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Flight Delay

Our flight has been delayed for 2 hours leaving Beijing so the first team will not be home until Wednesday morning at 11:39. Our flight number coming into Savannah is CO 2416. We”ll have to spend the night in Newark because we won’t have time to make our connection in Newark. We’ll arrive in Newark sometime around 7pm on Tuesday and have to go through customs/immigration before leaving for the hotel. Continental Airlines is paying for our hotel rooms. We’ll update as often as we can.

The 2nd team (Victoria, Chandra, David, Sylvia, Pat, Gray, Darryn, and Ariel) are all on schedule to arrive in Savannah at 11:54 pm Tuesday evening.

July 23

Wow! This week has already come to an end…where did the time go? It seems like yesterday that I was stepping off the plane to begin this journey here in Beijing, China.

This is my first trip to China and participating in the Vacation Language School.  I am so happy that I got this opportunity to serve God in a unique way.  I was glad that I was able to go on this trip because it is a combination of two things I love: God’s word and teaching.  I am a senior at the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, TX majoring in Elementary Education.  This opportunity has blessed my life so much and only reaffirmed that God has called me to be a teacher as my profession.

Teaching English to these students has been completely different than any other work that I have done with students in Texas.  The biggest impact that I have seen is the joy/happiness that the students receive when they are told “good job” and given a pat on the back.  These students have an enormous desire to be loved and to be encouraged in their studies as they further their education and knowledge. I am so thankful that God has allowed me to be a small part in these student’s lives.

The biggest obstacle that I ran into was getting the students to respond to questions or tell me their opinions.  There was a lot of silence when we were a large group but when we split into smaller groups I saw the students “come out of their shell” and share ideas and feelings.  When they were asked “what is important to you” I was pleased to hear a number of student’s first response be “God” or “Jesus”. Others answered with “family” or “friends”.

The most interesting aspect of the camp is to see students grow in their current knowledge or begin to wonder about Christ and what He did for us and how they can accept Him.  More and more questions came with every day of the camp.  It is great to be able to minister and explain things about Christ to these students and also to point them to a Chinese leader that can further the relationship after we go back to the US. I enjoyed the different ways that God’s word was presented: songs, scripture, testimonies, games, crafts, showing love through actions and words, and the curriculum.

At the end of each day and especially today, students are wanting an autograph, email address and pictures with each American. It is the cutest thing because they are so excited that we are here. This brings great joy to me to know that we have made an impact in their life. I hope that all the students sense our love for Christ and our love for them as well.

On Sunday we attended Kuanjie church and it was SUCH a blessing…even though I did not understand anything that was said during the service.  It blessed my heart so much to worship with fellow believers even though they speak another language. The song part of the service was awesome because people sang so loudly and were not ashamed at all. It is very clear that they love God and love to sing praises to Him. I found a verse as I was sitting in the church service that really impacted my thoughts on the purpose why I am here: “I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them.  Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declared the Sovereign Lord, when I show Myself holy through you before their eyes” Ezekiel 36:23.  I thought that this verse was very influential because it says “the name YOU have profaned among them”, and I related to that because while we are here in Beijing we are declaring the name of the Lord and showing His love and compassion.  Also, it says “when I show Myself holy THROUGH YOU before their eyes” and I really got excited because that explains that God is and will use me to show His greatness.  *yay*

Some tourist trips that we have taken that I have enjoyed has been to the Great Wall of China, Kuanjie Church, Silk Market, Chinese Acrobats, and Forbidden City.

I thank God daily for this opportunity and for allowing me to be a servant for His kingdom. This will change my life and I will never forget this experience.

“I will praise You, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of You among the peoples. For great is Your love, reaching to the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be over all the earth” Psalm 57:9-11

Lauren Bailey
Stonebriar Community Church
Frisco, TX

Prayer Requests

Our color group leaders went around today to see what areas we can ask you guys to pray about. Here are the results:

General prayer request – energy/stamina. Also, pray that the students would open up more.

