I’ve been stationed here in Jiji now for the past week and I have to say its been a wonderful experience. This week I was teaching the “A” level students. We were only able to cover basic things like “this is a pen, I am a student etc.” I was on my own for the first time it was a bit of a challenge but thankfully the Lord gave me the strength to teach the kids and the week was a great success.
During our large groups I also had a chance to practice my story telling. Telling stories to the children is a blast however the hardest part is learning to slow down and using smaller words.
On Wednesday the press came to watch our presentation on the environment and our talks with the kids regarding proper hygiene. The Lord really blessed the time and seemed to be a great success. They interviewed us here in Jiji and we ended up making the Thursday news.
One of the biggest highlights of my week was meeting Rita. Rita is one of the students that Jeremy was teaching. On the way back from the store one evening to buy materials for our stories she stopped me on the street and invited me to play badminton with her. I told her that I would play for a few minutes but needed to get back. Well the five minutes turned into forty-five minutes and I ended up playing with her mom and brother. At first I was terrible never really playing badminton before I became there entertainment. Every time I would miss they would say “good job” and then laugh. By the time I was drenched head to toe in sweat they were just getting warmed up.
The next evening Rita invited me to go and play with her again. This time I was more prepared and was actually able to play. That evening I also realized why Rita was always down during the day she seemed to have this depression about her. The house in which she lives is the store front for selling incense and offerings for idols. Jeremy was with me that evening and we were invited to have tea with them. It was a great opportunity for us to learn some more Chinese. Actually it was Jeremy who was doing all the talking and I just ended up listening.
Please pray for Rita and her family. Pray that we would be a light to them and that God would bring about a chance for us to share Christ with them. The family wants me to stay in Jiji this year so that I can teach them English and in return learn Chinese.
Yesterday after classes we all went bike riding as a team. The TA’s (Teachers aids) got regular bikes and Jeremy and I got power bicycles. They are the coolest things… you can peddle like you would a normal bike but when you get tired you just turn it on and it peddles for you. When we started out it was nice but it ended up down pouring on all of us. We were all soaked head to toe and the street quickly filled with big puddles. At times it was so intense that we weren’t able to see what was in front of us.
Jeremy and I ended up going on a much longer hike then the others. The powered bikes were great for getting up and down the mountains. The view was amazing and it’s something we hope to do again soon. Unfortunately we don’t have any pictures and thank fully we didn’t bring our camera’s as they would’ve ended up getting ruined. Ruby and I both lost our cell phones due to the water that got in them but were hoping in a week they might dry out and start working again.
Today the Shuili team came over for dinner. It was a real encouragement to see them all and just a great time of fellowship. We will all be heading to Taipei in the morning for a press conference. It will be the first time in two weeks that we will all be together. We will then travel back Sunday evening to Jiji and Shuili for the camps that start on Monday morning.
Thank you all very much for your prayers it’s great to know that you are praying for us. Please continue to pray for the health of us here, and that we would be able to quickly learn the Chinese language.
Writing to you from Jiji
Joshua Smith
