Grace and peace to you from G-d our Father, and from our L0rd and S@vior J-sus Chr+st.
I know my blog post is long overdue, but with the hustle and bustle of school, a relationship, learning a new language, and adapting to Chinese culture (I suppose I could try to add more excuses), it seems I simply haven't had time to post on my blog. Still, I want to wish you all a happy new year. (The title of this post sounds like the Chinese for "happy new year.")
This semester went by quickly. I taught 22 hours a week, both freshmen and sophomores. By the end of the semester, the sophomores loved me, but the freshmen think I'm boring. There is now a rumor going around at school that I am leaving China after this semester and won't be teaching them. I don't know who started it, but I have my suspicions. (Ivy told some of my students that I was debating going back to the U.S. after this school year; it seems maybe they misinterpreted it.) I've told everyone who tells/asks me that it isn't true, but still even some of the teachers think that I am returning home next semester. Oops.
B-ble studies went well enough this semester. We've added a few new friends, but I've found that my role has largely been watering here in China. David, Jess, and Dan (my teammates in this part of Wuhan) have done more of the work of meeting new people, and for that I am very thankful. My role, it seems, is to be the guy with most of the answers about the good book, and to keep a level head about things for the team. Hopefully they will go just as smoothly next semester.
Many other things happened this semester, and I'd love to fill you in on every detail, but I'm afraid then my blog post would be several pages longer. Instead, please permit me to inform you about my trip to Xinjiang (a province in northwestern China).
I went with Ivy back to Xinjiang to meet her parents. Our journey started on New Year's Day, when we took a plane from Wuhan to Urumqi, the leading city of Xinjiang. (To give you an idea, there are only a couple million people there, so that province is more sparsely populated than most of China, probably because it is mostly desert.) When we arrived, we still had not come to our destination. We had to get to another city called Korla (see the title of this post), so we had to arrange for a way to get there. We had a friend buy us train tickets online, so we went to the train station after having some famous Xinjiang noodles. We took the overnight train for 13 hours, but it stopped several times during the night to make sure we wouldn't arrive ahead of schedule. When we got in, we found a little place to get breakfast and waited for Ivy's father to pick us up.
It took him a while to come get us, which kind of surprised both of us, and as soon as we arrived, he wanted us to go to a wedding right away. We still had all our bags and were tired and dirty from traveling, so we wanted to go home first. In retrospect, I can see why he didn't want to go home right away; it was about an hour drive home from the city, and then we had to drive back into town for the wedding.
Spending time with Ivy's family made me appreciate my family even more. It is amazing to see what kind of peace and harmony the g0spel brings to a home. In China, where the whole country seems to be very family-oriented, it is kind of surprising for me to learn that many families often don't get along very well. To be sure, the family still loves each other, but not without some major issues. Allow me to use Ivy's family to illustrate.
Ivy's parents are convinced he has some problems with his character. I suppose that's true enough. He is 21, did not attend high school (but in China, you are only required to go to school through junior high school; Ivy tells me he didn't go to senior high school because he didn't work hard enough in school), and he has no job. He lives with his parents and whiles away much of his time, it seems, in front of the computer or in front of the TV. He seems to keep bad company as well, and he confessed to having three girlfriends at the same time last year while we were there. Ivy's parents are convinced that the way to fix him is to get him married, because somehow that will give him purpose and direction in life. At 21 in China, he is, however, too young to legally marry. (Men may marry at 22, and women at 20.) While I was there, they used a matchmaker to set up a potential girlfriend for him. They invited the girl's whole family and spent lavishly on the feast they prepared. They wanted the girl and her family to think that they are very well off and can provide a good life for her. Unfortunately, I think they pressed the issue to much. Ivy's father even said something to the effect of that they should wait as little as possible to get married for such and such a reason. I think he said some things to that effect that would have made me quite uncomfortable. Ivy told me after our meal that there was maybe a 20 percent chance that the girl would date her brother. It doesn't look very promising.
Similarly, Ivy's mother seems to be overly critical. When she gets into the wrong mood, she says some downright mean things to her children. While we were preparing the meal for her son's potential match, she was very rude to Ivy. She essentially said that it's Ivy's fault that her brother isn't married already (which, as I said before, isn't even legal) and that she should have brought one of her students home to date her brother. She essentially blamed Ivy for her brother's every shortcoming, claiming she didn't do a good job of raising her younger brother, as though it were Ivy's responsibility. She said many such things, some of which I don't remember, others I don't want to remember, and still others that Ivy never translated. She also told he son that, if a man isn't married, he has nothing to live for and can't save up his money. It became very obvious during my stay that Ivy's parents are both uneducated and have lived in the country their whole lives.
Her father is famous for being stubborn. He is full-fledged devoted to communism, taught by the propaganda of television. He told us one night that he believes in science. We didn't really follow him up with that.
