I'm back!

Now I am back at the old campus. When we arrived back from the kids camp, our rooms had changed and they had moved all of our stuff. The rooms are about the same, but the building is a little worse. There is a cat with fleas in our building, and every time it rains the bottom floor floods  Bummer.
It was so hard to leave the kids. It’s funny, because my first day with the kids I hated it, because all they could not even say the abcs and recite the numbers 123. I thought it would be impossible to teach them. The last day that we left, it was really tough. They cried, and I cried! It’s crazy that in only 2 weeks you can get so close to them. I think I get attached much more to the children than the adults. It is hard to explain, but I felt and gave a kind of love that I have never felt before. Why is it so much easier to love in China? I never really thought of myself as a hard-hearted person in America, but here, I am so open to loving them. My favorite student that I really got attached to was a little 9 year old boy named Jack. He was a troublemaker, but he also was really sweet. He would always call my name from across the room, “Helwo Saywah!!!” Man, how can you not melt at that!? He always shared his umbrella with me, and saved a seat for me. SO sweet! It really got to me when I left, because my thought on the way home was, these young children are so beautiful, but there is no one in their life to tell them about Jesus. They do not know any Christians. Who will tell them? I feel like I missed the opportunity, but it is so hard because they are so young to hear the gospel explained in a second language! It’s hard to know that I will never see them again in this life…and what about in heaven…? I don’t know. I must trust that God loves them much more than I do, and I hope he will send a Christian into their lives.
I have started teaching the next batch of adult students. I have the lowest level English speakers, so it is definitely a challenge! I miss the conversations I had with my last group of adults. I know it will be a good last couple of weeks, but it’s hard to stay positive when they can’t understand me. I will learn to love them in a different way.
My team is really not unified at all. The new team has such varying personalities that it is hard to connect with them. I know it will be good, but I’m a little discouraged about that also. Because the team is not bonded, I will try to spend all of my time with the students. I want to pour my all into these last couple weeks.
Rose came to church on Sunday! Wow. It turns out that she only lives one block from the church! I am still so surprised that she came. She didn’t understand a lot of the things that we do in church, but she said she really liked the music. She said, “It looks like the man leading worship is very excited!”  She began crying at one point, so I know God really is working on her. She is already talking about coming back next week. Yes! We got to go out to lunch with her after to ask her what she thought. It’s cool because the first session I didn’t feel like God was doing very much. I suppose it was work all behind the scenes. In the last few weeks, it is like something is visible every day! It is so cool to watch. I feel like so much has changed in me in just the last couple of weeks. I am learning to love in a whole new way.
I am starting to wonder how the move back to America will be. Will it be hard to go back? I know it will be tough, because no one will understand. They will not understand all of the experiences that I had. I can’t really explain all that has happened during my time here in China. I am so afraid that I will forget… I can’t forget! I tried to write everything down in a journal so that I can remember everything that I experienced. Alright, class time now!