Mellow Greetings Friends-
I am happy to announce that on Wednesday afternoon the window in my room was open:) It’s still chilly outside but with the heat on in all the buildings it can get quite warm। So yay! Although one downside to the window being open is that sometimes smoke comes in from people outside… Gross… I can actually see brown grass in places but mostly mud. Drying is the key right now. Everything is wet and muddy. Which God must not have heard my plea for everything to dry cause it rained off and on all day Friday… Darkest day that I’ve been here I think… I missed the really dark days of January:)But I'm sad to announce that it rained all day Friday and snowed on Saturday......
I actually have had 8 teachers total now. It was at 7 last time we talked. But the teachers that have been sick have finally returned so things are getting back to normal again. Also we started a geography type class in addition to the regular language study. Sounds like we will be learning the Russian names for geography type stuff. Like what the “Atlantic Ocean” is spelt in Russian and were it is. Should be interesting….
On Wednesday, I went was on my way to Golden Bird for a shopping trip when I thought I heard my name called… Right away I thought that I was just imagining it and forgot about it. I took about 4 more steps when I heard it again… This time I looked behind me and then laughed at myself for thinking someone was saying my name. I took about 2 more steps when I definitely heard my name being yelled from somewhere above/behind me… I could just barely make out an arm hanging out of window on the fourth floor of one of the dorm buildings. It was waving furiously, though not at me, just flying around to catch my eye. I quickly figured out that I was standing before dorm building No. 2 which is where most of the Chinese students I know live… And pretty sure that was иван (pronounced Ivan) hand hanging out the window… So I quickly waved and walked on hoping he would not try to have a conversation with me from the window with his hand… I think the tree in the way helped. The hand said, “Goodbye!” with a strong Chinese accent. I walked on breathing a sigh of relief that the hand was not in a talkative mood at the moment. When I came back the same way (any other way would have been too long) I walked quickly hoping to not make… eye contact (?) with the hand again. Thankfully, it did not. The next day at school I asked толя (pronounced Tolya) if it had been иван hanging out of the window. He said it wasn’t but he could only remember the guys name in Chinese and not Russian (the teachers give Russian names to everyone on their first day of class). But later женя (pronounced Jenya) (the guy who said I love you) came up to me and said that it had been his hand talking to me:) This is женя on the left and толя on the right:
So I have successfully taught my bff женя how to do a gun show. I say where’s the gun show and he gives one:) Although the other day when I asked him about the gun show he said that all he needed to do was flex his finger. That was all he needed to do:) Nice comeback:) He gave me some Chinese money on Friday! I’m excited:) The guys are really fascinated by this “gun show” and brought out their dictionaries to figure out its exact meaning… Boy was it hard to tell them that it wasn’t going to be in their dictionary the kind of way the word was being used! I finally had to use the example of толя saying “game over” to illustrate. The guys like to make “Made in China” jokes. They will be talking to each other and someone will randomly say “Made in China” and they all start laughing hysterically. On Wednesday, иван asked our teacher what her cup was called and she told him it was called a “thermos”. He didn’t understand so she looked to see if “thermos” was written on the cup somewhere and only found that it said “Made in Thailand”…. Иван said, “Made in Thailand… not made in China?”…. And they all started laughing….
