Snow in Shanghai!!!

We had an awesome day yesterday! I got to have a snowball fight with my class the last 10 minutes of school!!! How's that for a merry christmas !???first day of cold, and we got snow. Amazing!!! I felt like a little kid playing for almost an hour out in the snow with them. Grading??? I don't think so!!! We were stoked!!!

It was esp fun riding my scooter in the snow. It was Danny's first real snow! :)

Papau - and more! :)

What has life been up to for the past 2 months? It’s been absolutely wonderful. Quite busy with a crazy school working schedule - lots of working on weekends and fun events that make a teachers life crazy... but have had some amazing blessings this year so far. I'm filled with joy about what is going on here, and my part in it! :)

School has been a most incredible blessing this year. I couldn’t have ASKED for a more delightful class. I pinch myself most days that I’m not in a dream, and I really love my job as much as I do. My class is well-behaved, at a fairly high academic level, with of course the exceptions, and are such a fun and jolly group. I can basically get them to do anything, and they can stay in control and it makes teaching very spontaneous! Most lessons we’re dying laughing at how funning such and such is. I don’t know if it’s the students, my confidence, or being my 5th year, but the result is absolutely remarkable. I have a wonderful team that I love working with, and has great attitudes! My relationship with my TA Grace is wonderful as well!

For October Holiday I went to Papau Indonesia with my friend Janai... Here is a journal on my way there..

I’m currently sitting next to Janai, friend and fellow accomplice on our 4th airplane flight in 24 hours, and we still have one more to go. I’m looking out over the waters of the Pacific surrounding Indonesia - amazed at the beauty and perfection of it all. We may be crazy, but we’re going to be taking 10 total plane trips in 7 days in order to spend 3 full days in Papau with Isaac and Amber... but boy am I stoked! :) The water is so blue - you can’t tell where sky stops and waters begin. Clouds help create some perspective of where up and down is in this world of blue, and occasional islands assure me that we are in fact not just floating in blue jello. God laid on my heart to come to Papau to visit Isaac and Amber Rogers beginning of September, but I knew that I had a youth retreat for the first 3 days of our 10 day break. I decided to pursue it regardless, and had peace that he’d make a way if it was his will. And thus I dragged a friend on this trip and here we are - ready to enter the world of cochroaches and large bugs... I already couldn’t fall asleep last night because little bugs kept popping up next to me... I just settled with reading for a bit before i was too tired to keep my eyes open, and forgot about any crawly thing that may be lurking. I prayed for protection by God’s angels - and I figured that was pretty good security against cockroaches as well... :)

Beauty of Papau - this is looking over Sentani - the last city you can buy a normal flight into. From here you have to take little planes. :)

Afterwards:

I’m currently (now) sitting on a Lion Air flight, with no leg or arm room in a seat that doesn’t go back, but of course my neighbors is back - flying across Papau to Jakarta with Janai. We just finished our amazing trip with the Rogers, and are sad to be leaving. Just 5 hours ago we were snorkeling in the ocean looking at blue star fish and clown fish, and floating in the warm water with the sun amazed at the beauty of a nearly deserted beach in the middle of many Papauan mountains. Our trip was absolutely incredible - got to see the country from the missionaries point of view, and even got to hang with some locals and a great Indonesian friend of there’s, Linda. I feel like i am returning to China witha greater view of God’s work here, and a greater encouragement to continue the work he’s called me to in Asia.

I could go on and on, but i”ll tell you the encouraging parts. Training schools are being started to train up teachers not only in the gospel but also in teaching strategies. Currently the Papauan education system is not producing very qualified teachers, and thus subpar students - they teach rote memorization, and thus teacher don’t have a knowledge of how to learn because they were never taught how to learn, and can’t teach others how to learn. There also is little motivation or self-confidence within the people - they’re told from the beginning of their lives that they are worth nothing, and won’t be able to accomplish anything. So most of them grow up believing that and reaching that low standard. The neatest thing is that by reaching teachers and influencing the education system, they’ll be able to influence the next generation of learners, and thus help to change the society into something that believes in itself, and has Christ as it’s center - wtih Christ and a quality education, these amazing people can go so far.

