Kesed is Here!

We'll probably write more later but wanted to at least introduce you to our new son, Kesed Edwards. He was born 8 pounds, 6 ounces, 21.65 inches. Carrie and I went to hospital around 5 AM and he came at 9:09 Thailand time. They are both perfectly healthy. I actually was allowed to do the catching itself....what an awesome, profound experience. To join fear and love, gentleness and firmness when he cames out into my hands all at once is unlike anything else. We expect to be back in country in another month.

"Kesed" is a transliteration of the Hebrew word in the Old Testament often translated "steadfast love", as in Ex. 34:6, Micah 7:18, and throughout Psalm 136

"Edwards" is the last night of one of our family's heros, Jonathan Edwards, probably America's greatest mind and certainly its greatest theologian. He has influenced our family in immeasuarable ways. Wikipedia has a introductory summary of his life at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Edwards

Here are a few picts.

What to Eye

Carrie here. I'll try and keep this short because I know that without pictures, people don't read as much. As my husband USED to say, "if it's longer than a comic strip, I don't want to read it." He's over that now. :)

This morning we got to go to church. You forget how satisfying being with other worshippers in a common meeting place to worship the same God can be. And when you don't normally get fellowship or music or teaching, it doesn't matter what is being said or sung, you are just glad to be in community and in worship. Anyway, to the point....the guy talked about Elijah and all the miraculous things he got to be apart of. Then he wandered. It was in the wandering that God was able to remind him of 3 crucial things to refocusing our lives.

1. Get your eyes off yourself.

Your world really does seem small when the walls to it are enclosed around just your circumstances and problems. We are naturally self-centered creatures. We never really grow fully out of the jr. high mentality that everyone is always looking at you and thinking about you.

2. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

3. Get your eyes to helping someone in need and do something about it.

While in the midst of serving someone who cannot repay you, suddenly the trivialities of your own problems fade away. We can get so focused on the day to day or on our own problems that we forget that we serve a God who has got the future already laid out for us and it is GOOD. He's promised us that much. So we've got to get our heads above water, believing that the next breath will prove from Him to be GOOD.

...waiting...

Well, we're still waiting.  We went to the dr. Friday to check things out and I came back home being 3 cm and 80%.  So we're on our way.  He offered to get things going today through induction, but we decided to go home and see what the weekend holds.  Because the baby is on the larger side, if it doesn't come this weekend then we will induce on Monday.  I'd love to not have to induce, so pray this baby comes on his own this weekend.  In the meantime, I need sleep.  I'm having contractions all night long.  Thursday night I was up all night and in the morning was able to report to Brad about the traffic patterns of the surrounding areas.  Pathetic.  We'll post something as soon as we can after the baby arrives.

"I wish I could take their place"

Here is a meditation and prayer I wanted to share as I am concluding my reading of a book entitled, “Suffering and the Sovereignty of God”. Particularly as we witness suffering on a regular basis and look ahead to a life promised to be filled with suffering (for 2 Tim 3:12 promises this to all who wish to live a godly life), some realizations have hit us. Not that we have mastered them, but are awed by this tremendously gracious calling:

It is a common though among parents and any who love to wish that they could suffer in the place of another whom they love and who is suffering in some way. “Can I just take their place?” we ask. “Can I suffer in order to ease their pain?” This is a Christian question, for at its heart we see Christ on the cross and the words of John 15:13 and 1 John 3:16ff. Yet, as we meditate upon the words of Colossians 1:24, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,…” are we not exactly in a position to do this for those around us and the thousands or millions whom they might influence?! When we go into the world, into relationships, into times of service or suffering, we accept the cost of pain and dieing to self in order that others might not endure the eternal torment of His wrath! Oh, children of God, we can take their place in a particular sense, on the basis of Christ’s absolutely satisfying death. Not only the death of their souls forever, but the curse of a daily, godless life. Paul writes, “So death is at work in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:12). Apart from the Spirit, there is not hope from the “body of death” (Romans 7:23).

Shall we “put to death” (Col. 3:5) all that is fleshly in order to present Christ to those who are dead and dieing? Christ, whose life was wholly consecrated to God, who loved, suffered, died, and rose again—his life and death we reveal in our life! Oh Lord, this is too great a task! I desperately ask for your provision, protection, and our perseverance. Make us and keep us faithful!

2 Corinthians 4:7-12 could not make this message more clear to our hearts and minds, for we are called to carry “in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifest in our bodies” Who can do this be self-willing? No one! This is a Spirit graced miracle!

Be encouraged to press on and welcome (not simply tolerate) various trials, for to suffer well is for the glory of God and the good of human souls (2 Cor. 4:15ff). Oh my soul, daily practice the art of suffering well. Boast in weakness. To paraphrase one writer, for every 1 thought of our “slight momentary afflictions” (2 Cor. 4:17), let us think and speak 10 concerning Christ and the glory to be revealed!

 

 

Hilarious

(This was recently released by the AP)

Tibetans Oppose China on Reincarnations (September 2, 2007, AP)

A Chinese order claiming Beijing must approve all of Tibet's spiritual leaders is an attempt to further repress and undermine the religious culture of the Himalayan region, the Tibetan government-in-exile said Sunday. For centuries, the search for the reincarnation of lamas — including Tibet's spiritual head, the Dalai Lama — has been carried out by select Tibetan monks. The new order, which came into force Saturday, states that all future incarnations of living Buddhas related to Tibetan Buddhism "must get government approval," according to China's official Xinhua News Agency. It also prevents any outside source from having "influence" in the selection process, the agency reported Friday. China's officially atheistic communist government has increasingly sought to direct Tibetan Buddhism, for centuries the basis of Tibet's civil, religious, cultural and political life. Reincarnated lamas often lead religious communities and oversee the training of monks, giving them enormous influence over religious life in Tibet.

