Hello once again from China!

Yep, we’re still here! As there’s never a dull moment here at Camp Jinan we’ve had a busy weekend that has prevented me from blogging regularly. However, here on Sunday afternoon we’re getting back into the routine.

First of all, here’s how the weekend played out. Friday night all the Americans went to bed with anticipation of the break in routine the next day and excitement at the opportunity to sleep in a whopping extra 30 minutes! After eating breakfast we headed out to the main sights in Jinan. Evidently the city was founded around the existence of at least 72 natural springs, of which we saw the largest and most famous (Baotu Spring). It still flows in the center of the city and is beautifully coupled with a park fitted with some of the neatest Chinese gardens. There was live traditional Chinese music, fish galore, and hundreds, if not thousands of other tourists interested in seeing this particular spring.

Next we left off to see the obviously spring fed Daming Lake that resides in the middle of the city. When we arrived we were treated to a luxury boat ride to one of the lake’s islands. After a few minutes on the little 1 acre island we headed off for the opposite shore and a walk along the bank until our bus picked us up. The walk included a variety of culture, snacks, and attractions. At the beginning of the trek American teenagers slide tush side down a polished section of stairs that provided a lot of hilarity.

After the lake, we took the Americans to a surprise lunch consisting of local Chinese fare: KFC. The students were so excited to have familiar food that many ate 2 full value meals AND ice cream. It was a sight to behold as they salivated like ravenous wolves. The food we’ve had a camp has been great, and filling, but it was nice to have good ol’ fried chicken.

Following the fine dining at KFC we went off to a very interesting tour of old town Jinan. Though we could understand little of what the Chinese tour guides said, we enjoyed seeing the area. The highlight of this part of the day was undoubtedly walking up on a seemingly random house surrounded pool/spring lake. In the middle of the summer the pool still only rises to a temperature of 62-63 degrees. Many men were exercising and eating on its banks. The randomness of this specific tour consisted of an older Chinese gentleman telling us stories that didn’t make much sense, even when translated, the pool, and a random restaurant that evidently used to make some fabulous soup, but they don’t make it anymore. We couldn’t figure out why. The jaunt ended by dropping us off in a very neat park with rock creations that we wasted no time in climbing and taking pictures on.

Then, with great exaltation our group labored through a half mile walk to finally arrive at paradise’s gates: Walmart. You’ve probably never seen a group of teenagers beg to go shopping at Walmart, but it happened my friends. An hour and a half later, we finally pried them away and headed back to a dinner we weren’t hungry for and night to rest.

Today we did another presentation at the TV broadcasting school to attempt to draw more students to the camp. We’re still awaiting the results, but from the reactions of our Chinese hosts, they were very pleased. In fact they were so pleased, the main Chinese host came up to our director, partially hugged him and exclaimed, “You did SO BAD!” Obviously he misspoke (he doesn’t speak very good English), we hope. Or maybe he was using one of the American idioms that we aren’t teaching.

Some of the praises to report from the last few days:
-We had a surprise temperature check the other day and, once again, everyone checked out healthy! This is truly a praise as we’ve had a few minor bouts with digestive problems and needs for rest among our team, but on the day they checked us, everyone was present and feeling great! He’s so good!
-The opportunities to have conversations about Truth are ever increasing!
-The tours, our Chinese hosts, accommodations, and general spirit of the team have been very praiseworthy.

Thank you again for your requests made to Father, they are felt and seen all around us. Please continue to do so and remember the opportunities, health, quality of work as we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and courage to seize appointments.

Funny moment of the day: One of our male leaders joining the Speedo (in his own decidedly American bathing suit) clad Chinese at the pool and providing quite the entertainment to locals and foreigners alike by taking a couple of laps in the water.