So my other bff толя found out that I am leaving in July। He has been bringing it up almost every day since then. He has the date memorized and will sometimes during break write it on the board and look at me all sad. Although he has said that it will be “better” for me to be in America again:) Last week during all the confusion with teachers only he and I came to class and apparently we bonded. When he found out that I was only here for one semester he wrote “friendly” on the board trying to tell me that he didn’t want me to leave because I’m very friendly. It came out “friedly” … but I got the idea:) He said that иван and миша (pronounced Misha) are not going to come back with him next semester so he’ll be all alone. He really won’t be all alone cause I’m sure there will be other students. He just won’t have any of us with him. Sad day. But I know that he will make lots of new friends next semester:) So I don’t know how old толя is or when his birthday is…. When I asked him the first time he said he was 21. When my teachers asked him how old he is he said 23… When one teacher asked him when his birthday is he said October 7th. When another asked him the same question he said February something… I think he is getting his numbers/dates mixed up during the language conversion in his mind:) Here is my name in Chinese :)
So I have to admit something… I’m starting to get sick of the food at the cafeteria… Yes, I said it. It’s all good food don’t get me wrong! I’m sure that I will have cravings for it once I get back home… BUT eating there Monday through Saturday gets a little old. The vending machines at school have been calling my name lately just to get a taste of something different… Not good. I’m working on being thankful for the good, cheap, and easy to buy food that I get at the cafeteria instead of the monotonous tastes:) God bless the cafeteria…
So just a heads up for you, I’m going to be the champion of Chinese checkers by the time I get home so watch out. I’ve been playing it almost every Tuesday night at the game night we have at the Hope Center. Russians have their own way of playing regular checkers… Timothy “taught” me and I’m still in denial about how that went. It’s like a combination of checkers and Chinese checkers and… something else. Not sure what. You can go backwards and jump two pieces… It’s weird. I shouldn’t say weird… its different than what I’m used to:) I’ll have to play again so I can tell you exactly what the “Russian” rules are.
I successfully paid for my first month of internet on my own:) Света (pronounced Sveta), who helps the Eshelmans with translating, wrote out a dialogue for me to use when I pay. I had it all memorized but at the last second I got flustered and stumbled through it. They were very nice though and got it taken care of. One of the ladies was there when I first got the modem and stuff so she knew what my problem was:)
I can’t seem to find a record of me telling you about the verse that God gave me last year that really confirmed in my heart that I was supposed to come here. Its Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you WHEREVER you GO.” I love that verse. God has brought that to my mind several times over the past year. Currently, I am doing a study on the book of Joshua (or Joshua). I guess I’d never thought about how difficult it would have been for Joshua to step up as leader of the Israelites after Moses. Try and fill those shoes! Errr sandals. I can’t imagine the fears and hesitation to take that position. This verse proves that Joshua did in fact have doubts about it because God is telling him, “BE strong. BE courageous. DON’T be terrified. DON’T be discouraged, BECAUSE I will be with you WHEREVER you are.” But it wasn’t just out of the blue that Joshua became the next leader. He had been under Moses wing for a really long time. He had been in training. Preparing for his time as the leader. So it wasn’t like God was just saying do this now cause I said so… He was reminding him that this was his plan for him and that he was going to stick with him through the whole thing. The Lord said, “Have I not commanded you?”… They have obviously had a similar conversation before. There are lots of things I like about this story… One, is that God prepares us for what he has planned for us. He doesn’t just drop us in the midst of things. Sometimes it may feel like that :) but he really has prepared us for that moment in time if we let him. Second, is that Joshua was human too:) Reminders that someone that God used in such a big way had his doubts and fears just like anyone else makes me feel better about my own human thoughts and emotions. Third, is the fact that God kept his word. He stuck with Joshua through the thick and thin. The story of the Battle of Jericho was Joshua’s time to show the people that he really was Gods appointed leader over them. During that whole ordeal I’ll bet there were days when he didn’t want to march around that city and wanted to just stay in his tent. It’s not like he could have slipped on his iPod to avoid talking to people (yes I know you do that). But God came through for him:) Joshua 4: 14, “That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life; just as they had revered Moses.” And Joshua 6:27, “So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread throughout the land.”
I think this is already starting to click in your mind:) But just in case, I’ll break this down even more for you… 1. God has an amazing plan for your life. 2. He WILL prepare you for it IF you let him. 3. God keeps his word. These are the things I want you to get out of this as Pastor Ed would say:) I’m excited to learn more about Joshua and the Israelites… maybe I’ll tell you more about it sometime or better yet… do your own study:)
Thank you, as always, for your prayers. They are what keeps me going on dark days. Time is flying and I’ll be home sooner than…. You are amazing. I am truly blessed to know you.
Made in America,
Leah
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