Specific request

1. Aaron – not sleeping well
2. Pat – requesting prayer for student – “Bill” – states that he has no friends
3. Victoria – requesting prayer for “Dick” that he would have more confidence in using his English in class
4. Steve Erkens – discernment
5. Claudia – Pray for one of the students named Cat. She’s a Christian and wants her mom to become a Christian. Cat also wants us to pray for her friends who aren’t Christians. She wants her friends to become Christians too.
6. Sandy – We’ve prepared months for this and this is the final 3 days. Pray for God’s perfect will to be done.
7. Becca – (Green 3) Pray for a boy named Joseph who “cannot stand being here.” His mom forced him to come. Pray for his heart to be softened.
8. Ariel – Pray that we’d continue to be strong and healthy.
9. Tony – Pray for Johnny and David. They’re probably about 15 or 16 years old in Green 1. Pray for their salvation. That they’d pay attention and their hearts would soften.
10. We’re all in agreement that many folks on the team seem to be wearing down. Please pray for our games/exercise guys as the last two days have been very hot and they’re outside pretty much all day.

Check out this email

This morning as I checked my email I was encouraged as I read this email. This is a lady who was at the parenting seminar and I ask that you would pray for her. She’s one who doesn’t have children, isn’t married, and had never been to church before. She came to the seminar because “I felt like I should come to this.”

I read Bible(The New Testament part) everyday on my way to work by subway about 30 min, I read out, but not aloud so that I won’t disturb people around, but they seem to be interested and ask me what I’m reading…and after they know it’s the Bible they will say, why you don’t believe yourself but some one that may doesn’t exist at all? Why u are trying to believe something that is not a scientific thing… (sorry to be offensice) and I don’t know how to answer that. I believe myself actually, Mike, I really do. I don’t think that is against each other, right?(between Jesus and myself). I will keep reading and try to tell if this is my thing and thank you for being part of it!

The first day of camp went really well and we’re gearing up for day 2. I’ll try to get some pics on later in the day but am having a hard time uploading for some reason. Pray for our team to continue to work hard in unity. My experience on these short term trips is that, as fatigue sets in, the things that were “funny” before, aren’t so funny now.

Friday, July 16 – Saturday, July 17

I sit in my room this evening wondering why my faith is so small that I get amazed at what should be expected. Yesterday’s final camp day went extremely well. There were many tears and open doors of opportunity with parents and children. Heidi is very close to salvation. She has agreed to read through the Book of John and wants to know God but doesn’t want to believe just so she can go to heaven. She said, “I don’t want to become a Christian just so I can go to heaven. That seems selfish. If I become a Christian, I want to be a Christian who lives my life for this Jesus.” Pretty cool, huh? The final performance by the kids was great! We were so proud of them. After the performance, we were greeted by a fireworks that would’ve been very illegal in America. But, this is China and it was cool!

Today the majority of the team went to the Great Wall. Traffic was terrible so what should have been a 1 hour ride ended up being closer to 4 hours. Some folks stayed behind to rest but all the first timers took the trek. I’m sure you’ll be seeing tons of pictures.

Today was the first day of our second parenting conference. Vince and I went and expected to have a comparable crowd to what we saw last week at Kuanjie Church. We arrived to Hidian Church about 30 minutes early and made 50 copies in hopes that we would exceed our attendance from last week. We went into a room to meet with a couple of the pastors and, when we came out, the room was fairly full. I don’t have a final number but Vince said he had to make over 350 copies of our handout for the parents.

Even though it was a parenting conference, there were many young people there. Between the young people and the parents they had great questions they wanted to ask personally. We stayed for about an hour just to try to field all the questions. When we left, there was still a line of people promising to come back tomorrow. Here are some of the questions I was approached with:

• “How can I get this peace that I see in you and other Christians? Is Jesus the only way to get it?”
• “Why are Christians always so happy?”
• “This is my first time I have ever been to church (I was told this at least 4 times), how can I know about Jesus?”
• “Can Jesus make a difference in my life as a University student?”

