Friday, January 31, 2014

People Stories - God's World: Big or Small??

The other day as I checked Facebook for any updates on the snow days in SC, I came across a name linked to Mark’s brother’s page. I don’t normally do this, but I messaged him saying “I realize you don't know me but I saw your name connected with my brother-in-law John … and his sons …. You have an unusual last name, [B]. I know some [B]’s here in Beijing China. I wonder if you would know them? Just wondering. ” He wrote, “Hey! I kinda just met John last night. My uncle mark and aunt charity [work] there!” We know and love Mark & Charity and their family. We have had a few meals in their home and their daughter Anna is one of my chemistry students. Funny – our friends in Beijing from California have a nephew in our town in SC who is friends with our extended family. 

Last fall the B family hosted a lunch when Ruth & Elizabeth visited us. During that time, we met a couple in their 60s who have been in Beijing quite a while. They told us about their grown children and where they live, etc. One of their sons, Jeremy, is an artist who has a studio in Greenville’s RiverPlace Art District. Apparently his studio is the first one on artist’s row. I am sure that we have stopped in his studio during Artisphere or during casual walks through the district. Now I’m anxious to go back and visit him and his studio and say we met his parents in Beijing.


On Chinese New Year’s Eve we went to the grocery store to stock up on food before it potentially closed for the holiday (Chinese New Year). I had gone to find something and came back to find Mark near the Dove chocolate display. Of course, I should have known! While there he hears someone say in English, “I found the chocolate.” Naturally we strike up a conversation. Not many foreigners live in our area so it’s always interesting to find a foreigner in the grocery store. We ask the natural questions of where are you from, how long have you been here, etc. Imagine our surprise when a young lady named Rachel said she is from South Carolina, from a town on the outskirts of Charleston. She came Jan. 3 to teach English in a nearby school. As we talked, our friends Rodney & Glenna came by. So we had a little English gathering right there in the Chinese grocery. I’m sure we were quite a spectacle.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Haidilao Hot Pot 海底捞火锅 - An Entertaining Evening

Haidilao Hot Pot 海底捞火锅


Cheryl with Sarah's friend & coworker Wendy. Wendy is choosing food items off the menu.

At the beginning of the meal, the waitresses passed out red aprons. Although we didn't understand why we needed them, we all (except Wendy) decided to go with the flow and put them on. As the evening wore on, we totally understood the need for the aprons.
Mark & Diane
Sarah's coworkers - Grace, her husband, and son
Sarah, one of our sweet waitresses, Mark, Diane

Hot pot, refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leaf vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. Vegetables, fish and meat should be fresh. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce. In many areas, hot pot meals are often eaten in the winter. (Wikipedia) The pot on the left contained very spicy broth; even our Chinese friends thought it was too spicy. The pot on the right was more mild - like beef broth.


The Noodle Man - the evening's entertainment




















Because fish is more delicate, it is cooked in the pierced spoon while the spoon rests in the holder (at the top of the photo). The fish is the pink food to the right.


An evening full of food, fellowship, laughter, and entertainment.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

People Stories - J

A young man, J, originally from Australia visited BBC a few weeks ago. He came with a loaded traveling backpack so, of course, we asked about his journey and what he was doing in Beijing. He lives in another city but was in Beijing to obtain a visa so he could visit Vladivostok. Naturally that piqued Mark’s interest. While J and other BBC visitors came to our apartment one Sunday afternoon after lunch, he perused Mark’s Vladivostok pictures and tried to glean as much information as he could. In our conversations, we learned J likes to travel to interesting places and meet Xns and m’s in those places. He wants to see what God is doing in different parts of the world. We really tried to persuade him to encourage the m’s that he visits. Many of them are lonely and wonder if anyone cares what they do.  Mark sent him some contacts from his trip last fall, so hopefully they can connect. Apparently J made five trips to the embassy to finally obtain a Russian visa so the last we heard, he was on his way.  Remember this brother as he travels to support the Body.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

