Sunday Thoughts: April 27, 2008

We have been in China for exactly 8 months today, and I am still amazed to be here! It has been a great year, and it has also been a constant lesson in “learning to let go.”

This "letting go" process started last year with the letting go of our possessions, but recently I’ve been learning to give up my life in more difficult ways. It’s easy to humble myself when it is a benefit, but it is much more difficult to humble myself when there is no reward. More specifically, it is not easy to “let go” of my pride, but as it slips from my clutches, I am finding that it is being replaced with Grace, for which I am not worthy.

We have also been studying what it means to “open our hands” as we let go of our lives. When we “open our hands” our Father tenderly removes the things we think we need in order to make room for those things that we actually need!

Why are we grateful this week?

1) The week 10 evaluation seemed to go well. I’m sure we will hear the final results this week, but from what we saw, there were no problems.

2) Jess’ parents and younger brother will be arriving in China on Thursday, and we will spend our May holiday with them.

3) We had three outdoor English Clubs, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night last week. All three went well, and other then a little wind on Tuesday the weather was not a problem.

4) Tony surprised us by visiting on Wednesday. We spent the day together, and had dinner with students after our English Club. It was a great surprise and encouragement!

5) Jess and I made it to Beijing and back on Saturday for an English Club with Tony and Lily. It was a crazy day, but the Club went well.

Please continue to “think” about us.

1) We will be making at least two more trips to the Philip Hayden Foundation before the end of the year. Please remember these children in your thoughts. These really have been great day trips for us, and our students. We are hoping to continue this next year.

2) Unfortunately, our digital camera was broken earlier this month, and it cannot be fixed properly. I was able to patch the problem with an exacto-knife and tape, so if we are lucky it will last until this summer. We would like to continue to share our adventures with everybody back home.

3) The month of May is upon us and that means there will be many English Weeks at various colleges. The different groups have finished their training and are preparing to come to China for two weeks. Please remember these teams in your thoughts. Also, remember Newt and Tony as they spend over a month traveling from college to college organizing these weeks.

4) As many of you know Lily, is pregnant. She has been doing well, but please keep her in your thoughts. Tony and Lily will be apart for most of the month because of the various English weeks.

5) As I mentioned earlier, Jess’ family will be visiting this week. Please remember their travels in your thoughts.

Thank you,
Brad & Jess

As We Disappear

I want to hide in you…So I can disappear and love is all there is to see coming out of me, and you become clear as I disappear. Bebo Norman: Disappear


Dear friends,
The past few weeks have been busy with the daily life of living and teaching in China. It is difficult to believe that we have been in China for almost 8 months, and that we will be home in less than 2 months! Each week is full of English classes and English clubs, lesson planning and summer planning and wedding planning, marathon training, dinners with kids, lunches with kids, meetings with kids, sports with kids, movies with kids, and going to the orphanage with kids. All of it keeps us on our toes! I’ll just pick out a few events for your reading pleasure:

Mark Ashbaugh’s visit (April 3-5): Mark came to visit us from Qinhuangdao (3+ hours by train) and brought a lot of encouragement and humor to the team! Mark joined us for dinner with kids, some serious ‘thinking,’ and a rousing game of Sucketash. We were sad to see him leave again on Saturday morning, but glad for the joy he brought to our team even for a short time!

Couples Night (April 10): 5 couples made Couples Night a great success! Brad & I, Peter & Shannon, Forrest & Vivian, Allie & Allen, and Bruno & Vivian enjoyed a lot of great food, and great questions about life.

Outdoor Games: The weather this week was warm (70-85 degrees F) and beautiful so we did a lot of games outdoors. I took my classes outside to play “Signs” as we studied American body language. Brad and Peter played basketball and soccer with the guys, and Shannon and I taught Frisbee to the girls and some children who joined us. Vivian and Bruno came to the orphanage with us, where the nannies took the children outside to play in the sunshine. Brad and I strolled around the campus after dark, eating ice cream and talking about life.

The Great Bicycle Adventure (April 19): Peter had a problem. He had a bicycle in Beijing, but was now living in Langfang. Trains and taxis discourage the transportation of large items like a bicycle, so after some speculation, Peter decided to ride his bicycle from Beijing to Langfang (usually 1 hour by train). After checking out the route and borrowing a helmet, Peter safely traveled 4.5 hours yesterday morning to bring his bicycle to his new home!

