EdVenture Children's Museum

Home of the World's Largest Child
Wednesday, September 27 our Special Education classes took a field trip to Columbia, SC to visit the South's largest children's museum, EdVenture. I was so fascinated with it, especially with Eddie. Eddie is 40-feet tall, weighs 35,000 pounds and is only 10 years old. In the back of him you can climb and slide through him to see what's inside your body. You can see the brain, stomach, heart, and other internal organs and body parts.




The kids and teacher's alike had such a great time there.












There was a section called World of Work. There were all kinds of different stations with hands-on activities for different occupations. Here is Amanda trying on a fireman's outfit. They had a firetruck there for kids to get inside and pretend to be driving it.




Alan and Ally are trying their hand at cleaning teeth.











There was also an area called BodyWorks. There were all kinds of cool hands-on things that dealt with the body. Miss Perry and Mrs. Lancaster are having fun playing Operation.

more EdVenture

Ryan stayed in the VW Bug for quite a while. Even with his dad's vehicle, he always seems fascinated with wanting to drive.







The kids loved the news room that they had set up. Sydney and I are sitting at the anchor desk. There were buttons at the anchor desk that you could push to transfer the camera from the anchor desk to the weather screen. Each student wanted to take their turn at sitting at the anchor desk or doing the weather.


Mr. Finch even got in on the fun.










Azia enjoyed cruising in the fire truck while Brandon played with the gears for using the fire hoses.









There was a grocery store set up so kids could pick up items from the shelf, put them in their shopping cart, and ring them up at the front. The scanner even made a scanning noise when they were ringing it up.





Another area of fascination for many of the students was the restaurant where they could be the cashier and also make the food (plastic of course). We found out that the line of work for some of them will not be in food services. They were all so funny with everything.

How Deep

Here are the lyrics to yet another song from the same CD from the last entry, "Valley of Vision", by Sovereign Grace Ministries. Meditate on all that God has done for us through the cross.

How Deep
Based on The Valley of Vision prayer “Love Lustres at Calvary”

Words and Music by
Stephen Altrogge


Verse 1
You were broken that I might be healed
You were cast off that I might draw near
You were thirsty that I might come drink
Cried out in anguish that I might sing

Chorus
How deep is Your love
How high and how wide is Your mercy
How deep is Your grace
Our hearts overflow with praise
To You

Verse 2
You knew darkness that I might know light
Wept great tears that mine might be dried
Stripped of glory that I might be clothed
Crushed by Your Father to call me Your own

a song for the day

Sovereign Grace Ministries just put out a new music CD. It is called "Valley of Vision: Songs for worship inspired by the classic book of Puritan prayers." (You can check out their site from the link on the right side of my blog.) I was listening to it on the way to school this morning. I repeated this song at least once just to really meditate on the words. Here are the lyrics. I know I needed to think on these truths. You may need it too.

In the Valley
Based on The Valley of Vision prayer “The Valley of Vision”

Words and Music by
Bob Kauflin


Verse 1
When You lead me to the valley of vision
I can see You in the heights
And though my humbling wouldn’t be my decision
It’s here Your glory shines so bright
So let me learn that the cross precedes the crown
To be low is to be high
That the valley’s where You make me more like Christ

Chorus
Let me find Your grace in the valley
Let me find Your life in my death
Let me find Your joy in my sorrow
Your wealth in my need
That You’re near with every breath
In the valley

Verse 2
In the daytime there are stars in the heavens
But they only shine at night
And the deeper that I go into darkness
The more I see their radiant light
So let me learn that my losses are my gain
To be broken is to heal
That the valley’s where Your power is revealed

China display

I was able to share with a gathering of friends and family about my trips to China. It went so well. This is me in my traditional Yi outfit by the display that I set up. They were so curious to learn about it all. I had a bunch of pictures developed and put in albums. I even had a CD of pictures on a laptap that they were able to see a slideshow on.

My 1st Ambulance Ride

Don't get too freaked out. It happened a week ago today. I haven't been able to post pictures until today though. Last Thursday at about 2:30pm, I had just come back from the nurse's station with one of my students, and I got this horrible pain in my lower abdomen area. It happened within minutes, and I was doubled over and couldn't walk without help. The teacher in my classroom helped me up to the nurses station where they had me lay down on a bed. I didn't know how big a deal it was. They were thinking it could be the appendix or kidney stones because of the location of the pain. Finally, I agreed to have them call an ambulance. I felt bad calling an ambulance if it really wasn't a big deal. The parametics also were concerned about what could be causing such a horrible pain. The result ended up being a urinary track infection. I have been told by different people that UTIs are very painful. Other friends have also been telling me that I need to get some further test done because of some other results from the tests at the ER. I am doing fine now and am back to work as usual. It was quit an experience. I have been drinking water and cranberry juice regularly (as shown in the picture). That picture was taken when I was relaxing on the couch just after I returned from the hospital. I have my name band from the hospital on and my cranberry juice in hand.

"Look! Your hair's RED!!!"