People Stories - Sarah


Sarah, 30, lived with us for the last couple of weeks. She was in Beijing for six months training local leadership to reach children and teens. Her apartment rental agreement ended two weeks before she completed her six months’ assignment so we offered to host her here for those two weeks. She was so fun, funny, and great company, like having another daughter. She comes from the same hometown as Mark so she and Mark had much in common. Reminiscing about old places, streets, etc. Sarah has now returned to the US to continue working with her organization and begin a new chapter in her life - pursuing a master’s degree in global education via distance learning.  In fact, before Sarah left here, she had her orientation, first class, and first paper. Her classmates come from all over the world and represent a wide variety of interests. She is off to a great start.


After our last lunch together before Sarah left, she pulled out her materials and showed us what she has done in Beijing and other parts of the world. Her organization produces truth literature aimed at youth to partner with organizations that already exist. The materials are terrific, well-done, thorough, and culturally appropriate.  The materials include a semester length course that covers major themes and stories, weaving them together into the One Big Story. A longer course digs deeper and is aimed at family involvement with an activity book for children.  We are so thankful to know Sarah and her heart for children for the Kingdom. May the truth spread to all the children of the world.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

People Stories - Hector & Bessie

Hector & Bessie
Last Sunday we met a couple visiting BBC. Hector and Bessie come from El Salvador. Hector, 25, came here in November to get away from the crime and hard life in El Salvador and to start a new life here. He teaches English to 3 & 4 year old Chinese children and seems to love it. Bessie, 28, arrived three weeks ago to join her common-law husband, Hector. In addition, she carries their baby boy due in early July. They want a new life and think it would be great for Bessie's 8 year-old son from a previous marriage to know English, Spanish, and Chinese – the three most spoken languages of the world. 

Funny how God connects people. One week on our way to an appointment, Mark received a phone call from a lady named Bessie who wanted him to marry her and her boyfriend. Due to the accent, Mark assumed she was Chinese so he connected her to a local hc leader. That leader reached out to them. But lo and behold, Hector and Bessie came to BBC one Sunday. Imagine our surprise when we realized Bessie was not Chinese after all but Salvadoran. Bessie even came to our Tuesday night Bible Study, navigating the subway all by herself to meet us, participating in the study and offering prayer to the Lord in Spanish. Hector works long hours and couldn’t come Tuesday. 

We are so thankful that they are open to learning about how to follow Christ. We have had them to our apartment two Sunday afternoons - one day with another young couple, Nate & Julia Davidson, another day with several BBC visitors. We have talked about all kinds of things – marriage, how to get legally married in Beijing, pregnancy, living in Beijing, Spanish, their families, their difficult apt-mate situation. The Davidsons have been married about 18 months and have spent their whole married life in Beijing so the two couples have much in common. In the discussion, Nate & Julia offered to loan Hector & Bessie the book called Sacred Marriage. Bessie is here on a single entry, 60-day tourist visa so they are working on becoming a legal couple so she can stay here with Hector. We tried to emphasize in our time together that although we understand the time issue for Bessie, marriage is a long term commitment and should not be rushed. I think we will have many opportunities with them.  

Thursday, January 16, 2014

People Stories - the Gaardlykkes

The Gaardlykkes - Ruth, Thorvald, Tordis, Marjun

Last week we had visitors from the Faroe Islands come to our Tuesday Bible Study. They had been in contact with Mark via the BBC website. The Gaardlykke family – Thorvald, his wife Ruth, and two daughters Marjun, 22, and Tordis, 20 –  stopped in Beijing for five days on their way to the Phillipines. Thorvald works as a highly skilled electrician on oil rigs in the North Sea. Ruth has worked in some capacity over several years with Operation Mobilization. They have contacts with a NTM family in the Phillipines where the husband is American (mk) and the wife is Faroese. The Gaardlykke family will spend 6-8 weeks deep in the Phillipine jungle to construct a type of hydroelectric turbine so the m family can have consistent and inexpensive electricity. They will also help the m family with their three young children and reach out to local people. Last Friday, their final evening in Beijing, we all went out to dinner for Beijing duck. We learned a lot more about them and their lives.  Their life story makes our life look tame. Pray them for them, the m family they will serve, and their daughters who wonder what they will do in the jungle.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

