Christmas Performance Rewind

Well, we did! We successfully performed for 30 minutes of the Crazy English Christmas party this weekend. After a quick dress rehearsal, we were prepared to put on a show!

Our team was the first group up to perform. We began the evening with a "moving" presentation of the Nativity story mimed and narrated (We were all moving around the stage, just without words. I hope it was more moving than just that). At the conclusion we all sang "Jesus, Born on this Day."

No time for rest as we were also the second group up on stage to perform again. We quickly changed our costumes by putting on Santa hats before presenting the Christmas caroling tradition to the students by singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". That was fun and almost makes me want to pick up a candle, put some hot chocolate in a thermos, don the Santa hat, and knock on doors singing Christmas songs.

We were followed by some student performances including "Silent Night" in Chinese and a Chinese version of the parable of the lost son. The lost son story is very meaningful to Chinese and is often used as one of the greatest examples of the Father's love. We've even been able to share this story to some students this year!

We concluded our performance with a Christmas edition of "Family Feud" pitting audience members against one another for some awesome Christmas prizes. The girl team capped their comeback by correctly answering the final question.

And what performance would be complete without some karaoke to conclude the evening!

Merry Christmas!

What's It Like Outside Today?

It's a normal question: What's it like outside today? and especially if it determines whether we'll need 3 or 4 layers! If we ever wonder how cold it is outside, we could boot up the computer and check the latest weather update or we could buy ourselves a thermometer and stick it outside our window or we could just look out the window.

We have a coal plant out our window and have a perfect view from the 20th floor of the smoke (or steam or general pollution or as Kanyon would say, "clouds") coming out the smoke stacks. Since we've been looking at it for over a year now, we can tell the temperature by the amount of smoke visible on any given day.

(You can also use the same coal plant to determine how close we are to spring. Just check out how much coal is left in the pile. It'll be gone by the time the warm temps come back around!)

Look at the picture above, what's the temperature? By the amount of smoke, it's about -7F (-22C)!

Sheng Dan Kuai Le 圣诞快乐

Time for a little seasonal Chinese lesson. I still find it so awesome the way words are formed and this is another great example.

Sheng 圣 means holy, sage, or emperor
Dan 诞 means be born or birthday
Kuài le 快乐 means happy

Put Shengdan together to mean Christmas (a holy emperor's birthday, so true!).

Put the characters together to mean Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We hope all your holiday travels are safe (especially with the huge ice storm/blizzard in Texas) and that you all enjoy the time off from work celebrating with family and friends. We are remembering each of you this week as we celebrate in China.

Beijing's Winter Wonderland

As we traveled back and forth to the hospital in Beijing, we often passed the Bird's Nest, the National stadium that hosted the 2008 Olympics. Kanyon would point out the taxi window and say, "football." While that was true once (the stadium hosted an Italian soccer match), what is the Bird's Nest up to now?

The stadium first drew revenue from tourists (like us in May) paying to step inside the stadium just to be a part of history. But those numbers fell from 50,000 visitors per day immediately after the Olympics to a couple of thousand in recent days. The stadium costs some 200,000 RMB ($30,000) per day to operate and those numbers would not cover the cost.

The stadium turned next to other events including a Jackie Chan concert, a Zhang Yimou opera performance, and some famous Formula 1 stars in a rally race. But has found little to keep it in the black. The problem is such that the original operator returned operations to the government after only 12 months of a 30 year contract.

The government's first attempt to create revenue is Beijing largest winter wonderland.

Birds Nest tries snow business¹ (December 17, 2009, Shanghai Daily)
China's iconic national stadium, rarely used since the Olympics, has found a new purpose: hosting a snowy winter wonderland in the heart of Beijing. Mounds of artificial snow and mini ski slopes await local visitors and tourists who are expected to flock to the snow festival's opening on Saturday to reacquaint themselves with the Bird's Nest, which dazzled millions during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games but has since largely lacked the roar of the crowd. Creating this snowy wonderland does not come cheap. It will cost the company running the sports ground some 50 million yuan (US$7.3 million) to complete and maintain the transformation. The Huaibei Ski Resort has contributed technicians, and snow machines have been pumping out artificial snow 24 hours a day since December 10.


