Heaven’s treasure (JC) is SO good… He loves you and me! This post, I will share with you specifically how He has loved me in the past two weeks since school has started! Warning, this may be a bit lengthy…
I will start beginning with last Friday night. This semester, I have two Friday classes to teach and one of them is the last periods of the day for class… aka my worst nightmare! It is so hard to keep the students attention during this time slot (1:10 pm-2:45 pm) when they are a stone’s throw away from the weekend! Needless to say, it’s hard to even keep MY attention this close to the weekend! And last Friday in particular, was especially hard because all of the women I work with from ELIC on my campus had planned an all-night girls’ slumber party extravaganza! (okay, I added the “extravaganza” part, but I think it most definitely captures my excitement and anticipation of this event!) As I barely make it through the final class, I jet out to get ready and meet the girls. We began the night by busing it downtown for some delicious Turkish food! After this, we proceeded to split up in several directions in order to most fruitfully conquer the “foreign” stores that are only found in this downtown area, which from school they’re about an hour’s travel (on bus) away. Tannah and I went for coffee and tea, walking as our Chinese students do, arms linked, we came across an unforeseen patch of black ice. In my boots, I literally kicked one leg in one direction almost over my head and both arms flinging in different directions. Praise to the Father for the Chinese culture regarding “touch” which requires friends to walk with linked arms because if it weren’t for Tannah stabilizing me, I would have been one handicapped black-ice victim! Without too many more incidents, we make it back to Hua Qiao and begin our “girls’ night”. We talked, laughed (or giggled is more like it.. hello we’re girls!), played with each other’s hair (okay… gotcha! That didn’t really happen), but we did give some nice back massages and even pulled out some facial masks! In the midst of our girl party, we receive a knock on the door. Different looks cross all of our faces from confused, to panic, to a little fear…. I mean all girls were present and accounted for! Me, sitting on the couch next to Monica, out of fear, scooted closer to her and pulled the blanket closer around me. Danielle in her fearlessness sauntered over to the door and opened it. As soon as the word “Abram” came out of her mouth, it was as if a huge sigh of relief escaped from each of us girls. However, the confusion remained in place.
At this point, Abram walks in the door followed by each of the men on our HQ team. Each one of them was handsomely dressed in their best attire… aka suits, ties, the whole nine yards! As any girls’ responses would be, giggles filled the apartment washing over the slight nerves that played on a few of the guys’ faces. As I took in the scene playing out before me, I realized two things: 1) the boys held roses and 2) despite our age claiming we are “mature women”…. All of us were the epitome of immaturity and innocence as we giggled and blushed a little bit as the guys gifted each of us with a rose. Then, the men lined up and began to give a poem line by line. In the unexpected and exciting turn of events this surprise visit brought, all I can remember from this beautiful poem is they called Changchun (our city) a “Dongbei igloo”… (Dongbei= Chinese word for NorthEast), and that they said something about our beauty in Christ! That right there will prove how affective their surprise effect was! Once the men left, there was a new buzzing energy among our group. One of the first responses to this kind gesture, the girls turned to me, saying “Courtney! you wanted to plan a prank on them?” Ooops…. Maybe it’s the little kid in me that never grew-up… or the nostalgia over high school nights of toilet papering and harmless acts of vandalism that made me suggest pranking the guys instead of thinking to bake them goodies for being the wonderful, godly men that they are! I mean isn’t pranking synonymous with slumber party?! Either way, the Father was gracious to show His love for us, His daughters, by these six guys who I admire and respect!
Another way the Father has lavished His love on me, is through the incredible growth of relationships in this semester. Last semester, I was lucky if I had a handful of times where students asked me to hangout. And now, only two weeks under my belt, I can say I don’t have enough time in my week to say yes to these invitations and opportunities!
The first, occurred two weeks ago on a Friday. I ate dinner with my friend and Chinese tutor Ri-Ri. We spent the evening talking about our winter vacations, things with school, and simply just catching up. This relationship specifically blesses me because her English is so great that I feel I am simply spending time with a friend like I would at home! As we were sitting there, one of my male students, James, came up to us and began to get really excited about speaking English to us. He used mostly Chinglish, but his energy both alarmed and humored RiRi. He is one of the reasons I love what I’m doing right now. He gave us each pears (literally the fruit), and then left. Later, I will talk more about James! But, with RiRi, we had good conversation about her upcoming speech competition and the future. We will resume our Chinese lessons this semester, and I hope to work more faithfully at learning her language so that the Father may grant me more favor in her eyes in order to share more of His love for her! So please, if you would lift her up… ask that she would continue to be discontent and unsatisfied with her life, ultimately leading her to recognize her dire need for J as her Savior.
The second, came in the form of an unexpected lunch date with one of my student’s Alison, who I learned last semester is a sister! Because of her low level of English, we had never really discussed our faith in detail. However, after class last Thursday, I asked if I could join her for lunch. She gladly agreed. Once we were seated with our trays, I asked if there was anything I could lift up for her as I asked a blessing before I ate my food. She shied away… so I asked the blessing and when I looked up, she asked, “What did you pray for me about?”
I replied, “For our conversation, and for you- that you would be blessed in any exams you have coming up or anything you might be dealing with.”
She said, “You are so kind, I like you very much!” Then she shocked my socks off, “Whe did you first believe?”
UM OKAY- Yes please, let’s have this convo! I proceeded to give her a brief and simple testimony. Then I asked if she ever shared her faith with her classmates. She said no because they don’t believe.
