A litte a' this, a little a' that...more notes from Wuhan life

An Upper Room--Sunday afternoon, I was Lucky to be invited with some of the Friends here to attend a Meeting with a registered Group in Wuhan. They are allowed to meet and Celebrate together, but only foreigners are allowed to gather—the doors must be closed to the Chinese—who have their own registered Meeting. Anyway, it was a lovely meeting. There are many Brothers from different countries in Africa here in Wuhan who led most of the meeting. The Group is made up of English teachers, students from India, Africa and all sorts of other foreigners here for one reason or another. The music was so filled with Celebration and Thanks and was just beautiful. As we met, I looked at the closed doors and closed windows, and I remembered another time when a gathering met in a locked room. A Visitor appeared among them and revealed Truth to them—and yesterday I couldn't help but Ask for the same thing.

A New Friend--As I was reflecting on the meeting and walking home on campus here, I passed a girl eating a pomegranate--which is a fruit that I love and rarely find in the US. We eyed each other as we walked past, and when I turned to look back over my shoulder at her, she was looking back at me. I motioned to her fruit, awkwardly trying to "say"/motion something like "what is that?", assuming that she couldn't speak English. She and I began talking and it turned out that she is an English major here at the university!!! She's a sophomore and she spoke English quite well. She asked if she could come up to my apt, so I had her up and showed her some pictures of America and we spoke in English for a while.

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to have made a new friend. I invited her back for more English practice on Monday, and she arrived 20 minutes early with a bag of tangerines with green peels (they look like limes—but taste like a sour orange) and a pomegranate for me! She's so sweet. So we sat together and shared oreos, oranges, coca-cola and stories about our families and our hometowns. Our friendship continues to grow, and it has been interesting to say the least. There are some cultural differences that I've had to learn in our conversations (like not eating everything that you're offered!), but overall, the language of friendship is so strong--it's just amazing how it transcends all cultural barriers!

The "randomness" of our meeting has again reminded me of how BIG He is and of how in control He is of my time here. My cup runneth over.

Fit--Have I mentioned that my apt is on the 5th floor of our building?! There's obviously no elevator--so I'm getting quite a workout! My muscles are still adjusting to all this--we rode our bikes for about 35 minutes to the college across the lake from us for lunch with all the Wuhanites and the hills almost ripped my legs apart!!! It definately burned!! My bike is just a cheap little thing without gears or anything--but I have to confess that I love it!! I paid 150 yuan for it--which I would guess is about $20. It has a wire basket in front for my purse and books (all the bikes here have baskets--it's so cute). Anyway, between the bike riding and the climbing all these stairs and the heat and the walking to bus stops and standing on buses--I'd better be getting fit! I don't actually care about it except that I would like to be able to make it up my stairs someday without losing my breath...and would like to be able to bike around campus without feeling wobbly-legged afterwards! That's all I'm askin for, if shapely legs come along with that, then I'll of course take it too :)

The Shift Outward--It's been so wonderful gathering with all the other new foreigners and sharing our new experiences together...and I've noticed something very exciting at work. As we first began to get to know each other, we all shared OUR story of how we each ended up in China, and in a sense we were each very self-focused: "This is what He did in Me, this is why I came, this is what I think, this is what I want from this year or two in my life" etc...

But a shift has already begun as we each live our lives in this city, in this country. We're seeing the Need, we're feeling His longing for these people, we're beginning to fall in love with them, and we're beginning to Hope for and Think of those He sent us For, those He wants to know Him. And it's becoming less about our own stories and more about theirs. Or maybe more about His.

Please keep us all in your Thoughts.

I'll post pictures asap.