The Third Day at Wudu & Huaxing.

bernard & karen:

bernard wen: today...was no different from the past two days. i wanted to get closer to the kids, so on the second day we played a game instead of doing crafts. however by the end of the 3rd day i feel barely any closer to these kids, really to my disappointment :/ i do feel like the afternoon classes with the junior high kids are going better though. josh and i are working on pronunciation and for the most part they're getting somewhere. my morning class is different. the few advanced kids are always answering questions, making the other students less responsive in class.

church-wise i also don't feel that close to the youth but it's still better than my morning class. playing for worship is exciting, but learning to play without all the luxuries at home that make me sound better is hard (honestly i'm not that good at guitar without effects). hotpot tomorrow, so looking forward to that.

things to pray for: energy, we're tired even though we're not as busy. love, to live beyond our limitations in loving these kids. trust in God, that all we need is Him, our Provider. pjosh, that he'll have the diligence to get through tomorrow's bible study."

jacqueline & marissa:

Marissa Liu: This week is going by way too fast. I absolutely love Baifu. The people here are so cool and welcoming. Even though we are teaching half days, I still feel close to the students that I am teaching. Today i played the guitar for the English class at church and my fingers started to hurt but after I prayed about it, it stopped hurting until I was done [praise God]. please continue to pray for me and the language bearer that i have with the students because it's by Gods willingness that I am able to know these students. =]

pastor josh & norman:

Pastor Josh: This week has been very different for me and the team. Having 2 classes a day is quite tiring. For the first class, I have to drive Norman and the helpers to the school, so the team is separated. Please pray for us, that we have the strength to continue, and that we can continue to Love with Christ's love. I am teaching the book of Joshua on Tuesday and Thursday. 7:30-9:30pm. I taught 10 chapters on Tuesday and tomorrow I have to teach another 14 chapters. Please pray for me. Thanks for your prayers.

norman ai: i'm starting to feel very tired FROM the missions trip. mind you, not tired OF the missions trip. today God once again showed his awesome grace and amazingness. today was pretty non eventful at huaxing elementary. everything went smoothly and with the short three hours we have to teach, it goes by very fast. the kids are definitely starting to stick to me and im definitely going to be sad come friday. let's savor the last two days i have with these kids!

afterwards, i headed to bear cafe, an internet/food cafe near the church, and met up with several of the other teachers and hung out with some of our old students. it was great seeing them and catching up with how they were doing. basically it was a great time of fellowship with them. thank God for this time. we also exchanged emails and facebook addresses. hope we can keep in better communication this coming year.

today, two new students came to me and elean's afternoon class. one of them being an old student of jacqueline's from last year, jenny. it was fun teaching her, helping her pronounce alot of our bible story vocabulary words, and drawing flash cards for them. we also started to teach them "still", a worship song written by hillsong. its always a great experience to worship in another language, with another culture. praising Jesus is universal!

prayer requests would be energy. i am becoming tired. also for my skin rashes. this week is much more hot. and my skin basically burns and stings crazily all day. the pain sometimes does effect my mood, which is not good. emotionally, its rather hard for me as it will most likely be my last year ever coming back on the missions trip and the thought of not seeing these kids that ive seen grown up for the past three years is quite terrifying. but im deeply encouraged by the fact that the baifu church here has been great in following up with the kids after the english summer camp and being great mentors to them. its always awesome seeing kids weve taught in years past attend their children's sunday school or youth group when we return each year. praise God indeed. he truly is amazing. just pray that God will work his way with these kids and that if we do not meet again here on this earth, we will one day all be reunited in his presence!