Village Trip--Part One

On Friday, I finally was able to nail down the details of our weekend.  We would leave on Saturday around 5:00 pm and then come back on Sunday, sometime in the afternoon.  On Saturday, Yi Han called me at 11:00.

“Business is slow today, so let’s just go after you eat lunch.” 

Logan and I threw a few things in a bag, ate lunch, and met Yi Han at 1:30 at the newspaper stand.  She and her husband would ride on the motorcycle, and Logan and I would accompany their son Little Luo and one of Yi Han’s friends, SY, on the bus.

We got off the bus at MFL, about 5 kilometers before YH's village in order to do a little sightseeing in the area.  MFL is the home of the famous White Pagoda of Xishuangbanna.  A woman caught us at the beginning of the road that led to the pagoda and insisted on the foreigners buying tickets for 5 kuai (74 cents) a piece.  I've always joked that most times it seems that nationals get in free, or for cheaper at least, and we get to pay what we call the “white face discount”.  Whether it was because Yi Han argued w/ the woman that she was from right up the road, or it really is the case that all this business about buying tickets to get into places is just to make a buck off the foreign tourists, Logan and I were the only ones charged.

Legend has it that Buddha stepped here and left his right footprint on a rock.  His left footprint can be found about 3 miles down the road, where the Black Pagoda was then built.  We spent maybe half an hour looking around.  The place was deserted of all tourists but us, probably due to the fact that it was incredibly hot.  Here is the image of the Buddha.

The pagoda from the front entrance.  It was build in 1204 AD.

The back side of the pagoda.  Pretty much like the front side...but I liked the clouds and the super blue sky in the background.    

After we looked around to our heart's desire and couldn't stand the intenseness of the sun any longer, we all marched back down the stairs and found a van that took us the few kilometers to Yi Han's village.

--da  

Village Trip--Intro

Around the time of Chinese New Year (February), I met someone who is now my very best national friend in all of JH.  She works all day every day in a small stand where she sells newspapers/magazines/milk/yogurt/water/etc.  To buy fresh milk here, you purchase it from a shop like hers instead of the grocery store….the grocery store sells self-stable milk, and I don’t even know how you make milk shelf-stable, so maybe that will be a post for another day. 

Anyways, I bought milk from her a few times in January and February, and then suddenly her shop was closed for about a week.  Because I walked by her shop almost every other day, I immediately noticed when she reopened.  I bought milk from her that day and told her I was glad she was open.  She explained that she had had to close when her father-in-law got sick and had to spend some time in the hospital.  (Hospitals and the whole health care system is also another post for another day.)  We talked a bit, and I headed home.  You could say it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. 

Since then I have frequented her shop often, and we will sit and talk for a few hours, or as long as my Chinese can hold up for the day.  About a month ago, we really started working on English together, and I can honestly say she is the only person I have ever really enjoyed teaching English to.  When we had some friends from Lubbock here for the summer, I took the girls by one day and we chatted.  Here is a picture two of the girls took w/ 玉罕。 (Yu Han would be how you pronounce the characters…but b/c she belongs to a minority people group, her name is actually Yi Han, and so 玉罕 (Yu Han) is just the Mandarin (Chinese) version of her name.)

A few weeks ago she invited us to come out to her village.  She rarely goes home (because she works every day), and so we were super excited to accept her invitation and travel about 45 kilometers to her hometown.  Over the next few days, I’ll blog about our time there.  We did manage to take some pictures while we were there, but not many.  I’ll admit that it makes me feel really strange taking pictures sometimes…kind of like its an invasion of the person’s privacy to just go around snapping pictures of their way of life.  Anyways, look forward to at least a couple of posts over the next week!

--da

(Thanks to Elizabeth for letting me jack the photo from facebook w/o asking.)

The Gospel in Prose- Part Four

My Salvation

21 Now when my time came and I placed my faith in Jesus, God instantly granted me salvation.

22 He forgave all my sins, past, present, and future.

23 He made me his child, adopting me into His family.

24 He gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit, who gives me God’s power, who pours out God’s love within my heart, and who tenderly communicates to my spirit that I am a child of God and an heir of eternal glory in heaven.

