Greetings from Beijing

I arrived safely in Beijing on Saturday evening and settled into an apartment, which is my home for the next 2 weeks. Thank you family and friends for all your prayers, help in preparing for this trip, and your continued support and prayers. I am EXCITED to take part in His kingdom work.

I spent Sunday with the overseas staff. We had a small service in the morning. There is something wonderful about worshipping halfway around the world, with fellow believers who come from different parts of the U.S., and here for one purpose, to serve God. Some volunteer in the foster home(s) and others serve as teachers of English. Many faces were familiar, lots were unfamiliar, but everyone was extremely friendly. 

After the service, I had lunch in the cafeteria, which as usual, was delicious. During lunch, WS, my liaison, and I discussed my work schedule.  Afterwards, I went to the village to pick up a few things. When I returned back to my apartment, it was 5pm and I was ready to go to sleep, but thankfully, one of the English teachers popped by the apartment and invited me to dinner. I had dinner with them and had a blast. I have not laughed so hard and so long (consistently for 2+ hours) in such a long time. Spending the time with them helped with staying awake and working to beat the jet lag.

I finished my first full day of work on Monday. As many of you remember, last year, the staff at New Day put me to work the entire time I was here, and I barely saw the rest of Team JAMES. This time around, both they and myself have a better perspective and because of weeks of planning for the past two months, everything is much more manageable. New Day created a speech therapy position for a current employee, L__ (I will refer to her at L-ST), who has the natural instincts to speak to children and foster speech-language development, but no academic background in SLP. I observed how she interacted with the children, furiously took notes, and then we discussed the children at the end of the day. It was great meeting with L-ST because she has such a heart to work with the children, but also extremely challenging because she does not speak English and I communicated strictly in Mandarin. Phew! My brain was fried by the end of the day.

Stay tuned for more…

In His service,

Angela
January 11, 2011