Today I have been having a very "Chinese" day. You may be thinking "Of course you have Chris, you live in China...." While you are correct, and very astute, what I mean by a "Chinese day" is one of those days when things are neither working nor going well, and I look around and think "Of course it's this way... I live in China."
It all started last night. The rain had finally let up for a few days, so I spent a few hours playing basketball and soccer, trying to take in all the sunshine that I could. After about 3 hours of sports I came home cold, exhausted, and sweaty... looking forward to a nice hot shower. I stepped into our 30 degree bathroom, pulled the handle to turn on the shower, and nothing happened. No water, hot or cold, came forth from the shower head. Every so often the water to our building gets shut off without warning-- this was one of those times. No big deal, I just used some bottled water to wash my face and life went on.
But then the bigger problem hits. I'm fine if I have to skip a shower, but if there's no water then we also can't flush the toilet! It's not like in the States, we can't just go to a "friend's house" or "restaurant down the street" in a pinch. As we're filling the toilet tank up with bottled water (yes, that actually happened) the toilet lid falls off and smashes to pieces. But at least we got the immediate problem solved and could move on.
This morning we woke up and the water was working! Instead of showering off the grime from yesterday I opted to go running before taking a shower. Big mistake. By the time we got home, the water had been cut off again! Saturated in sweat from today's 6 mile run, plus yesterday's 3 hours of soccer and basketball, I decided to make some breakfast. Alas, when you live in a place that doesn't sell Poptarts or cereal, you have no water or stove, and your microwave doesn't work either, the options are limited. Thankfully we had some fruit and yogurt on hand, so no big deal.
A few hours later the water came back on so we rushed to shower, wash the dishes, and use the bathroom (not necessarily in that order). However, when the water came back on a valve in our water heater broke, so now whenever we want to take a hot shower, there will be water dripping in our bathroom. I sent a picture of the broken valve to our boss and she called the repair man. After waiting about 4 hours for him, he came in for 2 minutes, looked at the valve and said "mei you" which loosely translates to "don't have." As he walked out the door my heart broke a little.
A funny thing happened though. As I was sitting here having a "China" moment, God prompted me to check on the status of our support. When I was reading our list of donors my heart was warmed by reading your names. There were some unexpected, recent donations added to the list as well as pages of faithful donations that you guys have sent since we began thinking about coming to China. And then God reminded me that I am not alone. Even in the midst of my "China days" you guys are here with us, as part of our team, faithfully serving and providing for us. We are in a season of being "feet"-- we are the ones called to "go." But without the rest of the body, without you, we wouldn't even be able to take one step. Thank you for faithfully serving along side of us!
"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ... Now if the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do no belong to the body,' it would not for that reason stop being part of the body... But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be... If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." -- 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
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