25 In saving me, God also freed me from slavery to any and all sins.

26 I no longer have to sin again, for sin’s mastery over me has been broken!

27 In saving me, God also justified me, and being justified through Christ, I have peace with God that will endure forever.

28 In justifying me, God declared me innocent of my sins and pronounced me righteous with the very righteousness of Jesus.

29 God also allowed his future and present wrath against me to be completely propitiated by Jesus, who bore it upon himself while on the cross.

30 Consequently, God now has only love, compassion, and deepest affection for me, and this love is without any admixture of wrath whatsoever.

31 God always looks upon me and treats me with gracious favor, always working all things together for my ultimate and eternal good.

32 God’s grace abounds to me even through trials.

33 Because I am a justified one, he subjugates every trial and forces it to do good unto me.

34 When I sin, God’s grace abounds to me all the more as he graciously maintains my justified status as described above.

35 When I sin, God feels no wrath in his heart against me.

36 His heart is filled with nothing but love for me, and he longs for me to repent and confess my sins to him, so that he might show me the gracious and forgiving love that has been in his heart all along.

37 God does not require my confession before he desires to forgive me.

38 In his heart he already has forgiven me; and when I come to him to confess my sins to him, he runs to me (as it were) and is repeatedly embracing and kissing me even before I get the words of my confession out of my mouth!

39 God does see my sins, and he is grieved by my sins. His grief comes partly from the fact that in my moments of sin, I am not receiving the fullness of his love for me.

40 He even sends chastisement into my life; but he does so because he is for me, and he loves me; and he disciplines me for my ultimate good.

41 I don’t deserve any of this, even on my best day; but this is my salvation, and herein I stand. Thank you, Jesus

(From Milton Vincent's A Gospel Primer)

The Gospel in Prose- Part Three

God’s Work on My Behalf

16 However, what I could not do, God did - and in doing it, He did it all, sending his own Son into the world to die on the cross for my sins, thereby showing me unfathomable love.

17 God loved me so much that he was willing to suffer the loss of his Son, and even more amazingly, he was willing to allow his Son to suffer the loss of him at the cross.

18 Jesus loved me so much that He was willing to lay down his life for me. No one could ever love me more or better than Jesus.

19 On the  third day after Jesus’ death, God raised him from the dead, thereby announcing that his death was completely sufficient to atone for every sin that I have or will commit throughout my lifetime.

20 God then exalted Christ to his own right hand, where Christ now reigns from on high, granting salvation and forgiveness to all who call on Him by faith.

(From Milton Vincent's A Gospel Primer)

The Gospel in Prose- Part Two

My Sin Against God

10 Yet I could not have failed this great God more miserably than I have.

11 Instead of giving thanks to Him and humbly submitting to His rule over my life, I have rebelled against him and have actually sought to exalt myself above him.

12 Going my own way and living according to my own wisdom, I have broken countless times either the letter or the spirit of every one of God’s Ten Commandments.

13 Thinking myself to be wise, I have shown myself to be a fool; and because of my arrogance, God has every right to damn me to the everlasting experience of his terrifying wrath in the Lake of Fire. 

14 So as for myself, apart from Christ I am bound by the guilt of my sins and also bound by the power of sin, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures.

15 Apart from Christ, I am also utterly deserving of and destined for eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire, completely unable to save myself or even to make one iota of contribution to my own salvation.

(From Milton Vincent's A Gospel Primer)

The Gospel in Prose- Part One

The Glory of God

1 My God is immense beyond imagination. He measured the entire universe with merely the span of his hand.

2 He is unimaginably awesome in all of his perfections, absolutely righteous, holy, and just in all his ways,

3 He has also been unbelievably good and merciful to me as the Creator and Sustainer of my life.

4 Every breath, every heartbeat, every function of every organ in my body is a gift from him.

5 Every legitimate pleasure I experience is a gift from his loving hand to me.

6 All that I am and all that I have I owe to him and to his goodness.

7 My life in every way is, and will continue to be, utterly dependent upon him in whom I live and move and have my being. 