Should I be amazed? People were coming to this meeting in this church who have never been to church before. They weren’t invited by anyone in particular but simply walked in off the streets.

I ask that you would pray for the 2nd part of our conference tomorrow. I know you’ll probably be sleeping but if God happens to wake you up between 3:30 and 5:30 in the morning, know that He’s waking you up to pray for this meeting.

Other than the parent meeting tomorrow, we’ll be attending church and worshiping alongside our Chinese brethren. In the afternoon, a number of people are going to Hope Foster Home for another visit with the orphans there. Thank you for your prayers. All is amazing on this side of the world.

Press On!

Mike

2nd Team Arrives Safely

The 2nd team arrived safely today. We just finished dinner with them and everyone is doing well.

Thursday, July 15

From Thomas—Green English has been going pretty well. One of three green groups is using the intermediate curriculum while the other two are using the beginner curriculum as planned. I am excited that we have some students advanced enough to work at that level. As I have done in the past I have taken a few students aside during closing ceremonies in order to give them a little extra time to practice their English. Erin accompanied me today and we were able to talk with the students about the lyrics to a few hymns. May the truth of God’s Word which is found therein implant itself in their hearts! Erin is beautiful and I can’t wait to marry her!

From Alé — Our fourth day of Vacation Language School went great! Our blue group has been making a good bit of progress. Yesterday, a girl named Singer was asking questions about the song we were singing—Lord I Lift Your Name on High, and we were doing the motions and while we were singing “from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high”, she asked me, “What is a cross?” and I explained to her, and she replied, “Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?” and I said to save us from our sin and then I asked her if she wanted to know more and she said “yes!” So, I took her a lady named Shoali and she talked to her and prayed with her. If you think about it, please pray for Singer and that she really does understand. Pray also, if you will, for tomorrow that we will finish strong and begin well next week.

From Frances (Fi) – I’m in blue English with Ann Ashcraft and our translator, Helen. I’ve loved helping teach English and getting to know the kids. Helen was able to share the gospel with all of the blue group kids in our class today, which was such a blessing. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Helen, she’s a very sweet lady and loves the Lord. The kids in the blue group are some of the younger ones in the camp and it can be pretty hard to keep their attention for a long period of time, but she did an amazing job. Please pray for the children who heard that message. Two little girls in the blue group, Lucy (7) and Judy (8), started out as being really shy during the beginning of the week, but today they really opened up and I had a lot of fun getting to know them as much as I could without speaking their language. Hope that wasn’t too boring ? Please keep us in your prayers!

Wednesday, July 14

It seems that every mission trip has a day or an event that turns the momentum from “a fun camp” to an encounter with God and this one is no different. The last two days have been very good in spite of the ever-present spiritual warfare we’re encountering. As a team, we’re reading the book, “Revolution in World Missions” by K.P. Yohannan. If you haven’t read it yet, you should. I’ll put a link at the bottom of this page if you’re interested in getting it for free. Any time you’re doing God’s work, the enemy hates it and battles against it. We’ve used the past two mornings to pray alongside our Chinese brothers and sisters at the camp. Its an amazing site to see about 100 Christians linking arms together (like a chain) to pray for God’s Word to bear fruit in the hearts of the children and some of the unsaved Chinese helpers.

Today a cute little 6 or 7 year old girl named “Singer” was asking Ale’ about Jesus after hearing the song, “Amazing Grace.” “Who is Jesus? What is the cross for?” This is the same girl that told me earlier in the week that her daddy said, “Jesus is a myth.” Ale’ brought her to one of the Chinese believers who was able to answer her questions and she bowed and asked Jesus to save her from her sins.

