A mixed bag

God is moving and working mightily

Doesn't every parent want their child to have a authentic M-16 and AK-47?

Papa Johns by bike, just the way I like it.

Ice cream cones at 10cents a pop is tough to beat. 

This is my favorite camper.

Hailar at night

I took this at 9pm with a super long exposure. ^

This is rural Inner Mongolia

6.14-6.20

The week has had so many ugly and wonderful moments. What does strike me as wonderful is that this camp is bringing an experience to these kids that is available nowhere else in China, that is the experience of summer camp experience.  Oddly enough, the kids will wear clothes you would only wear Sunday morning at Catholic mass, let alone playing kickball. They just don't get out much. Much of their life is spent focused on studying. Being out in the sun for long periods of time is new to them too. The concept of remaining hydrated is still foreign to as well, most boys will down a coke during basketball games. When we are finally able to get the kids to understand the game they glow as they experience volleyball and Ultimate for the first time. It is extremely draining and rewarding all at once.

What I love most is the Tianjin International School (TIS) group that has come to help us out with games and songs during this 12 day session. TIS is staffed by all Christians that are eager to help us out whenever we need them. They have been such a blessing with the manpower and spiritual encouragement they provide. It hit me on 6.20 that the Body of Christ is a global force to be reckoned with. This school came up to SE for the sole purpose of helping us out and serving the kids. It just dropped on me like a ton of bricks, just how great it is to witness the hands and feet of Christ first hand every day.

To those that love the Jesus, please be in prayer for my two translators (Nike and Frank), they are seeking. I request prayer for them to have ears to hear and that my words would be specific to what they need to hear most.

My week in one liners

6-14
I am so blessed and lucky to be born in America where English is my first language.

6-15
The 200 little emperors arrive.

6-16
Oh, to be a child again with all of my adventures before me. To experience everything again for the first time would be wonderful. Oh how great it would be to feel bulletproof and invincible.

6-17
I have rediscovered an old love of mine. Basketball.
I have used it as a vehicle by which to earn the respect of the 14year-old boys I teach everyday.

6-18
The global body of Christ does not cease to amaze me.
Got to share the message with my two translators that are digging deeper in Christianity.

6-19
This whole China thing is really a mixed bag. So many terrible things I could choose to get stuck on, and all the while there are so many blessings that have come as well.

6-20
Swapping favorite stories with the locals is a blast. From Daniel to Paul Bunyan.

6-21
Just call me the Cilantro thief. I have managed to make a Chinese version of Chipotle's rice.

The Time Traveler's Wife...6-15-10

Today I just finished The Time Traveler’s Wife , it was one of my favorites. Something I have realized about myself is that I mourn over the end of books. I love to escape to somebody else’s story and place mine on hold for a little bit.

Today is the first day of a 12 day session. We have 300 kids here. Most of them are only children.  Grades 4-6. I’m sharing a bunk with close to 50 8-year olds. Lord help me. 

300 little emperors...6-15-10

The 300 little emperors come! Lord help me. Drove a moped for the first time today.

Huge English festival held in our honor...6-14-10

We had a huge English festival held in our honor today. There were over 2000 in attendance and we (John, Tyler, Mike, Mary, and I) were the guests of honor with a big fancy table front and center.

They LOVE/ADORE Michael Jackson. Countless kids asked if I knew him or Lady Gaga.

I thought I was through with culture shock but I guess I’m not because I want to strangle these kids for being some of the worst behaved I have ever seen. I guess I should just accept, but I do not foresee that as being a quick process.  I’m doing my best to chug through and press in. 

So blessed...6-14-10

I am so blessed I was lucky enough to be born in the United States with English as my primary language.

Inner Mongolia...6-13-10

So I have attempted to describe to you how pretty Inner Mongolia is, well here just one of hundreds of shots to come when I get back home.

Life, like mowing...6-12-10

Life, like mowing Mongolian grass should be approached and dealt with as so. Remember that which you have already passed because you never know when you have to back up and redo a spot. The key is to keep your eyes forward and aware of all that which surrounds you.

Today a German film crew shot at the Camp to capture why a man would move to Inner Mongolia to start an English camp. As a result I was part of the background mowing down grass that was by no exaggeration a solid 18 inches high. To make things even more delightful, various local camp employees would use the fields I had to mow as a place to chuck random palm sized chunks of brick. So I had to navigate that in grass as high as my knees. All while being filmed by a German documentary crew. Suffice to say, it was so random that this crew of delightful people wanted to shoot us working that it all made for a good laugh at the end of the day. 

The funniest part is that they while they were shooting they grabbed some impromptu shots of my mowing; unfortunately for me I looked as though I was ready to kill someone. The icing is that these shots could make it onto the documentary which is showing nationwide in German during the Christmas season. I cannot think of a better way in which I would desire for the people of Germany to see me.

Places we went...6-7-2010

At airport in Beijing going to Inner Mongolia I met a Russian Olympian. He was rude.

Places we went on my first day of my internship

Cops-to get me registered

Security bureau –to get registered –both because I’m a foreigner.

School-to meet with a  headmaster to pick up a staff member that would take us to the bank to get  cash for students going to SE

Bank 1-to get the money. It was wrapped up in newspaper. Hilarious. 30kUSDx6.8=what I saw

Bank 2 to deposit money. They would not wire it bc it was not to their bank.

Steel store- to pick up sign posts

Sign store to pick up signs-50 of them to be exact

Sheet metal man- to get a garbage for SE

Culinary supplies store-to find garbage can

Plastic random store- to find a garbage

Dinner-for Hotpot with Anna and John and Annas friend