Sunday Thoughts August 31st, 2008

“If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”

Nobody “forced” us to come to China, but here we are, excited to see how we will be used in our second year! We returned to China this week and have been slowly recovering the jet-lag.


Why we are grateful this week:

1) Our flight went well; there were no delays and no problems! We left Washington DC around noon on Wednesday, and four movies & a book later we landed in Beijing.

2) After a summer of visiting friends and family, we were finally able to unpack for the first time in two and a half months!

3) The sophomores, juniors, and seniors arrive today!

Please continue to “think” about us:

1) Peter and I will be spending at least three days a week on the Western Campus. Please keep us in your thoughts as we travel to and from the other campus.

2) Our class schedules are set for the semester, but we need to arrange our schedule for visits to the Philip Hayden Foundation, and English Clubs on the Western Campus.

3) We are also considering the possibility of arranging an English Club on our main Campus. There are already few student-run English Clubs, and we would not want to create a sense of competition between theirs and ours. We are also worried about spreading ourselves too thin by adding another Club to our schedules.

4) Peter and Shannon Lucas-Roberts will rejoin our team at the end of this week. They are returning a week late because they are presently on their honeymoon.

5) IECS teachers will be in four colleges this year: Will & Courtney Corder will be in Tianjin, and Amelia Martin, Emily Green, Ryan Bettwy, Tim Phillips, & Jon Allison will be in Baoding. They are all first year teachers in China, and they will be arriving within the next two weeks.

Going the second mile and loving it,
Brad & Jessica Distad

August 17, 2008: Home Sweet Home

"This world is not my home, I'm just passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue...
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore."

This World is Not My Home, Words and Music by Albert E. Brumley 1965

Dear Friends,

In many ways the past summer "vacation" has been one the most difficult I have experienced. I have truly felt the reality of the phrase, "this world is not my home." There are many definitions of "home," but with every new and temporary experience, I longed more for my eternal home.

Returning "home" from China was in itself a contradiction. Our home in Hagerstown is rented out to a lovely woman and her three children, so we could not return to that home. Instead we stayed with my parents for couple days, before heading to Virginia and then Pennsylvania. During the month of July we lived at Brad's parents house for five weeks, working at Brad's old summer job teaching swimming lessons. Just as I was beginning to get the hang of things, August hit in all its fury. In three weeks we were in Washington DC, Ocean City Maryland, Durant Iowa, Chicago Illinois, Grand Rapids Michigan, Thurmont Maryland, Hagerstown Maryland, Ellicott City Maryland, and Chantilly Virginia. It is hard to believe that in one more week we will be headed "home" to China again.

The constant traveling and time with friends and family has been both a joy and a challenge. Through it all, I must continue to remind myself that "this world is not my home." Despite any preconcieved notions of what "home" really is, I must remember that my father has for me an eternal inheritance and a home that cannot be destroyed. I can rest easy knowing that he has made a time for everything in his plan, and right now his plan is that I be "home-less." If "home is where the heart is," then I know that I was made for another world, and an eternal home.

Love,
Jessie and Brad

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
-- C.S. Lewis