Wedding Dress Shopping (April 19): Shannon also had a problem. She is getting married in August and needed a wedding dress. Not wanting to wait until the last minute for this important item, Shannon had scouted out dresses on the Internet, and her twin sister Emily was going to fittings in the U.S. to try on dresses. Shannon didn’t want to miss out on this exciting experience herself, so Lily Zhang and I joined her for a day of wedding dress shopping at Beijing’s Camera City (of all places!) After a 90 minute trip to the store, we spent 2 hours looking at every shape and style of dress, and Shannon tried on her favorites. We decided to take a break for lunch to reevaluate. After some serious contemplation of the various styles and choices, we did some serious ‘thinking.’ Then we went back into the store to look one last time. On a rack we’d overlooked earlier, we found Shannon’s wedding dress. As she spun in front of the mirror, we all agreed that it was exactly what she was looking for in a gown! The girls measured Shannon and took notes on a few adjustments, and then Shannon made the down payment on the dress, which she will be able to pick up in one month. In addition to the blessing of finding her gown, it was far more affordable then any comparable gown in the U.S!

Gift Giving: We have been so blessed by the love and generosity of our friends lately! Every e-mail or snail mail encourages us with your thoughtfulness. Our Chinese friends are also so generous, often giving us much out of the little that they have. Joseph gives us American television shows and movies (on his thumb drive), Danial brought us chestnuts from her hometown, and Cassie brought us a small goldfish! Tony and Lily give us so much of their time and welcome us into their home, allowing us to sleep on their foldaway bed whenever we visit, feeding us delicious meals, and showing us around Beijing. The warmth and generosity of the Chinese people is something I hope that I can imitate for the rest of my life.

It might be easy to believe that we are too busy for rest here in China, but we’ve found that the opposite is actually true. We live very full days, but we also fall into bed early with exhaustion from our life abundant. Our daily mornings spent in quiet reflection, and our Sundays spent in rest and refreshment are nourishing to our souls. In such a close living and working atmosphere, we grow together, intentionally sharing life and love with one another and with our students. We are daily reminded that in order to bring clarity…we must disappear. In order to reveal…we must be concealed.

Thank you so much for supporting us in our work here, for loving us from the other side of the planet. We look forward with joy to seeing you again soon, so that we can tell you in so much more detail the wonders witnessed and the lessons learned during our time in China.

Disappearing,
Jessie and Brad

On a day like this I want to crawl beneath a rock, a million miles from the world, the noise, the commotion that never seems to stop.

And on a day like this I want to run away from the routine, run away from the daily grind that can suck the life right out of me. I only know of one place I can run to.

I don't want to care about earthly things, be caught up in all the lies that trick my eyes. They say it's all about me, I'm so tired of it being about me.

I want to hide in you…So I can disappear and love is all there is to see coming out of me, and you become clear as I disappear. Bebo Norman: Disappear

Sunday Thoughts April 20, 2008

It has been another great week in China. It is a rainy spring Sunday afternoon, and we are enjoying the down time as we sip our warm cups of coffee. After a busy week, it doesn’t get much better than this!

We have many reasons why we are thankful this week:

1) Jess and Lily went wedding dress shopping with Shannon on Saturday and found the perfect dress at a great price. It was a great day for the girls!

2) Peter retrieved his bike from Beijing on Saturday, and since he couldn’t take it on a train, he decided to ride from Beijing to Langfang. He completed the almost five hour ride without a problem.

3) I remained in Langfang on Saturday and enjoyed a quiet & productive day. At about 7pm, a student visited me and we had a great conversation about life for about an hour and a half.

4) On Friday afternoon, Jess had lunch with one of her students and was able to share some important life lessons as well. This semester has provided many opportunities to share our lives with students, as our friendships grow deeper.

5) Jess’ parents and younger brother will be here to visit in less then two weeks! They will be here from May 1st to the 10th.

Things to continue thinking about:

1) The national evaluation of our college starts today. This happens once every four years, and all of the college officials have been very nervous about this since last September. We however, have been very excited about the improvements around the campus as they prepare for this week. Our main concern is that the experts’ evaluation could have an effect on our May English Week.

2) We have been asked to run four outdoor English Clubs this week for the evaluation. This is another great opportunity for us to share our lives and talents with many students. Unfortunately, one of these Clubs has already been canceled due to rain. The forecast calls for rain again tomorrow, but then clear skies for the rest of the week.

3) With a week and a half to go before our Spring Break the officials have decided to change the master schedule so that we will have a five-day holiday instead of the original 11 days that we thought we would get. As frustrating as it can be, we have come to expect these kinds of schedule changes. However, this will have other repercussions. First, we are not sure how this will affect our plans with Jess’ family. We are hoping that we can still miss our classes that week since we have already planed to be on holiday and scheduled our classes accordingly. Second, this will mean that the final exam week will come earlier, and it is possible that they will not want us to have our May English Week so close to finals. Finally, we are also not sure if this will affect our departure dates in June.

