The Other Side of the Desk

Grace and peace to all in the name of our L*rd J-s-s Chr+st.

I have now been in China for two weeks and am adjusting to life here. This week was full of many events and surprises. My roommate David and I shared some adventures. Others were enjoyed by a larger group of us with Friends of China. I visited some new places, but perhaps foremost on my mind after this week is school.

I am now a veteran teacher of two weeks. I have met many students and found for every student I remember, there are ten students whose name I cannot even guess. Many of them are excited to know me. I learned this week that for some of them, I am something of a last hope for a successful life. I teach at two colleges: Wuhan City Vocational College, where I have taught both weeks that I've been here, and Luo Jia Technical College (or something like that), where I started classes this week. In the former, I teach juniors who care very little about schooling any more, and it is likely that their attitude will prevent most of them from ever succeeding. At the latter, I teach more impressionable sophomores. Ben, I don't know whether you read this blog or not, but I think all of my sophomore girls are in love with you. I showed them a picture of you in  class. To them, you are tall, handsome, strong, athletic, funny, rich, American...in short, everything they are looking for in a man. Someone even told me that I should try to convince you to come to China. Anyhow, my sophomores admitted to me that they attend the school because they failed the college entrance exam. That means that pretty much all the respectable schools in China won't accept them because they are poor students. Both schools that I teach at are fourth or fifth-rate schools, not top of the line (like our American schools are). For them, it is a bit unusual to have a foreign teacher. I represent opportunity in their eyes; if I can help them learn English well, they hope they can then get a better career because of their expert language skills.

The problem with this is that I only get to teach them for two hours once a week, so they won't really learn much from me beyond what they put in. I can correct their mistakes, but the most basic part of my job is to bring up things for them to discuss and practice their English. I do teach vocabulary, but the emphasis of my class is largely to make college students more confident in their existent English skills. In general, I am impressed with the English they know; in many ways, I wish I knew as much Chinese as they know English.

Teaching also comes with its own opportunities. In most of my classes this week, I was able to admit that I am a Chr+stian. A couple of my students were very excited when I said this because they also share that f@ith. Perhaps that can be an opening too. More opportunities also presented themselves. During my first class at Luo Jia, one of my students, a young man named Janet (so called because apparently it is very close to his Chinese name; I am not in any way responsible for giving him a woman's name) admitted that his greatest fear is an upcoming surgery on his mother. I pulled him aside after class, told him I am a Chr+stian, and asked him if I could pr@y for him and his mother. Of course, he had no objection to this.

Similarly, that same day I became utterly convinced that G_d has a sense of humor. At lunch time I was a little worried because I knew where to get food, but I had no idea how to get it. I don't speak much Chinese, and I don't read it at all, so I cannot get around a menu unless it has pictures. But as I walked down the hall from my classroom, I ran into a man named Wu Liming, whose English name is Jerry. He is an English teacher at the college, and he is 54 years old (and I remarked with him that he is remarkably close to your age, but not your stature, dad). It's almost as if I could hear a voice saying, "Here's a s0ul that needs to know me; Andrew, you should get to know him." Jerry showed me around the cafeteria, and we ate lunch together. When I pr@yed before my meal, he asked me if I had to do that, and I was able to respond quite honestly that I want to. We walked around the campus for the rest of our lunch break (we get two hours for lunch in China), and we talked the whole time. He offered to help me learn Chinese and be a tour guide around Wuhan, as he is a Wuhan native.

We also did our fair share of tourism this week. David and I toured a Buddhist temple, where we saw people burning incense to/for their ancestors. Some monks assisted in the ceremony. It is sad to see that S@tan hides so securely behind this mask. In many ways, it reminds me of the pre-Reformation Catholic church. They charge money for their services to ensure a better life. I even learned that, if you pay enough money, the monks guarantee that in the next life, you will be reborn in the United States. While we were at the temple, we also climbed up a pagoda from 1280 A.D. It was, in my opinion, like climbing up a hobbit tower. The stairway made me bend over and squeeze through the holes, and even then I got chalk and dust all over my backpack. At the top many people wrote their names or initials or whatever else they may have said in Chinese. I also chose to inscribe the reference John 14:6, and I added the sign of the cross.

We also toured the Yellow Crane Tower, Wuhan's legendary tower, earlier today. Jerry, my friend from school, was my tour guide, and he told me many interesting things as we walked. The tower has its name because, when it was first built, in around 220 A.D., yellow cranes came to roost there. The tower subsequently burned down, and the cranes naturally flew away. But when it was rebuilt, the cranes returned, giving rise to the legend or at least the name. The tower has been rebuilt many times throughout its nearly 2000 year history; the current rendition was erected in 1985.

But, perhaps most importantly, we had a party this week. I say this is most important because it was a party for our prospective B+ble study (which I will henceforth refer to simply as "study") students. Other FoC teachers came to the party, as did our shepherd, Adam Gawel, and his family. But about as many Chinese came as did Americans. I met many new people and got to know some other friends better. I was able to talk about Greek with one of Wuhan's shepherd candidates. One of our friends even talked American politics with us (although he doesn't know the topic as well as he thought). We played games, and we are hoping to start up our studies next week.

I thank you all for reading this far; this is getting rather lengthy, but a lot happened to us this week. Thanks also for the pr@yers. My pr@yers go out to you, especially for my new nephew, Gabriel Lucas Ewings, who is also my godson. May He be with you throughout your life, and may you always remember that He is your strength.

Greet the brothers and sisters for me. May the bl-ssing of the L*rd J-s-s Chr+st be with you all!