Janai and I both got to go on two flights with Isaac to villages - she got to do a medivac where they took a pregnant lady who’d been trying to deliver for two weeks to the hospital in Wamena. I got to see some amazingly steep “runways” of gravel in between mountains and on the sides of cliffs, and take pictures with some beautiful children. It was fun to spend time with Isaac hearing about the country - he gave us such interesting information about whatever we asked about - and seeing the most amazing cliffs, hills, rivers, and waterfalls that I’d ever experienced. It’s literally at the end of the world - only accessible by plane- and once we were in a village surrounded by huts and Papuans and pigs, we were in the absolute middle of no where with only a plane as our exit plan.

We had a blast with the family, and the boys are so sweet. It was wonderful to see them in their environment, and be able to see first hand what goes on in a day - where Amber shops, where the boys go to school, meeting the other missionaries, meeting the Papuan friends they know, hiking along a river just 10 min from their house and seeing a goarded Dani man wearing nothing but a goard over his ... well... yeah... It was quite an adventurous experience, and such an amazing way to spend our last 7 days of break - it felt long and relaxing being so far away. I got a good night of sleep every other night... but on the whole it was restful, and we still have many plane flights to sleep on on the way back. Luckily I sleep like a baby in the air... or on anything moving... :)

They thought it was Christmas - they love candy - especially Tyus! :)

Another recent blessing was spending 30 hours with my papa. We Gelsingers to like to cram as much into small time periods as we can... guess i come by it honestly. He was in between business trips and had a day and a half to spend in shanghai, and I was going to be at a youth retreat - so i roped him into joining us, and also leading a workshop for the youth on writing personal mission statements. We even got some quality time in between group games, volleyball tournaments, speaking sessions, and workshops! :) The main blessing of the retreat was to see the girls in my group - I had all 8th graders - to be pursuing God with a new passion - refining their goals from last year, and making new ones going forward.

Esther is another amazingness in my life this year. I can’t believe I lived 2 years without a roommate when they are this much fun! We run/pray together every other day, cook together once a week, and the best part is worshiping together on piano and guitar and leading our neighbors to the throne room... :) We have such a good rapport and are able to spend time with the Lord and alone when needed, but it’s great to have someone to talk to at night, or debrief with, or bounce ideas off of. Even just talking about her makes me excited to get home and tell her all the amazing things that went on this past week, and hear about her time at a training center in Guilin.

Here's a kick for you - signs on how to stand on the right on the escalator - and walk on the left. They have these all over Shanghai -- I had to go back down for a picture - the girls just smiled at me...

Hanging with Friends at Tian mu shan - got out of Shanghai for a few days to hike and relax. :)

Having friends over for dinner :)

Jane - a baby from the Shanghai Healing Home that my 8th grade small group is going to sponsor! You can sponsor one too for 50 dollars a month - just go to the website... http://jamieweidner.squarespace.com/healing-home/ . These babies have cleft lip and or palates, and are abandoned. This home takes them in and gives them care and surgeries until they can be adopted. We got two new babies on Tuesday - so the total is at 17 little ones! :)

Seriously this year I think that God has simply decided to bless my socks off - I simply am just in amazement at his goodness. I feel good, have a good class, great roomate, wonderful team, worship at a wonderful church, and hang out with my pick of my favorite middle schoolers... I have to pinch myself most days that I’m not dreaming. Other exciting news - I have had 6 nights in a row of great sleep! :) It's been awesome!!! The longest good stretch I've had in 10 months. Praise him!!! :)

He is so GOOD! May you be blessed and encouraged as you serve your mighty savior today. This is your world traveler signing off...

Hopefully my next post won't be such a long wait for all you faithful followers... if any of you have stuck around ! :)

Israel - international Day!!! :)

I'm dead tired... but so satisfied and content. International Day is done - a month worth of work for a half a day of celebration. It was such a blessing to get to do Israel - I even went to school this morning to have my devos there because it felt like I was in the Holy Land! I'll have to post a video of my students performance - it included Hava Nagila song/dance, a chant of the history of Israel, and quoting Deut. 6 in both Hebrew and English. It was such a blessing to get to take part in it, the room came together so well, and it was all Him!!! He gets the glory!! It was incredible getting to teach about the history of the Israelites, the Torah and NT for a month... and some interesting fruit has come of it as well!

Enjoy the pics of my darling students and beautiful classroom. We were just sad to have to take it down afterwards... : (

Next week is back to the real world... getting ready for Jo and Car's visit!! yeah! Just two more weeks of real teaching, then two fluff weeks... so exciting!

Hava Nagila Song/Dance

Our whole class in Orthodox Jewish Costumes!

