Catching Up

Well, it appears that I haven't told you the truth: blogspot is not available again (but we still have our Paul-made means of access). I managed to post a few pictures for you; hope you enjoy them.


Titus met Rachel's teacher.
It's about time, since we talk about him every week! She is a fantastic teacher.

Played a volleyball tournament.

Drew's university held an inter-college weekend tournament. I thought that they might be trying to kill us foreign students (just kidding): we had NINE matches! We were not conditioned players, especially not me, so it was like couch potatoes climbing Everest. Sore.

Meet Bao Mu's family; learned to cook her awesome fish dish.

Bao Mu's college aged daughter and niece came to our house on Saturday morning. It was huge! Though Bao Mu is a committed sister, her daughter is not so "strong". Actually, her daughter faces a problem that many young Chinese ladies face: the believing guys are like an endangered species (which is interesting...Chinese actually nickname these guys "pandas"!) so it's hard to find a like-minded husband and girls are tempted to settle.

Bao Mu desperately wants her daughter to be equally yoked. She hoped that Drew and I could display the goodness of a believing marriage.

Drew learned to cook his fish, too. Maybe he can make it for you?

We also met Bao Mu's husband, who came over for the finished lunch.

Playing with the ever-growing, ever-learning Titus.

You'd be amazed. Maybe you still imagine Titus as a sweet, pudgy four-month-old with flailing limbs. No longer. Titus can, by himself, crawl up on TOP of the coffee table. He can feed himself crackers. He's got a sort of vocabulary: "Ba-ba-ba, Ma-ma-ma, A-ma, Ma-ba", and once when we finished lifting together, Titus said "A--meh!"

Sending love to you!

Rachel, Drew & Titus

Can This Be Real?

Yay! I think we have normal access to blogspot again!

You may have noticed a dip in the frequency of blog posts: although my brother Paul devised a clever way for us to continue blogging through the blocked time --- long story short, it took about twice as long + our internet has been increasingly inconsistent.

So we're back! I hope you enjoy our posting revival. Ok, I'm off to catch up on reading all your blogs.

Rachel

What does a full bladdered taxi driver, the unseen world, and a newsletter have to do with each other? Nothing really.

A Transportation Story
(happened in Chinese, of course)

Driver: Could we stop to go to the toilet? It will only take one minute.

Rachel: [Did he say what I think he said?] Uh, you want to go to the toilet? Really?

Driver: Right. It will only take one minute!

Rachel: [Is this guy just trying to rip off the foreigner?] I feel that you can go to the toilet after I arrive at my destination.

Driver: ??(Chinese...Something about how cab drivers don't have many opportunities to make a pitstop)?? Really, only one minute!!!

Rachel: [Hesitant] This is very strange. Ok. You can.

Less than a mile later he pulls just off the road into a gas station, turns off the charge meter, runs to the bathroom and back, and we drive off. He even turned the meter off a little early at the end. Nice guy.


Walk-Lifting our City

Sunday was International DOP, so our city fellowship decided to go walk-lifting. Drew, Titus and I walked our neighborhood street and partway up the mountain. As we walked, we discreetly spoke aloud, asking for our neighbors, teammates, students, teachers, tutors, friends, and strangers. We asked for these to overcome barriers to the truth. We asked for a whole lot.

Have you ever done a walk-lift before? It's very eye-opening. We walk these streets everyday, seeing what's going on physically, seeing physical people...but while walk-lifting we began to sense the unseen, which is just as real and present as the physical.


Newsletter

If you're on our snail-mailing list, you should have just received our May letter. If you didn't get one, but you want to, please email us or post a comment here. Our address list is in need of corrections to changed last names, deceased, new addresses, spellings, etc. We sincerely apologize if the letter you received was in some way incorrect. We're working on it, but let us know if there is an error to be corrected. Thank you.

If you did get our letter, what did you think? We appreciate feedback. :)



with love,

Drew, Rachel & Titus

Dragon Boat Festival

Last Wednesday night was Dragon Boat Festival. A couple Chinese teachers invited our team to one of their homes to make Zongzi, a pyramid-shaped glob of sticky rice and meat wrapped in a big leaf. To make Zongzi, you first fold the leaf into a pocket to hold the rice, then stick some rice or beans in there, more rice, fold closed, and finally tie with string. The Zongzi is then boiled and eaten; it's not too bad!

History: There was a famous poet, I think around 200AD (or was it BC?), who lept in the river to commit suicide. Tradition says that the townspeople loved him, so they raced boats recover his body -- hence the other tradition of boat races for Dragon Boat Festival. The townspeople also threw food in the river to feed the fish, so his body wouldn't be eaten -- hence the Zongzi.

As you can see, our team enjoyed the time with the teachers and their families!

Drew, Rachel & Titus