CHINA KAT

I hope this blog has not been having withdrawals from my recent lack of posts!

Greetings from chilly Beijing!! I am sorry that I have not posted as much as I would like-we have been very busy!! There is a lot that has happened over the last month or so, and hopefully those who are reading this have received my e-mail updates that I try to send out weekly (sometimes bi-weekly!) If you are not…Why not?! Let me know if you are interested, and I will add you to my e-mail list!!

Hmmm…where to begin? Well, we just finished up our first language book and are on to our second one! Did I understand or comprehend all that was encompassed in the first book? Ha, no…but I do feel like I am learning more each day…which is good! I do feel a bit behind, though in the vocabulary and understanding…so if you could please pray about our continuing language studies…that would be awesome!!

We have a lot of great things going on that God has blessed us with. Currently, we have 2 seeker’s studies going-one is on Monday night at the Cooper’s and one is on Saturday night at my place. The Monday night one has been going for a little over a month, and this Saturday will bring about our third Saturday night study. We usually average about 8-12 people a week, and they are REALLY seeking. They ask some incredible questions about creation, good and evil, praying, God’s plans, etc. They really keep us on our toes and challenge us to think deeper about our faith and who God is. Many of these who are coming are previous LST readers, while others are those we have met at English Corner, on the street, or in this apartment!

One particular lady I have been blessed to get to know…I actually met coming out of the elevator of our building one day. I was headed to the school for Chinese class with my book in hand, and she asked about it. I learned that she spoke great English as she worked for an American company, and we exchanged numbers. She came to church with me the following week, and then stayed for lunch and a party we were having afterwards. I have continued to keep in touch with her and run into her in the building occassionally. She came to our study last week and then we had dinner at a Korean restaurant on Sunday evening. I am excited about the relationship that is forming! I pray that it continues to grow and that seeds will be planted. I truly don’t believe there are coincidences here-God has really shown that He is arranging what is happening here. He continues to open doors and allows us to constantly meet new people. We are so blessed to be able to walk this faith journey with them, and are humbled by the opportunity!

At the beginning of October, we had a great group retreat that involved our sister churches in Bejing (in Jinsong and Haidian). We were able to go to this beautiful location located just outside of Beijing in the mountains, which was actually near part of the great wall. We were able to do this because of the National holiday they have where everyone gets a week off from work and school. As I have mentioned before, this was the 60th year anniversary of the PRC, so they went all out with decorations and a huge parade at Tiannamen square, which we watched on TV while on the retreat. Gary did a great job with his lessons on Moses, Abraham, David, Isaiah, and Jesus (which were translated into both English and Chinese-so we actually knew what was going on!) Susan and I also were able to help with some of the children’s classes; and we had a small discussion group with some of the other missionaries on our team and a great Russian family that lives here. We we were also able to enjoy time getting to know our brothers and sisters better, and explore a little of the nearby surroundings and village.

(Thanks to Marcus Riley for this great group picture!)

We have also been blessed with 3 more baptisms this month: Ting Ting, Michael, and Judy! They have all gotten involved with the church over the last month, and I have been blessed with getting to know all of them better.  Michael even comes to our studies sometimes, and has helped tutor us in Chinese along with an older member of the church.  We are so thankful for their help! We now know the stroke orders, can write some Chinese characters and recognize many more…as you can imagine, this is very helpful when living in China!

After a LONG search, God blessed me with an awesome apartment last week! It was quite a stressful search, but I am ever so grateful for God’s provisions! It is a great apartment and will be perfect for hosting our Bible studies and for having lots of people over.  I am excited about the opportunities and making it feel like home. Thank you to all those who were praying! Pictures will follow soon…

There is more to write about…like the early snow we had last Sunday, sitting at the head of a conference room table teaching the Bible to several women who have never heard it before, eating a scorpion, a trip to the zoo, an early Thanksgiving dinner, God’s timing, and some other thoughts I have had…stay tuned for the adventures from China! I promise to do a better job of not allowing this blog to become lonely!! I would love to hear from you so that I don’t feel lonely!

Thank you for the continued prayers, love, and encouragement-please pray that God will continue to use us to help further His Kingdom.  It is humbling to be able to have these opportunities and I pray that we will remember to embrace them all.  We are constantly reminded that the harvest is ripe and seeds continue to be planted as many seek Him…what a privilege it is to walk with them on their journeys of faith!

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14)

Ni hao from Beijing!

Well, this coming Saturday will have been a month since our arrival in Beijing. My how time flies! It has been a crazy and busy time as we begin our ministry and continue to learn what life looks like here. We have been blessed to witness five baptisms since arriving, and there was one more last night. The church seems to be flourishing, as last week there were over 60 people in attendance! There was an LST team here from California for 2 weeks, and we currently have an LST team from Texas who are doing great things. They held a Texas themed party on Sunday, which was a lot of fun, and we were able to make even more connections! We are very excited about the possibilities and the opportunity to build relationships with the people of China. It is amazing how many opportunities God continues to provide which reiterates what we already know: God is moving in China and the harvest is ripe!

We have been in language school for about 2 weeks now, and though our brain feels like mush, we are excited about this opportunity to learn Mandarin, which we hope will go even farther in communicating with the wonderful people here. We have also begun our own “seekers” group study on Monday nights, which includes several of our readers from our last trip, along with others who are interested in seeking to grow in their faith. We had 8 people show up for our first time of study (picture below), and were excited about that! We will also be adding a Saturday night study eventually for those who are more available on the weekends. We are setting these up as intentionally safe gatherings where they can ask honest and often challenging questions, and we can seek to answer them together. Along with this, we are studying individually with several people, and are constantly meeting new people in which we hope to have the opportunity to build relationships with and share the Gospel with.

