Jo Snow Bowl

Happy Thanksgiving!!

The past week has been a wonderful week, apart from being on the tail end of a cold where I often found myself struggling to breathe and talk at the same time while teaching! A week ago, one of the "supers" had her birthday and with it one of the funniest birthday parties I have ever attended! With Chinese people, parties typically are organized in some sort of fashion because simply mingling is not natural or common. At Danielle's birthday party, there were so many people and about half were chinese students, and half were us 'foreigners'. The clash of cultures via partying, lemme tell ya it was a sight to behold!! The chinese students are not use to "mingling in smaller groups" as us foreigners are comfortable with. However, quickly into the evening, anyone could see the Chinese students were comfortably embracing the small-group mingling pace us foreigners set. But it did not last for long! Two other supers, Monica and Abram, organized a Chinese party-style game where four groups were created mixing the foreigners and Chinese students. And each group was responsible for coming up with a theatrical production of some sort as an ode to Danielle's Birthday! I was on a group with four Chinese boys and my teammate Abby. We went into our designated practice room and began brainstorming. Unfortunately, these boys were so amped about being up in front of the rest of the group performing that their cultural "circular" thinking starkly contrasted Abby and my's American linear brain-storming. As they bounced from idea to idea, we couldn't keep pace and we continually asked, "so what are we doing exactly?" It was an entertaining process but I am confident that as we walked out of the room Abby and I were not much more aware of our plan of action as we were when we first walked in. But, we just hoped to follow along with what the guys did, so we joined the crowd as we watched the other three teams perform their fun and tasteful pieces. After watching the others, I was suddenly very nervous to hit the "stage" because of our poor ability to pull together the big picture of our performance.... all I knew in taking the stage was that there was some sort of "skit" going to happen and a 4 count dance number at the end! At this unpreparedness, I could feel my nervous laughter taking control. Abby laughing with me, turned to me and said, "Courtney you are already red!" Great thanks Abs, make me acutely aware of my blushing right as I'm taking the stage in front of a thirty + crowd of people! But we boldly took the stage as the four guys on our team talked rapidly in Chinese (and as we would learn soon enough re-organized the whole routine). All of a sudden "Ima be" comes blasting over the speakers and the boys begin to do the skit (as we had planned) but then the dance part begins and they DID NOT stick to the dance they taught us..... I was laughing uncontrollably (part nervous and part embarrassed of how bad our skit looked) when all of a sudden two of the boys broke out into this SUPER risky and dirty dancing routine with each other! Literally it was so bad I started to cover my eyes because I could not believe how they were dancing.... and then it hit me we were still in front of the whole group doing our skit so I quickly sprang into action to stop this scary dance and jumped in front of the dirty-dancing boys saying, "okay!! So that's the end of our performance, Happy Birthday Danielle" and I bolted to a seat in the crowd.... the dance became the talk of many conversations that evening but it had to be one of the funniest/ funnest parties I have been too as China and the US met under one roof to celebrate a birthday!

The past week of teaching has been pretty calm and enjoyable, despite having been corrected in one of my classes by a student on a word I mispelled on the blackboard! Embarrassing!! Who knew "wavy" didn't have an "e" in it?! Anyways, I spent 1 hour of each 2 hour class period teaching my students about Thanksgiving and American cultural traditions! It was comforting to share this part of my life with my students! And with that, I received countless amounts of text messages on Thursday saying "Merry Thanksgiving Miss Courtney"!! One of my (favorite shh!!) students, Jack Black, texted me, "hello. miss courtney I am Jack Black. Today is Thanks Giving Day. I hope you can enjoy yourself though you are not at your country with your family. Have a good time!" Um I just LOVE my students!! Seriously though, I could talk all day about the students I get to enjoy everyday! They are so precious and innocent little freshman and I love the purity of Chinese students! They truly bring my heart so much joy! And I did enjoy my first Thanksgiving away from my family! Thursday I taught classes as usual, and the evening I attempted baking biscuits to contribute to our small team Thanksgiving Dinner meal... unfortunately, my ability to bake homemade biscuits is very minimal as they did not rise and resulted in pancake looking discs filled with air! Bummer man! Super disappointed, I contributed them anyways and enjoyed fellowship and food with my team! It was special to feel family-oriented so far from family!