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¹ ZGBriefs for December 17, 2009
² Bird's Nest Snow World Reuters Photo

Ming Xiang 命相

While I was doing some investigating for the characters to wish a friend Happy Birthday in Chinese, this is the first word that popped up in the dictionary.

Ming Xiang 命相 means:

(noun) A person's birthday in eight Chinese characters including the year, month, day and hour of his or her birth and the animal symbol of the year he was born in; the superstitious people believe that on the basis of the eight characters and the animal symbols of the birth years, a fortuneteller can foretell what would happen in a person's life and whether a man and a woman in love are suitable to be a happy couple.¹

I noticed on Corbin's birth certificate each of these was listed but didn't know the superstition behind the date. I guess I should have known that since the date of weddings is so important there would also be a superstition related to one's birthday.

The more I learn about the culture, the more starting points I find for deep conversations. Wish me luck. No, just continuing lifting up the relationships on our campus.
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¹ nciku Dictionary

Advice: Give and Take

As we waited in the Airport terminal for our flight back to Harbin, M'Lynn struck up several conversations with fellow passengers. Well really they struck up the conversation with M'Lynn because of Corbin.

First conversation begins with admiration for the baby (who was dressed warmly enough to be inside the heated terminal. He was even wearing a hoodie!) and then proceeded with the obvious next question.

Passenger 1: "How old is your baby?"
M'Lynn: "He's two weeks old.
Passenger 1: (sucking air through her teeth) "Put his hat on!"

It was a nice turn to have the second conversation with Passenger 2.

Passenger 2: "Where are you going?"
M'Lynn: "We live in Harbin. My husband is an English teacher."
Passenger 2: "I am going to Harbin for business. Do you think I have enough clothes on?"
M'Lynn: "No, you'll probably be a little cold."

I love that this time advice was both given and received. We are often on the receiving end of advice especially when it comes to our children and their clothes (or lack of clothes and hats). Advice giving is a way to show you care about another person. It was refreshing to be able to return the favor and offer some advice to another (since we were the Harbin insiders). So we should gladly receive advice given to us, but that remains difficult at times and requires much grace.

Thursday Morning Image

It's that time again: Christmas performance time! This weekend we are performing at a "Crazy English" Christmas party. Our team is tasked with providing 30 minutes of entertainment. We are singing some songs, playing Family Feud "How well do you know Christmas?", and performing a Christmas drama filled with shepherds, angels, wise men, and a baby. Please remember this performance that it will plant seeds that bear eternal fruit.

Didi 弟弟

We haven't yet trained Kanyon how to say "Corbin" so he simply refers to his brother as "baby" or "didi".

Didi 弟弟 means younger brother.

Corbin would call Kanyon "gege" meaning older brother. This is what is so cool (and sometimes difficult) about Chinese. The noun often denotes the rank, relationship, or age of the person you are referring to. Here are some other examples from the family:

Gege 哥哥 means elder brother
Jiejie 姐姐 means elder sister
Meimei 妹妹 means younger sister

And there are plenty where these come from. There are words for paternal Grandfather, paternal Grandmother, maternal Grandfather, Maternal Grandmother, an uncle whose my dad's gege, an uncle whose my dad's didi, an aunt whose my dad's jiejie, an aunt whose my dad's meimei, etc. And that's just on the paternal side. There are more for the mother's side of the family and we still haven't gotten to relatives that far removed. Yikes!

State Champions

Congratulations to the Garden City Bearkats, 2009 Texas Sixman Football Division I champions. They defeated Strawn High School 122-88 in the state championship game today.

We turned in to the online radio broadcast of the game and listened to it in it's entirety. Since M'Lynn is a Bearkat alum, she was cheering extra big for each score. And there were plenty of scores! And since I'm just a huge fan of sixman football, I enjoyed listening to the game also. The only thing better would have been to be in the stands cheering on the Bearkats!

Baby Passport Photos

We now have two kids with baby passport photos. Kanyon's was taken when he was 3 months old and Corbin's was taken when he was less then a week old. I always find it funny that they will use this same picture until they turn 5 years old.

