China-isms

Here are some things that I've learned while being in China... Maybe this is a little pessimistic, but I think it's a healthy way to fume

Police can drive on the sidewalk when needed.

MSG is to China as Salt is to America, Chinese add a little of it to every dish to make it taste better! (In the kitchen it looks like salt with long thin grains)

Chocolate is to America as Red Bean paste is to China

I never knew how much of an animal we Americans don't use, until I've seen a piece of pork meat here, with one third of it being meat, one third being fat, and the other third being the skin.

Cleanliness inside the home is a virtue... cleanliness on the outside of the home is not.

In China, you don't eat the skin of the grapes.

Police cars are not only for policemen...

Slapping yourself is good excersise, and is the regular morning practice of most old Chinese people.

Air conditioners are unhealthy. If they use them, they will often also open the windows.

It's not impolite to stare... starring contests can happen anytime, anywhere

In case of traffic confusion, stick to one rule: The biggest vehicle has the right-of-way

In China, the dressing room areas are co-ed...

I think they have more KFC's in China than in America.

Fruit is very easy to open in China... with all the growth hormones in them, sometimes they open themselves (some bananas I buy are partly peeled because the peels are too small for the bananas inside).

Sunshine Camp

Finally! I found some good internet!!! This is amazing, and I'm going to try to take full advantage of it! Here are a bunch of pictures for you guys to see of our time in Xi'an! This includes our wonderful time in Sunshine Camp! Enjoy

Part of the team behind the terracotta warriors

We found swords

We also found one of the greatest things I've found in China... a backalley skating rink, filled with pro-college age skaters.

This was one of the stunts these guys did, having 2 guys skate on top of each other

We, of course, wanted to attempt this too...

But failed

This is me trying to fit in with the Chinese guys

2011 CEO International Sunshine Camp

A couple of people in my group, oddly in a window

More friends on top of a statue in the campus we were at

Throughout the camp, groups had to complete different tasks for points... this is the human pyramid

We also had a photo scavenger hunt... This one was my idea, representing the evolution of love

A lily pad

We're pandas

Butterfly mask...

Working with some groundskeepers

And now... finally I am caught up... I have been in Chengdu for one month now, and I start school in 2 days!! So exciting... I have many stories to tell, and will try to get some up soon!

p.s- Totally comment if you would like! I think I enabled them, just realizing that I had them disabled

Xi'an

Finally, getting to the end of the trip that ended almost a month ago... Our last big stop was Xian, the ancient capital of China. Here, our main experience was Sunshine International Camp. This camp was definately not what we expected, and ended up being completely exhausting, but in the end totally worth it. For 10 days, we were with Chinese college students, as we all learned what it meant to "transform, fly high, and fill the world with love!" This slogan, although cheesy, allowed us great freedom to talk about our lives and our thoughts freely in the group, which is what the camp focused on. The speeches were all aimed at purpose, what love really was, and how do you really love others, giving us brothers and sisters perfect platforms to speak. It was an incredible time, the best of which was having honest and deep conversations with these disciplined, but at heart really immature and naive, fellow students.

Here are some pictures that illustrate our time here (sorry, this dumb computer is not cooperating... after an hour of waiting, I've got 3 pictures for you... In a couple of days, I'm getting some pictures of my group and I, so I will post those soon (In case you don't know, I don't actually possess a camera, so all the pictures I post on here must come from other people!)

During the camp, we made a carnival with different booths... One of the booths was a newspaper dress up station, and somehow this of course turned into a braveheart dressup station for us Americans.

Our team's only opportunity of a truly all-you-can eat buffet... We took full advantage

Xi'an is known for being the ancient capital of China. One of our favorite excapades while visiting the city was getting to bike around on the city wall. We got around a quarter of it until I broke my chain and had to ride back on a cart.

Xining

Hello all,
So internet here is not as good as I thought... finally I found a place where I can get on to my blog, though I have to buy a drink to do it (I shouldn't be complaining about 8yuan/$1, but I am). I thought I would post some pictures of our time in Xining. I am trying my best to catch you up to where I am now, which is Chengdu, but I still have at least two more posts until I can do that!
Xining was as a team on of our favorite places. We spent over two weeks in the city over all, visiting workers there, and getting involved in college life, street life, and every other life we could.

A view of part of Xining from our penthouse hostel!

This is what happens when you are the first one to wear a seatbelt of a certain taxi since it was sold

We just loved this picture of Matthew

Another view of Xining, this time from a temple just outside the city on the side of the mountain

Muslims lining up to pray... During Ramadan, they claim over 200,000 come on Friday to pray. They stop up the street for a mile or so!

After visiting the extremely dark Temple outside Xining, we recieved an amazing surprise, by finding a Church tucked away down a small street a mile from the temple. Although not necessarily a light in the community, it was a wonderful reminder to us of how secretly God sometimes works.

The second largest Mosque in Asia... Hardly known of, since many don't know about Xining, China.

Part of our team with one of the many great beards of Xining

Tibetan Pictures

 Finally, this computer will let me upload pictures. Here are some pictures from our 6-day trip into Tibet... Read below to hear more about it... Also stay tuned for pictures from Xining, Xian, and more!


Tibetan Sunrise. We had to be up at 5:00 to see this!





A girls' home we visited, 6 hours from Yushu





Haley and Cassie with some Tibetan girls





The Old Rug Factory... Still standing, but now only homes for some Tibetans. We stayed on the other side of this building.




