Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Summer's over

Well, the summer sessions are officially over and the last of the summer facilitators are preparing to return to America.  It has honestly been an amazing summer and I can't let it pass without putting some of the highlights down so I can remember them forever.

  • We had over 1500 students during the two months.  We went into this summer having no idea of how we were going to make this work.  We had to alter our schedule, increase class sizes, use every classroom available to us, the list goes on and on.
  • We originally only had 3 extra facilitators coming for the August session.  We put out what was pretty much a desperate plea for more people to come and thankfully 10 people answered the call with less than 2 weeks notice in most cases.
  • Most notably is one facilitator, Jennifer.  She had to renew her passport, a process that usually takes several weeks.  Then she still had to get her visa and have the money to buy a plan ticket, all in less than 2 weeks.  That is something that just doesn't happen.  Yet, she got her passport 2 days later, her visa the next day, and bought her plane ticket.   You can't tell me that God didn't want her to be here.
  • Amazing friendships that have been a have blessed me beyond measure as I have entered a time of transition and change.
  • Countless students who asked questions, wanted to know more, and showed an amazing interest in learning more about what being a Christian really is.  Students interested in knowing how they could serve others and be a volunteer in their everyday life.  
  • Students asking if there is anyway they could have a Bible.
  • Countless seeds planted, watered, and nourished.  
  • New members added to the family :)
As you can see, God has worked in HUGE ways these past two months.  It has truly been a blessing to watch everything unfold and look back and see how He answered every single prayer and concern that we had.  This summer was a blessing to everyone who had a part of it and I am thankful for every single one of them.  I am especially thankful that God put me here for this time and allowed me to see His perfect plan unfold.

August team (wish I had a pic to the July team too!) You guys are all awesome :)

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Day off

Those of you that know me know that I love to cook.  Well, actually I love to cook, bake, anything that involved food!  However, lately I've been too busy to do much cooking at all, and it's made me sad.  Cooking is really a stress relief and calming activity for me.  Another fact about me is I am obsessed with cooking blogs.  Lately I have seen such yummy looking recipes show up in my Google reader but then get sad because it would be almost impossible for me to make them.  However, as soon as I saw this chicken recipe I knew that I could easily find all the ingredients and immediately bookmarked it to make as soon as possible.  I have also been craving peach cobbler ever since the peaches have become the perfect ripeness here in Beijing.

Well, today I had the complete day off.  I spent the morning and afternoon off campus at a coffee shop and then returned to campus to cook dinner!  And let me tell you, it was amazing!  
Chicken with Tomato Herb Pan Sauce.  So simple yet oh so yummy.  I know the picture doesn't look the best, but believe me I ate every single bite of this and I think you should to!  Go check out the recipe (along with a much better picture :) ) http://www.cooklikeachampionblog.com/2011/07/chicken-with-tomato-herb-pan-sauce.html

For dessert there was peach cobbler...but I ate it too fast to take a picture :)