February 2002

Dear Friends,

Lo and behold—a newsletter from John and Kim! This one’s been a long time in coming, we know. You may have thought that your name had somehow been lost from our address list, but no—it’s just been that long. Our last installment was composed when Benjamin was eleven months old, and now he’s had his second birthday (January 26). That second year just roars by—let me tell you! Kim and I both feel that 2001 was the busiest year ever for either of us. Those of you with children, please tell us that it gets easier after this!

We want to apologize sincerely to those of you who’ve perhaps been
wondering if you’d ever hear from us again. In not making time for writing, we have been forsaking the circle of love and support provided by our stateside brothers and sisters, and truly suffering for it, to be honest! But thank you so much for the encouraging messages that we have received from you, and for your continuing prayers.

There’s a longer account of what we were involved with through 2001 on our home page. In this letter I want to share a recent experience of ours, visiting a Chinese family in the countryside.

As you may know, Chinese New Year was February 12 this year. Also called Spring Festival, it is the biggest holiday in China, a time for family gatherings, sumptuous feasts and—outside of large cities—lots and lots of fireworks! The nanny that we employ for Benjamin invited us to spend Spring Festival at her in-laws’ home just outside of Nanjing. It was a great honor for us to be invited into a Chinese home on such an important day. We had a fun time, and Benjamin did too! He had a day full of play like he seldom gets. Since we live on the campus of the school where we teach, our immediate community
doesn’t allow much for Ben in the way of playmates his size, but on February 12 he had four playmates, ages 4 to 8, besides the family puppy dog, chickens to chase, and more!

That morning we rode a public bus to the east side of the city, where we met up with Wu Jin Xiu (Ben’s nanny), and she accompanied us on a second bus that took us out almost as far as the family farm. Hailing a country cab got us the rest of the way there. We were far enough away from the city that the air was noticeably cleaner, and it was a dry, clear day, thankfully! After being introduced to everyone, we settled in on the back porch and just enjoyed the family courtyard, sitting on stools and making small talk, while Jin Xiu’s husband kept Benjamin entertained, giving him a tour of the premises and introducing him to the other little ones.

For me personally, it was really a rewarding thing to know that I’ve adjusted to the lifestyle here enough so that I could have a good time hanging out with a Chinese family like that and not be completely self-conscious and freaked out by the other-ness of it all. Now in our third year, I’m finding that my comfort level and my understanding of the culture are allowing me to see the real possibility of my crossing that line from foreigner to friend with more and more people. Jin Xiu’s family welcomed us into their home with a comfortable kindness that really blessed us. Having said that—to keep this all in perspective—I’ll admit that when the invitation was extended for us to stay the night and not go back home until the next day, Kim and I quickly found a few reasons why we really couldn’t do that, chief among them the fact that we
didn’t have enough diapers along for Ben! But now, having been there once and having gotten to know them a bit, we’ll look forward to the next opportunity to go visit them again and stay for a night.

Special treats of the day included, for Ben, having an up close and personal encounter with the family cow and her udders. My special treat was that Jin Xiu showed me through the fields and up to the top of a nearby hill to see the view. Before lunch, which was resplendently bountiful, I watched—and tried in vain to learn—a card game called "80."

It was quite fortunate that Kim brought her camera along, as we discovered that the family had apparently been talking for a long time about having a family portrait done, but had never gotten around to it. Doing that for them was a gift we were especially glad to give.

Happy Year of the Horse to you all.

John, Kim and Benjamin

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 179