Check out new photos of Yanji at the new Flickr site here!

Well i am sitting in sweltering heat. It is the second day i have had no power, and there isnt a breeze for miles around. But it rained all last night, and the upshot of that is that the skies are clear and i can now see the distant mountains strewn around the horizon of the bowl i live in. The downshot is that i bet the humidity is 85% right now, and no way to cool off. But as uncomfortable as I am, i am very thankful for all of your pryrs, as i feel much more comfortable here.

Today i was able to go to an above ground c, which has 6 meetings every sun day, with about 10,000 in attendance each week. The teaching at this particular one is unbelievably evng for a govt c, but this area is well known for being something quite unique in terms of its s atmosphere and climate. I have already heard incredible stories of faithfulness and provision, which i wont be able to share in full pry till i leave here. The building is surprisingly obvious, occupying a very conspicuous place in the city, and a huge neon crss, the famous sign of korean c. Not a new language for me in terms of c service, but in terms of country for sure- even though here and tai wan are supposedly the same country, i see almost no similarity.

Yesterday, our J saved my sanity and soul by giving me the opportunity to go outside of town. i went shopping with chunhua, then had lunch with some people from the english dept (everyone here is a female! the meetings are going to be very female-style..) i looked at the distant mountain which has been tempting me from my office window. It is called Mu er shan (Hat mountain). I asked Chunhua if it is possible to go there, and she replied "well we can go right now". I cannot underestimate for you how much i needed to get out of the city. As we took the #14 though the mud streets (the ground here is a clay that seems perfectly engineered to create a particularly evil kind of mud when wet), through the huge construction sites, we sound found ourselves on a country road, leading through real trees, up into the hills. The fresh air came as a shock to me- i dont think i have smelled anything so good or needed. We climbed the mountain from the parking lot, past Korean men dancing with drums at their picnic, lovers hiding in the knarled tamarack groves, and soon left the people, taking a steep switchbacking path up the mountain. It turns out that on the otherside of the rim of this bowl in which i live is the China of my dreams, the scenery of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Steep mountains, forested valleys, little villages with clay tiled roofs strewn across valleys of terraced rice paddies. The woods here are full of tamaracks, which are my very favorite tree, a gift from Gd to me... Just sitting up there, breathing clean air, feeling the refreshing breeze all around me, the beautiful little rocks, having an amazing conversation with my so-hospitable, and so-much-appreciated friend Chunhua about the s realities of life here in Yanbian... wow for the first time i was able to feel at home here and at ease, and to begin to get out of defensive mode, and to to concentrate on having a heart for these people and this place. I came back enlivened and refreshed, and even though i had no power or way to shower, my german neighbor Sandra invited me to shower at her apt. I have appreciated getting to speak in German, and being able to express myself completely without having to worry about how i need to modify my language. I am very thankful for the German community here, who has made me feel so welcome, and seems like a rope- a link to a world i love and know and understand. I am even over jetlag....

Some random things i have noticed so far about China (or at least Yanji):

It gets dark at 6pm here... already... All China is on the same time zone, even though it should have 5. So the result of that is it is light at 5am and dark by 6pm. I imagine that in the winter, it is going to be fully dark by 3pm here. That is going to be rough.

Asphalt doesnt seem to have been invented here. Mud however is here in abundance

Even though Chinese population is officially shrinking, or stabilized, huge new housing complexes are springing up everywhere here. Who is going to live in these places?

I had Uighur lamb kebabs for lunch today, ironically, something that Yanji Koreans are kind of well known for.

The sculpture park at my school is the weirdest thing i have ever seen. I cant wait to post the pictures on here.

My school has 1600 students, from 6 countries, faculty from many more. All the buildings are connected by a long elevated walkway that they call "The Great Wall" because it looks like the Great Wall of China.

I saw people selling monkeys on the street.

