Persevering and Preparing for our new life in China

There has been a lot going on these past two weeks. I have been training from 8am-7pm everyday. The hardest part, apart from culture shock and long hours, has been learning to teach people in a language that they struggle to understand. I have never taught before. I have never managed a group of students either. So getting up in front of a bunch of college students, who were my peers only months ago, and behaving like a confident authority is hard for me. They tell me I am finding my teacher voice and teaching style. I just hope I don’t get lost looking for it. I get frustrated at times when I see more experienced teachers and how awesome their lesson plans are or how amazing their game ideas are. I stay up late or get up extra early to write lesson plans that still fall short of others excellence. My confidence wanes at times and I doubt wether or not I can even do what I have come to China to do. Still I will persevere and hope that God has called me to invest in teaching others, because he knows how good of a teacher I am going to be. I try to take confidence in this, that God will make me who he needs me to be and for now that is enough.

 

In addition to working on lesson plans until 12:30 some nights, I am also dealing with the culture shock. Not just Chinese culture shock, but German culture shock. A large part of our group are part of the young volunteers program, which are high school graduates from Germany who come for only a year to teach middle school. Some are Christians and some are not, but all of them are wonderful to be around, even if I have to adjust my cultural goggles a little bit when I am around them. As for the Chinese culture shock, it has been a mixture of learning the language (I only have bargaining down so far), getting use to the new and “interesting” smells, and dealing with the cultural expectations. A lot of our training has covered this. How to deal with it and how to overcome. So my perspectives for my time in China are pretty positive right now and I know that once I settle into my new home life will get better.

In the meantime I will deal with hard beds and smelly streets, because I know the people here are worth it. It will be hard to say goodbye to our new friends here in Yangzhou. Still, as we finish up training this Saturday, I can’t help but get excited about getting to JiNing. We have a few days in Nanjing, where Amity’s head office and printing company are located. Then I have another day in Hohhot where I will be getting a physical for my work visa. So I should be reaching my new home on Wednesday. I warn everyone, I might be out of communication for a couple of days while making this transition, but don’t worry because the lord is with me. I will be alright. If you want to know what I am doing during those days, just think of me shopping and preparing for my new life in JiNing. A beautiful and wonderful life, because its about me bringing glory to God by serving others.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who has been praying for me these past weeks and months. It is such a blessing to know I have the strength of my Christian brothers and sisters with me as I make this major life change. I don’t think I could do it without all of the encouragement and love you so willingly give.

I love you all!

Bethany

P.S. I hope you all enjoy the few pictures that I have included in this post. They are from my trip to West Slim Lake Park here in Yangzhou. I hope to put more on Facebook when I gain access to it again.