Yesterday, Friday, we had the day off from teaching! It was SUCH a blessing! I am truly so thankful for being here with ELIC as my representation.... because of this organization, they have negotiated our contracts to include some time off for American Holidays! So, Friday we were granted a Thanksgiving Holiday. Our team spent the majority of the day baking and cooking in preparation for an all city-wide ELIC team Thanksgiving Dinner later that evening. Families and singles joined together to eat potluck style Thanksgiving Dinner. It was so great to try everyone's favorite dishes and family recipes! I have never eaten so much! (okay actually I say that every year :) Yaya Thanksgiving!) At the meal, there wasn't any Turkey, as Turkey is not a common meat eaten in China- go figure they don't celebrate Thanksgiving! But there were several other foods that were so delicious!

Today, Saturday, we had an all city-wide fellowship in the morning, and then the annual "Jo Snow Bowl". As football is an American Thanksgiving tradition, our ELIC teams in the city of Changchun gathered together for a two-hand touch football game this afternoon to bring this tradition to China! Each year it is either the "snow" or the "dirt" bowl game and this morning we awoke to a refreshed winter wonderland covering our campus!! So, it was the Jo Snow Bowl 2011. I joined twenty of the men and talked 1 other girl into playing with me! It was so much fun slipping and sliding around on the field of snow! The guys were competitive (obviously psyching me up) and the game was a wonderful way to celebrate the Holiday! I played QB for two times our team had control over the ball with one of the times resulting in a TD. I also sacked the QB on the other team and knocked one of his passes down causing a incomplete pass!! (Hope you're impressed Bran and Flack! you taught me all my moves I know! Oh, and I played in mom's cow-hide ugg boots! :)   As I was taking in my surroundings, snowflakes sticking to my puffy jacket and in my hair, the moms cheering for their husbands on the sidelines, the kids joining the game and then leaving the game as their interest peaks and fades, the men joking around with one another allowing their competitive sides to run free, I couldn't help but feel at home. Who would've seen this beautiful day coming a year ago?? Not me that's for certain! The great blessings and plans He has in store for us when we are willing to unclench our own fists full of dreams and plans! I am so thankful the Father has provided a like-minded and fundamentally sound organization like ELIC to take me on this adventure in China to serve. Because today, as I ran up and down the field with all ages and stages of brothers and sister, I couldn't help but feel a part of a family when I am so far from my blood family. I am grateful to have incredible and loving families and people to surround myself with in this time of being away from family! It truly blew my mind how comfortable and soothing it felt to be out there just messing around playing football. I miss my brother, and my father and my mother and sister, but I see so much of them in the people around me here! It is beautiful to see the comfort of the Father's body manifest itself in the world. I do not belong to my blood family, I belong to Jesus. And in this, I belong to a bigger family- a Holy family and this Thanksgiving Holiday I was blessed to spend it experiencing this truth in a different way than I do with my family at home! I am thankful to have a Father who is relational providing Family wherever I live and serve.

In our fellowship meeting this morning, the speaker shared something I have found encouragement in. Using the story of Mary finding out from the angel of her pregnancy as an example of a story of Thanksgiving, the speaker mentioned that Mary responded to this "shake up" of her life with faith and confidence in Father. She replied to Father saying, "I am the Father's servant", Mary answered, "May it be to me as you have said"! (Luke 1:38) What faith!!! She replied to this crazy, scary and uncertain revelation of a Virgin birth with complete faith asking Father to do as He says!! In all of my life, when Father comes and turns things on it's head, is this how I respond? No! Usually I  doubt and ask many questions and think of alternative routes of life etc! For example, in deciding to come here, I knew I was being told this was the plan, but I kept telling Father no. No, there is simply something else, there is another plan- one that is more conventional and serves more of my desires and dreams than China! Couldn't possibly be China Father! Surely, it is not to move to China! Well, in seeing Mary respond this way, I am encouraged/challenged to seek to do the same in my life. As I continue to walk with Father, I pray that I will adapt this purity of faith always answering His call with, "May it be to me as you have said". I am thankful for this new truth that I have recognized is not displayed in my own life. I learned this Holiday season that faith is the opposite of having things worked out or figured out... it is simply walking every step with the light of Christ as your guide. Perhaps it shines a couple steps ahead, perhaps its simply shines straight down on top of you as you wait for it to shine on the next step to take.... but we can see in His truth that He will shine as we behold His presence.

No matter where He takes my future, no matter how many miles are between me and those I love the most, I will rejoice that His presence is with me at all times and this, His presence, is all I need. Praises to His suffering, His love, His Glory, His Name, His sacrifice! I am in love with this sweet Savior that guides me and provides grace as I "work out my salvation" as Paul encourages us to do in Phil. 2:12.