A lot of friends and family members have asked us how we're adjusting to living in China, especially during the holiday season. To be honest, being overseas during this time is hard! Missing loved ones during Thanksgiving was not too bad, but Christmas time is proving to be a bit more challenging. We miss being with our families, seeing all of the Christmas lights in people's yards, and being with our fellowship to sing together.
But He is still good.
And being in China during this season is not bad- it's just a little different!
We still get to be with our families thanks to FaceTime and Skype, and they are sweet to send us care packages all the way from the States. Our teammates here in China also have become more like a second family to us as we grow closer together and serve together.
We still get to see Christmas lights, but they are in front of our teammates apartments instead. Our city even has a huge Christmas tree in front of the international import store! We also decorated our apartment with some branches and leaves we found on our school's campus, and we bought some cheap lights to string up inside of our apartment. Simple decorations are nice because they have helped us refocus our hearts on the true meaning of the Season.
We still get to sing Christmas songs as a team during our weekly fellowship time
, and Jesse and I have been learning the words to more of our favorite holiday songs on our own time (especially when taking breaks from studying Chinese). This week, we will hopefully teach a few songs to our students!
Our daily Advent reading ["Rediscovering the Christmas Season," on the YouVersion app] has been reminding us what Christmas should be ALL about. While being with loved ones is wonderful, and seeing Christmas decorations everywhere in the U.S. is so much fun, we know the true Purpose for celebrating this Season. We hope this can be an encouragement to you, friends and family, to redefine Christmas in your own life. Whether that means reading the Story as a family, fellowshipping with friends, or just asking Him to lead you... let's rediscover the Christmas Season together!
"And they shall call His name Immanuel."
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| I showed A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving to my students at the end of our lesson on Thanksgiving day, and they loved it! |
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| Thanksgiving Day was a huge celebration at Guangya, since it is an international school. We celebrated all day with our students, ate sushi with our team, and had a school-wide bonfire. Each grade had their own fire to stand by! |
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| The international teachers celebrated a couple days after Thanksgiving with a potluck lunch and games afterward. |
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| Excited because IKEA had Christmas decorations for us to enjoy looking at!!! We bought a star pendant for our apartment because we will probably leave it up past Christmas. |
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| Our teaching trip into the mountains was short because of my stomach virus, but we did get to stay in a Christmas-y town on the way. It snowed that night, and we got an early White Christmas! |
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| We love our simple apartment decorations, and we really love the magnolia leaves from outside. We may keep them up for a while, if they don't dry out too much. |
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| Homemade wreath. And an unmade bed in the background... sometimes we get too busy, and sometimes we need a nap in the middle of the day! |
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| One of the few Christmas decorations we brought from the States. Thanks for the wooden ornaments, Mary Ann Friday! |
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| Thankful for sunny days when we get them. :):):) |
~Sara