And I had to laugh when completing the application for Corbin:

Height: ummm 20.5 inches
Hair Color: Black now but will it stay?
Eye Color: Blue for now ...maybe turning brown, blue, or green later?

Babies always seem to take the funniest passport photos. We didn't even comb Corbin's hair! We were so excited that his eyes were open we snapped the picture without thinking about his hair. Kanyon's photo isn't must better!

Volume 3, Issue 12

He’s here! Corbin Nolan was born November 30, 2009 at 7:35 AM weighing 8lbs 10 oz and 20.5 inches long. We are super excited to have two boys! It has been great watching Kanyon adjust to being the big brother helping out where he can.

M’Lynn is doing great recovering and caring for Corbin. Corbin immediately took to eating and sleeping. We are thankful for all your prayer support during this pregnancy. We feel strengthened and encourage daily knowing you guys are standing with us in this great adventure of teaching in China and raising two young boys.

Jeremy, M’Lynn, & Kanyon

Generous: Year End Giving/Update

We love being generous with our time and resources with students, teammates, and colleagues. We love sending out newsletters updating the work in Harbin. We love uploading photos of the kids, students, and life in China along with the occasional video. We love keeping the blog website updated with stories from China that don’t make it into these newsletters. All of this is possible by your generous gifts.

Please remember our work as you consider year end giving. We are currently 66% funded ($21,868 funded with $11,317 remaining). We appreciate beyond measure those yearly gifts and monthly pledges that have gotten us this far. While we have a positive account balance now, we will be in the red at the end of this school year without your help. We love being in China and look forward to many years serving here!

To learn more about our work, click here, or if you know all you need to know and would like to give now, click here.

Beijingers

We’ve enjoyed living here in Beijing this past month. We participated in two huge Thanksgiving celebrations with a total of 5 turkeys! We hadn’t seen that many turkeys at a Thanksgiving meal since ever. The celebrations quickly were one-upped by the arrival of Corbin! We are so thankful to be surrounded by incredible people here that watched Kanyon for a couple of days while we were at the hospital.

The passport paperwork is all started and we expect to get Corbin’s passport back in about a week. Then we’ll return home to Harbin in time to celebrate Christmas with our teammates. If we make it back in time, there are rumors of Corbin being baby Jesus in a performance for students. Now that will be fun!



To view more photos of Corbin and our work here in China, click here

Thursday Morning Image

It's great to see so many kids running around the Mac growing up in China. It encourages me to see the kids thriving and to be able to talk with their parents about their adjustments. These guys are troopers living in China and have an outreach all their own. They are home schooled, participate in the international fellowship kids & youth groups, and attend camps in China. Please remember these third culture kids as grow up here in China and reach out to those around them!

Da shi guan 大使馆

The most recent vocabulary word we learned was Dashiguan 大使馆.

Da4 shi3 guan3 大使馆 means embassy.

We survived the trip to the US embassy to apply for Corbin's passport and other papers. It was our first time inside an embassy and it was a pleasant adventure. It reminded us of a Post Office both in looks and functionality. First go to window 2 to check in, then window 4 to pay, then window 3 for your appointment over the counter, but since you have a family we can use Room A.

I'm just glad we weren't in the 'line' of people wanting to get visas to visit the USA. That room was crazy and packed with people in what didn't really look like a 'line'.

I hope we remember the term to tell the taxi driver when we go back to pick up the passport.

Christmas in Beijing

Here we go! Time to decorate the Christmas tree at the Mac. It's exciting to quickly go from the fall colors of Thanksgiving to the green and red of Christmas. Kanyon enjoyed decorating the tree but went a little crazy when we put the 'presents' under the tree. As soon as he found the presents, he was ready for his surprise.

Beijing Christmas 2009 (0:45 min)

Disneyland Spooked

In a followup on a recent post about Disneyland coming to Shanghai, read more about the cultural road blocks to the theme park's construction:

Spirits spook plan for Disneyland near Shanghai (November 27, 2009, The Times of India)

Mickey Mouse has met an unexpected obstacle on his chirpy march to bring Walt Disney's consumer culture into China - ancestor worship. Amid rice fields and bamboo groves south of Shanghai, hundreds of villagers are resisting plans to dig up family graves in order to make way for the first Disneyland in mainland China. Read the complete story.

