Journal Entry #7: Thursday, May 20, 2010

Today was supposed to be rather slow, a no class to teach, no scheduled appointments kind of day...  but it turned out to be really, really exhausting.  I first met my two Harding Student guy team members, Daniel and Will, so I could go to class with them. ​

I went mainly to see what they were doing and get a few photos of them in action. They showed DVD's of Harding that they had brought with them.  Some of them were DVD's they had acquired from our Harding Admissions office.  But they also showed the most recent DVD from this year's Spring Sing, particularly the Chinese students’ presentation.  I guess I didn't realize how popular the song they sang was in China, but when they went into the song the students here cheered and then started singing along!  I left after a few minutes and I went back into town to grab a bite for breakfast.  I ran into my two Harding girls from the team, Sarah and Carey.  They suggested this street vendor that sold what turned out to be an egg, green pepper, biscuit looking thing, that sort of resembled Egg-foo-yung.  It was pretty good. 

Then I ran into Faye, a Chinese student that I had met a few days earlier and my day was destined to change at that moment.  She asked if I would tell her more about life with our "Father's Son.”  Because I had a 10:00 a.m. appoint. I made plans to meet her after class.

When I had gotten to campus with Will and Daniel I was asked to be a guest speaker for a freshman English class at 10:00 a.m. for Gary Gearhart, one of the other full time teacher -missionaries here, but I was either told the wrong classroom or I went to the wrong room, because we did not meet up... after about 20 minutes past class time I left.  With still about an hour and a half before my appointment with Faye I went to my apartment and took a nap!

When I went back to meet Faye at the gate to and from the campus and city, she had another student, Helen, with her.  They asked if it was OK if Helen joined us because she too wanted to know more about "our lifestyle."  I asked them if they had had lunch, and then proceeded to invite them to eat with me. So we went to a restaurant, they ordered for me of course. We had fish that was very spicy, beef and peppers, cooked lettuce, and of course, rice, with hot tea to drink.  I had to insist with them about the fact that I was paying, and I did.  We had a very broad and general discussion about good and evil in the world.  

When the time was getting over they mentioned that they wanted to go to the Supermarket, would I like to go with them?  Of course I did.  I was going to call for a cab. They said, “Why? It’s only about a 30-minute walk!” So we walked, for what seemed to be a long time and we arrived at the same supermarket I had been to last Sunday. Along the way they received a phone call from one of their friends and they explained what they were doing with me. The caller, Sue, wanted to join us for the rest of the discussion we were having. She met us at the Supermarket.  I bought some canned fish, (I was looking for tuna), mayo, relish, etc. so I could make tuna sandwiches in my apartment.  I later found out it was NOT tuna, but that’s another story.  I also bought a few cookies and cracker-type snacks, and some frozen dumplings.  They told me to boil the dumplings like pasta, dip in soy sauce (which I also purchased) and enjoy.  I also bought some fruit, a pear and some apples.

After we walked back the 30 minutes to my apartment to put the food away they asked me to go play tennis with them.  When I explained that I was too “old and fat” to play with them as young and athletic creatures, they insisted that it would be good for me!  So we walked across campus to their dorm where one of them went up to put away their food purchases and get the tennis rackets, one for each of us!

Faye told me the Tennis Park was close to campus, and it may have been for them... but it seemed to be a long way for me.  I really do believe it was another two miles away.  The tennis park was inside a very large municipal park much like one of our state parks.  The Park had a tower that we climbed to the top so that I could take pictures.  They kept telling me at night there was a "Music Fountain."  What it turned out to be (although it only operates at night) was a large fountain, like Buckingham Fountain in Chicago, that had several spouts of water with movement and synchronized with colored lights, music and fireworks!  They want to take me back some evening when it's operating.  When we finally got to the tennis courts, they were all occupied (thankfully for me because I was exhausted) so we sat and waited and talked about "The book" and Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life. We never did get to play before we had to leave. 

When we were preparing to leave Faye received a call from Peter, one of the male asst. teachers, who was a Chinese graduate student.  When Faye explained where she and Helen were, and what they were doing, he told them he was jealous that they had the opportunity to talk with me all afternoon.  So I motioned to them and had them ask him to join us for dinner, because it was now almost 6:00 p.m. He agreed, and we met Peter at a nearby restaurant. Peter was so excited about meeting me that he had reserved us a private dining room and he pre-ordered and pre-paid for dinner.  It felt like a small banquet.  The food was good but the best thing we had was the desert.  It was sugar coated and deep fried chunks of bananas!  They were delicious!

It was almost 7:00 p.m. when we left the restaurant, and they wanted to go hear Edwin Meyer (one of our full-time Missionary/Teachers) lecture on the subject of "American Culture: Love and Relationships."  That didn't start until 8:00, so we all went back to my apartment, they watched TV, I cleaned up a bit and tried to relax and catch my breath. While we were waiting Faye and her twin sister, Lena, who had now joined us, asked if I would tutor them in private English classes.  So, I told them the way I do that was to read through the "GOOD BOOK" and use it as a text.  They OOOHED and AHHED and applauded at the suggestion!  So I now have an English class (Friends Speak) at my apartment for the next three Mondays at 8:30 a.m. with three Chinese students.

At 8:00 p.m., Edwin had a great presentation with PPT in both English and Chinese on the American culture of love and marriage. For the students this was a volunteer attendance.  But it was a packed classroom that had about 300 in attendance.  Every time he told stories about him and his wife Mary, and how much he loved his wife, they applauded loudly!  He talked for about an hour.  I was glad when it was over because I was done!  Or, so I thought.  I had a few students come up to me afterwards to introduce themselves to me and ask questions about "my marriage and family."  It started out about 3-4 students.  But 20 minutes later the group had swelled to about 40, all in a circle around me about 3-4 deep!  They just kept asking questions as fast as they could.  I felt like a cross between a rock star and a politician under fire at a press conference.  I looked around the room and our whole team had the same thing happening to them. They started pressing closer and closer until I was rescued by a phone call from Eileen in Beijing!  I told them I had to take this call and worked my way through the crowd. Before I left I thanked Faye, Helen, Sue, Peter, and Lena for the wonderful day!

Once outside the building I had the chance to return Eileen's call as I walked back to my apartment.  Eileen was my very first Chinese student that I tutored in Chicago while in graduate school at Roosevelt University.  It was great to hear from her.  She is very excited about greeting us in Tianjin/Beijing.  We agreed to stay in touch and make final arrangements after we all arrive in Beijing later in June.

Finally at about 9:45 p.m., I got back to my apartment and CRASHED!  What started out as a no appt., no schedule day - turned out to be a very exhilarating and exhausting day - but I thank our Father to be used in this manner!  IT WAS SIMPLY AMAZING!