining for almost a week, I have experienced the "benefits" of this "feature" every day. Especially today, after playing soccer with the soccer camp's kids. It was raining, and I slipped too easily (four times?). I need new socks. Or I need to wash my old ones fast. I'm wearing Tim's socks right now.

Back to class tomorrow. It's getting interesting. We had an interesting discussion on fighting. When is fighting ok, when is it not ok? What's the difference between a bully and a protector? Why should fighting not be taken lightly, and why should one tread with caution? I hope that we have calmed them down a bit. This class in particular was very rowdy. Aussie-Rule Duck Duck Goose. I've never seen anything like it.

We are going to be going more into personal development lessons later this week. Please keep it in mind.

Bobby Wawa

Its Saturday!!! Tomr is Sun. !!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last day for teaching...ya teaching on sat., morning only, but had to do mini-Olympics (soo tried now). Thx the father for not raining on us (just mist), and it was perfect timing. It is done!!! (mini-o) and now its the time for rest, one day, then another 6 day of teaching. Lot of planing still needed! Everyone here is so fun to be with and so fun to talk and learn from. So much lessons learned and so much friends made. Sunday tomr!!!! one more hour of sleep (waking up at 8!!! thx JC) I need all the rest I can get and be ready for the next week. The kids are soo fun to be with, wait SOME of the kids are soo fun to be with. Next week is going to be fun but going to be a lot of hard work. ttyl (don't mind me, my thoughts are everywhere) :D

Dave

Eat and Sleep

The day is going so fast... Wake up, devo, eat, class, lunch, sleep, class, dinner, devo, sleep, and restart... The food is soo good!!! :D 2-3 bow of rice for lunch and dinner! Its 2:15 !!!!! wish that I can type more but g2g to class. post more later

Dave

The scene, the setting.

Alright, I've had alot of requests to hear about the conditions here. So here it is. The first day we arrived at the youth centre, it was warm and sunny, but every day since then has pretty quite wet. We were forced to bring the physical activity in doors, which actually worked very well. When we finally went out doors for phys. ed. it was actually very disappointing. The kids really don't listen to directions, and the rest just don't want to do anything. I actually did get to live out my dream though. I made Zhaojue history. I put on the very first street hockey camp. The kids just loved it. It was a dream come true. The food here is for the most part not bad. Some is great, but we have the same thing everyday. I'm getting kinda tired of eating rice. But it's humbling and character building to eat for sustenance rather than eating for desire. We just got hot water heaters installed in our showers, so that was an amazing blessing. The kids love coming to see us everyday, and it's so much fun playing around with them, and teaching them, and seeing how eager they are to learn. Being a teacher is really a special thing. All in all it has been a very unique experience, and it has only just begun...
-Eric

Crazy times and good fruit

It was a dark and stormy night. The fire raged outside, while the winds and rain smashed against the roof and lashed against the walls. We hid under our blankets, wondering when it would all end.

The fire comes from the steel refinery, and it's really bright. They work 24/7, it seems. The rain has been coming down for several days now, so I went and got an umbrella. Yay.

Very cool things. We got an apple the other day. Hopefully, the seeds will grow many apple trees. If you get my drift. It's a very cool apple. Big daddy loves it.

We had our first day of classes. Little chaotic, but very enjoyable. You can never stop loving kids. They're so enthusiastic about everything. Of course, you will always have your usual problem children, but we hope for wisdom on how to help them learn to really grow into their potential.

David and I have pretty much thrown out our plans for our English lessons because our kids know far less English than we anticipated. We did a diagnostic test where they had to write as many English words as they could within 10 minutes. Nine of them weren't able to write anything. Nine of them were able to write one to three words. So we'll go straight from scratch for these kids, as if they're learning English for the first time.

Apparently, there's a big ruckus out on the town. Some stuff happened, though I don't have the details. Just hope that nothing will turn for the worse. Vancouver Canucks 94 Stanley Cup Final Game 7 potential. Do you get the reference? It is worrisome. Thankfully, we're not close to town, but please think about the situation. I'm sorry that I can't say many details. But a lot of people are upset.

Bobby

Hey all in Canada!

Teaching classes starts tomr. The classrooms are ready for the students this morning and our TA just came in this afternoon. We are all thxful for their safe arrival, and welcome their help. The days are going by fast and I hope the students are ready for the camp. We are all having a great time here, so I hope that the student will feel the same. A lot of preparation has been done and a lot is still needed. Miss you all in Canada, hope you all keep the team in your p**yer

GB from Zhaojue

Dave