Wow…that really would be power to stop reincarnations J

 

Cereal, Transgendered Thai's and babies

Sorry the pictures are lopsided. And I just deleted a sweet picture of a dancing Thai girl, but we're on dial-up and it takes 6 months to upload pictures. So I'm not fixing anything.... We're taking a stroll through the Sunday market. We stopped to have some roadside dessert of a crepe thingy with bananas, chocolate and sweetened condensed milk.

So it's been awhile since we've been able to write. I've just spent the last two minutes trying to get my legs from under me and into an Indian style position. I'm expecting twice as long to get them unfolded. Those of you who have been 38 weeks pregnant understand where I'm at. So this will be a full blog because I want to reward my efforts. Brad went to see "Bourne Ultimatum" and the kids are all wrestling as they try to fall asleep in the same room.

Thailand has been great. We've had some wonderful times with friends and are now moved into the apt. We'll stay here until we go back into country. If you've never been to Chiang Mai, Thailand, it's a great city. There's a ton of things to do and LOTS of Western food. A friend of mine and I got to laughing because a "tuk tuk" (taxi) driver was asking us where we had been. He's got all of these exotic excursions to take us on, he says. We replied "we have been to 7-11." But with 7 kids between the two familes and one incredibly fat pregnant woman, 7-11 and some good slurpies are exotic enough for now. We are just beside ourselves to be eating cereal and cheese. Oh ya, we've also seen lots of transgendered Thai men.

There's a beautiful pool on the complex that overlooks the mountains. I don't have a picture yet, but will soon. Our days are filled with language study, homeschooling and contractions.



I went to the doctor yesterday. He's got good english and lots of personality. I've never had a male describe a contraction and pushing down on pelvic muscles by means of charades. And then to reinact the baby's movements inside the womb. He reminds us of Doc from 'Back to the Future." Except this doctor isn't white. We aren't quite sure what nationality he is but he speaks 4 or 5 languages. (that's a for sure way of knowing he's not American! )



I was actually excited about the possibility of medication during this pregnancy. I've done the other 3 all naturally and quite frankly, I"m tired. With a cross country move and three kids in tow I just wanted to ride this one out. But this Dr. is BIG on having a totally natural childbirth. So here we go. He says I'm about 2 cm and 20% already. Although that doesn't mean a lot either. Just means this baby will come eventually. We've got lots of friends to help us here, including meals after the birth and even a baby shower!

That's all for now, this is entirely too long. I have much to share, but will try to spread things out a little better next time. I've gotta go unfold my legs.

Made It to Thailand

Well, we made it to Thailand. On the way here, our kids all got food poisoning.  Selah threw up all night in the hotel in Beijing.  Malachi lost it on the first plane flight and therefore went through the second airport with no shirt on.  Charis threw up in the airport during our layover and then finished the job on the second leg of the flight.  It got to the point of humorous. But we made it and did laundry thereafter.  Carrie had lots of contractions on the second flight, but no baby.

We've been here for almost 4 days now.  Carrie and the kids days were filled with time in the pool, exploring, daily trips to get slurpies (I feel the American burden to introduce my kids to slurpies) and great time with friends.  We'll move into an apartment on Sat. and stay there until we leave.  It will be nice to be a little settled.  Brad had lots of meetings.

All has gone well so far.  We will try and post some pictures and more details after we get into our apartment. 

 

 

A Few Daily Shots

Well, we leave for Thailand on Sunday, so we wanted to do a post before we left.  Here's just a few pictures of our lives here.

Here's Brad with his tutor.  We laughed because I caught the picture as he's putting his hand to his ear in frustration.  He claims that his biggest weakness in language is in his listening, so this picture really captured his time with his tutor.  We study in the lobby of a local hotel.  It's one of the only air conditioned places around.

Three "sleeping mermaids".  They were pretending and decided the mermaids needed a nap.  But the tiniest mermaid is rejecting the notion.

Here's Charis with her baby-sitter.  She's learning a ton of Chinese.  The bao mu (baby sitter) even asked us if Charis knew how to speak any English.  And at the beginning of the semester, I, Carrie, tried to write Charis' name in Chinese and mis-wrote something.  So it read "Jing Er" which means 'little shark'.  So that is now her nickname according to the bao mu.

Barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen.  After 4 pregnancies, we captured it!

China: Death penalty for damage to grid (article)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070821/ap_on_re_as/china_death_penalty_1;_ylt=A
tVNQrjYQNRmZiINT8mcQ7pPzWQA

Peculiar Topics during Language Learning

So this morning, Brad and I talked about all the 'off topic' topics we had covered this week. Our curriculum has us doing the usual vocabulary about the post office, buying things, taking a train, etc. But we enjoy getting to have 'free talks' with our tutors and get us a little of subject at times. Here's a quick glance at the assortment of topics we've covered in the last week:

Our horrible treatment of the elderly in America
Predestination
Dog fighting
How there are more laws to obey in America than here in China
Death penalty and the methods used (guns, electric chair, lethal injection)
Calcium and Zinc needs
There is very little 'American' food
The main thing American likes to import are foreigners
How to communicate Paul's usage of the word 'dung'
Irrigation issues facing China
There is no 'fee' to pay for 'extra' children anywhere else in the world

today, we had a conversation going from pizza to Americans killing Indians in history

And I'm telling you, I could go on forever. We got to laughing about the crazy topics we had both covered. And then we were encouraged that for the most part, we could do these in Chinese!

Selah's Mid-Life Music Selections

Selah was informing me yesterday of her maturity.  She put a song on and it was a slower Beethoven piece.  She told me that "Malachi likes faster music.  He doesn't realize yet that when you get older, you like slow, calm, beautiful music.  He just doesn't realize that yet because he's still young."

What I didn't realize is that she had reached middle age over night.

What's a.....?