While looking through coupons in the newspaper on Monday night, my mom found a coupon for haircolor. Since she knows that I find great joy in coloring mine and other people's hair, she asked me if I was interested in having the coupon. We were at a new friend's house at the time, and she was interested in coloring her hair too. So Tuesday night, Cherith, Elli, and I had a hair coloring party. The latest color I have tried in the last year or so has been dark brownish red. The colors I have done in the past have started to fade over a few weeks, but they still look good. I am constantly trying to find a red that's brillance will last longer. Well, let me tell you that I found it. I didn't expect it to be as red as it is in direct bright lights, but the dark red in normal light actually is very nice. I have been collecting different comments that people have made about my hair.

This is from Special Olympics Rollerskating on Thursday. Alan was goofing off and trying to kiss me when we were coming together for this pic. He is always goofing off with his mom, so he tries to do it with me when we are not in class and he is in a goofy mood.

Alan had the first distinct comment on Wednesday morning when he came into class. He looked at me and said
"Look at your hair!"
I said, "What about my hair?"
He replied, "It's beautiful. It's red!" Then he wanted to touch it and said, "It's soft."

"It's funny! You look like a clown." (while laughing)
- Alex (from my special ed class)

"I don't like it." (while laughing)
- Victoria (from my special ed class)

" I want your hair color!!! You've got guts girl! I would love to have hair that
color, but I don't have the nerve to do it."
- Mrs. Hervey (6th grade Literature teacher at
school)

" Miss Eunice has new hair."
- Erica Huff (special ed girl at church)

Most people have said they love it despite my students who don't like it because they are not use to it. They are so funny about it though. I heard the color red so many times from my students the first day I came in with it colored.

New Family Photo

Me, Josh, Jesse, Mom, Dad, Andrea, Cherith, and Ricky

Beijing

Last year there was not a large group plan to go touring any place before or after we were in Chengdu. This summer, those coordinating the trip told us that they had arranged for anyone to be able to go to Beijing after we were through teaching in Chengdu for only $150 extra in cash. Out of the 150 of us, about 135 went to Beijing. Unfortunately, Justin and Nic didn't go. Justin had gone last summer and Nic was moving back to America with his family for medical reasons. We also lost JP, Julia, and Aaron from our Xide team who didn't go to Beijing either. It was hard, but we managed to have a good time without them. Besides all of the traditional sites around Beijing, Joy, Dale, their friend Keith, and I went out to Starbucks one night. We all got drinks(that are just like ours at home). Joy and I bought Beijing Starbucks mugs, and I bought a Beijing Starbucks t-shirt.

If we hadn't been able to see anything in Beijing expect the Great Wall, I would have gone home happy. We were all so fascinated with the reality that we were really climbing the Great Wall of China. A bunch of us brought home shirts that said "I climbed the Great Wall," and all of us took home aching calves from the extremely steep incline and very high steps. Throughout our trip, we would often say "Remember that time when..." and we would add in whatever we were doing that was so fascinating and bizarre to think that we were actually doing it." For instance, we would say "Remember the time when we climbed the Great Wall and our calves hurt for days afterwards." We had all kinds of fun with that phrase.

It was stormy the day we visited the Forbidden City. It did slow us down a bit, but it also made for some great pictures

We ate at a Beijing duck restaurant and the duck was amazing. "Culinary professionals" (I had to make them sound like experts) were on a platform at the front cutting the cooked duck off the bones and then the waitresses would bring it to us straight from them. I couldn't get enough of the duck.

The only other thing that I really wanted to see in Beijing was where they are preparing to have the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008. This was the closest thing I got to it, but it was good enough for me. At Tiananmen Square, they had this clock on the Museum of History and Revolution that is counting down till the Olympics starts in 08.




Me and Mao

Make much of God...not me

I KNOW THIS ENTRY IS LONG, BUT THERE ARE GREAT TRUTHS PACKED IN IT THAT EVERYONE OF US NEEDS TO HEAR...AND I AM THE FIRST TO ADMITT IT. DO KEEP READING AND DRINK DEEPLY OF THE RICHNESS OF THE GREAT VALUE OF CHRIST SHOWN THROUGH THE GOSPEL!

I would like to add a further gospel focus to my previous entry titled "Earthen Vessel Moments." God has still been chipping away at my prideful heart throughout this week. The toughest part of the refining was yesterday. Romans 7:18-25 tells my story perfectly. Here are some selected portions that really highlight my struggle. "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me...But I see a law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

God led me to this passage as well as to a book that I started reading yesterday, God is the Gospel by John Piper. Both encouraged my heart in the amazing greatness of God compared to the wretchedness of my heart. I have only read the introduction and the first chapter of Piper's book, and it was awesome. He directly addressed the battle that has been going on in my heart. There is a war waging against the law of my mind. The final conclusion that I came to yesterday after reading from Piper's book was that I have been living extremely man-centered in many areas of my life, because I feel loved when I am made much of instead of when God is made much of. I have missed that God is the goal of the gospel and not what I get from His gifts to me. Piper states it better than I can, so I will let you read some selections from him.

