Ten Ponderings of Christmas in China

         

          Christmas and New Years are over, and the world mourns and diets. I have officially experienced my first holiday season in China, and my first Christmas ever without my family. During the jubilation that is Christmas, I had a few thoughts, and revelations, and I decided to share them with you all.

1. The so called "war on Chistmas," yeah that's not a thing!

 Remarkably, spending Christmas in a country where the holiday isn't nationally recognized, did absolutely nothing to hinder me from personally celebrating Christmas! I know right! In fact, it might even have heightened my awareness of why I celebrate in the first place. An unregenerate person, wishing me a merry Christmas, and handing me a red cup with Santa on it: that's commercialism, not Christmas. And China has plenty of Christmas commercialism to enjoy anyway.

2. Jingle Bells and We Wish You Merry Christmas are the only Christmas songs that China knows, and they play them on repeat...all.day.long.

3. Most of the highs and lows at Christmas are dependent on comparison. It seems to me that our experience of Christmas is dependent on what we think it should be, after comparing our experience to what we see on T.V. or the people around us. As I mentioned, this was my first ever Christmas apart from my family. Surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. After thinking about it for awhile, I concluded that the fact I'm China, where they don't celebrate Christmas is the key factor. The day still seemed special, because while the country went to work, and carried on as usual, I got to go have a nice dinner with my friends. If I had been in the States, watching others celebrate with their families, it would have been a different story. Indeed the only time when I had the Christmas blues, was when I logged into Facebook.

4. Traditions are important, even when you're thousands of miles away. Whether it's making sugar cookies or watching The Muppets Christmas Carol, traditions keep us aware of where we come from, and who we're going to be.

5. A Christmas tree makes all the difference. I haven't quite made my apartment my own yet, but adding a Christmas tree, suddenly made my living room a place I wanted to be. 

6. People freaking love Christmas music. My playlists on Spotify, have never had very many followers, but my Christmas playlist kind of soared in popularity this year. Huzzah!

7. Minion Monopoly is much more fun than dummy regular Monopoly. My sister Abby kind of loves minions, and so the majority of her presents this year were minion related. One such gift was Minion Monopoly. This is a thing that exists. Falling asleep, while listening to my family play this game over Skype, was my best Christmas memory this year.

8. I love being a kindergarten teacher at Christmas. It means you get to dress up in a red coat and hat and give sweets and toys to cutie Chinese children. Bring on the happiness!

9. Chinese New Year! My holiday season extends well into February. I guess the decorations get to stay up that long too!

10. The Incarnation is where it's at. Extra points to those who know who coined that phrase. I spent most of December contemplating, just how bizarre, miraculous and pinnacle the truth of the incarnation is. What difference does the divinity of Christ make to the life of the believer? The answer: it makes all the difference. 

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known

John 1:18

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Bring on 2016; it's going to be epic!

Music Monday: Christmas Edition 2015

Hello blog friends! It's hard to believe Christmas is nearly upon us already. The season has seemed even more elusive being in China this year, but I'll do a longer post in that later. In the meantime I've posted this precious live recording if Daniela Andrade's "Christmas Time is Here." Happy Last Monday Before Christmas!!

This morning I woke up...

     This morning I woke up...it's a cold, blustery, damp sort of day: the kind of day that makes you want to stay snuggled under the covers and not come out. However, the unrelenting alarm, and the sounds of a persistant mosquito buzzing around my ears, coax me from my bed and into the cold morning air. It feels good, the contrast between winter chill, and comfortable coziness. Winter has been very delayed in her coming, and though it might change again tomorrow, it's nice to get a taste of the season.

It's been a loooong time since I've posted here. And so much has happened in between. The longer
 I've waited, the more complicated the story became. So I've thought long and hard how to introduce this new stage in my life on this forum. So here it goes.

For starters, I'm a college graduate now. Thats's right, my days as a student are over and I now know everything (I've the paper to prove it). As often happens with in debt college graduates, plans were formed, and job hunts ensued. As I've graduated with a TESL certificate, teaching seemed a good place to start, so I searched for a teaching job. One that afforded some ministry opportunities. I had hoped to find something a little closer to home this time. The novelty of being a hopeless wanderer had long since worn off, and I hoped God was on the same page as I was. "We're done right?" I asked told Him, "No more new places for awhile." Well God has a habit of promptly ignoring me, when I ask tell Him how to run things, and this time was no different.

As it turned out, while finding a job in Ireland, was not necessarily impossible,  I somehow ended up emailing someone a little farther away. I'm going to make a long story very short, and say that I got a job teaching at a lovely little kindgergarten. It took some humbling, some prayer, and a very insightful and candid conversation with my sister, to realize that I actualy wanted to go. Maybe in the future there will be a time when roots can be established, when life can be a little less crazy, but that's never been what God wanted for me, and I find that I'm not ready for the craziness to stop. And I keep rolling down that hill, because who needs moss?! I take other things with me: people, experiences, loss, hurt, fear, love, and joy, all rolled together.

I've been here three months. I've setted (as settled as I can be) into life here. I'm enjoying my work at the kindgergarten, much more than I ever thought I would. Life is a constant adventure. Culture shock takes on a whole new meaning, as frustrations, discoveries, and hilarious misunderstandings unfold daily. All the while God is slowly taking me apart bit by bit: dealing with my pride and wrenching idols from my tightly clasped hands. I go to bed exhausted, and somehow wake up ready to do it all over again in a totally different way.

So God is not done with me, and I'm ok with that. The last time I wrote in this blog, I was in Ireland, but this morning I woke up in China.