Sunday Thoughts: May 10th, 2009

“Where the Spirit of the Father is, there is freedom”

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

“It is for freedom that the Son has set us free.”

What is freedom? The past two years have given me a new appreciation for freedom, but not in a way that I ever expected. I thought I had sacrificed my freedom two years ago, but I have come to realize that freedom is not something that we can attain or forfeit. As “children of a loving Father,” our freedom is determined by him, not ourselves! If the Son has set us free then we are free indeed! Free to enjoy traditions, but not be bound by them, free to adhere to the Law, but not be saved by it, and free to live the abundant life that he has designed for us! We are free,...free to follow the Father because he first loved us.

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

“We love because he first loved us”

We are grateful this week:

1. Newt and Tony arrived on Thursday to start preparing for the upcoming English weeks. All of us went to dinner, discussed the latest news from back home, and both left early the next morning.

2. Yesterday, we visited the Philip Hayden Foundation for the final time this year. We have been trying to visit the children about once a month, and it was sad to realize that Jessie and I might not ever again have the privileged of playing with these children. In the past two years the children at the Philip Hayden Foundation have been more of a blessing for us than we could have ever imagined. For more information on the Philip Hayden Foundation, please visit: http://www.ChinaOrphans.org, or http://youtube.com/chinaorphans
3. On Tuesday night we invited about 7 of our students over for an American “Home-Style” dinner. It was a fun evening! Shannon and Shamble prepared the BBQ chicken, Jessie made the mashed potatoes, and I moved everything out of our living room so we could fit everybody around one table.

Please think about us:

1. Tomorrow, we have been invited to a student-run “English Association” meeting. They have asked Jessie & I to give a speech. They have also asked Shannon & I to play a song or two.

2. During the third week in May we will have our annual English Week! About 13 teachers will come from the States, led by Newt and Claire Hetrick. We are very excited about English Week! As of right now, the biggest concern is that the local officials will still allow the trip. There has been a great deal of concern over the Swine Flu, but that concern seems to be subsiding.

3. Our next baby appointment is this Tuesday in Beijing. It is hard to believe this is going so quickly! We have less than two months left before Naomi Faith Distad is born!

Living outside the boat,
Brad

May 10, 2009: A Bittersweet Symphony

Hi Everyone!

It is time once again for our update letter! The month of April, and now May also, has flown by with incredible speed. I can't believe that Brad and I will be flying home in 18 days! My heart is constantly in conflict at our departure—delight in seeing our families and friends and homeland again, anxiety and excitement as we anticipate a baby and an unknown future, and sadness in leaving our life here in China. In many ways we can't wait to leave, yet in many ways we wish we could stay. We've made so many sweet memories even in the last six weeks. Here are a few of our favorites:

Exercise: Peter and Brad spent Monday mornings running together, and Shannon and Shamblee also ran together often. In an effort to find some form of exercise I could still do with my new figure and to spend some quality time with Brad, I began walking. I walk about five laps around the track with Brad while he runs about twelve. Four or five days a week, it has become a great reason to get out of the apartment in the hot sunshine and see the campus and students.

Baby Preparations: I continue to steadily gain weight and girth as Naomi grows inside of me. The doctor tells me she is in a great position with her head straight down and her feet kicking the top of my belly. It's been fun reading baby books and magazines and registering at Babies R Us, Walmart, and Target. I've researched everything from birth options to cloth diapers to cribs. Shannon and Jessica Shamblee threw me a fantastic surprise Baby Shower on April 11 (which I wrote about in an earlier note) that really got me psyched about our new arrival!

Playing with Kids: Jane asked me to teach her how to French braid her hair like mine, and Brad taught O.K., Forrest, and Melody to play Settlers (but I won the game!) Brad played basketball with the guys and I hosted Easter Egg dyeing and decorating in two of my classes. I taught a lesson on Love and a lesson on Sacrifice, and had at least three different students ask me to teach them how to write in cursive. Danielle and I met most weeks to create art together, Cassie and I studied and watched movies together, Gracie and Apple joined us for a visit to the orphanage, and Sky and Angie joined our team for dinner in the students' dining hall. This week the team hosted an “American Homestyle Dinner” complete with barbecue chicken, green beans, carrots, watermelon, cornbread, brownies, and chocolate chip cookies. We had a great time catching up with Laura, Felix, Jane, Victory, and Victor over a delicious meal!

Team Fun: Shannon, Jess, and I finished watching Beth Moore together, but continued our weekly lunch meetings. Jess served Brad and me her delicious veggie burgers one night, and Peter joined us in watching “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” As a team we hosted our last two English Clubs (one on each campus), and Brad and Shannon hosted a very special guitar concert covering some of their favorite songs as well as some they wrote themselves. Last weekend Brad recruited Shamblee and me to help him make a music video Dr. Hook's, “Sylvia's Mother.” This latest creation using his new Vegas video-editing softward (a gift from his best friend), is his most professional yet. The results will be posted on Youtube and Facebook when we get home at the end of the month. I joined Brad in becoming a vegetarian for a month, and enjoyed the challenge of learning to cook vegetarian meals for the two of us.

