Visiting our Teachers

After spending a week settling in our new home and city, we decided to get out and start visiting our new teachers. This year our team has 27 people, made up of 24 adults and 3 kids (our family included). We are blown away by how Father has grown this team. Obviously, He must like the work that is being done, because He is allowing it to grow in His time. Adam and I are just so thankful for this work he has given us. We feel very humbled and give Him all the praise and glory. We never want to claim this organization as our own, but we always want to rely on Him for everything!

August 16-18 was training for our team in Spring Arbor, MI. It was an amazing time packed full of learning and the beginnings of team bonding! Our group already has a great dynamic that I know will only grow. This year our team is divided into three groups. The first group teaches in the city of Wuhan in the district called Wuchang. We have 6 teachers at a high school and then our family. The next group is also in the city of Wuhan but in the district called Hanyang. We have 7 teachers at a university, but only 6 of them teach there. The seventh is the wife of one of the teachers and she plans to volunteer at the International School that is next door to the university and teach private violin lessons and do private English tutoring. Also in Hanyang, about a mile away, is a family with a jr. high aged boy. They teach at a Jr. high school. The third group on our team is in the smaller city of Huangshi which is an hour away. That's where Adam and I used to live. Our 7 teachers in Huangshi are divided up, teaching at 2 different high schools and 2 different Jr. high schools.

So like I said, Thursday our family went to visit the teachers in Hanyang, a 35-minute taxi ride from our home. The teachers at the University all live in the same apt. building so we went from apt. to apt. visiting the different teachers. We heard stories about their first classes, struggles about finding food to eat, adventures of shopping and transportation, and more. It was encouraging to see their smiling faces and hear their positive attitudes. It really is a huge transition to move to China from the USA but they're all making the transition beautifully! We ate lunch at the Aloha Diner which is an American owned restaurant in that part of the city. Adam was especially excited to eat there since he missed out on all the good American food this summer, and it was wonderful to catch up with our good friends who own the restaurant. We spent the evening with the family that teaches at the jr. high school in Hanyang. They're in a new school, so whenever our organization starts a relationship with a new school there are always more bumps in the road, so Adam and I are really thankful for Paul, Jacqueline, and Beau who are doing a fabulous job navigating this new school. If you could, please lift up this family for all that they're going through. They have the right outlook and are doing so well, but we just are prying for some things to be smoothed out for them in their situation. You can also lift up Beau - as an (almost) 14-year-old teenager, you can imagine the transition of moving around the world would be a big one. Thankfully, he is attending the International School and there is also a Foreign Fellowship with a youth group that he'll be able to attend, so we pry these different things can help in easing the big transition.

Friday through Sunday, we then went to visit the team in Huangshi. Do you remember Jessica? For a reminder, she was our boss at our high school last year in Huangshi. We've known her since our first time in China in 2004, so she is also our best friend. Her husband's English name is Franklin and their daughter is called Rui Rui (Ray Ray), who is Sophia's best friend. Thankfully, Jessica had business in Wuhan, so Franklin drove her here then they picked us up and let us ride back with them to Huangshi on Friday evening. Adam picked up two Papa Johns pizzas (mmm) and we took them with us and then had two of our new teachers come to Jessica's house to eat with us. Their names are Paul and Erin Korson and they're the new teachers at No. 3 high school which is where we taught last year, so they're living in our old apartment. The pizza and fellowship was great, and the little girls were happy to be together again. Elise loves to say "Rui Rui, Rui Rui" over and over. It's cute. She can also say a version of "Franklin" that is pretty cute too. We slept in Jessica's home and that's where we'll stay whenever we visit Huangshi. Over the years we've spent a lot of time with their family and traveled a lot together so it's very natural and comfortable to stay in their home.

On Saturday morning Adam and 5 of the 7 teachers in Huangshi went to the apartment of 2 more of our new teachers who haven't arrived yet. One of the girl's sister was getting married Sept. 3 so they had to come later. These two girls are also in a school that is new to Zhong Relations, so this school hasn't learned yet about our standards. Basically we feel that if the school can do a great job providing a nice home and welcoming our teachers, our teachers will be able to transition much easier and quickly and then be able to excel more in the classroom and in relationships. We've seen it work well this way with many of our other schools, so it just takes patience all around as we learn to work together to give and take and help everyone feel welcome and at ease. So unfortunately, even though the girls apartment had been "prepared" it was definitely below our standards of cleanliness, and since the girls are getting such a late start on the year, we wanted to help them out with their apartment, so the team went to do a deep cleaning on their place. Adam said it went so well and that he was so proud of the Huangshi team for how they got in their and scrubbed and had great attitudes and hung up welcome signs and did things to really welcome the girls. I stayed back to keep the three girls. We then spent the afternoon and evening together doing various activities like lunch, hair cuts, massages, manicures, dinner, and Fellowship together. Adam and I were really encouraged by this great team. We know they'll do a dynamic job in their work and relational ministry this year. We're all just very excited for the final two members to arrive! Sunday we all went to the local park, which is really beautiful. The kids rode some fair rides, the teachers and some of Adam's and my old students/good Chinese friends did boat rides. It was fun to introduce some of our favorite friends to our new teachers. They were three boys - Lollipop, Declan, and Huang Si Yuan (he doesn't have an English name). Last we enjoyed an amazing home cooked Chinese meal by Franklin along with the Korsons, then we headed home to Wuhan with our favorite driver that we like to hire, driver Deng.

Being back in Huangshi was very sweet because we love that city so much. However, I know I need to open my heart now to Wuhan and this new apartment community where we live. I really appreciated Paul and Erin Korson and how they were patient with me as I probably talked about their apartment a little too much. (; However, when we met in their apartment for Fellowship on Saturday night, it really felt like THEIR home, NOT mine. And that was a really good feeling for me. I was thankful for that chance to see it and sort of say goodbye because when I left China Adam was still living there with all our stuff and then when we came back we were in a new apartment, so I think it was healthy and necessary for me to see the place, see the neighborhood and sort of say goodbye in my heart. On a cool point, the school remodeled the bathroom and kitchen in their apartment so we're thrilled for them. We know Paul and Erin are going to be excellent teachers and friends for No. 3.

Well, I hope you've sort of been able to follow all that I wrote. Sometimes I feel like our life here is a world away from our life in America. So I really hope you can feel connected to us and understand a little more about what we do here. Thanks for thinking of us!!

Next blog you'll get to hear about Sophia and Adam's first day of school.