Jan 24 2012
Doing Training. Lots of Travel.
The last two weeks have been a very productive time and God did many wonderful things in and through our ministry. Honestly, today I ran out of gas but that is okay. God seems be be giving me a couple of days of rest this week to catch up after non-stop stuff. God is good. Lisa and the kids too are in a busy time. Tim and Charis are in basketball right now and Tim continues in scouts. As I did some training with some ISI staff friends in Colorado who are just about to have their second wedding of the year of their two daughters, I was struck by the fact that in not too many years, we will have one in college and another not too far behind. Lisa and I celebrated our 18th anniversary yesterday. Wow… the time move so quickly.
Some quick hits:
- Roy and teammate Derrah spent Jan 13-16 in Colorado training people in some of the stuff we are doing in ministry with the M28 initiative. This was in a sense a dry run for another nationally teleconferenced training in Omaha in February and a international trip to do training in Asia in late March. God really blessed the time as people seemed receptive and open to trying what we were teaching: implanting church planting concepts in discipleship of students who follow Jesus. We also learned about what works and doesn’t work in training this material. Almost everyone there said that we encouraged them to really look deeply at how they do ministry.
- We welcomed several hundred new students at UTA. Roy helped out with the rides to Walmart and Roy, Lisa and the team helped out much with the Big Howdy party this last Saturday. On the Walmart run, in his group of 6, he met a young friend from Iran who really connected with Roy.
We are sitting in the plane with one hour to go before we arrive in Los Angeles. Then a long layover in LA and then the three hour flight home. We have travelled exactly a month already. It will be nice to be sleeping in our own beds tonight.
In our last few hours in Asia, God answered several prayers reminding of how blessed we have been on this trip. Our restful hotel stay in Shanghai was just what we needed and when we got to the desk to check into our China Eastern flight there were no problems. Honestly, if China Eastern worked on their stateside customer service they might just be okay. The in flight service was okay and the food was good.
One phrase I heard from several students was that they are thankful that we came because it reminded them of the special time and the things they learned and experienced while in Texas. They were reminded of the blessings shown by God’s people and God’s grace experienced with them. Some were challenged to stay faithful to commitments made in the past.
The time in the two orphanages were also very special. The five of us got to see a different side of China. One that we never see through our students. We were able to see the poor and the less fortunate and you and we were able to help. I know we have places like there too. Perhaps it is important to expose the students to them too.
Once home we will share some other stuff, we will upload pictures and videos and all. So for for now, high above the Pacific Ocean we bid you adieu.
Our time in Fukushima was very nice. The people in Fukushima and in the region are working hard to bring normalcy back to their lives. Still the ground is not stable as evidenced by the small tremor last night. In the days prior to our arrival my parents attended a seminar for those who live within 50 miles of the troubled nuclear plant. Right now, in Fukushima, they have relaxed the recommendations and short sleeves and being maskless is okay. Food is also okay if washed properly.
Our family is doing okay though age is starting to creep up on our uncles and aunts. I have one uncle who is very close to death as he struggles with a rare form of spinal cancer. We were able to bring some comfort to his family as they deal with this. 
My parents were able to pray with him but things seem bleak. As we drove by my late grandparents abandoned home this trip I was taken by how short life is and how much I miss them and how much our little seen but much loved Japanese family means to us. I fear we have not done well in getting to know the next generation and we may loses the connection when my parent’s generation passes.
When we visited my aunt in Kami, Miyagi prefecture, we were able to drive though some of the parts of Sendai most affected by the Tsunami and earthquake. What contrasts! In the main city you would never know that anything happened as there was little major damage… But as you move toward the sea, you see more and more evidence of destruction. As we drove towards Sendai airport you start to see cars in huge piles. You also see debris also piled up neatly all over. 
Every once in a while you might see a boat or a train where it should not be or a car in a field. Where there were once many homes we just fields, mud and felled trees. It was amazing seeing the destruction in that place but also how much cleaning up has been done but also how much still has to be done. There are so many sub stories from there. I wish I has the tim to tell you some of them. Also we find small evacuee communities all over Fukushima, Miyagi, and surrounding prefecture including next to one of my aunt’s homes.
