One more added

I am reading the journals again, and I have some that I must share. These are their exact words.

On August 20th, Alice said, “I feel like time is driving so quickly. Now I wish it would go slower. I don’t want to come to the end.”

August 18th, Betty said, “ I will have a daughter. I have a son now. If I have two children they can play together. They will share their happy and sad things…But our Chinese are allowed have only one child every family. So this is only my dream. I think it will never come true.”

August 20th, Susan said, “ We talked a lot of things in our classroom. Sara let us disguess (discuss ) some questions. I think it is hard to say befor. I have never thought these gueses (questions). From today I know so many things about myself.”

August 17th, Carolyn wrote, “Our teacher returned last week’s journal to us. She writed down, ‘You’re doing great! You can do it!’ When I saw these I’m very happy. I know my oral English is very poor, but my teacher is very friendly to me. I can hear clearly these encourage. I will remember you told me, ‘You can do it.’”

I so happy to say, last night I received a new sister in the family of God! One of the first nights of this program, I went to this room and met a girl named Kerensa, which she pronounces Karissa  She is not one of my students, but from then on, we always had some sort of connection. She is 32, and has the sweetest and funniest personality. Last night she came over and we sat outside on our dorm steps for a couple hours talking. She said, “You have such a big heart. You are the best kind of beautiful.” She asked why all of the Americans here are to kind. I told her maybe because we are Christians. She said, “When I go home, I am going to read the Bible so I can be like that too.” It’s a long story, but somehow at the end of the night, she made the decision to become a Christian. Her teacher, my roommate, came out after, and I asked KArissa to tell her teacher the good news. She smiled “I am a Ch, Chris, Christian!” She couldn’t even pronounce the word, but it was the most truly joyful moment for me. She just kept saying, “I believe. I believe.”
When I started talking to her last night, I had no idea that’s where it would end up! I was totally caught off guard. I guess that’s the difference between my timing and God’s timing. She said, “I am so full!”
At the beginning of my time here I thought I would get to share a lot about being a Christian. I realize that the opportunities are few and far between. But if she was the only one, it would be worth my time here in China. She is truly special. It makes me sad to think about her, a brand new Christian going back home. She will stuggle, I know…

My roommate left today. It was so cool to get to know her here. We don’t know everything about each other, but it didn’t matter. She was a kind of friend I’ve never had before. We went through so much together. We are the only ones who understand each other because we had the same experiences. So many memories. I will probably never see her again, but it’s ok, because we shared everything. We were much needed friends during these two months.