This article serves as an encouragement to us. While the country is official atheist, many people still hold some traditional beliefs such as these. While wrong, these ideas give us a stepping stone that leads to truth.

Liang Mi 两米

This is the most common phrase shouted, whispered, commented or asked about me as I walk down the street. The question is implied, "How tall are you?"

Liang 两 is another form for the number 2
Mi 米 means meter

Yes I am 2 meters tall. It makes the conversation very simple. And an easy conversion into metric for all my friends. Actually I'm 203 cm but 2 meters is the easier response.

And it seems to make everyone's day to have seen the extra tall foreigner that was actually 2 meters tall. Somehow just be walking down the street, I fulfilled the stereotype of foreigners being tall.

The Chinese aren't much different than Americans. They're next question is the same. What is it? You guess it! Do you play basketball?

Corbin Meets Kanyon (Videos)

Here you go. For everyone wanting a video of little Corbin. Kanyon meets his brother for the first time. Since Corbin is so small and Kanyon is so big, you'll get mostly Kanyon in this video and a little Corbin. (I guess their video face time is directly proportional to their body mass.)

Kanyon Meets Corbin (1:00 min)

I love that he points out all features, hat, hands, eyes, mouth, ears, feet.

Birthday Pancakes

This is what happens when you put the whole plate of pancakes a toddler's high chair to get the perfect picture. You get the picture, but you won't be getting any pancakes!

Birthday Pancakes (1:00 min)

Pirate Golf Courses

Harbin does have one golf course in the middle of town. We missed our chance to play on it this fall and now we'll have to wait until June to get another chance. Check out what's happening around China in this latest headline:

China to crackdown on illegal golf courses¹ (December 2, 2009, The Guardian)

Chinese officials have promised to crack down on illegal golf courses, threatening harsh punishment to developers catering to "the rich man's game" at the expense of much-needed farmland. Demand for courses is soaring as the country's newly wealthy adopt the sport. But officials hope that a satellite system to check the illicit use of land will help them to identify unapproved venues, state media reported today. A boom in golf over the last few years has produced 3 million players, the China Daily newspaper reported, with the China Golf Association predicting up to 20 million in just over a decade. The industry was worth an estimated 60bn yuan (£5.3bn) last year. China imposed a moratorium on course building in 2004, but the game's popularity has led developers to continue construction without permission. While the first course opened on the mainland only in 1984, there are now believed to be around 500 and on one estimate the total could rise to 2,700 by 2015.

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¹ From the ZGBriefs for December 3, 2009

Thursday Morning Image

With Corbin now welcomed into our family and our return from the hospital, we are now facing the return to normal life in China only this time with two kids. We are resting as we wait for next week's checkup and paperwork at the embassy. Please remember this time of transition from double team to man-to-man both for us as parents and for Kanyon in his new role as big brother.

Corbin Nolan

Corbin Nolan
Born: November 30, 2009 7:30 AM
Weight: 8 lbs 10 oz (3.910 kg)
Length: 20 ½ inches (52 cm)

Here are some photos from the first day with Corbin Nolan. There will be more in the days to come so stay tuned to this same site and check back for more photos. (Either click on the link below or copy and paste it into your browser)

Corbin Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeremyandmlynn/CorbinNolan

I'm looking forward to the photos of Corbin meeting Kanyon for the first time. That should happen sometime on Wednesday here, so look for those photos on Thursday.

Nike Football Takeover

A funny thing is happening on the college football scene. Nike is taking over the jerseys of some traditional teams and replacing them with impostors! I know all about Nike taking over the jerseys of the Oregon Ducks who could wear a different jersey combination for every game from now until the next century. That's all fine, but leave the others alone.

Check out these new uniforms.¹ You'll have to look up the old jerseys for comparison:


Florida and LSU


TCU, Ohio State, Oklahoma


Miami, Virginia Tech, Missouri

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¹All photos found on ESPN.com; Flordia (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin); LSU (AP Photo/Bill Haber); TCU (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam); Ohio State (AP Photo/Paul Sancya); Oklahoma (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki); Miami (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara); Virginia Tech (AP Photo/Steve Helber); Missouri (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)