As I've gone through a few months of homeschooling, I've come across many cultural things that I am having to explain to my kids.  Things that most American kids would be familiar with by this stage in the game.  This list could go one forever, but here are a few:

1.  What's Valentine's Day?

2.  Why do people do parades?

3.  What are pickles, lemons, and milkshakes?

4.  What's a post office? And why do you like the stamps instead of putting glue on the back?

5.  What's a firestation?

6.  What's a seat belt?  

7.  A red light normally means STOP.

8.  Fireworks happen at night in America-not the day as we have here. 

Then there are the culturally American inappropriate things that we have to tell our kids are OK here, but not in our home or in America.

1.  Grandmother's shouldn't hack lougeys.  Especially indoors.

2.  You need to have a shirt on when you eat at a restaurant.

3.  You can't just drop trow and urinate anywhere you'd like.

4.  To cross the street you must look for donkeys, taxis, bicycles, cars, buses and walkers.  And it will never truly be clear.  Just look and run!

5.  Most grandparents don't live "in the computer."  Even though that's when we get to talk with them.  

6.  You don't eat rice by putting the bowl up to your mouth and shoveling. 

Like I said, these are just a few.  We hope our kids are good athletes or musicians or something, because man they are going to be awkward Americans.

Getting Stitches in China

For the third time this year we had to head to the doctor for stitches today...This time Malachi (x2 this year).

After practicing his best Pete Rose face first slide into a flower pot, we rushed to a local hospital. Fortunately, a good Chinese friend lives nearby to help. After the emergency room said they wouldn't or couldn't help us, Malachi and I (Brad) were directed to another building across the street. Once there and up to the second floor, they said they couldn't help us either. Go to the 4th floor, they said. With no elevator, that means carry the 40 pound sack of potatoes up 2 more flights of stairs. Since the building is under construction, we walked (I walked, he laid) about 50+ yards and found some elevators! GRACE!! 

So as we wait for the elevator, I marvel that I am staring at a "No Spitting" sign while surrounded (in a hospital) by a swarm of smokers. Hmmm. Anyway, after we then get directed down to the first floor to the ear, nose and throat doctor. we are redirected again to another office in another building. Meanwhile, I'm dog tired and tell our friend to find the office we need to go to while Malachi and I wait (she didn't even know where to go next). Then it hit me, I've got a kid with a huge gash across his face near his eye, but we're sitting outside the hospital, near a construction site, sitting on the ground, Malachi has not shoes or shirt (due to the rush). "Why won't anyone help us!!!? Or at least have us sit somewhere inside the hospital?!!" Well, since it's Sunday, of course, no doctors are scheduled to come in today in the office and they can't be called in either. We return to the ear, nose, and throat guy to get the stitches on Malachi's cheek.

After holding done the strongest 3 year old since Samson, they put the "wine" on his face (alcohol), and did the repair. I was then advised Malachi would need an IV (yes, i v)  all week. Nope, we'll pass. (They are very IV crazy here). We were blessed through. Although, as Malachi told me, "they did bad things to me", I think his face was taken care of ok.

What?!

We just read of the megachurch, High Point Church, that denied (canceled, actually) the funeral service of a navy veteran after they found out he was gay. They claim that it would compromise their principles to administer the funeral of a person persisting in a life of sin. Here's our question, does that mean no unbeliever can have a funeral at the church, since anyone who does not confess Christ persists willingly in the worst of sins? Why are people so insistent to condemn some sins, like abortion or homosexuality, and not more common, pervasive, and perhaps more deadly ones, like gluttony, laziness, lust, greed, unjust war, gossips, lack of thankfulness.....? Did persistent sin stop Jesus from weeping over Jerusalem? Did the blatant choice of sin stop Paul from wanting to endure Israel's punishment for them (in Romans)? Did we not read in Ezekiel that God does not delight in the death of the wicked when referring to rebellious Israel? Does such mourning somehow give approval of sin?

You don't have to agree with a person's sin to mourn over death, to mourn with those who mourn (which is also a command from God). In the coming year, with the presidential election around the corner, please, for each of our soul's sake, don't fall prey to the selective naming of sins, such that we choose not to be gracious with some outside the church people but grossly tolerant of others inside the church building. Please don't become seduced by one political party over another as if one side had the corner on moral issues. Worst of all, may we not begin comparing ourselves selectively to others so that we conveniently ignore our sin, coddling and justifying it as "not that bad". The wages of sin is death...how I wish that all our brothers and sisters knew that we should mourn death...after all, God does (Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 33:11).

Simple Pleasures

After receiving our August update, some of you have emailed to just check up on us and make sure all is ok. As I wrote before, it's been a hard summer for our family. But nonetheless we are excited at having been sent here. If you've ever lived overseas for an extended amount of time, you know that the excitement and adventure wears off and normal life sets in pretty quickly. And living anywhere that's not the West means that life is a lot slower and a LOT less convenient. But we've also really loved living here. Donna, a friend of mine, used to ask me randomly, "tell me a simple pleasure for today." So, while we're tired, we've realized there are many simple pleasures we have here. Here are a few:

1. Smiling at the sweet toothless street sweeper everyday on the way to the kindergarten.

2. Our kids getting to help the fruit sellers water their produce.

3. Getting to walk places instead of hopping in a car everytime.

4. Watching a couple from my kitchen window as they play badminton every morning.

5. Eating the amazing food. And getting to use chopsticks.

6. Getting to eat tons of meals with my family.

7. Teaching my kids how to love despite being an outsider.

8. Eating ice cream from vendors at any point in the day. Watching my son always pick out and love the most random selections (ie green pea, corn, raisin, etc).