People Stories - Blackburns


Cheryl, Mark, Kyle, Vaughn, Joy, Vawny Kay
Vawny Kay & her parents, Vaughn & Joy
Many of the young people at BBC teach English in schools or school-like settings.  One such young lady is Vawny Kay Blackburn. Her parents, Vaughn & Joy, surprised her with a visit here for Christmas. We were able to spend some time with them while they were here. Their first Sunday here we had a bunch of people over to our apartment after lunch.  At that point, Vaughn and Joy were still experiencing jet lag. They were tired.  Later in the week we went with them & Kyle to a Xn foster care home. The Blackburns recently changed career paths, much like us, but in the opposite direction. Vaughn had been a pastor in Minnesota for many years, connected with Bethlehem Baptist Church (John Piper). About 1 ½ years ago, they moved to Michigan to be house parents for orphaned Liberian youth.  God opened a door for them to minister to needy teenagers in a home in St. Louis MI. It’s been a tough life. The Blackburns are living and teaching godly lives to the teens. Things like how to live in a family – they don’t have families. What does a godly marriage looks like – they have never seen a Christian marriage. Things like how to get along with others – they have lived disconnected lives. Funny – I look back over the pictures we have of the Blackburns. By the end of the week, Joy especially looked more relaxed and rested. We talked about so many topics – children, teens, marriage, dating/courtship, homeschooling, public schooling, pastoring, living.  


James 2:14-18 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 





Toothpaste

Toothpaste - such a simple thing to buy. Beijing stores have tons of different kinds of toothpaste from which to choose. I had heard that Chinese toothpaste isn't very good. It tastes terrible and lacks fluoride. So - I decided to go with a well-known brand. The first time I purchased Colgate, all was well. Tastes good; it even sparkles. So the next time I bought toothpaste, I couldn't remember the specific kind of Colgate I had bought. Each store often carries something a little different. It turns out that my previous tube was blue. What flavor could this be? It's worth a try. So - what flavor is it?

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Funny stories from China with the kids

When there are people around, there are always funny stories. How many funny stories did we have with the kids.?

On Christmas Day afternoon, our electricity went out in the middle of us playing a game. Kyle & Gregory were here with us playing Ticket to Ride. It surprised the kids.  All we had to do was swipe our electricity card in the hall closet, but we didn’t know to flip the breaker switch in the hall so it took a few minutes and a bit of consternation on Mark’s part.  Our neighbor Didi helped us with that. We tried to explain to the kids that we prepay for electricity, and we have to be prepared for when it unexpectedly goes out. Now the prudent person would occasionally check the electric meter in the hall, but we never thought about that. It’s in the outside hall closet after all. At least our card was loaded. Our gas meter is convenient to check, in the laundry area. Naturally our kids asked if we had not paid the electric bill. It’s China.

One cold night we were out and on our way home. To save time Mark decided to take red quilt-covered bike rickshaws to the nearest subway station. In his broken Chinese negotiations, he wanted two rickshaws for the six of us.  Rickshaws comfortably fit two people, but at 20 kuai each, we were going to squeeze into two. So he rounds up two drivers, fending off a third driver.  As he speaks with one driver, I see the rickshaw in front of us take off with James & Kristen, neither of whom speak ANY Chinese. They don’t know where they are going & all they can say is NiHao (Hello). The next thing I know, Mark runs toward the driver, waving & yelling STOP, STOP. I guess body language speaks volumes. My heart sunk for them and I couldn’t do a thing. I was too far away to do anything. Eventually, Mark negotiates the terms and gets us all in two rickshaws, me with Alicia & Philip and Mark with Kristen & James.  I peek out from the heavy quilted coverings to see if the driver really is taking us to the subway. You never quite know. But it was so cold, I had to close the cover and not see anything. Talk about trust. Poor kids, they were scared to death and crunched into an enclosed space. I think fear of not knowing where we were going but also fear for their lives in a rickshaw among the heavy traffic. Chinese drivers are actually very good drivers; they maneuver around all kinds of vehicles and people, sometimes very closely.

