He is So Wonderful!

I had a fantastic Christmas. PTL!!!

My students were wonderful. I recieved many little gifts like stuffed animals on a key chain, eggshell filled with chocolate, a santa doll, and other odd little items. But their notes were all so sweet. For a little while, the Christmas lesson I was presenting to my students was making me really homesick, cuz it was making me think about all the things I was missing out on this year by not being at home and with my family. But the Lord really blessed my heart with many good things, which made this year away from home vitually painless. He is so good! (I just spent a couple minutes trying to figure out what exactly "virtually" meant and if I should use it here. And now I'm laughing at myself...)

Friday I went to the GuoMao (like the mall) myself to look for a gift for Brenda. I had no idea what to get her. I didn't do well with buying gifts. But Brenda has been my good buddy this whole time and we do pretty much everything together, so I wanted to get her something special. I got her some gloves and a nice tea pot that matches a pretty mug she has.

Saturday was Christmas Eve. Martin wanted to go around and take some more photos, so he and I went to the park and around the city. It was a lot of fun. There was a talent show going on in the park, and people were all around practicing their accordian, violin, and things. The day was so beautiful. It has started to really warm up these past few days. Some strangers stopped us and asked to have their picture taken with us. This is not at all uncommon. It's like we're just another tourist attraction, not the tourists. It's weird. So I took a picture of them taking a picture of us. We've come to find that people make a bigger deal of Christmas here then we thought! They love the Santa hats and sell them all over like crazy, the restaraunts play Christmas music, and the malls have decorations everywhere including Christmas trees! This was unexpected to see all these things. My students told me that Christmas is big in Hong Kong and is fastly becoming popular with the teenagers. Another reason to party. Anyway, Martin and I road a taxi to another part of town. Martin gave the lady driver the rose that he bought earlier just for the pictures sake. She was beaming! I think it made her day. So cute. We took many pictures of the streets and things that we see all the time. When I first saw these things I was amazed. But now they are so common! Like the GuoMao, all the shopping centers, tall buidings, traffic, and loads of people. It's most impressive at night. We were there during the lunch hours when every one takes their siesta. It was a nice time, and I got some really great shots.

The biggest drama was figuring out what that night was going to hold. How would we celebrate Christmas. The drama was due to an unfortunate affair with one of the guys (who is married) and a chick teaching at another school (who's engaged). It's a long ugly story full of twists and turns and unadmitted sin. I'll just say that it was threatening to ruin our nice Christmas and those of us not involved had to confront the issue so that we wouldn't have to get involved and let it affect our holiday. What a mess. We got our way and things worked out for the best. Our little celebration included just the foreign teachers from our school: Brenda, Martin and Arthur, and myself. The four of us went to a Brazillian barbeque restaraunt for dinner. It was the best meat I've had since I've been here! Fantastic. I haven't eated the beaf here for months ever since I ate this reeeeally bad "steak" that my students ordered for me. Enough to make anyone a vegitarian! But the meat at this place the other night was oh so good. We all missed Nigel though. We raised our glasses for him and had a moment of silence. After our meal we all went bowling. It's the first time we'd been bowling since Nigel died. We did have a good time. It was a lovely night. Even exchanged gifts.

Christmas morning was so nice. I got to talk to Sally, Steve, Mom, Dad, Joe, Eva, Gabe, and Chuck. I also got this fabulous email from my home church! It was so special, so sweet, so thoughtful. I almost cried. It's so good to be remembered and loved. It totally brightened my spirits even more. I spent almost all morning on the phone. And I made sure I made time to remember the reason for this day. Bless His holy name! I read the Christmas story and worshiped with Christmas songs. The morning went by so fast, and before I knew it, it was time to head to the HaiBin hotel with Brenda. We decided to spoil ourselves for our Christmas present. The HaiBin hotel has a pool and hot spring spa (all man made, ofcourse). For the first couple hours we just walked around the area and enjoyed the fresh air and peaceful surroundings that were brought by the seclusion of the spa. We were surrounded by palm trees, mango trees, and trees with beautiful purple flowers that left a nice fragrance in the air. If we climbed to the terrace near the spring we could see the ocean and the navy ships coming in, and a nearby park with a lake, many flowers, and even a lighthouse. It was so nice to feel away from the busy city for a while. Since it was around that siesta time of the day, we were the only ones there and felt free to roam about as we please. One of the little pools that we found had six turtles swimming around in it. We watched those turtles for at least a half hour. They were so funny! I've never seen such active turtles. We still didn't feel like swimming quite yet, so we found some chairs by the pool and played cribbage. Good times. Around that time, some people started to show up and hop in the pools. It's a bit nice to be in a place like this because the people that come here are pretty wealthy. And the wealthy people tend to stare and gawk less then the common folk. After cribbage we decided to get a bite to eat in the restaraunt there. The food was way overpriced and the portions were small. But again, we were the only ones in there, so it was nice. Finally we were ready to hop in the pools. I may have told you that its been getting pretty cold here, so it sounds a little crazy to go swimming right? Well, most of the pools here are HOT! I think the sign said 39C... but that would be like 90F so I don't know about that. The main pool was too cold, so every one was using the hot pools. It was so relaxing. My only problem was that everytime I stood up after being in the hot water for so long, I'd get really dizzy and get a major head rush. Martin showed up later with a Chinese friend of his, Vincent. He was a funny guy and his English was excellent. Brenda and I were in the pools til we were well baked and pruney. It was such a relaxing way to spend Christmas. I did miss being with family, but we kept busy enough that I didn't think about it too much and get all depressed. So PTL that he showed me a good time! I came home just in time to get a call from Maia and had a good time talking with her and Ashley. What a blessing. So much love. I am so blessed!!!

Today, it was tough to wake up. I was having a good dream and I didn't want it to end. But I had to teach. But it went really well. I just fell so full of joy and love and peace and all those wonderful things. How could this ever be in a dark place like this unless it was from God! I know he is surrounding me and blessing me with every spiritualy blessing. How could this be without your prayers!

Something strange happened today. Brenda and I were walking back from the market and we saw the "crazy beggar lady." We see many of the same beggars often, but this lady is one we really try to avoid. She is really pushy, expectant and unappreciative. It's hard to want to give to someone like that. Still, I give her a couple jiao here and there, which is like a penny. I knew I would run into her and other beggars, so I prepared some paper jiao in my pocket that I could pull out really easy and give it to them. I saw her first and gave her a jiao, then soon after I saw another beggar. A very old man with white hair and a beard, hunched over and walking slowly with a cane. I took out the next bill I had prepared which I assumed to be another jiao. I put it in his dish, then I saw what it was. It was a 50Y!!! It would probably take this man a week to beg for that much. In a split second I had a dialogue in my head, I could take it back and give him the jiao that I know is somewhere in my pocket... but no. I just knew in my heart that this was supposed to happen. Maybe it's God's way of providing something for this man that he desperately needs, and maybe it's God's sense of humor kindly confronting me about the many times I pass by those in need and pretend I don't see them. Dang, it's so humbling to admit that. But I do. But how loving is He? He knows the stupid things I do, and gently brings me to repentance. There is no condemnation! I pray that the man was blessed. And that the Lord uses this to glorify His name!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.