www.QuoVadam.com

Almost three months. Wow! when you’re busy time slips away so easily. I’ve been extremely busy lately. Since our English House program has partnered with the English training school called New Oriental (if you remember, New Oriental is the largest English training school in China) and since JR is now the head of Foreign Affairs for New Oriental as well as one of the local directors of Gift of Joy, we have been able to try our hand at teaching large English Classes. They gave a couple of us foreigners here at Gift of Joy a couple of classes during their summer session. Well a couple classes has turned into a lot of classes. At 2.5 hours per class and 2 or three classes per day with only 40 minutes in between each class, it get very tiring. Especially since the classes are 100 students or larger. The cards we were dealt were not very favorable. It was sort of like they handed us something that is already very difficult and they expected us to fail. However, that is the Chinese way. Even when you are successful at something, they will tear it apart and tell you what was wrong with it. You know they think its trash when they either say all good things, or say nothing. That is their way. However, for us westerners, it is very daunting, and exhausting. The classes end at the end of Aug so I will have much more free time.

Thankfully, I get paid for the classes, which is an added blessing because my camera recently broke and now I will be able to afford a new one. The rest of what I make will be going to renew my insurance for Jun04 - Jun05. I’m only posting the financial facts for the sake of my current as well as potential supporters. I think it is only right that I be honest about any income I bring in while I am here. This is only a short term thing because after the summer session I will no longer be legally able to work unless I am provided a work permit or a business visa by New Oriental. As for support, if any of you feel that this warrants an adjustment in your amount of current (or potential) support, please contact me via email so we can discuss the details. However, In the upcoming months, I will be back in a position of petitioning for support.

In January, for the sake of our ministry here at Gift of Joy and also for English House, JR and I (and possibly more staff) will be registering to attend a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) crash course in Los Angeles, CA. The class is a two week course. The cost is $1000 plus air-fare and lodging, however, with proper planning, the lodging may be offset by making accommodations with the local LA YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base. Also, time permitting, I am seriously considering registering to attend a semester or two of Chinese courses at Wuhan University. This will give me a great base to develop my skills in speaking Mandarin Chinese. It will also be the spearhead to make studying Japanese much easier. Now, youre probably saying “Japanese?!?! Why are you going to be studying Japanese?!?!” Well, I will explain more in my next update, which I promise will be posted by the beginning of Sept. Lets just say that God has shown me A LOT recently about His plans for my future and my upcoming ministry to the Japanese people. As for the scheduling of the classes, right now, things are tentative. I will let everyone know more as soon as I know more.

A quick update on other things. I have built a few solid relationships here which are beginning to bring forth fruit. I’ve even built one relationship with a young man from Australia, whom I’ve never met before but, whom I would never have made contact with had I never come to China. Its an interesting situation, but one that has opened a lot of doors to sharing the Good News. One of the other relationships is with a young man who it beginning university this fall. He reminds me more of a American boy than a Chinese boy. I spend most of my free time with him. We make some kind of contact with each other every day. His English name is Tim and after my classes are over, Tim and I will be taking a trip to ShangHai and nearby HangZhou. In China, ShangHai is said to be the “New York City of China” and HangZhou is said to be”Heaven on Earth”. So I will be taking many pictures which I will quickly post on the website soon after I return.

Since I’ve been so incredibly busy lately I haven’t been able to sit down and do a decent update. Partly because I don’t like posting an update unless I have pictures to post also and, since it takes a couple hours to put together a new picture page, I haven’t had the time at all. So, when the classes are finished and Tim and I return from ShangHai, I will be posting a lot of pictures and make a post a big update explaining more about my near future here with Gift of Joy, and my future vision and ministry in Japan. So brace yourselves, its gonna be a big one. So I hope this one hasn’t taken up too much of your time. Please continue to pray for me, for energy, strength, wisdom, and above all, self control, because its easy to let discipline slip away here. Thank you all for your prayers and support (and patience when it comes to reading my updates). I love and miss you all (even those I don’t know, haha).

In His Service!