Campus Target

I just realized that I haven’t given you an update about Jenny! She is the one who accepted the Gospel when I told her about it in March. I finally got to baptize her in my friends’ bathtub!

I am back in America! I safely fared the 40 hours of travel from China to America and arrived near Rochester, New York. Right now I am at the few days of debriefing with everyone else in Campus Target who just got back to America. We are all taking the time to process our year, our return, and the reverse culture shock we’re all going through. It’s truly interesting how different America feels. Perhaps it’s because I’ve changed more than I realized.

Earlier this week I was scheduling meetings with friends and I realized that I only have one or two more times to meet with each of them. I suddenly felt a strong sense of urgency in my work here. Many of my friends have grown exponentially this year, but have I shared all I can with them?

Mid-February is the Chinese New Year, more commonly called Spring Festival. During Spring Festival, we are encouraged to spend a few days with a Chinese friend in their hometown, experiencing how they celebrate the holiday with their families. So this past February, Sydney and I headed off with our friend Angela to her hometown about two hours away from K-Town. We ate the traditionally huge dinner with her family on the eve of the New Year, and then stayed one night in her home. Every morning I get up early to spend about an hour with God, and I did not let the morning I woke up in her home be an exception.

As Jenny and I were sitting in the Korean restaurant, I asked her how she liked the Bible study Sydney had taught on salvation. Jenny replied that she agreed with it – it went along with what she’s seen in her life. I used a few illustration tools to make sure Jenny understood what Jesus had done for her. When I asked her if she wanted to receive this free gift from God, she said yes, but that she wasn’t qualified. It finally clicked for her when I wrote out a resume with Jesus’s name on top with all of His qualifications for Heaven and then crossed out His name and wrote hers instead. When I handed her the resume, she wanted it!

Sydney and I went to our friend Summer’s grandmother’s house for their Spring Festival get-together, and her whole family was there. We got to walk around the village, eat a huge meal with all thirty of them, and participate in their family picture. It was so fun being included in everything! It was very enjoyable, and an eye-opening experience for me, since I have not really been out of the city I live in. The village was much different from K-Town!

I walked around, trying to really experience C-Land for the first time since I got here. I walked around my campus, asking God for vision. I started seeing students less as just people, and more as individuals God loves. I started seeing the dorms as future places of little fellowships gathering every week all over campus!

I have a friend we call French Sylvia (we already knew a Sylva when we met her, and her major is French). She’s an interesting girl. I have gone shopping and have eaten a few meals with her, and someday soon, I will show her how to make the sweet potato casserole she tried at our Thanksgiving party.

“I found the baby!” the shepherd cried as he reached into the makeshift manger, picked up the sock baby we had made, and waved it in the air.

“Give the baby back!” I called through the uproarious laughter in the room, “It’s Mary’s baby!”

Because the busy Christmas season is pretty much here, last week we all had a nice break. We went to Dal*, which is a 5-hour bus ride from where we live. It was fantastic! Some climbed the nearby mountains or walked around the lake, but I just slept in and walked around the Old Town for the three days we were there. It was really relaxing, and the lodge we stayed at smelled like America! In the last week we also went to HK to renew our visas. That was great, too – I got to go to Starbucks for the first time in about two months! It was nice to have a little bit of time off before December really got started.