2011 Yunnan State Fair

In August there was a big event held in Kunming and I know that many of you have been holding your breath to hear how it went. The Second Annual Wai Guo Ren Yunnan State Fair!! (translation of Wai Guo Ren: foreigner)

Since this was only the second annual I was nervous. Last year the event had been treated very seriously by all who had attended and I was hoping that this year it would be as important. But I was unsure because only one other person and myself had attended last year. All last year attendees were unable to make it this year. So the risk was that all the new attendees would not see how serious the event truly was.

However, to my great joy and encouragement Everyone were very excited and intense. The Judges were very impartial even though they had threatened to take bribes and every entry was top notch. I would not have wanted to be a Judge. Out potluck was amazing and this year we rode on more rides than we did last year. I almost lost my glasses!! So, because I know you are waiting to hear how well I did or didn't do lets begin.

The first entries

Faye made this Chocolate Creme Filled Yunnan Shaped Cake. She won first prize.

Kellie's second prize Chocolate Silk Pie.

The first four vegetable entries.

All the vegetables entered. In the category for Largest are: two zucchinis, one carrot, two tomatoes. Int the category for Most Beautiful are: cherry tomatoes, one eggplant

Faye's beautiful Tomato.

A very long zucchini.

My beautiful Eggplant. Won Second place to Kellie's gorgeous Cherry Tomatoes.

My large Carrot also won second place.

Faye also decorated this Cabbage into a self portrait. The judges had a hard time choosing between her's and Kellie's.

Kellie's decorated vegetable entry takes the shape of a mouse family. She also won first place in this category.

Kellie's Largest Tomato won first prize.

Morgan's beautiful art and craft entry. Artwork behind glass and on top of glass.

Kellie's first place art and craft entry.

My second place scarf, eggplant, and carrot.

The "Fair Grounds" were decorated in umbrellas and stars. We were sure that is was because they knew we were coming.

Hu Kou

Where did you grow up? Some of us were born and raised in the same house and if not in the same house then in the same city or town. Others were born in one place and traveled to and fro until they couldn’t really tell you where they grew up. In the first case your environment shaped you in a way that that house or town or school feels like your childhood. In the second case your environment shaped you in the way that you see your childhood in chunks of where was I and who did I know when such and such happened. Both of these ways of growing and learning and becoming who you are are important in their own special way.

I lived in like 5 towns before I was 8 but then stayed in one town until I went to college. So I would say I grew up in Lincoln-it is my home, and yet there is a bit of me that still cherishes the pioneer in my youth. I feel like I hold my immediate family closer to me because I only had them as constants from a very young age.

Recently I have learned some very interesting information about China and Chinese culture that has to do with moving. The one reason I hated moving as a child was because I would have to change schools. This luxury is not something children in China have to worry about.

户口: The cultural and governmental quality called the Hu Kou is very important in both social, family, and work life. Children are only allowed to go to school in the community where their hu kou is, or if their parents are wealthy enough to pay extra money to the school. Adults are free to move from city to city but cannot receive any kinds of benefits in a place that is not their hukou. Hu Kou is easily changed from city to city or village to city if you are able to afford to purchase an apartment. Renting an apartment doesn’t change your hu kou. Similar to a US passport it depends on your parent’s hu kou. Lets give Nebraska the cultural and governmental quality of a Hu Kou and show by example how this looks in China.

I am a woman who was born in South Dakota and lets pretend that both my parents were from the town I was born and therefore my family and in turn I have Brookings, SD hu kou. When my parents moved from SD to Lincoln, NE they would need to make several hard choices. 1. buy a house which changes their hu kou to Lincoln Nebraska. 2. keep their SD hu kou but forfeit any medical, life, or educational benefits for themselves and their children. 3. leave their children in SD with grandparents so that children have all of the above benefits and send the money from NE back to SD.

This scenario gets even more confusing if you are a minority people group because as a minority you are allowed more than just one child but only if your hu kou stays in the minority home land and doesn’t change to a large city hu kou.....so in this case you must choose standard of living vs two children vs one child lives with your parents and one lives with you (meaning each child has a different hu kou).


