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I See Food

Traveled to a coastal city here in China and stayed with some friends. This is what they served- mostly seafood- and this is what the table looked like for four days...


Living in China has given us opportunities to try all kinds of new foods. Sometimes things taste pretty good if you can forget what you are actually eating!

Pop Goes the Rabbit!

It's Chinese New Year- the Year of the Rabbit! Stores are shutting down and fireworks are going up. These pictures are from one section of a street near us. These special fireworks tables are set up everywhere, though. You can buy simple bottle rockets or you can buy the big expensive works of art that light up the sky. No need to go to a park to watch a special display- these things are going off continually and everywhere at this time of the year. Car alarms often sound off in "joyful response."

We need not be troubled by all the sudden booms because we know what it is all about. In the same way, Christians need not be troubled by all the startling things that are going on in the world-- we know what it is all about. We have a commission not to be troubled but to be light (John 14:27; Matthew 5:14). When we start operating in the Spirit, truth, and love, it will be quite a display of hope to those who need the Lord.

Bringing Down the House

Saw these friendly workers on a recent trip through a small village. They were destroying this house in order to make way for something new. They stopped to shout"Hello" and waved to us funny looking westerners walking by!

The Lord is making way for something new in the days ahead! I believe He is tearing down the old house of legalism and lifeless traditions, and making way for fresh revelations of His love and grace. He is friendly in doing so, as well. When it is the Lord's work, it is refreshing to receive, like the smiles we got from those workers. It is not so when the devil is destroying. The devil is the thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Do not attribute pain and tragedy to the Lord- Jesus came to bring life and life abundantly!

The Lord is friendly to us, but He is not friendly to the devil. He is in the process of bringing down the devil's house. The times are trying, but be encouraged- the kingdom of God will indeed be revealed on this earth. For now we walk in it by faith. Here's to a faith-filled 2011. Happy New Year!

Mountains, Monks, and Yaks

Some sights from Tibet...We stayed right next door to a temple and the market area surrounding it. Crowds of people would daily walk around this area, chanting prayers and spinning prayer wheels. Some would fall prostrate after every few steps and then go further and repeat the process. Others park in front of the temple, as shown here...


Here are some monks debating their texts...


A holy mountain site, with the flags representing prayers to be carried up by the winds.

Finally, the Potala, which required quite a climb to get to the top. It took a while, as we were already slow due to Tibet's high altitude. And at last on our way out, we saw some yaks. Most were too far off for a good picture, this one was a little closer...

God is the Strength of my Heart (Psalm 73:26)

We praise God for helping our little girl through her third and final heart surgery! There is the recovery process to get through, and then back to China by the end of August.

Loving America

We arrived from our "Spring City" in China to clouds and freezing temperatures in Mississippi. When the sun finally came out after a week, it made all the difference in the world. I didn't realize the lack of sunshine was weighing on me until that day when the sun actually came out. It was like a regeneration!

We stayed for a while where there was satellite TV, and the kids were mesmerized by it. I was at times as well, and we just sat and stared at it. Not that we didn't have a TV in China, but we never had such a selection of things to watch. It wasn't long, however, before enough was enough!

Food has been a real treat. After doing our grocery shopping, we have our cabinets full of snack food- things we can't get in China. I find that even when I am not really hungry, I am drawn to these foods just because we have them now!

We are again enjoying the great friends and families we have here, and are thankful for them all.

Win Christ

We have made it back to the States and are enjoying our time with family and friends. Here is the book I will be distributing wherever we go to speak. I've gone through something of a spiritual revolution in the past couple of years, and this book contains some of the most liberating truths I have ever learned!

There are some China stories and other anecdotes, and it contains a Bible study for each chapter. It is geared toward everybody, young and old. It explores the power of love and the grace of God, as opposed to the legalism and traditional thinking that have characteristically hampered Christians in their spiritual lives.

It is available at:

Amazon.Com

Barnes & Noble

Tea Culture

Drinking tea can be a real art form in China. Pu Er Tea is considered a treasure of Yunnan province, and its leaves can be bought from any normal price up to even a thousand dollars per kilogram! Tea bags are not normally used, like we have in the West. Loose leaves sit at the bottom of a glass and one learns to wait until they are all settled (none floating) before attempting to drink. Or, as in these pictures, a process of cleaning the leaves and filtering them in a small pot takes place...

Then it is poured into very small dishes (not really cups) and sipped on. To do it right, however, you must smell it first. Also, don't forget to appreciate its color!

We can literally spend hours tasting different tea, sitting around a special table like this. It is an excellent community experience, as different people can come and go and sit and chat.

A Fine Delay

On a recent trip to the farm project area that we are helping, we got lined up to the side of the road for 1 1/2 hours due to a truck wiping out and blocking the road, several miles ahead. Some vehicles that arrived earlier were stuck much longer!



It usually takes about 9 hours on the road to get to the project area. After the delay, we took off and got some food. Then a little farther along the way, we came to yet another accident and traffice jam! Stuck again for another hour and a half!



So our normal 9 hours on the road became 12 hours! When I later told my wife about all my reeling and buzzing from being in the Jeep so long, she reminded me that it had to be much better than the earlier years, when missionaries of old had to travel that far on ox carts or mules. No paved roads either, and it sometimes took weeks!

We can always find something to be thankful for! And the trip was worth it- had a great time with the workers.

Two Walls

The Great Wall...

...and the Great Firewall....

Can't get to Blogger, YouTube, or Facebook so easily these days. Enjoy them, you who can!

Mountain Adventures

A bathroom without porcelain,
And some other shots from a recent village trip...

Talking to my wife- I could get a phone signal if I stood in just the right place and did not turn my head while talking! Phone battery was running low, though, and there was no electricity in the village.


So how does one cook without electricity here?

Having stormed early in the morning, we left on wet mountain ledges- the scariest driving I had ever done. At one spot we had to stop to let a truck coming from the opposite direction pass. Thankfully, this stretch of road was not one of the steep inclines, and it was wide enough to pass. But just to be safe we stopped as close to the mountain as possible. This was a real slippery section. All turned out well.

Picking Tea

The areas that I travel to are known for their famous tea. Now I am helping some brothers make connections for selling some of this tea. It helps the farmers in the countryside and it gives the brothers opportunities to be involved with their lives. See the beautiful terraced fields that are farmed across so many mountains in the south...


These past two years have thrust me into business and agriculture, something I never would have dreamed of! After teaching for so long, it is quite a change. Still working in education, however. Relationships with the schools are still intact. Have placed some students and working on placing some teachers.

Perhaps the schools would be interested in buying some tea?

Celebrating the Resurrection

Jesus lives...

The living Christ makes a real difference in the lives of those who turn to Him. And that is only the beginning. We too shall be resurrected in the end.

"Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?" Acts 26:8.

Justin Martyr, A.D.155, answering skeptics concerning a future resurrection:

Consider this hypothesis; if you were not such as you are, born of such parents, and someone were to show you the human seed and a picture of a man, and assure you that the one could grow into the other, would you believe it before you saw it happening? No one would dare to deny [that you wouldn't]. In the same way unbelief prevails about the resurrection of the dead because you have never seen an instance of it. But as you at first would not have believed that from a little drop such beings [as men] could develop, yet you see it happening, so consider that it is possible for human bodies, dissolved and scattered in the earth like seeds, to rise again in due time by God's decree and be clothed with incorruption.