I do have a few prayer requests:

I am still in search of an apartment and have to find one very soon since we are about to receive our new visa, when I will have to register again with permanent housing. I think I may have found one last night that would be great, but still need to work out the details. I have an extremely friendly and helpful person who helped the Cooper’s find their apartment and is now helping me. He is so happy to help us and has become a good friend! We are excited about the relationship that is forming with him, and would like to ask your prayers for him and that seeds will be planted in his sweet heart.

I am still in need of more financial support, though I am so thankful that more has come in lately. Please pray it continues to come in as I want to be able to focus as much of my time as possible on the ministry here, as opportunities continue to abound!! Thank you again to those who have already given financially and for your prayers for us.

I went through my first round of culture shock/homesickness this past weekend, and it was pretty rough. But, with the help of good friends and our Father, it only lasted a few days. We know we will face these times and they will be challenging, and we pray we can remember why He called us here and can support each other along the way.

I apologize that I have not written more since we have been here. Now that we are getting a bit more settled, I plan on updating more and sending out an e-mail once a week to keep you all informed of what God is doing here in Beijing and in our lives. If you are not currently on my e-mail list or you know of anyone who you believe would like to be added to this list or would be interested in helping our ministry out financially-please let me know their contact information, or feel free to pass this along!

I pray you are all being blessed immensely!! I am so thankful for each of you, and love you with the great love of our Father!!

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This past Sunday was quite the Chinese adventure…one of many I imagine! First, we had a wonderful time of worship, then awesome conversations with new friends at lunch, and an LST party. Afterwards, Marcus took us to Ikea because I needed to get a bed (so I can finally get some sleep!) So, we get a taxi and head to Ikea…ok, let me frame this for you: The Chinese LOVE Ikea!! It is like a mini-vacation…a museum…a place to hang out, read a magazine, take a nap-you know, the usual. You’ll find beds unmade, children hanging out, people snoring on a couch or a bed…it is hilarious! I think I may have to go hang out in Ikea one day just to see what all the excitement is about! OK, so the other thing is-you cannot just walk into the store, pick up what you need, head to the register and then head back out…oh no, that would be too simple! It is like a maze that twists and turns you throughout almost the entire store (which is actually quite smart in marketing terms), but a pain if you just want to get out! So, we find the bed that I want, get the number, size, type, etc and begin to head back out, and in between I get a phone call saying that a school would like to interview me later that day at 6:30. Alright, that’s cool-we still had 2 hours…should be no problem, right? Ha ha. So, we wind our way through the store as I try to find sheets and a comforter for my bed…which was an unlucky search until I finally found it when we were supposed to be meeting downstairs. Now, granted I was still going on very little sleep, it was hot and crowded, and I felt like I was about to pass out…so I decided to come back later for the bedding. We finally wind our way downstairs, find the pieces for the bed down there, load them up on the cart and head to the checkout…when a guy stops to ask us if he could deliver. He was asking a much lower price than Ikea offers and he could take us now, so we said yes! He was awesome! He rolled it on up to the counter, helped us unload, and rolled it on out to the car, where we all pile into his van with my stuff and head home. It is now raining (of course-this story would be no fun without the rain!), and we head home. Ok, at this point it is after 6 and my interview is at 6:30. I have been sweating and my hair is a hot mess, not to mention it is raining-so the humidity is making it look even more lovely. So, we get to the apt, unload the stuff, take it to one of the top floors, pretty much throw it into the apartment, run to the bathroom, and then back outside. It is still raining and it is now 6:15. We grab a taxi and head in the direction of the school. We get out in the neighborhood we think it is in, but cannot find it anywhere.

Ok, the other thing you need to know is that cell phones work differently here-there are no plans. You buy pre-paid cards and charge them into your phone, and then when you run out of minutes…you are out! Alright, back to the story…so, it is now 6:30 and we cannot find the school. We get out my temporary cell phone to try and call Gary, and of course…out of minutes! It is still raining. We go to the stand, buy a card, add the minutes, and start walking. The school is right across the street-of course! (There are no signs indicating this anywhere to be seen!) It is now 6:45. We find the building where we have been told the school is located, and try to go in one entrance-no luck. We then walked all the way around to another entrance to go in, where we finally see a small sign telling us the school might be located in this building, and head up. We get in, meet the manager, where she proceeds to tell me my interview will consist of teaching a 15 minute class. She hands me a book and tells me I have a few minutes to prepare. So, I look over the book and about 10 minutes later, myself and 2 of the managers enter an incredibly small, very hot classroom. I begin to introduce myself and teach the lesson. The women seems very engaged and excited, while the man is not. I thought either he does not like me or does not understand! I quickly see, after she translates some things to him that he does not understand. Oh yes, did I mention I have not eaten anything since lunch? It is now about 7:10. My 15 minute class turns into 35 minutes, where they say they like my teaching style and would like to offer me some hours (Yay!) During this time, I had also received a text message stating that there would be a baptism at 8:30 that night, which I was very excited about! It is now about 7:55 by the time we walk outside and find a taxi. It has stopped raining, though! We head back to the apartment, where I try to freshen up (my hair was all over the place at this point-I cannot imagine what those people I taught to were thinking of me!), and we head over for the baptism. That was REALLY amazing to be a part of, and my first one to experience in China. That is a whole other awesome story…

I finally eat dinner at about 10:30 that night, and think I ended up going to bed about 1:00 am…thus ending a crazy adventure in China! I know there will be many more…so stay tuned for the continuation of Kat’s Great Adventure in China