I’ve asked the team to pray for a girl named Heidi who is one of our translators. As I spoke with her yesterday I was asking her if it was difficult to translate for us. She said it wasn’t but she wasn’t a Christian so she didn’t know how to find the verses in the Bible that we were referring to. I assured her that we would find the verses for her so she wouldn’t have to search. Today I sat down and talked to her again. I asked her if she had a bible and she proudly said she was given one yesterday. I asked her to read John 3 and we would talk about it tomorrow. She agreed so I ask that you’ll pray for her as she opens up the pages of God’s Word and begins to read it for the first time. She’s very open and I believe she’ll become a Christian by the end of the week.

The team is doing good. Some are getting tired so please pray for strength. I will do my best to get some of them to blog tomorrow as well as add in some pictures.

We’d love it if you would pass on this site to your address book as we need many people to pray for us.

Here are some prayer requests:

• Singer
• Heidi
• Health and strength of team (as of today, I don’t know of anyone who is sick)
• 2nd Team traveling over here as I speak
• Friday night banquet for parents
• Saturday/Sunday parenting seminar
• Other opportunities I cannot mention on here but God knows what they are.

Here’s the link for K.P. Yohannon’s book. Just copy/paste it into your browser: www.gfa.org/offer/freebook/

Monday, July 12

From Ale’ Smith:
This is my second year doing Vacation Language School. I am helping Sarah Landeene with Character and Crafts. The first day started off with the opening ceremony where I was reunited with some of the kids from last year. It was a joyful experience! Afterwards Sarah, our translator, and I went to our room and prepared the crafts. Our first rotation came in, they were pretty rowdy! But it’s the first day, so I think they’ll calm down (hopefully tomorrow.
We made verse books. Then Sarah taught a lesson about friendship and loving one another, and then I explained the next craft.
We had a little break, then our next rotation came. We did the verse books, the lesson, and the craft.
Once we finished with the second group we had our lunch.
Then we had our last group, they were the youngest (and cutest . We did the same routine as before.
All together I believe the first day of Vacation Language School 2010 went pretty well. I’m excited about the new relationships I’ve made with some of the kids and I hope and I pray we will have an eternal impact on these children’s lives.
From Brittany Sutton:
this is my first year at vacation language school and so far i love it! i’m so excited to be here helping and forming relationships with the kids. today i already gave out my email to this little girl in my third group and her name was ellen.  i’m helping stephen landeene with character and crafts on the red team.
class went real smooth and all the kids were well behaved. stephen taught the lesson and i explained the two crafts. the first craft was the verse book and then the two book marks.
after the three rotations the whole red team had a meeting in the lunchroom. i must of played rock paper scissors ten times with the kids sitting around me. i got to know this girl named cat and two boys, bill and evan. bill wanted to arm wrestle me so i let him.  i gave a little mercy then smashed his hand down. then evan wanted to try and i showed him a little mercy too. they couldn’t lose to me so they teamed up and put all their hands on my one hand, but i was still stronger. it was really fun and i enjoyed spending that time with them and forming a relationship with them. today was a great first day and i can’t wait to come back tomorrow and see everyone again.

From Zachariah J. Cushman:
Today was the first day of VLS for me. This is also my first day of missions work in China. I have been preparing for this job for a few weeks in  advanced, and it has come together very well. I’m technically  assisting Charles by filming and  helping with setup. I am also a group leader for the “Green 2″. I met all my kids today at opening ceremonies and we listened to several opening speeches and we soon headed off to our exercise time. I was really excited to have the time first because i had been wanting to learn the students personalities. We managed to talk the girls into playing basketball with  the boys. We started off with two teams, but it was hard to keep track of what the teams were, it ended up being every man for himself. The kids would pass the ball to a leader and expect a score. We went to craft and character class next. I enjoyed watching the kids work, and i tried to learn some new Chinese words. We did some other things today like lunch, english, and closing ceremonies, but i think the most significant thing I did today was to get  know some wonderful kids.

Hope Foster Home Pics

Here are some pics from our visit to Hope Foster Home