One of our dorms in Yushu.



An awesome looking Tibetan dude... I told him he looked cool and asked to take a picture with him.



Tibetan Prayer wheel. They spin these to store up good karma for themselves. Tibetan Buddhism is a religion of fear, and many Tibetans go to great lengths (especially the older crowd) to assure their protection in the afterlife.




A regular Tibetan tent on the plains, equipped with yak herd.



This was once a monastary in Yushu. Although the earthquake brought much sorrow, it is also clear the judgement that came from it. Every monastary in this Tibetan Buddhist hub-city was destroyed from the earthquake.




Now a city of tents and wooden fences, this is a regular alley-way seen in Yushu. We spent several hours attempting to drive medical cars through these streets to visit some of the masses of injured and sick, most with injuries from the earthquake.




Yushu is now a hub of construction sites, with the Chinese government trying to restore it as a tourist city. But even with all the dirt and fumes, this city is still surrounded by beauty, and I believe there are many beautiful things that are yet to happen within this city.





Update #2- Tibet

Hello Everyone. Once again, I have taken far too long with updating this thing. It has been difficult finding time on a computer with a team around... But finally, the team has returned home, and Sam and I are alone at his parent's hourse. Over the next days, as I'm at Sam's house, and once I go to Chengdu in 5 days, I am going to try to put in a few updates marking the major sections of the second half of the summer in China.
This first part, I want to tell you about Tibet! We were in Xining, a city in Western China, very close to Tibet, for a few weeks. During this time, we traveled up into Tibet for 6 days. It was an amazing experience, and although we never stayed at one spot very long, we had a great time being exposed to Tibetan culture first-hand.
One of the greatest blessings was the opportunity to go to Yushu. For those of you from Fayetteville, you have probably heard this name before. For the rest of you, Yushu is (or was) a city in Western China of about 30,000 people, primarily known for being the hub of trade for Kham Tibetans (a sub-ethnicity of Tibetans). It has been focused on for ministry through a rug factory for the last 12+years, but over a year ago, an earthquake hit the town, causing complete destruction of the entire town, and killing thousands. But as well as destructive, this earthquake caused an amazing response in believing circles, both Chinese and foreigners, and helped bring about the establishment of the first group of brothers and sisters ever known of among Kham Tibetans! Our group had the opportunity of visiting the place where these people meet and got to work for a day moving around the city with some Chinese brothers and sisters that were also there for short term. Although our stay in Yushu was small, it was an absolutely incredible blessing to see a glimpse of what amazing things were going on in the midst of this destruction. Although the Chinese government wants complete control in rebuilding Yushu, there is still an amazing amount of friends (mostly Chinese) getting involved with the building process, and trying to give people hope.

I will try to post pictures, as soon as this dumb computer will let me!

More updates to come in the next days! Keep checking in!

Update #1!

Hello everyone,

I praise the Father for allowing me to update this... In China it's not exactly as easy as I thought it would be!
We about to be in week 3 here! These past two weeks have flown by fast, but it still feels like we've been here for quite some time!

Our first week was a good transition time. We stayed in the American style houses of Shanghai, while working with the needy in the area. Our days were filled with babies... and lots of dirt, as we helped place sod for a new location for an orphanage. It was a great start to our time here.

Last week, we headed to Sam's hometown, to spend time with his family, and the college campus in town! It was an exciting time working with Chinese students the same age as us. At the end of the week, we had a group gathering over at some friends' house, where Sam presented his story. People responed in amazing ways! My friend Richard immediately turned to me and told me he needed to convert! It was amazing to see everyone's reaction to one story.

This time was an amazing time for our team. Our team bonded this last week beyond my wildest dreams. It was absoutely amazing seeing everyone come out of their shells and opening up to one another! I praise the Father for this incredible unity, and I am confident it will remain.

This last week was not all roses, however. Our team got pretty tired of Chinese food (eating in the cafeteria is certainly cheap, but tiring...), and were bombarded with rain every day except for the last day. In addition we had two sicknesses on the group (including me), and almost everyone felt sick for at least some small time. Personally, I haven't felt 100% since I've gotten here, whether feeling sick, anxious, or just distracted... I'm confused as to what of this is Him (it has certainly helped to humble me), and what is from the enemy. Please, please be lifting me up... I want to be dependent on Him, and I want to be coming back to Him continually... but I feel like my time here has been attacked a lot, and I just need help from my friends to conquer this.

Now, we are t-minus 25 hours until we fly to the next destination in the West! We are tired, but I am still excited to see what He has in store of us.

For the team we have very important requests:

Satisfaction with Chinese Food!
Health
The Girls- Value in Christ, and not on the makeup and stuff they don't have here!
The Guys- Continued communication and Spiritual Health

Thank you guys so much for being remaining a part of my life. I love you all dearly
Love,

Jeff

p.s- If you have tried to reach me on skype, I apologize... I left myself logged on to my mom's computer. Now it should be off, so when I'm on, I will be on in China!
p.s.s- Here are some pictures to reward you for reading  :)

The girls on Haley's birthday, with some Chinese friends

The guys

Jenga became a staple game for connecting us with Chinese students



I won the competition on getting the furthest up the giant circle.




For those of you who know Sam, here is a new side of him that we discovered at his home... One of many priceless pictures from his past.