The basic meaning of all this is that if you need to move to the city to provide a better life for your family because the home farm doesn’t sustain all of you- you have to either leave your children in the village or doom them to a lack of education in the city.

The poor get progressively poorer and poorer. If they cannot afford to educate their children the children do not get education and therefore sink into more poverty.


Obviously this system provides challenges for individuals. Originally it’s purpose was to help the government organize and control the vast numbers of people who live within their country. But China is a country that is changing so quickly that the theory of policy and the realty of life no longer align. So, sacrificing your relationship with your children so that they can have an education or sacrificing their education for your relationship. What would you pick for yourself or for your children??

My language helper is going through this dilemma as I write this. Her and her husband have one beautiful little boy but they are pregnant again. They are both minorities but have lived in Kunming for seven years and own their own apartment. They are believers and will not have an abortion both because they think it is wrong as well as because they really want a second child. They are really happy but also very nervous and anxious about what will happen to them and to this new child. They must make a hard choice. Please be thinking for them during this time.

September Newsletter!

Ni Hao!

The fall is my favorite time of year at home. When the air is just beginning to change from blistering hot to needing a long sleeve tee shirt. The trees are changing from green to yellow to red to brown and there is that itchy feeling to go on a road trip. I know then that pumpkin pie and family gatherings are on the horizon. It truly is a wonderful time of year.

In Kunming the weather change is not as obvious as in Nebraska, Illinois, Wyoming, or South Dakota. Yet there is still a hint of anticipation. Anticipation for what though is the question I have this year. What do the people of Kunming anticipate? I know what I anticipate when I live at home and I know what I am anticipating this year. This September I anticipate meeting the newest Jasmer baby: hopefully a little niece!! This 15th of September I anticipate celebrating my two year anniversary of living and studying in China. It has been a long two years and yet it is amazing how the time has flown. This September I anticipate going to a new city in China to visit a clinic associated with an other non profit organization.

I will begin my research career this September. I am so excited!! I will be asking all my questions regarding how to do and start medical work in China. At this point I don’t know if I will get all the answers I want or if I will need to ask more questions later but I look forward to starting this quest. This beginning to answers to what is always a growing need to know more or know why comes at just the right time.

I told all of you faithful that I would go to school for two years and then start doing medical work here-hopefully with leprosy patients. At this point I do not have enough information to know if the leprosy work is still where I am needed. That is part of my plan until December. To ask the right questions to find the next step for me. Right now I can tell you that me in the trenches may be a little far off still-not two years off-but perhaps a little farther away than March of 2012. I have only 68 hours of formal class time, 78 hours of informal class time, 52 hours of tutoring, and 2 trips before I return to the United States for Home Assignment. When I return in March I will return to school, return to research, and (if I haven’t already) discover the next step for me.

Praise Father for the anticipation of new starts-new life, new roads, new seasons!! Ask Father to reveal His purposes to me as well as to allow the people of China to have something to anticipate.

Love you All. Denise

Dancing Queen

I would like to share with all of you my favorite Dance playlist. I recently had opportunity to have it used in a popular club here in China. So in my humble opinion my music taste has international popularity. Dancing Queen playlist. If you want to listen to it or have it for your own: Enjoy!!!

Home Assignment Needs!

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

I have been talking and planning with people for my time when I come back to the States. At this time I have no huge needs but I am aware that there may be things I will need as well as some things you want to provide for me. Some brilliant individual thought that I should just post a list of opportunities you could help me with as well as things I would love to be involved in while I am home. I have been very blessed by your generosity in the past and I know I will be again.

South Dakota: (December 1-Jan 6 2012)

* I want to have lunch or coffee with you.
* Any Fellowships or small groups who want me to speak.
* I would love invitations to Hockey games, Birthday parties, or other family or community events.
* An Automatic Vehicle to borrow.

Nebraska: (Jan 7th-Feb 4th 2012)

* I want to have lunch or coffee with you.
* Any Fellowships or small groups who want me to speak.
* I would love invitations to Hockey games, Birthday parties, or other family or community events.
* An Automatic Vehicle to borrow.