I saw an ox cart tied up in front of a 33 story brand new luxury skyscraper.

every floor of every dorm here has bona fide members of the party, who keep an eye on things

the rooves here are- to a surprising extent- blue

you cant buy ground meat... but you can take your real meat to a meat grinder stall and they will grind it for you

in the cafeteria, you are given a metal bowl full of random korean foods- mystery meat, kimchee, cold noodles, which resemble earth warms, and lots of chili paste. then they spoon a ladel of beef broth over it all, give you two metal chopsticks and you are good to go. Still, cant complain for 50 cents.

the bus ride into town costs 27 cents. as does a coke. a nice meal costs around 5 dollars.

the downtown here looks very modern and sweet, but you dont have to get too far away from that to discover that you are in fact, in a rapidly developing country (read mud, dirt, trash, potholes)

it will be beautiful here once autumn comes

the bed in my apartment is a huge double bed, which no joke, takes up about a third of the space in the room.

the cars here are sweet! way nicer than the ones in lithuania- youd think you were in sweden if you were just looking at the cars. however they are mixed with rikshas, motor scooters, all kinds of bikes, and even livestock, on the streets of yanji.

More to come, and photos too!

Tomorrow morning I am leaving- I am hoping to be able to continue to update the blog from over there, although i may have to be more circumspect in what i say and how i say things. I kind of went through the past entries and sanitized them a bit.

I just read this amazing book about the history of Xnity in the country that i am going to, and man am I humbled. So much has happened there in the last 50 years, and so many regime and policy changes, and various approaches of the government towards these issues. There is so much i am excited to find out in person from the people who live and work and there.. things that i cant really find out electronically and from a distance

the tourist reports i have read about the city i am going to say that by that country's standards it is pretty clean and doing really well economically because of foreign investment from the country two to the south. ALso and most encouraging for me, it said that the area is filled with beautiful forests, especially in autumn, and that the Chch there is pretty large and growing. I was really saddened though to read the very hard and real stories of the refugees who swim across the border and take refuge in that town- i know i will see those people, and i have no idea how i will respond when i do see them. its hard to imagine what i can offer to people from that very very closed country, a reality that i cannot even begin to comprehend...

am i nervous about going? Yes.... less so than i would have been before going to Lithuania... randoml;y packing up and moving to a country where i know noone is definitely not a new thing for me. and i know far less about This situation coming into it than i knew about LCC coming into that. The things that is scary, but perhaps i may find freeing, is that in Lithuania i always had the pressure to kind of conform or fit in, because i felt like i COULD theoretically, fit in. Let me tell you- there is no way on earth i will be able to fit in there- i know so little about the two cultures, C and K, in which i will be living, i know almost nothing of the languages, and it will be obvious from a first glance that i do NOT belong there. I can still learn to be sensitive, but maybe i will find a bit more freedom to be "me" and just do things that probably a local person wouldn't be able to do.

I must say goodbye to bread, and cheese, and sweets, and all of the european foods i love. i must say goodbye to happy and friendsly indoeuropean languages. I must say goodbye to the jaded and trendy post-Xn environments in which i have grown accustomed to working in and doing my work in.

I must say hello to fish eyes and kimchee, and staring at signs for minutes, seeing if i can make out anything, and becoming functionally illiterate, and learning a whole new system of doing everything. Hopefully i will be also saying hello to good new colleagues and students.

Please p for me, that i will be able to find a (or several) good, encouraging bros, and fairly early on.

Thanks to you readers out there...

I'm going to Nashville, and that's a fact!

Sing that to the tune of "Jackson" by Johnny and June Cash, as was stuck in my head the whole last weekend while i was in Nashville. I have an interesting relationship now with Nashville- a city I had little to no relationship with only one year ago. I just returned from my second trip to Nashville to be in a wedding in 6 months.

For those of you from LCC, you may have heard that Taras Mikhailiuk got married this last weekend. It was funny to listen to all those southerners trying to pronounce "Mikhailiuk". Taras surely faces an interesting period of adjustments. Kelly, his wife, seems an amazing woman, and im glad to have met her. Its hard to think of a family MORE different from the typical Belarussian family. Huge, gregarious, precocious, welcoming, kisses and y'all's flying around- the loving gigantic X'n family from the deep south that i have heretofore only seen in movies. It was a gorgeous wedding- especially considering it was done on only 5 weeks notice!

