It's all about the Benjamins... or is it??

Chris, writing from a teammate's couch...

The internet in our apartment is still fairly unreliable, but thankfully some of our teammates are gracious enough to let us crash on their couch for awhile and use their connection. So the blogging will continue!

This semester is a relatively short one for me. Since Allie and I need to head to Thailand at the end of November to get ready and wait to meet our daughter, all of my classes are only 12 weeks long. It is an amazing blessing to be at a school that will offer this option (most classes are 18 weeks) and to be with teammates that graciously let me have most of the shorter classes. One of the downsides of a short semester is that there isn't enough time to really lay down a foundation with students and then get into deeper issues; with only 12 weeks, there's so much to pack in that classes just fly by. With the end of the semester rapidly approaching I had been a little down about this. Is my teaching really bringing glory to the Father? Am I really helping my students to learn deeper lessons than just basic English? These questions had been going through my mind until class this past week. This week's lesson was about money. The Money lesson starts with a listening exercise about "The Lost Son" and moves to deeper questions about true value and how the "pursuit of money is the root of all evil." For the last 5 minutes of class I write this question on the board: Why did Mr. Chris leave America and move to China?

My students are really engaged in this question. They are leaning forward in their seats and shouting out answers from all across the room. Their answers are all over the place, ranging from things like "You like Chinese food" to "You want to make more money." They are astounded when I tell them that I was never a teacher in America; I had a well paying job in a hospital that I liked very much. "Then why did you leave?" they ask. And just before the bell rings, when they are at the height of their curiosity, I tell them that if they want to know the answer they have to come to my office time on Wednesdays!

These are some of the students that came to my office time this past Wednesday. It was great to share with them a little about my life before China. It was humbling when I told them that I think true happiness comes from following God's plan for our lives and their response was "I've never heard anything like that before." Please lift up the rest of my students as they have just heard this lesson and will make a decision about whether or not to come to the office on Wednesday to hear the answer to why I'm in China! Please ask for openness and wisdom in the conversations that may follow. I'll keep you all posted on how my office time goes next Wednesday!