Putting prayersin the wailing wall.

Mediterranean Sea -- and our synagogue to learn Hebrew.

Negev Desert - Dead Sea

Bliss

You know the day you don't want to end because it's just too perfect... you almost don't want to go to bed becuase the magic will end? I had one of those days. Just stumbled home, swerving down the LQ pathway like a drunkard after my amazing massage that I wisely scheduled minutes after we were done with conferences tonight! couldn't have had better timing... I always am anxious that I'll see someone I know when I'm on my way home from a massage and they'll wonder if i've had too much to drink... I just get so relaxed I'm in another world after the wonderful hour floating during a massage.

I had one of those teacher "awhh" moments today... the kind where your heart says, yes, this is where I'm supposed to be and my efforts are worth it... and just maybe I can see myself doing this for the rest of my life. Hard to believe that I'm a 4th year teacher - almost 5th... seems so much like a veteran... So my students are doing student-led conferences today and tomorrow - ie: I sit and grade papers and they conference with their parents ! It's the best end of the deal! It's actually a way to spotlight their strengths, weaknesses, show what they've accomplished and still want to work on, and show their parents their classroom - they lead the conference. Most of them did an exceptional job, and were excited to be in the spotlight. One special star was Jason. He couldn't stop telling his mom, and the other parents in the room, all of the details about basically everything on the walls. It was after the conferences were done, and they were heading home, and well, i've never quite seen him that way before. He totally was flitting from here to here, giving great enthusiastic explanations about everything in the classroom - stumbling over his words because he was so excited he couldn't get them out fast enough. It was the cutest thing ever - we were just busting up watching this show. It was so fun to see him blossom with such an activity and to so be eating up such positive attention. It was classic!

When I got back to Shanghai last night after our may holiday (spent in Kunming with Janai visiting another friend Amber who works there... pictures and blog to follow... ) I had the biggest sense of coming home that I'd yet experienced landing in Shanghai. My apartment was beautiful... homey, everything was just so comforting... it helped my ayi came while I was gone so it was spotless too... :) It was just this immense feeling of joy to be in this place, knowing that I'm called here, chosen for this work, and being blessed to be a blessing. Compared to other times I've gotten back to my apartment after vacation or trips to the states and burst into tears because this is the last place I want to be... this was exciting and comforting beyond words to just see that this is the place I'm meant to be and belong.

So those are the thoughts running through my head... hopefully I communicated them clearly enough for you to grasp... oh, and we're already in summer... it's 80% humidity today... sticky ... 20 degrees celcius. Our spring lasted for about 2 days... literally... I stopped wearing a puffy coat and ear muffs last week... had a few sunny days that made all the winter gloom feel worth the wait... and by the time we got back to SH from Kunming it's already summer... i had a feeling we'd skip spring this year since winter hung on for so long..., but I was hoping my hunch was wrong. The only redeeming factor is I get to wear flip flops and show off my new pedicure that i got for 25 RMB - roughly 3 usd... it's pretty awesome! :)

Well, I bid you farewell. Off to get rest for another 13 hour day tomorrow... but I'm actually looking forward to it! How awesome that is to be able to enjoy work. (it does help that the end is in sight... less than 2 months.. but whose counting??? :) )

Catch up!!! Mom/Nell, States, and Israel!

Boy... leaving this here for 2 months made it that much harder to attempt to catch up... so much to tell you!

What an amazing time i had with mom and nell! I had to start my 2nd week of school without them yesterday... just not as much fun without visitors! :) They were such a blessing in my class, and sucha n encouragement.It was so sad to see them go, but we made such wonderful memories and I was able to share so much of my life here with them. All of it was an adventure! More to come on that... but a few pics below for your perusal :) .

For the first part of chinese new year I was home for 10 days... Surprise! :) It was a great time and relaxing; I so needed that time of connection with family and friends!

AFter the states, I got to go to a place that is forever imprinted on my heart. I loved Israel with a passion! It was absolutely incredible - every moment, every place we got to visit. My time in the book now draws me to tears it is so real and happening like a movie before me - I can't get enough of the truth and reading about all the places that I stood, or reading about the Jordan that I touched or the Lake of Galilee that I floated in... it's just incredible. Gd so got ahold of my attention in that country - I'm forever changed. I came back with a week to decide where to teach next year... and on Monday was set that i was going to Israel next year. After more prayer and listening, He said that I'm going - but not next year. So i get to have a year to prepare support, look into options, and possibly lead a youth group trip there next Chinese New Year! That country has gotten under my skin, and I have such a desire to go there to learn, to share the news (less than 1% know the truth), and to have a new avenue of ministry. So another year for China... and then if he opens the doors... to the middle east! :) I'm so stoked! Here are some amazing pics for you - i'll post some more, but these are my favorites.

