Important update from China!

Happy New Year from China! The year of the tiger is upon us, which I’m very proud of as I was born under the tiger year back in 19??...well the year isn’t important. Let’s keep this update moving.

I have some news I want to share with you, but first let me tell you about the English camp we taught in Shanxi. Shanxi turned out to be a great experience. The campus we used is a facility where the government goes for meetings and retreats. The building we stayed in use to be a hotel, so we basically stayed at a hotel. There wasn't much to complain about with the exception of the shower pressure being a little weak. But most important, the rooms were clean and we had western toilets…thank God!!! Ed was my roommate and we were joking that the only thing we were missing in our room was a microwave and fridge. The campus itself is pretty nice. There’s a beautiful courtyard, which we walked past everyday to our classrooms. The classrooms and large group room are basically like the ones at Beijing University, but somewhat smaller. The hosts were very gracious and took us out for several good meals before and after the camp, but when we had to eat in the cafeteria during the week, the food was absolutely horrendous! I’m thinking I probably lost a few more pounds while I was in Shanxi. The camp had 50 students total...mostly Junior High school and High school kids. We had two college students join the program as well. We split the group up into three classes. I had the highest-level class with Ed assisting, so I was able to use my regular lesson plans for this high level class. My class only had 14 students, but it was a quality class. During the week, we had diction, fairy tales and class in the morning. In the afternoon, we had music club, sports club and games. In Sports club, we tried to teach the students about American sports like Baseball, Football and Basketball…but its obvious they only really understood basketball, as that is already a very popular sport in China. (For you basketball fans, Yao Ming is China’s son and a hero…with Kobe Bryant and Lebron James trailing a close second and third.) On the last night, we had a talent show. Each class did a great job! My class sang three songs: "As Long As You Love Me" by the Backstreet Boys, "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly and "You Are Not Alone" by Michael Jackson. I just like to preface that my class had mostly teenage girls, so you knew there was gonna be a Backstreet Boys song in there. Hey, its China…its where pop music goes to die. They sang really well especially Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone”. I'm really proud of this class! Our 10 days in Shanxi turned out to be a really great experience and I'm really glad I decided to go to Shanxi.

I’ve uploaded some photos from Shanxi as well as a few additional photos from my visit to The Great Wall of China with my family. The new photos are #100 and on. http://july212000.shutterfly.com/2499

Moving along, I have some news I’d like to share with you. I’ll spare you the details and get right to it. My position as Missioner for Youth & Young Families at St. Paul’s has been cut due to financial reasons. Yes it’s a pity, but this is the reality that we live in today with this slumping economy. Oddly enough, when I read Rev. Elizabeth's e-mail, I wasn't shocked at all to receive this news. For some strange reason, I had a feeling something like this would happen while I was in China. And what's even more surprising is that I'm at peace with this news and not worried about what I'm gonna do when I return from China. I know I have a few months before I return to the U.S., so I do have some time to figure out what I want to do next. I think my parents are doing all the worrying for me. Perhaps after living in China for 6 months, it’s made me see things differently. I'm sure if I was in Chatham and this news came down, I wouldn't have taken it so calmly. Of course it goes without saying that it will be very difficult to say farewell to the youth of St. Paul’s that I have built a relationship with and watched grow up through the years. Upon my return, I will schedule a Sunday in September to meet with the youth one last time so I can share with them photos and stories from China and have the opportunity to say farewell to them in person. I believe this will help everyone involved find some much needed closure.

So what’s next? Well ideally, I’d love to be able to find a job and settle down in Jersey again, but with this economy, who knows what will happen. If worse comes to worse, I do have a backup option already in place. The people in charge here have asked us if we would like to return for another year? If the economy doesn’t pick up upon my return to the U.S. and I have trouble finding a job, then I can always volunteer another year teaching English in China and continue to make a difference here. Sure, the stipend isn’t much and the food is lousy here, but if millions and millions of people in China can survive on less than my monthly stipend and eat food even worse than what I’ve been eating, than why can’t I?

So for now, please keep me in your prayers. Everything will be alright, so no worries. We shall see what God has planned for me in the next chapter of my life, but I know he will provide and watch over me when I make the transition from China back to the U.S.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you that I went snowboarding in China. A few weeks ago, two of my former students invited Dorothy and I to go skiing. I didn’t think this would be something I’d get to do in China. Sure the slopes wasn’t anything close to what we ski or snowboard on in the U.S., but it was a fun day of snowboarding!!! Our former students were so generous and didn’t let us pay for anything. We are so lucky to have such kind and caring students.

So if you didn’t know, Chinese New Year is the biggest and most important holiday in China, so basically most of China is on vacation for the month of February...which means we don't have a session in February. Yes, that means we're off until our next session, which doesn’t begin until March 8th. So the next few weeks will be filled with lots of rest, relaxation and catching up on my TV shows online. They'll be no traveling for me during Chinese New Year as it is very expensive and everyone in China travels during this time so I'm not trying to get caught up in these crazy crowds pushing and shoving...and that's the elderly people!

OK, that's it for this update. I hope all is well with everyone. Take care, God Bless!

Timothy Wong