This weekend I was able to spend some time with one of my favorite 6th grade students. This meant a lot to me since she will be graduating and starting Junior High school next semester. She came to Jin Cheng, where I live and we hung out...went shopping, bought drinks, talked, and just had fun together. The flip side of getting to know students better is that there are usually heartbreaks in store when I start finding out about their lives. Jessi is hardly 13 years old, and lives here in Kinmen with her Grandmother and older brother. There were no parents mentioned, and they do not seem to be in the picture at all. I asked her if anyone worries about her if she doesn't come home and she said her grandmother doesn't care, and her older brother (a highschool drop-out) just tells her to "remember to come home sometime."
During our time together on Friday, Jessi kept talking about a Junior High guy that she seemed rather infatuated with, but I didn't know the Chinese name, and she didn't know his English name. It's OK, because on Saturday night I found out who it is. Lucas and I were hanging out with some highschool friends at the track near our dorm when Jessi came roaring up on a moped sitting behind one of our worst students from the Kinmen team's infamous "drop-out" class. Suddenly, there was the whole gang, minus one or two that we taught last semester; Allen, Luke, Shawn, Ian, Jason, as well as some of their younger partners in mischief. My heart sank to see my sweet little girl with these guys...for a while I couldn't face them. I had to walk away and cry and pray for them. One of them was hurt so I went to gather some first aid stuff. These kids don't have a reputation for treating us well, but somehow there is a love in my heart for them that I can't explain. I wanted to show them how much Jesus loves them. I know He would have tenderly bound up their wounds, so I asked Him to use my hands to express His love to them.
That being taken care of, Lucas and I just sat and talked to them. Now...generally "talking" with these guys means putting up with a lot of dirty language and curses, in English, Chinese, and Taiwanese, which most of the time are directed right at us. But that night they seemed a bit calmer than usual. A couple of them especially got pretty serious and as they shared some of their struggles and fears, we were able to share with them Jesus love, the peace and freedom from fear that He can give, and how they can know Him for themselves. When they finally left, (at an extremely late hour) hopefully to go home, but most likely looking for more mischief, I watched them go and prayed that Jesus will draw these poor, shepherdless sheep to His side. What love, comfort, and joy they could find in Him! While it breaks my heart to see the situations of my students here, I rejoice at the amazing opportunity we have been given to tell them of One who can change their lives and bring hope to their longing hearts. Please keep praying for our team here, and for those to whom we are daily reaching out with Christ's love.
"...when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them because they were... as sheep having no shepherd..."
Matthew 9:36
Rebekah
~Phil. 1:20~
Kinmen
(Display Name not set)May 2005 Archives
Well, golly gosh me…it’s been forever from the last time I wrote an update. Busy is as busy does I guess. (I think I just made that saying up) anyway, here goes nothing. Beware, it just might become that.
This week has been fun, relaxing and surprisingly not all that crazy. First time for everything eh? I think this has been the first week I’ve had in over 2 months where I didn’t get some earth shattering piece of news. No bad news, no good news, nothing. Just plain normal week, thank God.
I sit here listening to some Chinese music still slightly in awe over what this country has done to me. How it’s changed me for both the good and the bad. Mostly good I think, but like any situation you do make mistakes. That in and of itself is a bad thing but when put together with God’s amazing love and faithfulness is a wondrous thing. The things he can teach us through our own weakness should confound our human reasoning. At least they do mine.
You see, these past few weeks have been some of those “bang Daniel over the head with a holy 2x4” weeks for God. The kind of weeks where I think he wants to see just how much I’ve really learned about giving up to him and letting him be in charge. So he tosses things at us and watches how they bounce. Or maybe, how we bounce. Either way, this has been one of those times. Without going into a lot of details I’ll just say that God has both taken some things from me and given some things to me these past few months that have left me totally incompetent in myself and relying on him for just the basic strength to keep on keeping on. That’s where he wants me I’m sure. I hate every second of that in my flesh, because I’m the kind of guy who likes to rely on himself for things. That’s not why I’m here and that’s not what I should be learning. So, as much as I don’t’ like it I know it’s a good thing that the Lord is teaching me these things.
So, as an encouragement to you I’ll just say this. No matter how frustrating things may get you can be sure that God knows what’s going on before you even get frustrated. He loves you and is caring for you more than anyone else could. He wants to bless you and be with you forever, and would never do anything to hurt you. He can only help. So trust him, ride out the wave, wait for the sunrise, it’s going to be alright.
With God it’s alright…
Alright.
Daniel
Ji Ji
One of the highlights of the past couple days was a trip I took to Jimen Island with Joel and Daniel. Jimen is a small island not too far off the coast of China. It is primarily a military base, and it wasn't opened to the public till not too many years ago. One of our teams of teachers here works on the island, and so Joel, Daniel, and I flew out to see them.
The three of us left Friday after school, and made it to the dorm where the team lives about 7:30 in the evening. They had dinner (pizza) waiting for us when we got there, so we had a good time talking and eating. Later, we played volleyball and basketball till about 11. Saturday the team took us to another island called "Little Jimen". We spent the morning and early afternoon playing on the beach, and swimming in the ocean. That was a blast! I had a great time. I also was able to climb a tower/monument there, and pick out some mountains and buildings on mainland China. It was pretty hazy that day, so I couldn't see a lot, but I did see a few things. That was my first glimpse of the mainland, and although it wasn't much, I can now say I have seen China :).
Saturday night all of us went to a basketball game that was being played. A Christian college from Colorado was there to play a team from Taiwan, and a pretty good crowd showed up to watch, including us. It was satisfying to see the Americans win :), especially after seeing how the Taiwanese team digressed to playing pretty dirty by the end of the game. But overall it was fun to watch. Sunday, we went to church, and ate lunch there. Then we grabbed some coffee (iced, it was pretty warm today) before heading back to the dorm. Our flight back to the main island left at 4:20, and I was home at Ying Pan by 8:30.
Now another week has nearly passed. I only have 4 more weeks of teaching at my schools. 6th grade graduates a week or two before the others, so I have even less time left with them. It is amazing to think of how close the end of the semester is, and of going home.
So, with those thoughts, please keep us in your prayers as we finish out our semester here.
From Ying Pan,
Chase Hiebsch
"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe."
:)
Things are going great here! My students never cease to surprise and entertain. Recently my students and I amused ourselves during a break by playing "rock, scissors, paper"- (look the other way). This is a game that can entertain for hours, it's great! While we were playing we had fun communicating. My kids (often times we refer to our students this way :) are speaking more English and becoming more comfortable with it, which is very cool to see.
God is good and we have much to praise Him for!
Thank you for your prayers, please continue to pray!
This is Megan, from Kinmen
Thought of the day: "Seek Jesus and learn to love Him more fully than you did yesterday"
Question of the day: Have you heard of "They" ?
