Official May 2015 Newsletter

(Written March 2015)

Happy May!

I hope that your spring is growing into a more warm season. I know that many of you have survived a rather harsh and cold winter. Historically, I have used my May newsletter to recap the highs and lows of this past year. So, holding to tradition, I seek to share with you the past year. 

May of 2014 saw my very first birthday spent in Kunming! Every other year I have been someplace else on my birthday! The end of May brought me to America for my second Home Assignment period. 

June, July, August, and September were whirlwinds of catching up with friends and loved ones, catching planes, helping people catch my vision and hoping that the good food wouldn’t catch up to me. 

October, found me enthusiastically returning to KM with the high hopes and great desires to dive into school visits. But the reality is that what happens in one part of China greatly affects the entire country and the activities that began September of 2014 in Hong Kong created a closed atmosphere within the government in allowing foreigners to be involved in many areas of education. So when I attempted to schedule school visits I was put on the back burner. 

November, was filled with good food and good fellowship. My time of waiting for “work” continued but I found that there was lots of little things that I could do for and with other people while waiting.  One person who blessed my life during this time was a woman who was a substitute foster mom for an adorable little girl. During this time we also began hard core planning for Permeate 2015. 

December, happened to be one of my best Christmases here. I was able to spend several days with close friends, including Christmas Eve night and waking up and doing stockings together. It was so lovely.  New Year’s was also an event filled with family feelings. There was maybe eight or nine families together playing games, knitting, talking, laughing and celebrating. So much fun! 

In January, we ran a Shine course with the new women who had recently stopped working as prostitutes. This course was so very good for me personally because it seemed to signal the beginning of starting “work.”

February, Driving license finally obtained I drove into the Permeate rush and ended in an extended stay in Thailand for routine medical checkups and getting pages added to my passport. 

March, started with going to the South of China to train eight sisters in facilitating Shine. It was a marvelous time of growing as a trainer. From there I went to Vietnam where I was trained on how to facilitate and train others in Flourish, a program similar to Shine. This was exciting because I got to see the differences between Shine and Flourish and see where each program could be used to its greatest potential. 

Since it is not quite the end of March yet I can tell you my plans for the rest of March and April but cannot guarantee that I will accomplish everything I set out to do. 

I have been greatly disappointed to visit no schools until recently. At the current writing of this letter no schools have been visited since April 2014, but we do have plans to begin visiting schools starting the end March and running on a weekly basis into May. We also have been asked by a couple contacts, who work with migrant communities, how and when we could come teach at their schools. So the hope is that by the end of March or beginning of April we may be “back in the game!” 

At the end of March a colleague from a different city in China will come and visit to see if she is a good fit with our team because she is very interested in the prevention program. I have high hopes for her to be one of my teammates. 

So all in all my 34^th year of life was a busy one. Not everything went as I planned but Father orchestrated many things in order for His plans to be carried out. I have learned much about myself and about Him as I continued the path He set before me. Thank you for your involvement and your thoughts for me as I continue to follow Him.

Happy 35^th Birthday to Me!!  

May Newsletter

Yearly May Wrap-up

May already? Wow. It is hard to believe that I am already 33 years old. This past year may have been my most busy year in China.  May 2012 I spent my birthday in Cambodia and shortly afterward traveled to Vietnam to be trained in the Shine program. After returning to China, we almost immediately began to implement the Shine program within the young women’s shelter. 

June

We held the Third Annual Wai Guo Ren State Fair during the first week of June. By the middle of June I had visitors. Two of my favorite people (my parents) traveled to visit me. I relished showing them my world. Letting them feel all the variety of feelings that I have felt while living here. The highs of learning survival Chinese and being with the girls in the shelter as well as the lows of cultural overload and claustrophobia.

July & Aug

 In July, I returned to Colorado-where my company’s headquarters is for my first term debrief. It was a good time to hash out some of the difficult things that have occurred those first two point five years. I also got trained to administer Lifeworkx and WAIT Training. I spent a week in El Paso with a supporter and visited some women of faith in Juarez. It was humbling and encouraging, to be prayed for and pray for such lovely ladies. The larger church community is such a blessing to me as well as an inspiration. This includes YOU!! Once I returned to China I began to sift through the WAIT Training material to put together the School Program. 