Three stories both involving my parents strike me and show God at wortk through our time here As they were serving at a evacuation center, they were talking to a young man. They saw he had the same last name as my mother’s family. They asked him where he was from and he said Soma. We learned earlier because of the Tsunami that a long lost relative was from there. We asked him if he was related. He was! He was th grandson of my grandfather’s cousin. God brought them together.
The second story is very personal to my father and his family. 70 years ago his uncle who lived in the States donated a piano to my dad’s elementary school in war damaged Japan. It was a huge deal with the governor’s wife coming out to play it in a special ceremony. A couple of days ago my dad was talking with his siblings about this On a whim my dad and his brother visited the school and to their surprise, the piano was still there! It had a plaque saying it was from the states and that is it. They told the story to the principal who was a good friend of my uncle. They took a picture of someone playing the piano with my uncle and dad and the principal. My uncle was touched.
With all these stories my parents were able to point my family to Jesus. The relatives were able to see that God is not distant but REAL!
Still we loved China and we are very much enjoying Japan. We’ve met several of our students since arriving, several recently married. Maki and Kohji with their son Rui, Shusuke and Yuko, Jun and JooKyung, and Amanda and Daiju have been incredible hosts for our family.
Next we head for Fukushima. Pray for safety in this place recently ravaged by earthquake and nuclear disaster. Pray that we can be an encouragement to family members there. Pray also that we cab physically handle the walking and other visiting stuff we’ve lived with the last three week.
Today was the last day of the ISI conference in Hong Kong. This time together was very sweet for us. To be able to share with friends who have a passion and love for the same things, for the same people, it was as if we were suddenly put in the presence of over 200 kindred spirits. It was such a blessing. We learned so much from each other about international students and the best ways to serve them. There were quite a few ideas that we will be taking back with us when we get back to Texas. One of the special things about this particular time was that we as a Dallas, Texas team were able to contribute in many ways because we were able to share what God was already doing in our midst. Praise the Lord that we could make a difference in even other ministries through His grace.
While we were here though, while we were here there was a great tragedy back in Arlington… but this illustrates the importance of this conference and the networking and partnering it brings. During the breakfast of the first day, our co-worker friends from Michigan asked if we knew a young lady from Taiwan that moved from their area to ours. Lisa and Charis had been meeting with her and her daughter for some time now and so we did. Well, our Michigan friends told us the sad sad news that she just passed away via a stroke a couple of days earlier in Arlington. Wow… that was a total shock. She was only 35 and left behind her young husband and three year old daughter. Well, we weren’t sure what to do but we wanted to figure out a way to minister to her husband whom we met one time when he visited for Thanksgiving. All we had was her contact information and not his and we were thousands of miles away.
Our colleague Ron had to stay home due to Doctor’s orders in recovering from prostate cancer surgery. It was a struggle for him to be home. Anyway, we decided to Skype him early Sunday morning in Texas from Hong Kong to see if he could muster someone to visit the husband. Ron was much more recovered that we thought and was able to visit the husband… but we still didn’t have his contact information. We tried several avenues and in the end it was a volunteer from Michigan who closely interacted with the couple who sent us the information. Armed with this information, Ron was able to visit the grieving man and his daughter and prayed with him and encouraged him. The husband also requested information about the process of becoming a single father after death. Several of our staff had gone through a similar situation and we were able to let Ron know about another of those who happened to also be “stuck” at home because of illness from New Jersey.
Since arriving in Southern China, our trip has been a whirlwind. We met in Guangzhou with the first Chinese student that we were friendship partners with Jack with his friend Phillip. Jack has a daughter the same age as our little girl and they were friends when he was a student at UTA in 2005. Jack took us around Guangzhou and saw us off on a train for Hong Kong.
On arrival to Hong Kong, I exited the subway and I felt like we just came into a new world. It reminded me a lot of the day that one hikes out after a backpacking trip. The trip is wonderful and beautiful and full of wonders, but when you get to the snack bar or store you are suddenly overwhelmed with the stimuli that you encounter. It felt that way in Hong Kong. So many lights, so many shiny buildings, so many bustling people, so many non-Chinese. It was truly and experience. We also realized a lightness in a sense as restrictions on things such as internet are suddenly gone. BACK ON FACEBOOK! Yeah.