8 This wonderful God is the most supremely worthy Object of admiration, honor, and delight in all of the universe;

9 An he has created me with the intention that I might glorify him by finding my soul’s delight in him and by living in joyful obedience to him in all of my ways. 

(From Milton Vincent's A Gospel Primer)

The Gospel in Prose

Today I am starting a four part blog series that is extracted verbatim (no apologies) from a book I recently received called A Gospel Primer, by Milton Vincent. In this book Vincent does a wonderful job of applying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all of life. I warmly commend it to you and I warn you to not be surprised if next time you see me, I give you a copy of this helpful little book. It is probably best not to rely on me, so and go ahead and do your soul a favor and buy yourself a copy.

Within his book, Vincent has beautifully written 'A Gospel Narrative' in both prose and in poem as a means to help Christians better preach the Gospel to themselves daily. I will be dividing this prose up into four different blog posts that will be posted three days apart. My prayer is that you are blessed and helped by the Gospel articulated in a form that you do not hear too often (if ever).

Read slowly and make sure you stop to marvel at what God has done.

Part one will be posted tomorrow.

Buy the book here.

All Will Be Well- a lesson on hope

Through the love of God our Savior, All will be well
Free and changeless is His favor, All is well
Precious is the blood that healed us
Perfect is the grace that sealed us
Strong the hand stretched forth to shield us 
All must be well

Though we pass through tribulation, All will be well
Ours is such a full salvation, All is well
Happy still in God confiding
Fruitful if in Christ abiding
Steadfast through the Spirit's guiding 
All must be well

We expect a bright tomorrow, All will be well
Faith can sing through days of sorrow, All is well
On our Father's love relying
Jesus every need supplying
Yes in living or in dying 
All must be well

_______________________

I am deeply encouraged by this hymn. It teaches me how to understand the hope Christ secured for me through the cross. It shows me that the hope I have for tomorrow, "all will be well," is not a shakeable hope. Nor is it a hope that only exists in the future. It is a hope that was perfectly secured over two thousand years ago, and because of this hope I can rise up with the hymnist, look at the work of Jesus and boldly say, "precious is the blood that healed us, perfect is the grace that sealed us, strong the hand stretched forth to shield us, all must be well." So when I cannot find it within myself to "sing through days of sorrow", I can boldly proclaim, "all is well"!

In the Gospel all must be, all is, and all will be well because of the God who loved us and gave himself for us. Praise be to him.

- LH


You can listen to the song here for free. I do recommend buying the whole album. 

Dam!

The title got your attention, and that's what I was going for.  Now go here to read about how layers of trash in the Yangtze River are 'thick enough to walk on' and could potentially block the Three Gorges Dam.

--da

An Opportunity to Complain about the Heat

Oh dear, we have really neglected the blog.  I hope those of you who actually come here weekly/daily to see if there's a post (opposed to just relying on your feeder to update) are not too disappointed in our lack of writing.  We really started the year off well, w/ a considerable amount of posts in the spring..but summer happened, and updating the blog was the last thing on my mind.

I'll try to commit to write some later about what we've been doing the past month (most of July was spent in Thailand..however, no pictures).  This morning, though, as I was folding clothes and sweating, and faking complete despair as I opened the curtains that separate the rest of our house from our kitchen/patio area (and therefore also the blazing sun) to hang up clothes to dry, I was reminded of an Andrew Peterson song.  It was one of those moments when you say to yourself, "Gosh, you really do complain a lot, don't you?"  Here's the first verse:

Little Elba how's the sun in South America
Does it shine upon the faces of the poor?
Do they see in it the brilliance of the place that's been prepared
And dwell upon the hope of what's in store?
Or are they just like me, do they only see
An opportunity to complain about the heat?  

So....thank you God, for the sun today.  I repent of my complaining heart.  Thank you for the sun and the rain that you have shine/fall on the righteous and unrighteous.

--da

go here for more Andrew Peterson music and books.