I challenged her, “Do you think they would believe if you told them?”
Her response, “Yes, but I think Chinese people need to see miracles before they believe.”
My response, “Really? Have you seen any miracles?”
She said with a sweet smile, “Yes, many!”
Me: “Really? Like what?”
Her: “Like when I am sad, or something, I will ask Him to make it better, and He does! And then I am happy! He makes me Happy, does He make you happy?”
My heart soared into the clouds at this point! What a simple miracle she sees in her everyday life of the Father answering her thoughts! What a gift to have faith like a child! I was honored and encouraged to spend time eating with her!
The third, occurred this past Sunday. After a restful Saturday following the slumber party, Sunday I was invited to lunch and KTV. My students, Susan, Bambi, Jasmine and Cindy, are students I had the privilege of building relationships with last semester, and this semester, He is allowing them to flourish! In honor of Susan’s birthday on Monday, we all went out to eat “hot pot”. Hot pot is literally a huge boiling pot of broth where you choose what vegetables, meat and noodle dishes you want and cook everything yourself in the big pot. It is one of my FAVORITE types of Chinese food! We had a great time of laughing, and I even got to know Bambi’s “boyfriend”. The reason I say “boyfriend” is because she refuses to call him that, but after watching them clinging to each other the whole time, I believe it’d be safe to say he’s definitely her boyfriend! Bambi is someone I want to ask you all to specifically lift up. After watching her relationship and behavior with this guy and hearing things from previous conversations about her life, I feel the Spirit breaking my heart for her. She is hurting, and like most girls, she is looking for that love and security in a relationship… even a meaningless one (as she refuses to actually consent they’re dating). It is girls like Bambi that stir my heart and give fire to my desire to pursue ministry with young high school and college age girls. He has given me a heart that reflects His heart: specifically that girls’ would find the love that they’re always searching for in JC, and find their worth & identity solely and dependently within Him. He sat me down at one point while I was in Thailand and looked me in the eyes with tears pooling in His and said, “I love them… Courtney, I love my daughters… tell them this”. It might sound crazy to some of you, but in this moment I felt His broken heart for all His daughters that have not seen His real love. It has been recently that He has shown me how all through my life He has been cultivating this desire for this type of ministry and preparing my heart to reach out to younger women… and with this, I am now waiting on His hand to move and open the doors in which way He will use this in me! Anyways, please be lifting up Bambi asking that the Father moves in her heart and I can be granted her trust to listen to her broken heart. I hope she will share more of her heart with me as time goes on!
After Sunday, came Monday.. as in all normal weeks J And on Monday I had a fantastic day!! Literally one of my favorite memories I’ve made so far. In classes this week, I am teaching them about wishes and hopes. I printed out several pictures of wishes and hopes I have for the future. Some are completely unrealistic, like live in a mansion on oceanfront property- and some of them were more realistic like get married or have kids! It was really fun to share about some of these things with them and to see them guess what each picture meant in terms of wishes and hopes. Two of the unrealistic wishes really became popular… the first was a picture of the one and only Tim Tebow… I told my class oh he is a believer like me, and I wish someday I could marry him! And the class went wild! The second big hit, was a picture of Taylor Swift. In one of my classes, I have a very outgoing student named James. James is one of the biggest reasons I love my job right now! His group had the TSwift picture and he stood up to guess what the wish was. I was standing semi-close to and he said, “oh her (tswift) and I want to be friends” referring to himself. And I said, “oh you too? Me too! I want to be her friend”.. and he said “oh yes, you and her want to be friends, me and her want to be friends, we want to be friends… ah friends” and then in front of the WHOLE class he proceeded to give me a huge hug! Um… HOLD your horses! The class literally went berserk! Cheering and clapping for him hugging the teacher! Oh boy I was so shocked, but not really angry at this because he is just the most precious kid!
Anyways, later that evening, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies (literally like 50 cookies) for one of my classes because it was Susan’s actual birthday. Each night, the freshman students are required to be in their classrooms from 6:15-8:30 pm for self-study. (I mean if that doesn’t set you up for academic success, I don’t know what will!) So I show up with two bags of cookies at 7:15 and they all look up, see me and give me puzzled looks. A little shy, I held up the bags and said I brought you some cookies! Instantly, Jack Black and Susan sprint to the front of the class (they have tasted my cookies before) and begin oohing and awing as they nicely pass out one cookie for each student. As soon as they settle in with their dessert, I thought, what next? They said they could play some games if they played them quietly. I racked my brain and all I could come up with was to teach them that hand slap game where you sit in a circle and you sing “down by the banks of the hanky-panky where the bullfrog jumps from banky to banky”! So, I said What the heck?! I got a good portion of the class to circle up the chairs and I explained the game! The next 1.5 hours, we played all the hand/chant games I could think of, laughed until we cried, and simply enjoyed each other’s company. I can honestly say, as I sat there that night with my students, there was no place I would have rather been. Looking back at how I have come here to China, how I have grown and changed, how the Father has been working everything out for my good, I can’t help but be incredibly thankful for the way He has blown my hopes for my future out of the water… He gave me China. He gave me His Chinese babies. He gave me love. He gave me hope. He has given me life. I ask Him tonight that you will be blessed with the same delight in His love as I get to live in and experience everyday. At the end of everyday, I hope your heart is singing to the Father, “there’s no place I’d rather be, there’s no place I’d rather be… than here in your arms- here in your arms!” To the One is able to do Incredibly more than we can see or imagine, and who loves us more than the grips of death!
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