Sept

In September we implemented the Shine program in the single mother’s shelter. 

Oct

In October I had friends visit from other cities in China and it was a good time to talk about what Father is doing in other areas. It was very encouraging. The Youth Group held a Masquerade Dinner Fundraiser that I helped supervise the students make the dinner aspect of it. We began to plan Permeate and I spoke at Youth Group about counting the Cost to following JC. 

Nov

In November, I finally got the WAIT Training and Shine Curriculum ready as one program that we are calling the Shine School Program. We submitted the Shine School Program to Mr. Li our government contact. 

Dec

We launched the Shine School program on December 7, 2012.  Eden was told that we needed to partner with an organization called The Bridge in order to continue taking the Shine School program into schools. The Bridge is licensed in China to train, teach and counsel people on different subjects. Eden is only licensed as a jewelry shop. So we began that process. Then we were asked to take the program into a set of three villages on December 12-14.  

Jan

Between Christmas and the end of Chinese New Year, I had a nice time of intense Permeate planning, being an employee of The Bridge, and being with Teammates at a Team Retreat. 

Feb

February 28th came and Permeate became a Reality. 

March

As I entered March I continued to march onward with the Shine school program.  This time inviting several of Eden’s Chinese staff to join us so that they could learn how to implement the School program into the prison system. 

April

April brought on another travel opportunity to Laos with the Youth Group Staff.  

Throughout all of this I have been in class learning Chinese. So all in all I have been immensely blessed but also immensely busy. The Permeate theme verse was Hebrews 12:1-3 and the theme was Never Give Up. With all the busyness--I am tired. But I am also clinging to all the promises I have been given and I trust that as I lean on His strength I will be made strong. Galatians 6:9 “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” I have been learning a lot about relying on His Spirit and although I am not always successful I am trying to live out what I am learning. I praise my Heavenly Father for you and your petitions for me for I know it is through you that I am able to do any of this at all!!

A Very Dali Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

The beginning of May I turned 30! It was a fairly fabulous birthday.


I traveled with my friend Faye, to a small old town called Dali.

There we spent three nights and two days in one of the most peaceful little towns I have been to yet.

A Group of Men Playing Mahjong.

Saturday we woke leisurely and meandered through the center of town amidst thousands of Bai Festival participants.

This man was making cotten candy using his bicicyle!!! How cool is that??

These green chicks were accompanied by orange and blue siblings!! What are they feeding the chickens in China??


Maybe these green noodles??

On our way through the middle of Dali we came across two men butchering an animal, I am convinced that it was a horse.

We attended a musical performance

Thought we were lost for a short while as we followed the map to the mountain lift.

We finally found the National Geopark of China!!! Check out that Dinosaur picture!!!

Riding a ski lift up the mountain. This ski lift ride was easily a 45min ride up the mountain through a Chinese grave yard.

It would have been an amazing haunted chair lift ride if we had been riding it at night.

We ate a lunch of noodles and toured a Buddhist temple, then we rode back down the mountain.

I was surprised that the crowds had not disperssed.

We had high tea at an adorable little sandwich shop.

Faye and I then went to see the Catholic church that was established in Dali in 1927.

On Sunday, we lounged until almost 1 and then ventured into the town to window shop and eat yak steak.

It was delicious. We had diet coke and fresh squeezed orange juice and the most delicious brownies we had had in a long time.

Faye and I returned to our adorable hotel (The Sleepy Fish) where I proceeded to open all of the Birthday wishes that were brought to me by a friend in the beginning of April.

As you can see I was gifted a puffer fish toy which I named Ronnie, I was also gifted an octopus stuffed animal which I named Gerald. They are fond reminders of my family.

Thank you so very very much to all my family and friends who sent birthday greetings to my company. I got them even a little early!!

They provided much happiness. As I hope you can tell.