Casper: (Feb 9-13th 2012)

* I want to have lunch or coffee with you.
* Any Fellowships or small groups who want me to speak.
* I would love invitations to Hockey games, Birthday parties, or other family or community events.

I intend to travel to Chicago but am not sure at this time what my schedule will look like. Please email me at DeniseJ@worksmail.net to begin to setting up appointments or if you have any other ideas.

August Newsletter!!

What is new with Denise? Funny you should ask that for I have been wondering the same thing. She feels like life is just marching on along. But there are some very fabulous things going on in her life. Her trip to Colorado in May was exciting but she still doesn’t know what to do with the education and information she received, the month of June she started to study Medical Mandarin, July looks to be full, very full, of school work, and August holds the second annual Yunnan Wai Guo Ren State Fair and the reuniting of her entire team. So much to talk about and so much to look forward to.

Colorado was so beautiful and it snowed while I was there. I learned about the slow but rewarding process of ethnographic research. Research has always been a big part of Our Company. It really took off when we were apart of the DAWN movement in 1985 in the Philippines to discover where the national fellowships were and areas where there is no fellowships. I learned about mapping technology with gmi.org and how they were a part of the Operation World movement and I got to meet the entire staff of Joshua Project. I got to hear about what Our Company is involved in scattered through out the world. Which was so exciting. A little overwhelming because this kind of research is difficult to do in China. It is a little difficult to even tell you all about this from here. So, if any of this intrigues you please check out the above organizations via the web.

While I was in the United States for this conference I flew to Chicago to see my family. It was really good to spend four days with them. The two best parts of this short part of the trip was when I first stepped foot in Ben and Molly’s home and Henry rushed me for a hug and the baby shower I got to attend for Ben and Molly. I got to take Henry to the park “just the two of us” and all 6 of us went to the Chicago Children’s Museum. There is just something magic in being with your nephew.

Medical Mandarin is not easy. It is very exciting but if you thought it was hard to remember what a fenestration was in English imagine how much harder it is to remember 开窗术 (kai chuang shu). In reality I am pretty far from learning these words yet. I am still trying to master doctor examining room-医师诊疗室 (yi shi zhen liao shi). I have had some really interesting discussions with my teacher about eastern versus western medicine as well as the pharmaceutical laws of China. And today (6/22/11) I gave my teacher an anatomy lesson.

July only holds study, study, and more study. I will have regular Chinese class from 8-10 on Monday through Thursday and then from 1-3 on Monday Wednesday and Friday I have Medical Mandarin and then from 3:30-5:30 on Tuesday and Thursday I have a third language lesson. Therefore, I look forward to August when my team leaders return and I can sit down with them and discuss both my work options as well as my language skills. I fully anticipate that my language skills are not as advanced as they need to be. Hopefully I will also be able to get my feet wet in some sort of medical context. August also holds the exciting event of the second annual Yunnan Wai Guo Ren State Fair. Where all of the foreigner students from my school get together and pretend to be at a State Fair at home. Last year I took home second place prize for the largest vegetable.

Thank you all for your thoughts and your care for me. Love, Denise

Someone you can Think About!!

Please do not post in any public place and only share as confidential requests.

So my dear friend and I had coffee last week and we swapped stories. See, she has been living in the United States for the last school year. Going to an American High school. Talk about scary-cute little impressionable innocent 16 year old Chinese girl living in California and going to a public high school. Yikes!! She told me that the thing that was the most shocking at first was the Public Displays of Affection in the halls at school. She also complained that the only thing someone her age can do is go shopping. Such funny and correct assessments of high school. We laughed when she shared how she tried to make Yunnan food for her host family and what a disaster it was.

She asked me why I would come to China when being a nurse in the States is so lucrative. I shared with her that I am a follower of the Only Way and that as a believer I want other people to know that the Father loves them. I had heard that some people in Yunnan had leprosy and that many people didn't want to help them but that I wanted to help them because Father loves them. Although, I know that before she left for the USA I had told her of my beliefs but she had forgotten and so she shared with me that her host mother in California was also a follower and that she often would go with her host mother to services.


I would love for all of you to hold her and her host family in your thoughts.