I got to hang out with my good friend Doug, whose wedding i was best man in in March. I really appreciate Doug's commitment to me as a friend. it was a huge blessing as well to get to talk to his wife, Audrey, an up and coming X'n music star! Since, at their wedding, i was only introduced to Ashley at the wedding rehearsal (an odd position for a best man to be in), i was really blessed to get to talk more at length and to hear her heart. It was great to go on a long rainy walk with Doug in the woods as well- thats how I'll always remember him.


I also was very blessed to go to New Song X'n Fellowship again- a church that i know now quite a few people at actually, primarily contacts from Exodus, and to stay with my amazingly encouraging bro Josh Coy, and to see Curtis Baker again... Every hour i have spent in Nashville has been a great hour for me! So many things seem to be pointing toward the fact that i need to commit to a community, and i know there is good community in Nashville. But i really don't want to live there! I'm afraid to say that- because its just like Gd to send you somewhere you don't want to go, because He knows it will be good for you. So in the meantime I am going to C_na, and i don't have to decide about moving to Nashville, or anywhere else just yet...

Just some typical sunset shots from Northwest Lower Michigan :)

Presque Isle River

Northern Michigan, random shots

Fayette State Park, on the Garden Peninsula

View from Cut River bridge, on US 2, near Brevort. I love the way white pine trees look like pagodas

North Manitou Island, from Pyramid Point

the three with the turquoise water are Elk Lake, the actual color, not far from my house. and Torch Lake is even more beautiful... crystal clear lakes with sandy bottoms

The Boardman River valley- one of the best trout streams in the US- literally down the road from me

the bridge over the Elk River in Elk Rapids, with East Bay beyond














me at the Marina in Traverse City

TUEBOR!

Ok- so I seriously love my home state of Michigan. There are many times where i feel much more patriotic about being a Michigander (and NO it is NOT Michiganian!!) than about being an American. I have basically spent since July 1st in my home state of Michigan, excluding a few hours in Bayfield, WI, and an extended weekend this past weekend in Nashville (more on that above). In some ways it has been hard, as i have had no regular access to a car, and the American public transportation system sucks, so i have been bored sometimes, and feel far away from my friends. In fact i think in some ways God has, in this time, been stripping me of many of the things that i found my identity in; a job, doing ministry, friendships, academics, being surrounded by languages, being "good" at being a European. The thing that is left to me is Jesus...

But in many ways it has been a good time- i have had a lot of time to think and pray and come to grips with who i am when noone is watching except God, and a lot of times to learn to appreciate my homeland again, and some great bonding time with my parents and family members.

But back to my main topic of this post: the glories of the State of Michigan :) I have always come back here, to Michigan, no matter how much i wander in this world. I realize what a great neighborhood community i grew up in here in Traverse City, and especially what a GREAT church community i grew up in at University Reformed Church in East Lansing. I got all four of my degrees from Michigan State University, a university that is 90% Michiganders, and as i drive across the highways of this great state, the green exit signs pronounce the names of towns that are homes to great friends, people whose stories i got to hear while a proud Spartan, studying on the bank of the Red Cedar River.. Towns like Kalamazoo, Ontonogan, South Haven, South Lyon, Zeeland, Leland, Mount Pleasant, Mount Clemens, Pentwater, Coldwater, Sand Lake, Fife Lake, Grass Lake, Lake Odessa, Ionia, Sparta, Negaunee, Ishpeming, litter the landscape of my friendships and memories, as i drive down I-75 or I-94 or US 27 or US 131...

Did you know that Michigan has the longest coastline of any state, except Alaska?

That it takes longer to drive from Monroe, Michigan to Copper Harbor, Michigan than it takes to drive from Detroit to Florida?

That Michigan is home to the highest ski jump in the Western Hemisphere?

That Michigan has the highest mountains between the Alleghenies and the Black Hills?

That one of the most important battles of the War of 1812, which gave the US control over the Great Lakes, was fought at Mackinac?

Submitted with this post are some great photos of Michigan i have taken this month. Hopefully you can all learn to appreciate this great state along with me :)