Funny, too, the people you meet around the world.  As we were climbing the Wall, we heard someone say “Go Tigers!” What? Though they didn’t stop to chat, they must have seen Mark’s purple & orange Clemson hat.  Then another day, after the acrobat show, we heard the same thing.  In the lobby after the show, we chatted with a couple that noticed James’ orange Clemson sweatshirt. The husband graduated from Clemson and AFROTC in 2005. So of course, the men enjoyed Clemson talk.

Speaking of the Wall, we purposefully chose to toboggan down the mountainside at the Wall. One of the ‘officials’ was a crackup. He was flamboyant, funny, silly, engaging – perfect for a public relations job with tourists. He made everyone laugh and giggle as they got onto the runners. I stayed back a ways to photograph the event. He noticed and acted up for the camera. I got some great photos of him and the family hamming it up. People like that make life fun.

On another note, I know that our family drew lots of attention as we walked down the streets. How often do the Chinese see a family of six white folks walking in a line down the sidewalk? So we garnered lots of looks. I would smile big and say NiHao. It often made people smile. In a country that has a One Child Policy, four grown children catch attention. We often had to walk single file to avoid sidewalk hazards – trees, poles, people, broken tiles.

Kristen just reminded me of our first taxi ride as a family. Because we had six of us, we required two taxis. On our first outing after a lunch of Beijing duck, we decided to go to the 798 Art District. Our friends with whom we ate lunch helped us hail taxis.  But what I didn’t know was that two of the kids got into one taxi and it started to take off before everyone else was ready or we were clear on where we were going. One thing to recognize about the Chinese – they don’t always tell you if they don’t know something. So taxi drivers might not admit they don’t know how to get somewhere. Well, the taxi takes off with Kristen and James. Finally we get the taxi to stop and I get in to direct. With my limited Chinese, I tell him qi-jiu-ba (798). He drives us to the area and drops us off near a pedestrian bridge, without me knowing where to go next to get to the District. 798 is an area that people walk around and visit art galleries, studios, cafes, etc.  

So twice Kristen had the feeling of being kidnapped, being taken who knows where with a language she can’t speak.

Oh, and the subway. Try getting six people on a Beijing subway at rush hour.  Somehow we always managed to head home from our outings at rush hour. So they got a real dose of subway riding. A couple of times, we got separated. Once when Mark took the kids out and I went home to fix dinner for us and a family coming over, Alicia got separated from the group. Then another time Alicia and Philip got on the train but the rest of us didn’t. Through the window, we held up five fingers to indicate which line number to get off at. Their thumbs up sign indicated understanding. Lo and behold, they were there waiting for us when we got off. Lesson learned – always tell your group members the next stop before getting on the subway.


Life is full of adventure – especially when traveling in another country.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Dec. 29 - Jan 2

Sunday afternoon, Dec. 29 - hanging out at the apt.




Enjoying a game of Ticket to Ride

With Steven & Amanda LoCicero

Monday, Dec. 30 - Temple of Heaven Park
We enjoyed watching these ladies dance to music in the park. So happy and graceful.
In front of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Originally built in 1420, later rebuilt in 1889.
A Clemson Tiger always comes prepared with a Tiger Rag.
Making silly faces in front of a 500-year-old tree.







All tangled up



Eating ramen noodle soup the Chinese way
Philip with Jacob &Annie Hollins
Kristen talking with our friends Solomon, Joel & Mary Hollins

Tuesday, Dec. 31 - Walking Olympic Sports Park





Our friends Sherry & John

Thursday, January 2 - Saying Goodbye at the Beijing International Airport