Thank you for upholding us with prayers, encouraging emails and letters, and your support. In this post we want to include an update on Shane’s dad’s health and situation, as well as some notes about the past few months of teaching and life in NW China.
Parties and Celebrations
Birthdays and holidays are perfect times to have guests over and get people together, and to share about hope, love, grace, and life. In November, Van turned 7 years old and wanted to have a big party at home. The whole family got involved to give Van a Lego-themed party and invited adults, students, kids from the community, and teachers. The kids and adults had a blast. We played games and ate local food prepared by good friends of ours who enthusiastically took over our kitchen and prepared a Muslim-friendly meal. We enjoyed seeing the joy on the kid’s faces as we laughed and played and celebrated life.
As an English teacher, Shane teaches language and oral English, and also about culture and values. Most students have never met a foreigner or interacted with someone from a different country or with a different worldview, so they are very curious to hear of a different way of thinking or doing things. Teaching opens doors to deep conversations with students and acts as a window into the lives of people living here. During Christmas, Shane wanted to really highlight Christmas and the impact of giving. With the help of Liberty and Van, he went out and bought 124 small gifts and, with Michelle, wrapped each one to give to each of his students. His students were truly touched. On the days of the Christmas parties in the classroom, Liberty, Van and Michelle dropped in on the classes to bring cookies and treats for celebrations. We all had a great time of eating together and playing games. Each classes surprised Shane on another class day with special music, singing, traditional dancing and a birthday cake in honor of Shane’s birthday (that means FOUR different cakes in one week!). Christmas with the students will definitely be a highlight of our past 10 months of living and teaching here.
Following Christmas, China celebrated its biggest holiday of the year: Lunar New Year. The New Year holiday is not just the Eve and the Day, but a 2 month holiday time when people travel back to their families for a big reunion. For teachers, this meant Shane had 2 months holiday from classes. This in part is why Shane was able to return to Canada for 10 days
Happy Birthday to Liberty. We have had our only taste of winter overnight. We have at least 8-10 inches of snow. The only real storm of the winter and spring starts on Monday. All is well here. Debbie has been coming to our ladies Bible Study and we enjoy her input.
Can’t believe you have been gone almost a year.
Take care and we continue to pryaer for you.
Yes, time flies. We are only sort of glad we missed all the snow there!
So nice to keep up with all that is going on your lives. Christmas sounded absolutely wonderful!! I completely understand why that has been a highlight.
We will miss keeping tabs on you through Facebook. We truly hope everything is well with you all. Wish Liberty a very happy belated birthday from us, I was too late putting that on Facebook.
We are so sorry for all that your dad has been through but so thankful for the outcome. By the way, there is an issue with the GoFundMe account. Not sure if you have a way to get them to check that out. We will keep praying for your dad’s health and his emotional healing after such an ordeal.
Lots of love to you all!!
Hi, glad to read your comment. FB is sort of risky in China here, not to mention inaccessible unless we use a VPN.
My parents are glad the worst of the ordeal is over. I checked out the GoFundMe account, but couldn’t see an issue. What is it? Maybe you could email me? Thanks.