"In this place, we have turned the love of God and the gospel of Christ into a divine endorsement of our delight in many lesser things, especially the delight in our being made much of. The acid test of biblical God-centeredness--and faithfulness to the gospel--is this: Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or becuase, at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy making much of him forever?....The sad thing is that a radically man-centered view of love permeates our culture and our churches. From the time they can toddle we teach our children that feeling loved means feeling made much of....If you don't make much of me you are not loving me."

"But when we apply this definition of love to God, it weakens his worth, undermines his goodness, and steals our final satisfaction. If the enjoyment of God himself is not the final and best gift of love, than God is not the greatest treasure, his self-giving is not the highest mercy, the gospel is not the good news that sinners may enjoy their Maker, Christ did not suffer to bring us to God, and our souls must look beyond Him for satisfaction....Our fatal error is believing that wanting to be happy means wanting to be made much of. It feels so good to be affirmed. But the good feeling is finally rooted in the worth of self, not the worth of God."

"The saving love of God is God's commitment to do everything necessary to entrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying, namely himself...Since we are sinners and have no right and no desire to be enthralled with God, therefore God's love enacted a plan of redemption to provide that right and that desire. The supreme demonstration of God's love was the sending of his Son to die for our sins and to rise again so that sinners might have the right to approach God and might have the pleasure of his presence forever...The gospel is the good news of our final and full enjoyment of the glory of God in the face of Christ. That this enjoyment had to be purchased for sinners at the cost of Christ's life makes his glory shine all the more brightly. And that this enjoyment is a free and unmerited gift makes it shine more brightly still. But the price Jesus paid for the gift and the unmerited freedom of the gift are not the gift. The gift is Christ himself as the glorious image of God--seen and savored with everlasting joy...The gospel of Christ proclaims the news that he has purchased by his death ten thousand blessings for his bride. But none of these gifts will lead to full joy if they have not first led to God. And not one gospel blessing will be enjoyed by anyone for whom the gospel's greatest gift was not the Lord himself."

In summary, God is slowly transforming my heart to seek God himself as my joy instead of anything that makes much of me or does not make much of him. I have been my own idol. Sometimes I feel like I will never see my heart change. But I keep coming back to the promise that through my crying out to God and seeking to know Him and His Word He will transform me to become like Him.

Chinese friends

This is me and some of my crazy boys. The boys in my class were a mess and so much fun. Since we are teaching an English class, we try to give our students English names if they want one and didn't have one when they came to class. Last summer and this summer, I gave my students names of my friends and family back home. It is always fun to come home and tell your friends that there is a Chinese student across the world with their name. This summer I had an Ivan, Amos, Charles, Ricky, Josh, Kinzie, Sydney, Amie, John, and Elana. My friends with those names should know I am talking about you if you read this blog entry. I may post pictures of my students with those names sometimes. Some of the boys are in this picture.

This is the tailor that we usually go to when the American's come in the summer and have clothes tailor made. Most of the time, girls have Chinese silk dresses made and guys have suits made. He made my silk shirt and pants last summer. This summer I had him make me a long red dress with gold dragons on it. He does an amazing job, and the dress only cost me $30.

My student, Sydney, is on the right. She was my last student to come say good-bye to me the night we left Xide. Many of the other teacher's students came to say good-bye to them. They didn't want to leave us. You couldn't help but cry when some of them were sobbing as they stood outside our bus as we drove away to the train station.
Some of them even followed us to the train station in town.
Adam and I team taught together. These are the three students of ours that came to give us gifts and say good-bye when school ended. They were such sweet girls. Our team also commented frequently on how beautiful all the people were.

This was a mother and son that I was not expecting to see but was overjoyed when I saw them. A couple friends and I named them Jack and Jill last summer. She sells phone cards just outside the gate to our dorm on campus at Sichuan University. Last summer, I would pass her everyday and wanted to say hi to her by name. She didn't know any English, so I decided we should give her an English name so we could say hi to her by name. Once we had picked out the names, my roommate knew enough Chinese to let her know that we wanted to name her Jill and her son Jack. She was so excited. She ran over to where Jack was playing with one of the dorm workers and was calling him Jack. From then on, I would always say hi to her by name.
When we first were in Chengdu at the beginning of the tripthis summer, I went by the University to meet up with some friends from Northland. As we were walking to the dorm, I saw her on her little plastic seat at the dorm gate. I was surprised but very excited. I caught her eye and said, "Hi Jill." She looked at me and recognized me. She gave me a big smile and said hi. I motioned to ask her where her son was. She told me he was sleeping. I came by about an hour later and he still was sleeping. I didn't think I would see him before I left.

But on our trip back to Chengdu at the end of the trip, I ended up going by the dorm again and saw them both. I was elated. She was so excited to see me too and show me Jack. He has gotten so big since last summer. One of the girls from Northland who taught at Sichuan University last summer and this summer told me that everytime they came by the dorm this summer would answer to Jack and come running up to them as they picked him up. I was thrilled to see that that relationship that had been started last summer was able to be carried on.