The epitome of their family's disunity came to me one night after we had been out. Ivy's father and brother were out studying to get their driver's license, and Ivy and I were visiting one of her former English teachers. Ivy's mom stayed at home because she has certain health issues, and someone needs to make sure no one steals from their family farm. Ivy's father and brother met up with the rest of us for dinner, and the men were drinking baijiu (a strong kind of alcohol similar to everclear). I had one cup, and Ivy's father told her brother to stop drinking after one as well, but he didn't. On the car ride home, Ivy's father was very angry at her brother for drinking so much. Mostly, I think he was just angry because he lost face in front of others. We gave her brother some advice, and afterwards he complained he couldn't do anything right. He ended up telling us that he went to a fortune teller who said he and his father have an incompatible spirit and are destined to argue forever (which I said is a self-fulfilling prophecy). When we arrived home, Ivy's father was still angry, and a fight erupted in her family. Her father kept blaming his wife and his son for him being such a bad son. Her brother blamed his father, and her mother blamed her husband as well. Everyone was pointing fingers at everyone else. I asked everyone to calm down, as no constructive talking can come while everyone is angry at each other. I don't know that my words had any effect, either, but I told everyone that they all needed to admit that they had done something wrong. The words I gave for everyone to say were, "I'm sorry; I was wrong." After all, everyone was just blaming everyone else and too proud to admit they could have done anything wrong. Ivy said the words, but no one else did. I was about ready to say them myself, at the rate things were going, just to give an example and make peace in the house. We did sit Ivy's brother down and talk to him one-on-one (on one, if you add that I was in there, but I didn't really say anything because, of course, all the talking was in Chinese). To me, this whole story really tells me what a difference growing up in a good, Chr*stian home has made in my life. Thanks, Mom and Dad.
Ivy's family is not entirely bad, though, and I don't write here so that I can simply make their names worse. Although they have their flaws, each one of them has admirable qualities, too. Ivy's mother loves little children (and after being forced to abort several of her children because of China's One Child Policy, it's easy to imagine that she might have some psychological damage). She is very funny at times, and does on occasion act just like a young girl. She almost never stops cleaning the house, which isn't really all that big. We had to beg her to take a break, sometimes. Ivy's father is a very hardworking man. He brought his family to Xinjiang because there were no real opportunities in their ancestral home in Sichuan (that's Szechuan at the American Chinese places), so he moved them for the chance at a better life. After visiting Sichuan last year, I very much admire how much he has improved his family's fortunes. He seems to have single-handedly moved his family from lower to middle class. He makes a little more money than I do in China, which is a modest salary, but living expenses seem generally a little lower in Xinjiang. Furthermore, I can tell that, although they aren't perfect, Ivy's parents are deeply concerned about their children. They maybe don't always know how to show their care, but they do care very much.
Ivy's brother has his own better qualities. He was more willing to listen to my advice about his family, it seems, simply because I provide a fresh, outsider's opinion. He is a very handsome young man, a gifted cook, a talented singer, and I'm sure many other things as well. He is only 21, and he still needs to finish growing up, though.
I also had the opportunity to meet many of Ivy's friends in Xinjiang, and most of them were very polite to me, but mostly I am impressed with the quality of friends she has. They are all very nice people, I think. The father of one of her classmates gave me my first Kung Fu lesson, and showed me his father's piloting cap, which his father used in the Korean War against the U.S. We found some of her friends are Chr*stian, and we ran into two different house ch-rches in Korla, which is impressive because it's already a small city. I personally instructed and washed two of her friends during my time there. Even the friends who kind of put me off did it, I believe, because they are worried about Ivy being in a relationship with a foreigner. Many of them were surprised to learn that I am actually quite conservative (because from Hollywood pretty much all of China thinks America is liberal). I know I'll have to go back to Xinjiang and see her friends again, even if it is rather costly. We spent over $2000 U.S. in less than two weeks!
Now the news everyone is waiting for: I asked Ivy's parents for their permission to let me marry Ivy. It was especially a big deal for me because I asked them in Chinese from a memorized script my Chinese teacher helped me write out. They told me that they have a good impression of me after my time together with them and believe me to be a hard worker (although her father thinks it's foolish that I spend so much money on travel). They consented, and told me that they will not interfere in our marriage as long as we build a better life together. That's my most exciting news probably this semester.
Later today I am heading off to travel. David and I are taking a train to Hong Kong, and from there we will fly to Kuala Lumpur and from Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu. In Nepal, we will hike to an area where we can see Mount Everest. It will be cold and probably a difficult hike at that elevation, but hopefully I'll make it through okay. After our stay in Nepal we will return to Kuala Lumpur and meet up with Ivy for our travels in Malaysia. We'll have a chance to relax on the beach for a little while, and then we return to Hong Kong for the FoC retreat. After that, it will be just about time to start the second semester.
I apologize yet again for the length of my posts, and also for the lack of pictures. I'll have to post them on Facebook when I get around to it. Please pr@y for me during my travels not only that I would stay safe, but also that He would give me wisdom. When March 1 rolls around, I have to decide whether or not I will return for a third year, and this year it isn't so easy for me to decide. What's more, this time there may be another option. I have learned a little information about ALSS accepting two American students in the fall of 2015 (so not next year, but the year after), and there is a chance that I could be one of those students if the L0rd sees fit. That means if I return next year, it could ultimately be not a one-year, but a five-year commitment. Please pr@y that G0d would give me insight into which road is most pleasing to Him and best for me.
Pr@y also for a Chr*stian China, and for the Ch*rch in China. My pr@yers go out for all of you. The peace of the L0rd Jes-s be with your sp*rit.