Easter: Easter was a great time of fellowship with our friends from Baoding (Tim, Ryan, John, Amelia, Emily), Tianjin (Wil, Courtney), Qinghuangdao (Andy), and Melissa (America). While the girls threw me a surprise Baby Shower (also including our students Danielle, Cassie, and Sunshine), the guys played basketball (also with a large group of students) on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday morning we had a big American breakfast together, and then Jess and Shannon led our very large Sunday meeting. Afterward, we headed to the tropical greenhouse Jade Harbor restaurant for a very special Easter lunch. It was difficult to say goodbye, knowing it was probably the last time the IECS Team 2008/2009 would be together.

North Face 100K: On April 25, we had a great adventure with most of the IECS team! Brad competed in the North Face 40K, while Peter, Wan Li (Peter's Friend, a PE student), Shannon, Jess, Amelia, Ryan, Courtney, and Wil competed in the North Face 10K. Wan Li and Peter were thrilled to bring home fourth and fifth place out of 2,600 10K racers. For all but Brad, Peter, and Wan Li, it was their first 10K ever and they did great! I brought Cassie along for the overnight weekend event, and we had a great time cheering on the runners as they began and finished the race with excellence. Each runner had an adventure, and some saw miracles! Brad managed to step on a sharp stick at 8K that pierced his shoe from sole to shoelaces, narrowly missing his foot by snaking between his toes. It is incredible to think that even a slight variation could have left him with a bloody hole in his foot to nurse on the side of the mountain he was climbing.

Family: It's been an eventful month for our families at home as well. My Dad (Jeff Head) spent eight weeks in excruciating pain due to a herniated disc in his back. He slept very little and was able to work less and less. After seeing his doctor, then a back specialist, and finally a neurosurgeon, he underwent major back surgery in Baltimore on April 16. The four hour surgery was very successful, and he awoke pain-free. Last week he went back to work part-time, and this week he returned to work full-time. In the meantime, Brad's parents (Bonnie and Ed) were in Iowa from April 2-16 while they helped Bonnie's father to begin preparations for leaving the family home to move to Maryland where Bonnie and Ed can care for him. The packing, selling, auctioning, and moving will continue through most of the summer months. Finally, my sister Kristy surprised everyone by accepting a job for next year teaching music in the little one-horse town of Sublette, Kansas. From April 4-6 they all but rolled out the red carpet for her, by flying her out to Kansas, giving her a tour of the town and school, arranging some apartments for her perusal, and performing a concert during her visit.

Job Update: Finally, as many of you know, Brad and I will not be returning to China in the Fall of 2009. During the winter and spring Newt has continuously advocated for us in the East Coast regions including Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. After numerous inquiries, it appeared that New Jersey and Maryland were the most promising. So Brad and I were very pleased this past week when Brad was invited to interview for a position in Maryland during the first week of June. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts as he interviews for this position, and we make decisions about the future of our family. Most of our plans for the summer and beyond are still up in the air, so we deeply appreciate your thoughts and encouragement through the waiting.

As Brad and I look forward to coming home in 18 days, and having a baby in about 51 days, we cannot imagine how we could have come so far in the past two years without the Father's provision, your thoughts, and your support. Thank you for your unfailing encouragement and kindness. You have brought home to us in a foreign country and lessened the distance with your love.

Love Always,
Jessie, Brad, and Naomi

May 6, 2009: Lessons Learned

Dear Friends,

As Brad and I began giving exams this week, I had more than one person ask me to reflect on what I've been learning recently. It has been hard to sum up the dozens of rambling thoughts in my mind confounded by pregnancy hormones and lack of sleep (the lack being due to pregnancy and 4:30am sunshine). But I have been thinking a lot about this lately as our two years in China draw to a close. I mean, what was it all for? Did we accomplish what we set out to do? Were we successful? Did we make good use of our time?

I've learned a lot of great lessons in the last few months from my friends here in China. I continue to daily learn from my husband, Brad. I'm learning from him that it's okay to look silly in photos, and even to encourage it! I'm learning to imitate his humor and passion for life and to seek that in my own life. And I'm learning from him not to give in or back down on matters of principle, to be a woman of my word, and follow through even when it means not being “nice” now and then. From my friend Cassie Huo, I am learning the joy of being around someone who daily overflows with optimism, enthusiasm, and joy. Her hugs are the envy of our team, and everywhere we go together she makes friends...including taxi drivers, random co-travelers, students, officials, children, and the elderly. My friend Danielle often teaches me the lessons of her parents. Her father has taught her (and me) to wash the dishes as you use them so that they don't pile up, and her mother has taught her (and me) that dreams and goals are fine things, but your actions are what really matter. Finally, from my team I have been learning the joy of sharing our dreams and goals together, the freedom of transparency, and the daily challenges and rewards of growing together in unity.

