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6:00am Sara runs two days each week with two of her Chinese friends. This early morning is a struggle but definitely worth it!
7:15am Wake up, brush our teeth, get dressed, and walk like zombies to the cafeteria for breakfast [unless we decide to fix oatmeal in our apartment instead]. The school has wonderful food each morning, usually serving us rice porridge, some cold vegetable to mix in the porridge, boiled eggs, and some type of bread. We love when they serve "baozi," which is a bread bun with meat inside.
8:00am Back to our apartment to prepare our lessons for the day. Since we are the only foreign teachers in the middle school, we have done a lot of our lesson planning for grades 7, 8, and 9 together, which has been fun!
9:20am If it is a Monday or Wednesday, one of us will head to our first class that begins at 9:40. On other days, we have an extra hour to work on lesson plans, answer emails, and spend time with the Father.
10:35am Sara teaches during this hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and Jesse does some cleaning, more lesson planning, meeting with friends, or editing videos to show our family and friends. On Wednesdays, Jesse has office hours for his students to come ask him English questions.
11:30am Jesse teaches during at this time on Tuesdays. Sara teaches during this hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If he's not teaching, Jesse will work on lesson plans, edit videos to show our family and friends, work out in our apartment, or meet with a friend. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we usually eat an early lunch at this time.
12:15pm We eat lunch most days during this hour, since we normally teach until this time. Sometimes we eat with Sara's co-teachers in the primary students' cafeteria. This is a good time to get to know our teammates, other foreign teachers, or our Chinese co-teachers. We love the food at our school!
1:00pm Take a nap, if we have time:) Some days, we teach at 2pm, so we have to fight the urge to sleep and prepare for our lesson instead.
2:00pm Teach another class or grade papers from previous classes. This seems to take longer than we realize-- especially when we decide to write personalized letters back to our students in their English notebooks.
2:50pm Teach another class, have a personal quiet time reading an encouraging book, or continue grading papers from our classes.
3:45pm Teach, work out, go on a run, or go to the market to grab fresh fruit and vegetables.
4:25pm Participate in after-school activities called CASL: soccer, yoga, art class, team workout, individual workout, or spending time with the Father.
5:30pm Dinner time in the cafeteria! We love fried rice day (Tuesday), but the food really is delicious every day.
6:30pm Meet with friends, go on a walk on campus, play ping pong or badminton, or simply rest at home from the long day. On weekends, this is the time we may have someone over for dinner or visit a friend's apartment off campus. We also might attend a local fellowship on a Friday night at this time.
7:30pm Study Chinese three days each week. If we aren't doing that, we are spending time with teammates, getting lessons ready for the next day, writing letters to friends and family, working on our newsletters, blog posts, and emails to send out, and just winding down for the day. However, if it's a weekend night, we are probably spending time with friends we have made, getting to know them better and doing something fun together.
8:20pm Lifting weights in the campus gym, supervising night classes, reading, writing letters to people in the States, working on our newsletter/blog/email, take a shower, and get ready for bed. This time to reflect on our day has been really important.
9:30pm We TRY to go to sleep at this time, but sometimes that doesn't happen until 10pm.
Sometimes we are super busy, while other times are more restful. It's neat to see how the Father prepares us for whatever comes our way, whether that means performing a group dance for a school celebration, teaching a last-minute class, or having unexpected time to rest in Him. We're learning that we desperately need His strength, and we have to strive for a closer relationship with Him to be effective. This is more than just an adventure.
As the author of Redefining Home put it: "Living overseas isn't about checking off a box on an experience. It's not about patting ourselves on the back and sharing amazing pictures with friends. Reaching the world is about the Son. It's not about you or your desire for an overseas experience."
This has been something we have been trying to put into words before we even knew we were moving across the world. As we lived and worked in America, that is what we wanted our life to be, despite our location. While this remains true here in China, we know that all of our Brothers and Sisters feel the same way about their own life. It's encouraging to hear stories from you all back in the States who are following His calling and furthering His Kingdom.
He is so good!
Please continue to ask that we are faithful in getting to know our new friends and Chinese co-teachers, especially during this holiday season. And send any neat stories our way if you get the chance. Just use communication guidelines when you email us:)
~Jesse & Sara