9. Discovering a store that sells Diet Coke and french bread.

10. Watching my husband enjoy learning the language.

"Arkansas Couple Has 17th Child, Still Want More" article

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291949,00.html

How We are Being Changed (a.k.a. What's We're Learning) Part 2

We’ve spent a lot of time recently in Hebrews 11 and 12, trying to understand how the Lord uses life circumstances to mature and train his children. A few things have refreshed us, encouraged us to patience, and taught us how our Father works in real life.

As we read 11:33-38, about the results of the faithful life, we get a broad and perhaps unsettling picture. One thing that stuck out to us recently when we read was the exact contrast of those who “escaped the edge of the sword” (v. 34) and those who “were killed with the sword.” (v. 38). We cannot measure the Lord’s favor based on results. Both were called faithful in Hebrews 11. If this is not clear to us, the ultimate example is given in Hebrews 12:1-2 where it calls us to endurance by considering Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…” We have learned that that sustained joy and endurance requires 2 things: (1) a clear view of the goal of divine joy to be had and (2) realistic expectations as to the means of getting there, i.e. a shameful cross. I think our evangelical and cultural background has struggled in preparing us for this marathon, for we are regularly taught easy quick fixes, that we should jump ship when things are hard or don’t come “quickly”, and NOT taught to discern the good fro the best. C.S. Lewis poignantly diagnosed our sickness, we are “far to easily pleased.” Pray for us that we would mature in peace and patience as we endured His disciplined training and joyfully obey his command to us all to “be thankful always and in everything” (Eph. 5:20).

How We're Being Changed (a.k.a. What We're Learning) Part 1

(The first is a better question as too many of us habitually settle for the cognitive nature of the second.)

These past weeks have been tough on our family, with many national and foreign friends moving away, a lot of language struggles, and the change of plans in birthing our 4^th child in Thailand where we will be displaced for 2 months. In this process, our zeal and impatience have had to be quite tempered. We are not promised anything in the short or long term, except his pleasure as we reflect on him, obey, and enjoy Him. This can be a hard pill to swallow. Oswald Chamber’s entry in “Utmost for His Highest” (July 28^th) summarizes what we’ve been learning, entitled “Obedience…now what?”

One word of encouragement to us that we’d like to share with you comes from Ephesians 2:20, often overlooked when people teach on this passage. Paul remarks that we were “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” There is great encouragement in this verse for it tells us that there are significant works for us to do which He has prepared for us! We all want to lived significantly; the problem comes when we start getting too choosy about which works those will be or the timing of them. Don’t get me wrong—we can forfeit significant living by indulgence in the comforts of the culture, by avoidance of pain, discipline and hardship, or ignored sin. However, there is much reason to rejoice when we realize that it is not up to us to create our own works of service and that in fact the Lord has sovereignly equipped (Eph. 4:7; Rom 12:6) and assigned us certain works to do. This ought to instill in us hope, patience, faith, and endurance when we are not doing the what we’d rather choose to do or in the timing we’d like. We must remember that even the great saints of Scripture could not have described the daily ins and out of their life by the few episodes we read about in Scripture (i.e. Moses didn’t see burning bushes and go through raging sees every day).

Close to Home Irrationality

Here is a quote from a former political and economic leader in a large Asian country: "The core content of communism is for everyone to get rich, for everyone to have ultimate or unlimited resources, for our morals to be elevated to the highest level. But to realize that, we have to take steps," [he] said. "It's not going to happen overnight." It is interesting how capitalistic this actually sounds since communism's greatest historical realization has exactly been that resources are finite, thus everyone could never be rich. It's an impossibility. Amazing how tasting even a little wealth has the power to corrupt, blind, undermine, make naive, and frustrate. I wish we Americans would not also believe the illusion which this quote portrays.

Beijing and Home

So here our travels begin. We took a train from our city into Beijing to pick up Carrie's cousin, her husband and their 8 month old. We also decided to go to the doctor and eat some Western food for Brad's birthday. As some of you know, the doctor's appointments did not go as planned, but the pizza (at a place called Kro's Nest for those ever in Beijing. It was wonderful!), the Mexican food and Starbucks were better than imagined. Here's the kids on the train. They have a new fast train that takes only two hours to get there.






Charis spent much of her time walking the aisles and mooching food from unsuspecting passengers.




Here's Malachi in a picture captured by spying paparazzi. This is us at the beach with our family. There's a great beach about 30 minutes away. Once you get over the speedos, the sights are great.




Selah and Charis enjoying the beach. It was really Charis' first time to enjoy the beach. She spent most of the time sitting and throwing sand.





This is my kind-of nephew (he's my cousin's son). Looking dapperly in his new shades.




Here's Charis, Malachi and I. Just wanted to show the fat pregnant woman. I'm not sure why fat is cute for a baby but not so much for a woman. I'm getting large...only about 8 weeks to go!





Here's the fam.





We also went to Olympic park with my family. It's an entire park dedicated to the upcoming Olympics. It's got statues and memorials and monuments, it's really great. We spent the morning there looking around.


We had a great time with our family. It was some much needed time of fellowship and refreshment. We went to the end of the Great Wall, Olympic park, downtown and just rested. We did get to do a free talk and parade around their 8th month old, but all in all it was a good combination of work and play.

From Beijing to Thailand

It's been a while since we wrote, but in the past week, we've travel
to Beijing, had family visit, been to two hospitals for pregnancy
checkups, been rejected by one because we were foreigners, found our
the baby is measuring big (early perhaps), and that we'll have to
have the baby in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which means we'll be out of
the country for 6-8 weeks. Yep, we're not pleased about that, but so
life goes. We'll have friends who can help us there but the time away
from the Chinese language and people will be a set back. We just have
to be patient. Keep us in mind as we go through the whirlwind on
logistics and challenges facing us in the coming weeks and months.
Thanks!

Christianity in China

Here is an interesting article for those who are interested in a
brief account of Christianity in China: http://

www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/orl-

moore1507jul15,0,745276.story

Right Now Counts Forever

The night is gone
There is no moon,
another missed opportune

The day now wanes
the kids asleep so soon
and for what was left no room?

