After almost a year of putting it off, I thought it was about time for me to finally write another update! It’s amazing to think that it has already been one year since I arrived here, and it’s incredible to think about how different things are now from when I first arrived last January.
When I first arrived, I was set to join a group on a campus near the city center, was getting geared up to be an English teacher (something I once swore I’d never be), and was looking for ways to get connected to an orphanage. My Chinese language skills were near to non-existent, and I was confident that keeping up with a monthly blog and monthly newsletter would be NO problem.
Over the past year, amidst many surprises, challenges, and stressors, my life here has developed into something much different than how it began. Due to a miscommunication with the school I work for and a shift in team numbers, I moved to the southern part of the city. In doing so, I gained a roommate, and an easier work commute, but it also meant that I had to shifting to a different campus team, with teammates vastly different from the ones I thought I would be working with. I’ve grown and developed in my relationships with everyone differently than I expected to. Teaching went from being hard, to being a nightmare, to being livable, to now having purpose. My compassion focus shifted from the orphanage to the foster families, and led me to be a swim teacher for a local boy on the autistic spectrum for about 8 months. I’m finding myself able to understand speak more Chinese than I thought I’d be able to in one year…
This year has been so full of darkness, division, conflict, strife, and loss. The devil is certainly working hard to discourage and to dismay the Lord’s people. When I decided to come and live here for two years, I didn’t realize how much of a battleground this place really is. But with all that said…. I’m also amazed at the ways that God has shown himself at work, the ways he’s shown me along the way that he’s providing, that he’s sustaining. He is truly a source of hope and comfort in the hardest of times, and he encourages us to be vulnerable with our brothers and sisters around us, so that we can be the Body for one another.
I hope to be able to write more regularly in the future, so that I can bring you all along for the ride.