Heading Out

The day to leave had finally arrived.  Support for the year had been raised, the first couple newsletters sent out, tears cried, passport received, tickets bought, visas secured, goodbyes said, and luggage packed.  There were nerves and excitement and anxiety.  No fear, just a sense of stepping out into the great unknown.  A hazy idea that I was about to embark on a journey that would change me and shape who I would be.  China seemed so…exotic.  I had heard and read about it and I’m not sure it had sunk in that I would be living there for a year yet.

The first part of journey was training in CA.  It was my first time in the state and I’m sad to say that I did think the smog was fog for about 20 minutes.  Then I remembered I was in the LA area.  I did not make that mistake once I reached Beijing! 

We were able to meet our year long teammates and the others in the program.  I remember meeting with the program director. I don’t remember what we did or what was said.  I do remember taking our first team picture, minus our team leader.  We had some time together before we met our summer teams.  (That’s our first team picture ever, minus our team leader, taken at training in CA.)

As part of our training for the year, we were going to be taking part in one of the organization’s summer programs (we were an experiment year…they never did it again!)  We were put on other teams and would spend the summer teacher Chinese English teachers new ways to teach English.  Sounds fun, right?  Most of the other people participating in the program were teachers or had teaching experience.  Many of them were also older.  I don’t mean older in a bad way.  Some of them were in their 30’s but there were a lot of retired people too.  My team leader was in her 70’s.  Ann was a gentle soul and very wise.  I kept in touch with her for many years after. (Sorry about the picture quality…I took a picture of the picture with my cell phone out of a photo album.)

Little me was kinda freaking out at this idea though, of teaching English teacher?  What did I know?  I was 22 and fresh out of college.  Training was excellent (from what I remember…my brain was mush) and I very much enjoyed my team, as many were teachers and were more than willing to help me figure out what I was doing. 

We were there for about a week before heading flying to Beijing to do some sightseeing and be picked up by our school.  I was still wondering what I had gotten myself into….

 

Series Intro: A Past Season

A Past Season

We all have different seasons in our life.  Over the course of the next year I’m going to share with you a season of my life, a year that impacted me like no other.  It happened ten years ago but it still affects me today.  I don’t know if I’m feeling nostalgic about that time because it has been ten years but it’s been on my mind lately, in a good way.  There are very happy memories.  I’m very content with my current season of life and where I am now but this one year of my life has a special place in my heart.

So you might be wondering, what’s so special that happened ten years ago?  Well, ten years ago I graduated college and was so excited to be finished with school.  I was done and if I never took another test or wrote another paper, that was fine with me.  I had a new adventure in front of me and I was excited, nervous, anxious and at peace all at the same time.  I was moving to China to teach English as a Second Language. 

I was accepted into a Teaching Fellowship that had a 1 year commitment.  I was going to be placed on a team and we would most likely be teaching English to kids in k-12.  It all depended on what school we went too.  There was a mentoring component to the program and support in teaching.  There were 70 of us in the program, all college graduates up to age 27. 

A lot of people thought it was commendable that I would do this or that it made me special in some way.  Those lines of thinking made me uncomfortable then as they do now.  I had prayed long and hard about what I should do after college.  Teaching in China was the answer I received.  I was simply following what God was telling me to do.  I was being obedient.  There is nothing special about that.  Even today, when people find out that I lived in Asia for 3 years they are surprised.  That surprises me.  In my world, packing up and moving half way around the world is normal.  I know lots of people who have done it.  I guess comparatively we make up a small portion of the population.  But I am not abnormal is doing this. 

In fact the organization I went to Asia with has been working in China for 3o years.  I did go with a Christian organization that send Christians to teach ESL.  They are still sending teachers to China as well as other countries.  Every year they send teachers to serve for the year and in the summer they send teams to teach English camps.  The need is still great and there are still hearts searching for Truth in Asia.  I’m thankful that I was used in a small way to make a difference.  I went, and teachers still go because eternity matters.  Ten years later and I still pray for my students and colleagues. Not everyday but God does bring them to mind pretty often.  I also pray for my teammates that are still in China (and Viet Nam) and for those who came after me. 

So I’m writing this series partly for me, to have a place to reminisce and to have a place to record some of the memories that have stuck with me.  I’m writing it partly for you, as a follower of Many Waters, to fill you in on some background on who I am and what I’ve done.  And maybe I’m writing it for those still to come, those who are being called to go.  Even though it’s been ten year and a lot as changed, a lot remains the same.  For whatever the reason, I feel the need to write it down, to share it, to get it out. 

*If you want to know more about the organization I taught with, please leave a comment and I’ll email you with information.  It’s not that I can’t share that info on the web, I just chose not too.  The work being done is too important to be placed in jeopardy by a blog post/comment.  Just consider it the OSPEC of working in Asia!