We long to live without regrets
so strange the sacred that we fear
and still the sacred brings a tear

Oh how I hope in someday still
I pray with sweat upon my brow
how to live forever, here and now.

We are going to Beijing for a few days. We'll pick up my cousin, her
husband and their 8 month old. We are going a day early in order to
indulge in some Western food. Carrie will go to the doctor for the
first time since April, just to check up on how the baby is doing.
We're rounding the corner to his delivery.

We are excited to have visitors and will post some pictures of their
visit.

Money and Happiness

Why are scholars looking at this? Didn't Solomon already figure this out in Ecclesiastes?

"Scholars ask: Why Can't Money Buy Us Happiness": http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19709408/site/newsweek/

Interesting Articles on China

"Neglect, tourism besiege Great Wall": http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19679449/

"The Toxic Republic: For Profits Sake, China's People are getting poisoned": http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19649894/site/newsweek/

The difference between "diligence" and "hastiness"

At lunch, we were talking today about how much of a disservice things like dishwashers, microwaves, TVo(?), cell phones, Starbucks, fast food, and other similar things do to us. In fact, we commented on how desperately we need to watch out for these things in that they create in us strong desires that completely skew our understanding of the Lord's purposes. For example, today I was reading Proverbs 21:5 and had no idea what was the difference between "diligence" (which is said to lead to abundance) and "hastiness" (said to bring poverty). In my little eyes, being diligent has always meant hastening the result.

Diligence inherently implies endurance, perseverance, and patience. Hastiness leads to quiting when things don't go as fast as we want. Consequently, because our instant American culture demands everything now, we Americans quit marriages, quit waiting in "too long" a line, complain about everything, get addicted to pornography or food, have bad expectations of ourselves, our kids, our spouses and friends; we assume God doesn't listen to prayers, assume God isn't acting or that we're being disobedient. Typically, we Americans have no clue what diligence is. We're simply hasty but we call it "hard work".

This lifestyle is so pervasive, dangerous, joy choking, and down right evil, it will require all of us to serious watch and fight against the sin. All sin kills. Sometimes though we can begin to sarve it with fasting, prayer,, confession, genuine accountability relationships. We find ourselves discouraged by unreal expectations we put on ourselves. We hope you will join us in putting to death these worldly, cultural values with all diligence.

East meets Eastside

So it's a hard day for our family. Our best Chinese friend, Iris, just got her visa approved to go to England with her husband. He is already there and she will be joining him for the next 10 months while he works. They might even be able to extend, depending on his future with the company. She's been a main stay in our family both this time and last time we were here. She's also both Brad and I's tutor. So needless to say, we spend a majority of our week with her. She's also the one who got married when we first arrived. We've been helping her secure the visa, so we knew this was coming, and I think it's going to be a great thing for her to go. She's looking to leave in the next week or two. Our last day with her is tomorrow. She'll be over here all day and most of the night, so please think over our time with her.




We are rejoicing at His great plans. Continue to think of her as she processes the things we have shared with her. The kids are sad and so are we. Here's a picture of them dancing the other day. We refer to this picture as "East meets Eastside," because they are dancing to old school Grits.





Here are the kids in our "Castle!" It came complete with a jail, a garden and window treatments.




Charis and mom after bath time. She's almost a year and a half. Oh ya, did we say that she's got chicken pox?! So much for that vaccine we put her through.

Malachi's priorities

Malachi told us over breakfast that there are 2 things he wanted to do today. He said "Today I want to enjoy the world and WRESTLE." "Just those two things."

And on most days wrestling=enjoying life to its fullest

For once, a logical discussion on a moral issue

Check out: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19486507/site/newsweek/page/0/

It’s an article on MSNBC sorting out the moral arguments around embryonic stem cell research.

This is probably first logically consistent article I’ve read on the topic; I wish he had gone farther and exposed the logical inconsistency of opposing embryonic stem cell research yet endorsing birth control pills. After all, one on the ways that birth control pills work is that they stop an egg (if it gets fertilized) from implanting. (For more on the birth control topic, check out a shorter article: http://www.epm.org/articles/bcp3300.html  or for the longer text: http://www.epm.org/articles/bcp5400.html

 

 

Without Complaining

Have you ever asked yourself, How little would I have left to say in a day if I cut out all my complaining?

 

Do I have to...?

I recently had a conversation with an old friend about sharing your “testimony”, basically one’s personal story of how Jesus changes your life. After some discussion, he asked me, “When I give my testimony, do I have to talk about all that stuff about the cross?” What else would we have to share, I wonder? It dawned on me how little we (including me) share Jesus when and if we tell people our stories. Could someone know the good news by the time we’re finished? I’ve learned recently that typically our words and testimonies subtlety challenge people to be moral or religious, but not Christian.

Comments now allowed

We now have allowed the comments function on our blog though we will sensor any if needed. (We get to see them before they hit the web.) Sometimes people in the past have said too much…that’s why…Thanks!

Struggles as an American Indepent

I've realized that many of my American values and virtues are really causing me to struggle in loving people correctly here. Brad and I laugh at just HOW different Chinese and American cultures are. We've decided that we do have a few things in common, like: eating, breathing, sleeping and loving. And even those are executed a little differently.

We are joined in our language class by mostly other Asian nationalities. As I sit in class and observe, my American tendencies creep up and I begin to get really frustrated with them. They are all wonderful people, just different. As an American, I value indepence and struggle with authority. Here are just a few examples of what I mean from our classes:


1. Everyday, I sit on the floor before class to study. And EVERYDAY, my classmates and teachers tell me that it's bad for me. My internal response "it's none of your business." Yet they are simply trying to care for me.

