I admit that I am getting rather bad at posting on time. I am going to quit apologizing, because I doubt that my posts will become much more regular, considering that my schedule this semester. I am teaching 24 hours a week with about 5/6 different lessons a week, not to mention the other work that I'm doing. Additionally, I am teaching CSI (Chr*stian Studies Institute) classes, the equivalent of BIC classes, on Saturdays. I'm swamped.
Then again, there is not that much of note to post this time, either. I have been getting into the swing of things. I returned to school and have been teaching for about six weeks now. I have some of the same students and some new students. The students that had me last semester told me that they were surprised to see how much more handsome I am. In fact, at school my students have told me that I am "tall, wealthy, and handsome"--the Chinese equivalent to "tall, dark, and handsome." Although they don't realize that I am not exactly what they consider wealthy, I still take it as a compliment. Miss Ivy tells me her students, who were my students last semester, all seem to be in love with me. Her classroom is right outside mine; she tells me that the girls often look into my room through the window. (This is what's exciting in my life, I guess...not too promising.)
In my CSI classes, I have taught through the books of Matthew and Mark, Luke and John, Acts, and Romans (separated into lessons) in the New Testament Overview course. This is by far more exciting than teaching English. I've tried to break up the books and read the more important parts, but that still leaves a lot of the book unread. With Romans it was especially difficult because most of the book is the important part. I managed to get about half-way through in my two-hour time slot. On a regular basis I've had about 3 or 4 students, which is good from my point of view. Pr@y that G0d would bring us more students.We celebrated the R*surrection of our L0rd this week. During H0ly Week we held services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and two on Sunday. I was privileged to pre@ch for the Chinese service on Sunday, and I boldly proclaimed the resrrecti0n with vigor and passion--so unlike me, as you may know. I was very excited to pre@ch etern@l life. David informs me that my voice was so loud that he thought I was going to make the building fall down. Miss Ivy also served as my translator--one of her many talents.
Throughout the week, I have been teaching E@ster as an American holiday, but I spent about half the class period explaining the real meaning of the holiday. I am sowing the seed in the hope that some may hear and believe it. I also held an E@ster egg hunt, in which I hid eggs with my vocabulary words around the room and made my students hunt for them. I gave a prize to the winners. Today, however, I was very disturbed to find that some of my students actually stole some of my eggs. I couldn't believe they had the audacity to do that! I guess they weren't that expensive, and I won't be needing them in future classes, so it makes little difference, anyway. I was simply caught off guard. I am glad that I didn't yell at my students over it.
Today I also learned after I arrived at school that my course load will be down for the next month. My second-year education majors are out student teaching this month, so I will not be teaching them until May. That frees up six hours a week for me--three classes and one whole prep a week. The problem with this is that the school failed to inform me of this until class had started today. I thought something was up when none of my students showed up for class, so I called the secretary. Apparently she forgot to tell me because she was so busy. This school has never been good at communicating with me, so I am not surprised. Still, I would like a little more notice so that I can plan my classes. Now I need to adapt my entire course structure so that I have four fewer weeks of lessons.
It's the time of year when the cherry blossom trees blossom. They are beautiful, so Ivy and I went to see them last week. We went to Wuhan University, one of the biggest and best universities in Wuhan (and one of my schools, Luo Jia college, is also affiliated with it), where they have an entire block of them. Unfortunately, they charge for visitors to see them during the day, so we went during the night and were unable to get good pictures. We also visited some friends of hers, whom she calls her g0dparents (although they are not Chr*stians at all, only good friends who are old enough to be her parents). We ate a meal with them that night, too. They were interested in getting to know me and asked me many questions about my culture.
I also visited Wuhan University last week to meet with two of our 'Chinese friends. Six of us in total went to do some campus ev@ngelism, establishing connections with our friends there in the hope that, in the future, we may be able to hold some small studies on that campus, too. Four Chinese, including one p@stor-in-training, and two FoC teachers (Stephanie Humann and myself) went together. Pr@y that the L0rd might open that door to us, too, and that more and more s0uls may come to hear this g0spel and believe it.
This week is a short week in school for me. The Chinese are celebrating Qingming, or Tomb Sweeping Festival. That means that many of my students will go home for a short vacation. I also will take the opportunity to travel. The Chinese ch_rch is having a retreat in Beijing, and I will be going up with them. I hope to see many of the capital's famous attractions in the short time I get to be there. But that will be the subject of another post. Until then, G0d be with you all!
Pr@yers for all of you. Please continue to pr@y for me, that G0d would work even through my m!n!stry and bring more s0uls to J*sus.
Peace be with you.
