Walking the line...

It's amazing sometimes how close I can come to stepping away from the path our Father has set before me...What's more amazing is how quickly this foolish little lamb can forget the very things just instructed by such a wise and loving shepherd.

Today I was so strongly considering walking away from some different things I've been called to, simply for the sake of what I was convinced was "convenience". It's scary, more than anything else, when I realize that I so often come only within inches of beginning that fall away from the path He has called me to be on. I really feel like the current path through this land is one that is quite elevated, in the sense that just one mishap or folly or disobedience, can result in tremendous loss. On the one hand, it is a very frightening thing...On the other, I know that this is the path to many great things, and the one to which He has called me.

I mustn't waver but a moment from His call, nor presume to walk in my own strength or wisdom. It is a path that only He can lead me on, and daily He has led me further and further along this narrow one way path, to where now I know that there remains only two options; continue ahead in the strength of His might, or fall...I suppose that all along these have been the only two options, but I guess now they've become so starkly contrasted to one another that I cannot help but awe at the prospect of the latter...

Please do keep things lifted up here. He will continue to do great things here and I know that it comes by means of so many people lifting everything before our Father.

Oh yeah! Check out this picture!

This is a picture that was taken a couple weeks ago at a restaurant near our friend Sally's house. Sally is the one on the far right. She's a neat sister and has been an active part of the Monday night group. The young guy between Rudy and I is "Cody". We actually gave him an english name that day. We named him Cody because his chinese name sounds like "small fish", and one time a friend told me about a little fish named Cody...I dunno, but it sounded good at the time.

Anywho, that's all for now. Shoot me some emails from time to time. It's always nice to hear from you guys...In the mean time, I want everyone to know that He who has begun this good work will be ever so faithful to complete it. Though things might look a little bleak at times, I know He who is leading me has somewhat of an eye for guiding his own through even the darkest of nights (which I am definitely not in, so no worries eh?) .. : )

*Abiding in Him, as the branch will die otherwise*

He's Alive!

Hen hao xiaoxi!

Because of what He did on this day so long ago, I can have new life in Him. : ) Good news for sure!

just rollin' on

Well, I don't have much time to write a whole lot about some things going on here. I just wanted to write a quick update and let anyone who is wondering know that I'm doing well and definitely learning a whole lot in both Chinese and life. We've been keeping pretty busy with our extra-curricular activities, and have been seeking more wisdom about what to take on and what we have to just say no to. Tim coined a phrase the other day about the situation here; "These people are so spiritually hungry, they'll put anything in their mouths." As a result, there's a lot of problems here and not enough good food to keep the people healthy. Please ask and seek that the master of the harvest would send out more laborers into the field.
..
It looks like we have a coffee shop coming. Tim and Trudy are preparing to go through the paperwork to rent a pretty big place to put in a coffee shop, amongst other things. This will really be a good business, if you know what I mean.
..
Things have been hard lately focusing on studying. There's always more work to do. We'll see how things work out. I'm typing fast right now because I have to get going pretty quick. Umm...I'll be getting some pictures to post up soon, so that's exciting news.
..
A lesson I've been learning and that I know I need to learn more about: submission. There's a lot to this, but ultimately I'm just realizing that as long as I want to stay where He wants me to be, it will require submission of mind and will to those that I've been directed to work under and with. Good stuff. There really are so many implications to it, and I'm learning more about it each day, but this will have to suffice for now.
..
Oh, the big sunday is coming up! We're going to be going to the beach to celebrate with each other! Some people might be getting taken through the water, if you know what I mean, so that's cool.
..
Alright, I have to go. We have an english class now. Our text is the boss's life manual, so hopefully it goes well. : )

School begins; hotmail ends

Dajia hao!

Good news and bad news...

First the good news! School has begun! Everything is under way and things are moving fast around here. These first couple of days have been a blast and a great learning experience. Every day we're challenged with new vocab and working on things like grammar, pronunciation, and our character writing. It's crazy how fast they're moving and Tojer and I are really glad we studied ahead a little. Yesterday we had an International Student meeting and I decided to take a "shadow boxing" class, or what's known as Tai-chi. All around town you can see people doing it in the morning, but because we're not so diligent and school starts at 8:00am, they opened up a class on Wednesday's from 3 to 5. So like I said, we're keeping plenty busy around here and are glad we've been able to start school up. It's also nice because there are foreigners from all over the world at the Language College, so it's nice getting to know all kinds of different people. In our A-ban class there are two Americans (Tojer and I), a Korean guy, a Canadian guy, an Italian guy, a Swedish guy, and one girl who is Mongolian. So far 7 of us, but it's kind of strange because the class list has about 14 names on it. We'll see if we get some more students in the next couple days.
..
So, school's going good. Things here at the house are also going well. Everyone is working hard and our Father continues to work many things out before our eyes. T.C.'s adoption papers were submitted to the police department and that's all in the works. The situation with the new house is still kind of rough right now, but there has been a little bit of progress. We might be able to make payments on the 15th story place we were considering that isn't far from here. It's supposed to be something like the full payment up front, but that seems to be impossible and so Tim and Trudy might be able to work some things out with the guy who owns the building. Like I said, it's all in the works, so please keep that situation lifted. We'll be booted out of this place eventually, so the sooner things work out with a new place, probably the better.
..
As for the bad news...hotmail is officially dead to me now...there's a rumor that Beijing has kind of shut it down for the purpose of using the bandwidth for Olympic activities or something like that. I'm not sure how that works, but the fact is that hotmail isn't working. So, I've started a new email address with Gmail, a.meigide@gmail.com. I don't have anyone's email addresses, so please send me an email at my new address, and if anyone knows other people who need my email, this will be it for now.
..
Still no camera, and it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon, so no pictures for now. : ( If anyone wants to see info or look at pictures of the university I'm attending, you can check it out online by searching Hainan University or by copying and pasting 海南大学 into your search bar. Tomorrow morning there's some kind of big student assembly thing going on, so I'm looking forward to that.
..
Other than just school starting up, things are going same as usual around here. I was able to share on Sunday at our foreign fellowship, which was pretty cool. Tim was planning on being out of town so he asked me if I could cover for him. I was sharing on the book of Gal. and just some things I've been learning lately. It was pretty similiar to some things I've written on the blog in the last couple of weeks. I just hope He used it for something. : )
..
I hope to hear from everyone soon! Please keep us lifted up as we seek to obey the boss in all things.