4) Please continue to think about our May English Week and the team that will be here. They have just completed their training time in the United States.

5) All four of us are planing to return next year, but we are trying to work out the best possible return dates. As you have probably already noticed, scheduling isn’t always easy here. Everything is flexible, which is difficult to work with when weddings, jobs, Olympic games, and plane tickets are involved. We have heard rumblings that classes could be delayed because of the Olympics, but it is possible that we would not know for sure until the end of next August. Jess and I will probably return after Shannon and Peter’s wedding, and then, Peter and Shannon will arrive a couple weeks later.

6) Next year we will be adding a member to our team, Jess Shamblee. Yes, that is correct, we will have two Jessica’s! Officially, it will be just two short of a plethora! Hopefully, she will be here in May with the English Week team, and we can’t wait to meet her for the first time.

Thank you for your thoughts,
Brad & Jess

Sunday Thoughts April 13, 2008

What a crazy week: English Clubs in Beijing & on the Western Campus, Movie Night, the Philip Hayden Foundation, Couples Night, and the blur of another exciting week in China!

Wow! It’s been a busy week, and as I slump down in the chair at the computer on this Sunday afternoon, I find it difficult to remember all of the details of the past week. It really has been as blessed week, and we have witnessed his faithfulness in many ways. Thank you for your thoughts!

We have many reasons why we are thankful this week:

1. It’s obviously Spring! Many of our students are starting to find boyfriends and girlfriends. We used this as an opportunity to have a Couples Night with students. The four of us went to dinner with three student couples, and it was a blast! We discussed our dream jobs and our favorite moments of the week.

2. All four of us went to the Western Campus on Friday night for an English Club and it went really well. Shannon and Peter went to Beijing on Saturday for another English Club and it also went well. If you are interested, I’ve already posted the pictures on facebook.

3. On the way to the Western Campus Peter, Shannon, and Jess just happened to run into a couple of our students. They had other plans, but they decided to change their plans so that they could go across town to the other campus for English Club. It was a great opportunity to share our lives with them during the evening. You can also find these pictures on facebook.

4. Jess and I took two students to the Philip Hayden Foundation on Saturday afternoon, and, as always, the visit had a tremendous impact on our friends. It is amazing how one visit to an orphanage can spark so many great conversations. We also ran into some like-minded American friends who were visiting PHF, which was an unexpected blessing. It’s always nice to talk to other Americans once in a while; I suppose that’s something we took for granted before this year.

5. On Saturday night, Jess and I hosted another movie night in the English building. Over 100 students came to see Cinderella Man, and they loved the movie. The next official movie night is on June 7th.

6. Everything should be set for our return home on Thursday, June 12th. We should be in Maryland just long enough to get a good night sleep, and then get on a bus with 40 high school students heading to Virginia. We are very excited to have the opportunity to spend the first week of our summer with many of the American students that we have worked with in the previous four years.

Things to continue thinking about:

1. English Week from May 22 to June 1

2. We are starting week 9 of the semester, and week 10 is the all important evaluation week for the college. If for some reason this week doesn’t go well, it could affect our English Week.

3. Our time with students outside of class

4. Peter and Shannon’s wedding plans

5. Please continue to remember our families in America who are struggling with illnesses.

Thank you for your thoughts,
Brad & Jess

Sunday Thoughts April 6, 2008

This week, on Sunday morning, we talked about some of our favorite books and some of the more meaningful passages in these books. We also shared some of our personal “life principles” that are based on these passages. It was a great time to reconnect with our team and remember who we are working for.


Things be thankful for this week:

1. All of us have had meaningful conversations with students in the past couple weeks. It has been very exciting to see the fruit of our labor as many students start to trust us with some of the deeper issues of their lives.
2. Our departure dates are set, and we should be home by Mid-June!
3. Peter and Shannon have been wedding planning, and everything seems to be falling into place. The college has even given them permission to arrive two weeks late next September as they honeymoon.
4. Classes were canceled on Friday due to a Chinese holiday, and we spent the day running errands with students.
5. Mark Ashbaugh came from Qinhuangdao to visit us during the holiday weekend, and that was a huge encouragement.

Things to continue thinking about:

1. The continuing wedding plans for Peter and Shannon as well as their marriage
2. Our one-on-one time with students
3. English Week from May 22 to June 1st
4. English Club on the Western Campus, April 11th
5. Please continue to remember Mary Link and her family.
6. Please continue to remember my parents. They are currently apart because my mom is taking care of my Grandfather in Iowa as he goes through chemotherapy, and my father is home in Maryland.