2. Then, they open the door and tell me "come in, come in, the door is open." My internal respone "yes, i can see the door is open and i will come in when i want to come in." Yet they are simply trying to love me.

3. The teacher comes in and the other students rush to make her tea and clean the chalk board for her. My internal response "you are just kissing up. Sit down and mind your own business." Yet they are simply serving their authorities and being kind to the teacher.

4. The teacher told me that I shouldn't eat bread for breakfast, but eggs. It's a pregnancy thing, they think. My internal response "she wants me to eat eggs, funny....now I want to eat more bread for breakfast." Yet she is simply trying to help.



My independence has been disgusting to me this week. So many times, our American evaluation of a situation gets in the way of simply loving people. I am so focused on my own rights or feelings that I am neglecting those around me. Independence is fine, but can also really effect our views of love and community. I could go on with this forever....but will wait for future blogs.

For whatever reason, the Lord has made my internal monologues really loud. And they are sickening to me. I want the voices to stop and the simple act of loving to start.

Shh...?

When people read the Bible, there’s one topic that especially turns people off…and no, I’m not talking about hell or judgment. It has been called everything from heresy, to a peripheral issue, to irrelevant and impractical theological jargon. Even among people who believe the truth of this topic, they tend only to be a bit embarrassed by it. One problem though faces anyone who cares about the Bible…the Bible talks about it at all the “wrong” times. I’m not going to argue any theological point here on a blog—there are plenty of books on it—but I will simply make some observations. Let me warn you…only keep reading if you’re willing to get greater joy in the Lord.

 

I’m talking about the doctrines of grace—also called “election”. This is the Bible teaching that God sovereignly rescues those who will be his people from among the universally sinful population of the world. Now see this…and feel free to email with questions or comments if you want. God talks about election (also called predestination) at every place most of us would think utterly wrong or useless.

 

1…to backslidden people (Malachi 1:2-5)

2…to a very worldly church (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

3…to a young church (note how much it’s referenced in 1 and 2 Thessalonians)

4…when God’s justice is challenged (Romans 9)

5…when Paul really wanted to celebrate God with the longest run on sentence in the Greek (Ephesians 1:3-14)

6...as the grounds for universal, practical love (James 2:5)

 

Arguably also……as encouragement to a dejected people facing God’s discipline yet looking for grounding for His promises (Deut. 9:4-6; Ez. 36:22, 32)

 

For more on this topic, John Piper has a lot of essays and sermons on www.desiringgod.org

 

M bags and gang beatings

We just wanted to let the world know that my dad sent some boxes via M bag on June 11th and we picked them up today!! Usually these babies take 3-4 months to arrive. Now we haven't gotten all of them, so who knows when they will come. We figured there was something in them that we REALLY needed to read. We were blown away that they got here so quickly.

The other strange thing was that as we were leaving, we got caught up in the middle of some type of gang beating. I, Carrie, was with the older two kids and I came up on a group of about 15 young men running to get-away cars holding big pieces of wood. We did some investigating and there was a man laying down, beaten. The police soon arrived, but the guys were long gone. I could've taken some good cell phone pics, but was glad that I bought a cheap phone without a camera. I might have ended up in the middle of it more than I wanted to be.

The frustrating thing is that they won't be caught and if they are, they'll get off if they know the right people.

007 Wedding

We had our friends wedding today. James Bond and his wife-Liu Hui. They actually got married over Chinese New Year, but this was the more formal ceremony. He has been a good friend of ours for a couple of years now. He wanted our family to be a part of the ceremony, so Selah did the flower girl thing (the other girl in the picture is another friends daughter, Hannah) and Malachi the ring bearer role. Brad gave a short speech. Here's us pre-wedding.



Last night was the rehearsal and dinner. Normally there's not a rehearsal, but they wanted a more Western wedding, so rehearse we did. We went to the hotel and in the front lobby was a tank full of HUGE toads. The kids loved it. They sat and laughed and watched the unsuspecting frogs swim gleefully around their tank. After spending some time admiring the huge frogs, (enter gloomy-on-your-way-to-your-death music) there appeared two shadows from above the tank. What were these two shadows?! Nothing less than nets. And why nets you ask (or at least the frogs asked), well, because dinner needed to be served. So two of the frogs were whisked away. The kids were asked to follow them into the kitchen to watch, but mom intervened. I'll have no frog cooking nightmares on my watch.




We told James that we didn't want to know which dish the frogs were in, but I think it was diced and served with cabbage. And we had already told our friends the foreigner rice trick. The rice trick is that when you go to formal banquets you always save some rice in your bowl to hide the strange dishes that are served. Promptly stuffed to the bottom of the bowl and everyone saves face. So he was watching us. But we got everything down and the meal was actually wonderful. Both at this meal and the wedding meal we got to have octopus, duck, shrimp, and some great spicy dishes.




All was well and we had a great time with our friends and their families.

...and with a joyful heart

Our kids know how to answer the question, “How do we obey?” The answer is “Right away, all the way, and with a joyful heart” We’ve gone through various Scriptures with them about each part of this answer.

This morning I read a horrific chapter in Deuteronomy 28, where God lists in detail some of the gruesome curses that he would send upon Israel if they disobeyed. What is noteworthy however is 28:47, which gives reason for God’s punishment, “Because you did no serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart….”

This is not only applicable for parenting, but in our being His children. Why do we take less seriously his commands to rejoice and delight than we do other commands? Piper says it well, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Whether we murder, glutton ourselves on food, or have thankless hearts, our sin proclaims to the world that he is NOT our delight? Today, rejoice…again I say rejoice.

Children's Day Festivites!