What follows are a few more lessons I have been learning this semester. I'm sure that there will be more to come, and more that I have missed, but these are few recent thoughts:

Mother Teresa: “We are not called to be successful, but to be faithful.”
Gandhi: “What we are doing may seem insignificant, but it is most important that we do it.”
Shane Claiborne: “That sounds good, but it was the beginning of my years of struggling with the tension between efficiency and faithfulness.”

Lesson 1: As a lover of efficiency and organization, I am learning that being faithful is rarely efficient, that loving people cannot be checked off on my “to do” list, and that relationships rarely fit into my time schedule or plans. Faithfulness, loving people, and relationships must be given unhurried time without deadlines. I'm learning that though I may feel insignificant, unsuccessful, and unaccomplished, that it is most important that I keep doing his work, wherever it takes me. I'm learning that “obedience is more important than mere excellence” (Steve Arterburn).

Shane Claiborne: “But me, I had it together. I used to be cool. And then I met the Son and he wrecked my life. The more I read the Word, the more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued, and hoped for upside down.”

Lesson 2: The more I read the Word, the more the Son messes me up. He's unpredictable. He's radical. He's scandalous. Everything I though I should want, or achieve, or value, or become is nonsense. I want to fit in, and He wants me to follow Him. I am an A-type, oldest child, critically-spirited Pharisee...and in so many ways I have missed the point of the entire Message. The Son can't be put in a box, and neither can his followers. The Son is calling me to “think outside the box” in more ways than I ever have before, to see the world through his eyes and not my own...to die to myself.

C. S. Lewis: “Ooh!” said Susan, “I'd thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

Lesson 3: I'm learning that our Father is not safe, but he's good. So much of my time is spent worrying and wondering about the past, present, and future, in hopes that I will be more safe and more secure. Shane Claiborne quotes one of his professors as saying, “We have insulated ourselves from miracles. We no longer live lives with such reckless faith that we need them. There is rarely room for the transcendent in our lives.” I am guilty as charged, planning my life days, weeks, months, and years in advance in hopes of being “safe.” I'm learning that I have nothing to fear, except the Father Himself! As Naomi's name testifies, this year has been a lesson in faith and trust for me, as I wait on his timing and his perfect purpose. I hope that I can learn to invite some reckless faith into my life, and to make room for miracles and the transcendent.

I hope you've enjoyed a few of my thoughts. There's a lot more on my mind, but it will have to wait for another day. Thank you for thinking of me and Brad this semester, and of our future together wherever the Father leads us.

Love always,
Jessie

Sunday Thoughts: May 3rd, 2009

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If He is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

It is amazing how the Father has abundantly supplied for our needs over the past two years. Beyond that, he has done it graciously, not begrudgingly! When we were in need, he graciously gave.

Now, as we prepare to leave and begin a new adventure, I realize that there are so many unknowns. With a new child arriving at the end of June, a job change to an undecided location, and the corresponding move this summer, I am not sure what to expect. However, through the process of the past two years, I have learned that the Father desires to graciously supply for all of our needs along this journey, and our task is to remain faithful.

We are grateful this week:

1. It is May and that means that there will be English Weeks at each of the various campuses that employ IECS teachers. Newt will arrive later this week to prepare for the upcoming month.

2. We held our final English Club of the year last Monday night on the main campus. It was great, but it was a little bittersweet to realize that for Jessie and me. It was our last opportunity to host English Club at Langfang Teachers' College.

3. On Tuesday, Jessie and I went to Beijing for our bi-weekly baby check-up. Naomi Faith Distad continues to be completely healthy and in the proper position.

4. Friday was Labor Day, so we had a little more free time this week. For fun, Shamblee, Jess, and I decided to make a music video of Dr. Hook's song, “Sylvia's Mother.” It probably was not the most constructive use of our time, but we had a blast! It will be posted on Youtube by the end of May.

Please think about us:

1. It's hard to believe, but Jess and I will begin the final exam interviews this week, and then start to total our semester grades. The end is coming quickly, and there's so much to do, with finals, grades, baby appointments, packing, and English Week. We want to continue to make the most of every opportunity and finish strong in this final month before we return home.

2. During the third week in May we will have our annual English Week! About 13 teachers will come from the States, led by Newt and Claire Hetrick. We are very excited about English Week!

3. Our next baby appointment is May 12th. We have less than two months left before Naomi Faith Distad is born!

Living outside the boat,
Brad