Optimistic China!

We’re down to the last three months on our sabbatical. We’ve enjoyed the fall, winter, and spring. Now summer is upon us. It too will go quickly, exuberantly.   It will be hard to leave this vision from our backyard, but leave we will.

We leave September 3rd for Kunming, China, a city of about six million. We’ve been able to rent a place from a family who are leaving in July and won’t be back until the end of the year. This apartment is a wonderful bridge into the city; we have a place to be for a while as we situate and get our bearings. Our apartment building alone contains about 10,000 people.

We plan to connect with a social action group called The Bridge (www.dawenchina.com). They offer marital, parenting, relationship, reconciliation, and social programs beneficial to the locals in and beyond Kunming. 
 
We’ve got a language software program thru Rosetta Stone in Mandarin. One of us has begun learning with that; the other is biding her time and will start when and with the Spirit’s nudging . We’re a great blend of apart togetherness, each respecting the other’s gifts and timing. We are moving ahead, one step at a time, trusting God to open the doors He has for us and keeping closed those He doesn’t want us to enter.

I just read an article on optimism in this week’s Time Magazine (June 6th, 2011). A good article. As it turns out, we optimists tend to live longer with less stress. Compared to pessimists, we take more vitamins, exercise more, earn and save more. We also underestimate risk. As Samuel Johnson said, we’re a triumph of hope over experience :).   It might be a little like this sign from a local slate quarry:

Practiced faith fuels optimism. We see beyond the grave and live out heaven well before we die. Faithful hearts are hard wired for optimism, resiliently turning lead into gold. We cheerfully live from approval, not for approval.   Much like this lightning-struck tree, perhaps, that didn't know it was supposed to be dead already.   All it knew was that God had planted it by a gurgling stream.

The UK has been delightful. China will be outrageously adventurous--a momentary faith journey. We’re confident there will be enough light for the next step in any case; that our faithful Father will get us Home before dark.

Thank you for providing us a canopy of prayer, keeping us safe from ourselves and the Devil. We need you to remember us as we travel through time and space, even as we remember you.