So June 1st was Children's Day in China. Although it seems as if everyday is Children's day here. But nonetheless we embarked upon quite the Children's Day festivities. I won't go into graphic details because the pictures will fill in the gaps. The weeks preceding Children's day were filled with endless practicing and preparation. No performance is small, that's for sure. Selah had what I thought was a practice on Monday night. Well, come to find out it was a HUGE performance in front of hundreds of people. She was accompanied by roller bladers, models, singers, dancers, the works! We had no idea what was happening. We ran through the rain and were soaked. So by the time we showed up for "practice", we were exhausted. The night was fun, but late and exhausting.

Enter Children's day on the 1st. We get to the kindergarten at 7 am sharp. No time for breakfast at school, because it's time to get dolled up. Here's Selah, post make-up session:



And yes, here's Malachi, post his time in the chair:





So the kids loaded up on a bus to head to the performance hall. There we were met by parents and school officials who had found the same fate in their battle with the eyeshadow. The teachers dressed up in several outfits and did multiple performances. Each was followed by a speech given by 4 and 5 year old announcers.

Each class had a different dance. Here's one that I think was about recycling and how happy the earth would be if we would all recycle. During it, I'm thinking, "let's just start with throwing your trash in a trash can and not the ground", but I guess they have the right to be visionaries. Here they are dressed in coke cans-I think they are the bad guys!



And now come our kids. Malachi is all but enthused the entire time. He is dreading his performance and now you can see why:



His class striped down to their underwear and put on flowered, clear garbage sacks. The sacks were accessorized by a dazzling arrangement of fluffy plastic placed oh so gentily on their ankles, wrists and head. Needless to say, Malachi was not excited. If you know our son, you can understand why. This is the face he made the ENTIRE performance as they danced around acting like babies-i think that's what they were at least.





Selah's class did an Olympic theme and she represented water sports. She loved the whole thing! On Monday's performance, they interviewed her and she spoke Chinese and just loved the whole deal. She was in her element, for sure.



The kids were great sports. And now we have some great rehersal dinner material for Malachi's wedding.

Malachi and School

Praise the Lord! Thanks for your prayers.

 

We’re seeing progress as Malachi has not cried for 2 straight mornings. We’ve allowed him to take his children’s Bible to school to read and he has enjoyed that. He told us that he was brave because he knew (realized?) that we would come back for him after lunch. Why it took him 4 weeks to observe that pattern is beyond us. (We have always come immediately after he eats every day.)

A New Excuse for Language Incompetence

My Chinese teacher today asked me to answer some questions in Chinese characters today up on the blackboard.  Well, my characters are VERY limited.  So I told her I couldn’t and she shook her head and said “oh ya, you are fat and tired, you cannot go do the work.”  I shook my head “yes, yes that is it.”  It has nothing to do with the fact that you’re writing in an impossible language, it’s just that I’m fat and tired.  I’m gonna use that excuse all the time now! 

 

 

 

 

Malachi's take on pregnancy

Malachi told me the other day that Kesed (that's the name of the baby boy I'm now pregnant with) is "workin' my blood." I asked him seveal times to repeat and he consistently told me that "he's workin' your blood mommy."

More Insights into the Culture through Language

Another insight into the culture through language (we find these interesting)—

 

Whereas we would say “We went to the movie last night”, they would say [literally translated], “We last night went to the movies.”

For them, it’s not so much what you do that is important, but how you do it. Consequently, the modifying phrase—the adverbial phrase modifying the verb—is emphasized with the words order.

 

For those of you who like this stuff and are grammar geeks, here’s one more. Let’s say you have the sentence, “I threw the ball to Ryan”. “Ryan” is the indirect object, meaning it’s the thing that is affected by the verb’s action.

But in typical Chinese grammar, you’d say, “I to Ryan threw the ball.” Again, in Chinese culture, the main point is not what you did, but WHO was affected.  

 

How fitting that the grammar reveals the priority of the culture—the emphasis is on how we do something and who is affected. Sounds like an emphasis we all should consider more…

 

Interesting Article

We found an interesting article on the effect of the Internet on Chinese high school students. It's just a brief survey, but interesting nonetheless.

Here's the link: China Kids

Learning a Culture Through Language

We had a cool cultural nugget through the language yesterday. Bare with the details....

The word "qian" means "ahead, in front of". However, so say "2 years ago", you say "[2 years] qian". To us, it sounds like we are saying the opposite of its meaning. Likewise, "hou" means "behind, in back of", but when you say "2 years into the future", you say "hou [year]". Again, it sounds like you are saying the opposite of the words' meaning.

Except for one cultural, philosophical part of their worldview. The Chinese are emphatically past-centered. Americans are overwhelmingly future driven...we are always thnking of what's ahead. Thus, we tend to thnk of time linearly--as if on a line--where the past is behind us and the future is ahead of us. With the Chinese, however, they are always looking at the past. Thus, the past {i.e. 2 years ago} has happened and is thus before or in front of their attention. The future is not yet and so it is unseen or hidden. 2 years into the future is "behind them" in the respect that they are not able to see it now.

Very logical if you come at it from a different set of assumptions....

Duck Feet, yum

We got to have lunch with some friends today. It was a really fancy Sichuan meal that a Korean family wanted to introduce us to. We soon found out why when we were asked to teach her son English. Gotta love the strings attached events in this culture. But we said no and enjoyed the meal anyway. The most exotic of dishes we had this time was duck feet. They tasted...well...just like gnawing on a duck's foot that stepped in a little soy sauce. But it was fun to have some really great spicey food. Then we went over to the Korean family's home to let the kids play. For those of you who remember, this is the Korean boy that Selah gave the bloody nose to the last time we were here. The other family were some friends from our last time here too.






This is just a fun picture of my sweet Charis Mei.

First Week of Class

After the May holiday, classes began in full effect for both Brad and I. We started class on Tuesday and had a test on Wednesday. The class has already been in session for a few months and it's total immersion. I think Intimidating would be a good word to use here. We have one teacher who keeps harping on us because we cannot read the characters. We just laugh and remind ourselves of the reality of language learning.

