Merry Christmas!

圣诞快乐!! 


Or Merry Christmas!!

A Cross on the Hua Qiao Campus

The past week has been a very long week for me. With Christmas on Sunday, my emotions from missing home, nearing the end of a taxing semester, and knowing I wasn't returning home for the break kept me pretty emotional all week. It seemed anything would trigger the waterworks! It was so frustrating because I had classes to give oral finals too, and Christmas events too attend and I couldn't be near the verge of tears in doing these things! So, as much as I could I kept myself pre-occupied. However, this week served as a beautiful reminder of the actual sacrifice I am making. Being physically absent from the lives of my family and friends is the sacrifice I am making in living and serving in China this year. While squatty potties instead of toilets, fish with bones in them, -15 degree weather instead of 70, oily food instead of Trader Joe's, and incomprehensible language instead of English are among the things I am sacrificing.... being away from family during Christmas is by far the greatest sacrifice I've ever made. It literally tore at my heart this week to skype with family or talk with family and know I couldn't be there to join in the traditions even simple ones like eating Grandma's homemade chicken and noodles, decorating the family Christmas tree with homemade ornaments, playing dominos with Poppa, wearing silly face masks during dinner, reading through scripture on Christmas Eve, playing the Judds' Christmas album, eating T-ring at the McGregors' or opening and then wearing our annual gift of pajamas on Christmas Eve. While all these memories made this week especially hard for me, the Father was faithful to pour out His love on me. Here are some snapshots of how I saw His love for me here in my Chinese Christmas:


Monday: a full day of classes to give oral finals too... my last class of the day, who I originally stereotyped as my worst class has recently become one of my favorites. As I walked in to greet them and begin the oral finals, I was surprised by the LOUDEST outburst of cheering and awing I had yet to hear upon walking into a classroom. And that's saying a lot when you see their reactions on the very first day you meet them! I literally took a step back at this commotion thinking I had walked into the classroom, and when I realized I hadn't I asked them what was going on.... they shouted out at me "you are so beautiful" and "we are so excited to see you". Bizarre... they mention this the day of the final.... hmm... Welp, I choose to overlook that and embraced it as a beautiful reminder of why I am doing what I'm doing.


Tuesday: My team leaders hosted a "slide of home" Christmas party. This was a very welcome break from work on Tuesday evening. Dan and Val had our team over to their apartment where they had lovingly set-up several stations of "Christmas festivities". There was a sugar cookie decorating station, a hot chocolate making station, a snowflake designing station, and Christmas music! We ended the night with a showing of Home Alone! It was a great time of fellowship. 


Wednesday: I went Christmas shopping with my teammates Abby and Emily. This pushed me into the spirit as I bought my Secret Santa gift! I also dominated in bargaining! A Chinese student had told us a method of bargaining so with my previously poor bargaining skills in the past, I decided to give her method a whirl! And what do you know, I was able to get everything I purchased at the price I wanted using her methods! I was floating in the clouds afterward! 


Thursday: One of the greatest memories I have of China occurred on Thursday during the International Office's hosting of a Christmas Party for the foreign workers. Because China is huge on performances, we all had to come prepared with a performance to commemorate the holiday. During the evening, I was amazed at how Kingly our Father is. Because of the birth of His Son, people all over the world sing praises to Him even if they don't realize it. We sang songs like Silent Night in more than 5 languages during this party. I was captured by our King who has set himself apart in human history and is being worshiped all over the universe by people that don't even know Him personally. It astounded me. He's Big, and He's King of all. The night was also amazing because there was a performance by a Korean man who seems to be about my age. He went up on stage with a mic and his music began playing when all of a sudden this man began bouncing around the stage dancing what appeared to be a chicken wing-type move and rapping. I literally about wet my pants. He was moving around the crowd, at one point he was taking his t-shirt off, and then he did some booty popping and some other jazz that I was absolutely embarrassed for him. Mind you, the Vice president of our school and various other officials were in attendance at this "work" party. But, with his shock method, he had the whole crowd rolling! It was one of my favorite moments! 


Friday: After feeling pretty homesick all week, by Friday I had adopted a "poor me" attitude and was definitely a poor case of pitying myself. At the end of the work day, I was walking back to my apartment and cut across the grass on this rock path. Well as I was looking down at my feet and moping along this path, I all of sudden found my foot tripping launching me straight down into the dirt on my hands and knees. I had fallen face first onto the path. Students had just gotten out of their classes so there were tons of people around, and as I sat in the dirt the only thing I could think... "Alright Father, you are funny. Yes, I get it- I need to stop pitying myself and grow-up." I laughed the rest of the way back to my room because I was just awed by His ability to literally knock down my poor attitude and lighten me up. I just loved the irony of the situation and how He used it to fix my outlook on life this week. The evening was great as me, Megan and Abby watched the Blind Side and cried our eyes out!


Saturday: Christmas Eve! Waking up late, I spent the morning cruising around the apartment and making my dish for the potluck dinner. I made baked macaroni and cheese. My team met for a huge Christmas Eve potluck as well as a Christmas Service. We sang songs to praise the Son, and then read the Christmas story in the Gospels. As we read and sang songs I have been singing since I was able to talk, something new hit me. Being in China to celebrate Christmas brings a new meaning to the purpose of Christmas. I am away from my culture. I am away from Santa Claus themes, I am away from family, and I am away from intense present giving. I am sitting without things that make Christmas Christmas. Yet, the true meaning of Christmas I am not without- I am with in more abundance because the rest is absent. Listening to the Gospel presentation of the Son's birth, and having taught the story last week, I was given a refreshed perspective of the true meaning of Christmas. It's not being around family or opening gifts that makes Christmas special. It's about the wonderful even that changed history forever and the course of the human life when Emmanuel was born. What a gift that is. A true, amazing, incomprehensible, life-altering gift of love we have! This was a wonderful time of righting my outlook on the Christmas season. I also received a poster from the class monitor in one of my classes. The poster had beautiful messages of love and hope offered to me on behalf of Christmas from the students in the class. The little notes were beautiful and full of grammatical mistakes. But they all emphasized "that although I must miss home, I am not alone- me and the students are all in this together".


Sunday: A tradition in my childhood, was having us three kids spend the night in one room so that we would all wake-up together and not be left behind when it came time for opening gifts. With this tradition being dear to my heart, I was so blessed when all of the five of us girls on the team chose to have a slumber party on Christmas Eve. We grabbed our blankets and mattress pads and set up a fort for ourselves in Abby's living room. Falling asleep that night was easy; I was surrounded by sisters who I could laugh and cry with but most importantly were yearning for home the same way I was. Christmas morning arrived, and we all made dishes to share in a team family brunch. I baked a T-ring (cinnamon style pastry) and we all enjoyed a wonderful feast! Then, we took turns opening secret santa gifts and I LOVE my gifts! I received a beautiful scarf, some wall decorations and my favorite, a scroll with Chinese calligraphy of the verse John 14:6. I have been wanting this type of scroll and was so blessed to receive it for Christmas! The rest of the day was full of hanging out, and watching movies together! 

The team at Christmas

me and Abby

"I <3 China" written in sparklers in 0 degree weather outside! (I'm the "C")

my "T-Ring" for Brunch

Over all the week was full of some incredible memories of which I am so thankful the Father has come to China before me and provided a loving and like-minded team to walk through the ups and downs that this season of working in China brings. Now, I am one week away from officially being on my two-month break!


Missing all of you! With blessings and love as we enter into the new year! 
Courtney