We then had the distinct pleasure of doing Church with a very good friend from college and his family. After Princeton and after some jobs and degrees while in the states, he moved back to his native Hong Kong to help with the family business. At first he was not a believer but was married to a Taiwanese believer. but in the 6 years since we were last here, God got a hold of him and he chose to follow Jesus and he was baptized. This Friday, he and his family will be traveling to Africa to do mission work. I really saw a difference in him. I really felt like our friendship also went to a new level as the most important things in our lives, thing things that drive us are now the same.
I am sitting in the front of a projectile moving nearly 340 km per hour. We are sitting in in China’s newest class of high speed train jetting away from Wuhan on the way to the southern city of Guangzhou. Because of trains such as these, what used to take 19 hours takes only 5 hours. This is truly a symbol of the new China. You may recognize the name Wuhan because of the recent serious and deadly flooding there.
We leave Anhui province with a smile on our face. We were able to see Charis’ orphanage before it was torn down, we were able to see the hotel where we first met her. We were able to see the place where she was found and learned of the noble history of the people an the land she came from. We were able to see some of the unique animals from her country. We are so thankful to alwaysforever.us agency for setting up the trip and for our guide/interpreter Cherry and driver Mr Youn for making it so special.
Today we are off to Guangzhou where we will meet our very first Chinese friendship partner Jake and his family and our other friend Phil. It marks the last stop in our extended stay in China. Tomorrow we travel to Hong Kong to stay though with a day trip to the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and after a weeklong excursion into Japan an overnight stay in Shanghai before flying home. We are about half way through.
Today was a very special day for our little girl. Today is the day we went to visit the orphanage where she spent the first year of her life. In addition, with the help of our special guide, Cherry and our driver, we were able to find the place where Charis was found abandoned bundled up in a very easy to find box 8 years ago.
It was quite a day as we left our Hefei for the 1.5 hour trip to Chaohu. We took backroads to get a sense of what the countryside is like. And while driving through fields of rice and other crops, watching people plowing their fields with oxen and riding to town in the back of small trailer’s behind small three wheel tractors, I was reminded of what my grandparents’ farm in Japan was like back in the 70′s when we visited them.
The orphanage was just as we remembered it. They were moving in a few weeks to a new “storybook-like” facility, but the old place had many of the same pictures and whatnot that where there when we first visited back in 2004. After meeting with the assistant director and seeing Charis’ old documents and pictures, we were re-introduced to Charis’ favorite nanny and the doctor that treated her so long ago. She was a bit shy… she was shy when she met us for the first time too…
After playing with some of the kids in the orphanage… there were a couple of babies with cleft palates and several others with other special needs… we traveled deep into the countryside to see where Charis was originally found. In short order we arrived. It was much like it looked in google maps. It was basically a fork in the road in a very remote and small village in the middle of much farm land. An old woman and a man with a baby came out, curious as to why these foreigners were standing out in the middle of nowhere snapping pictures. I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps one of these were Charis’ relatives or perhaps knew something of her story… Maybe next time when we visit we will make more inquiry but our girl isn’t ready this trip. Still, what a blessing to be able to do these things… It was emotional for Charis and for each of us in different ways.
After our visit and a delightful lunch with our guide, Charis’ difficult deed done, the kids were fixated on the idea of swimming in the hotel swimming pool. After that, we went out for a walk and found a park… While there, we saw some bounce houses and people doing Chinese Yoyo. Also, as is common all over China, we found community members working out in a small workout area in the park. Lisa was invited to play ping pong with the locals (Roy looked too much like a local to get asked) and Timothy as well. It was really fun and we really felt a part of the local community.
I think one thing we really see in China is the huge importance they put in living daily in community. In just about every community we visited, there are parks with weight equipment, ping pong tables etc. and invariably, there were people using it, people from all ages and states and walks of life. Some did community Tai-chi. Other were learning how to dance. It was almost as if the park was a free community center and full service gym all wrapped up in one. It was everywhere. It also seems that the culture puts less emphasis on filling their homes and more on spending time doing stuff together. (When they aren’t busy competing in their work etc.) It really was refreshing.
Hi all. I just wanted to let you all know that we are posting ALL our pictures from the trip on our flikr account. You can access it at 
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