We can tell we're improving, just slowly. There are two Russian girls in our class that feed us help when we are looking desperate. They both have good English.

We also found a helper to watch Charis while I'm in class. She seems really great, but this morning was really hard. I cried for a good part of the morning. It's a HUGE faith leap for me to leave my child with a strange woman whom we cannot understand. We have different customs, language, philosophies and habits and off she goes with my youngest child. Charis seemed happy when we picked her up. She came home with a new outfit because the helper assumed she was cold. Those who are familiar with China will not be surprised at this.

We'll update more next week....all in all, it was a good week.

Just in case...

So our oldest thinks of things we don't and it's cool to see her mind work.

We had a local guy come in to help clean the apartment and Selah rushed to clean her own room to help him out, but the part I liked best was that she left a page purposely lying out from her favorite book so that he would see it just in case (she said) he didn't know the Story already.

Then when some other friends were leaving our apartment, she interupted their leaving and asked, "Can we stop and pray for them?" We then got in a circle and she indeed prayed.

Cool girl.

Unconditional Love

Have you ever really considered whether this is possible? If we're honest, most people agree that relationships have some sort of conditionality, but is this correct?

By "unconditional" love, I mean a love that does not distinguish people due to individual distinctness (personality, ethnicity, intelligence...) and that does not truly aim at selfish, privateusage of the other person. Pure love should be universal and mutually joy producing.

How might this actually happen though?

Micah 7:18 has been a profound verse for us in the past months, "Who is a God like you who...delights in steadfast love." The way we love unconditionally is by delighting in such a love. When this kind of love brings us joy or delight, then the love is not conditioned on the object of our affection---we simply get a kick of living, regardless of who gets to benefit. IS this not how our Lord sustains His love--whether Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, male, female..... He delights in the glory of His own nature. When share in that same joy--displaying and depending on His glorious nature--then our love with be unconditional and without end!

James Bond and Family

We got to spend the day and evening with our friend James Bond and his new wife. She is from the same city that we had the wedding, so we stopped by to say hello. Her family was so gracious to us. We made dumplings together and had a great time. They were really jealous of our ability as Americans to have more than one child. We get that often. After the looks of "are you crazy?!", next comes the words of jealousy. Their one child policy is harder than we could imagine on some families who want lots of kids.

Re-Posting of 1st day of school/apt. pictures

There was a glitch in the Blogging Matrix with our blog titled "First day of School/New Apartment. So we reposted the pictures.

Wedding Details

We made it!! I'll give you a brief run down of our time in Tangshan for the wedding. I wish there was a stronger word for exhausted because i would use it here. It was great, but wow, we're tired.

We got the blessing of having most of our section of the train to ourselves. This was a much needed reprieve from the chaos of traveling. This was Charis' first train ride post-womb.




It took us about 3 hours on the train. We met up with our friends at 7 pm. And for those of you with small kids know that everything after 7 is bad news. It's about an hour and a half to her small town. But we had yet to eat dinner and knew that there would be family obligations with our friends. So off to a "famous" restaraunt where we met up with both her and her fiance's families/ Of course no English. By the time we ate, it was about 8:30. We finish up dinner with no huge cultural mishaps and head to her house. It's now about 9:30 and the kids are starting to melt. They have held together nicely so far, but we know we're pushing our luck. After all the introductions and niceties, we head to the room where we sleep. It's about 10:30 now and we're wiped. We all pee in a plastic bowl placed in our room so that we don't have to use the outhouse. And then we hope onto a platform that we'll call bed for the night.

Here's our bed:



I"ll try and keep the rest short. We wake up early and eat bean curd soup and fried dough. And then we wait for everything to begin. We are well taken care of by the family and the town got a kick out of our clan. We felt very honored because we got to sit with the family during part of the traditional parts of the wedding. The fiance has to give the dowry to the brother and he continues to ask for more money. They then look for her shoes hidden around the room. After that, we are introduced and eat a snack with the families. We felt very honored.









We loaded in the car and headed to the restaraunt for the "Western" part of the wedding. They set off tons of fireworks and spray them with silly string.










Now Malachi and Selah act as ring bearer and flower girl. But nobody has any idea what that means, so I, Carrie, am at the back trying to herd cats. Nobody knows who is going where and this is all happenng amongst a crowded restaraunt. But we made it. Brad delivered his message among much noise. And then we ate. And man did we eat.



It was a beautiful wedding. The bride changed three time into beautiful gowns. And then they both toasted every table there. By the end things got funny as we watched the drunkenness level rise. We are hoping for some seeds to have been sown as we spent time with our friends and with their families. It was a blessing to get an inside look at their lives and their families.

Intercultural Exchange

The other day Selah wanted to bring her favorite Book to school, however, we were a little hesitant, not wanting to cause undo cultural offense, since they wold not be familiar with all our commonly loved Stories. Well, we said ok, but only when the other kids were napping.

After school, she informed us that she read it to her teachers with all the kids around. "What did you read them?" we asked.
She answered that she told them about dieing and arising! Well, at least she gets right to the point of life huh?
She then said, "Yeah, my principal was there too."

Let the cultural exchanges begin!:)

Wedding Bells

Today we will leave for a wedding of a good friend. She lives about 2 hours from our home. So we'll load up on the train and trek across the plains of China to attend. She wanted a Western style wedding, with Selah as the flower girl, Malachi as the ring bearer, Brad will be giving a message as the host and Carrie will be the photographer.

We don't know exactly what we're walking into, so stay tuned to our next post as I can guarentee you it will be interesting.

We'll be staying at her home because the only hotel in her town is under construction and we were told it isn't safe there. I have stayed with her family before and they were wonderful hosts. But that was one person....now I am bringing a husband and three small kids. The kids will get to use the outhouse and sleep all in one bed. Like I said, stay tuned for details!