Mom and Nell's visit to see me! :)

I even got them on my scooter together! It was awesome - the icing on the cake! Danny was even running out of juice so we were singing him home! :)

My kids loved having visitors... other than the fact they couldn't get away with anything becuase they always had someone watching them!

They didn't want Nell or mom to leave... group hug time! :)

We saw water buffalo everywhere in Guanxi province! :)

Every mountain was just breathtaking... i couldn't believe the beauty existed in China!!! Can i take SMIC to YangShao? I'd move in a heartbeat! :)

We earned this picture - it was a hike up to the top of Moon Hill - but a blast and worth it! :)

TAking a river cruise down the Li river, and back up the river... that's another story... but it was beautiful! :) on our way to the greatest town of YangShao... beautiful... alsmost like Dr. Seuss land! :)

DAD swung by for dinner on m and n's last day in SH... it was a great 1 1/2 to be together! :) and we have a picture to prove it! :)

HOME!!! :)

Got to surprise the parkers - it was a blast to see those kiddos! They're growing up so fast!

Was so blessed by getting to see my sisters !:) I couldn't have chosen greater encouragements or special individuals to get to spend the rest of my life hanging out with! How good he is!!

Great times with the bros and sydney! :)

She's not pregnant anymore - but Alyssa and I had a blast catching up - seeing her baby room. Now she's a momma - crazy how fast time flies! :)

At Amy's shower - getting to see their bellys mad the whole trip home worth it! :)

ISRAEL !!!

We got to be in Jerusalem for Shebbat - the Sabbath - and got to see all these Jews pouring into the western wall area. All of these youth would be dancing in a circle - excited and singing - jumping around - and then would get all excited and then move in a group towards the western wall. It was very amazing!

Standing on THE mount of olives - Temple mount behind me, kidron valley between us and Jerusalem. From here Jesus went into Jerusalem on Monday of Passion week on a donkey, and up here was the garden of gethsemane as well. Amazing to be touching olive trees that grew up from roots of trees that would've been giving shade to the savior!

Guess what? he wasn't in the tomb! He's risen! (This is a 1st c. tomb - not necessarily where he was - but somewhere near here! We had communion here and reflection on our last afternoon in the holy land. Great place to end and I can't wait to spend Easter there in two years! :)

The most touching place of God's presence in Jerusalem, besides the tomb. All of the worshipers at the western wall were crying, putting notes into the wall, very worshipful. I was drawn to tears and couldn't believe that i was touching stones that king solomon had placed there! It was here my heart for these people, devout Jews, yet unbelieving, started to form.

HAving fun galivanting around Jerusalem shopping in the muslim quarter - we were quite the experts and getting around down. Danielle may be going to Israel next year; I'm going to stay with her when I visit! :)

WE had a great group of girls to hang out with from our school/community - here we are floating on the Sea of Galilee- sun setting - floating to the spot where jesus reinstated peter - gave us goosebumps as gd asked each of us - do you love me more than these? and commanded us to feed the lambs he placed in our care.

So i wasn't quite expecting the camel to kneel so frequently... :) Had an awesome passover seder meal here in Abraham's tent complete with a camel ride.

Capernum - the synagoge where Jesus began his ministry - the sea of G. is just right behind me, and Peter's house is in between. Heart of J. ministry - a beautiful area - and the area that really spoke to me. I could totally just imagine J. wandering these hills and cities while on earth. I was sad to leave here to go south...

This was the synagogue in Nazareth at the Nazareth Village - which is one opportunity i'm considering for next year - to be a tour guide to teach about the parables of J. through the recreated houses and agricultural area to look like it would've in j. time. Amazing ministry opportunities are here in Nazareth too - jews and arabs meeting together, youth worshiping together, a peaceful area.

And gollee.. but the time i got done writing this, i'm ready for bed just thinking at all the places i've been and the people i've seen! I guess it has been a full couple of months! :) But such a blessed two months - praise him! I wouldn't have changed one bit of it! If you read this far - you get a gold star ! i'll post some more pictures too - these are just the highlights !;) more to come...