Hola!

Praise the L0rd, I'm on holiday finally!! Now that I have a bit more time on my hands I will update you all on the recent happenings here in Dongguan.

I celebrated Thanksgiving at a Brasilian restaurant with Leko and Jason, a recent grad of Wheaton College and resident of California. He's not your typical surfer dude. The entire gang here celebrated on Sunday after services. I baked two pumpkin pies for the dinner. Now, imagine not having a rolling pin while making crusts and an oven that holds one pie pan while baking for 100 people. It was an adventure. Leko came over and we slaved away until 3am. He made a Brasilian dessert that was amazing while I rolled out pie crusts with a tin can that held cologne at one point. It was definitely a great memory.

The dinner went well. We had people from all over join us. Dinner was complete with mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, sweet potato casserole, etc. Afterwards we cleaned up a massive pile of dishes and sang every hymn we could recall.

We had four weeks of teaching between Thanksgiving and our holiday that began yesterday. We had the opportunity to teach the children what Christmas really means as well as have a Christmas play. My children sang "Jingle Bells." They were very cute. I also taught them "Frosty the Snowman" and "Joy to the World." I really wanted them to learn "Rudolph" but they weren't having it.

I went to Hong Kong last weekend and attended a live recording of a w-rship album sponsored by The Vine ch-rch in HK. It reminded me of being home a lot. The teaching was for mature believers and it was so free there. Very unlike mainland China. I didn't know this before I came so maybe you all don't either, but HK is not really considered China. Therefore, there is liberty there. In addition to the religious freedom, one of the perks of HK is that it's comprable to the States. I'm spoiled, I know, but it's nice to see Gucci, Prada, H&M, etc. Not that I shop there, but it felt like home. And there are so many non-Asians there! I think I'm going to be REALLY intimidated when I come back to the States. I'm used to being the minority here so it's weird to be part of the crowd again. I don't know if that makes sense to you all, but I think we all feel it here sometimes.

I realized this weekend that I have very uncommon experiences here ALL the time, yet I fail to recognize them because they've become common to me. For instance, at dinner on Sunday there were four countries and five languages spoken with only six of us at the table. I was NEVER in that situation in the States, yet here it is normal and I overlook it now. This experience is so amazing. I can't even wrap my mind around why He is blessing me with something so extraordinary.

Two quick things before I go: I bungee jumped for the second time last month, and I was invited to Australia for Chinese New Year in February for free! I don't think I have even the slightest idea what a hundredfold is after all.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.