If you read Ron's report below you know that the work in China is going well. Now for the time of sorrow, we found out that Ron, Brenda, Mike and David lost their mother today. Ron is currently planning to fly in from China for the funeral. Arrangements are not confirmed yet but you can e-mail condolences to him at BigMacTN@gmail.com or post them on this blog site and I will forward them to his e-mail account. As always, be careful in references to his FATHER in all correspondence.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers at this time.
In Him,
David
Monday, March 31, 2008
Celebrations
New Life in the Springtime
New Life
We hope you had a very happy Easter with your family and friends. Spring reminds us of the new life that we look forward to, both now and forever. We have had some opportunities to celebrate here also. So far this school year 88 have been added to those who are speaking the King's English. It is a special privilege to help change lives and futures.
We celebrated the return of the students after the worst winter storm to hit China in a hundred years. It was very quiet here without them. While we enjoyed the time to rest and fellowship with other American teachers from the family here, we are very glad to be back teaching and talking to students. I was curious about how many students we had direct contact with in one week. So I counted up our English classes, the English Corner participants and those who had come to our house for discussions a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised to discover that we had contacted 470 students personally in that one week. Last night we had 60 present for a discussion meeting, the largest group so far. I must go buy more stools so people do not have to sit on the floor again! We are very grateful for the opportunity to be here and love all our teaching. Some of it, of course, is more important than the rest. For that part we are especially thankful.
Not only students, but also their family members, and others from the community, want to be in the family. During the winter holidays two students brought their fathers to Gary's home. One man was visiting his daughter here at the university, the other was from a local family. Gary has a big new tub in his bath room and it is great for all kinds of baths. These two men had learned much about the King's English from their daughters and wanted to become participants themselves. After talking with them they wanted to take the big bath also. More and more are sharing the good word and the good books with family and friends.
Because so many of our Freshmen friends have classes on Wednesday night and Sunday morning we have begun another discussion meeting at 2 pm Sunday afternoon. The Friday night group that was meeting at Jordan's home is now meeting here as well. He will be going to a different part of China for the spring to work with his bees and help the farmers there. He will return in September. So we now have four meetings each week at our home.
Saturday is the only night we are not in a meeting of some kind. Monday through Friday we are teaching students from 7 pm until about 9 pm either at our apartment or at English Corner. Sunday evening we join Gary and Signa for the evening meeting at their apartment. We usually eat dinner together afterwards and enjoy a great time of fellowship with them and some of our Chinese family.
Special Events
Jen Jen is the Headmaster's secretary who takes care of any needs we have in our apartment. In a previous news update I included photos of her and her boyfriend when they took me fishing last fall. In December the were married and we were invited. It was quite an honor to be included. The wedding was held at a large hotel restaurant as the ceremony is entirely secular here. The participants dress much as American wedding parties. The more traditional red wedding dress is rapidly giving way to the western white one, but red is still a prominent color is any celebration here. Guests are served a family style dinner, beginning even before the wedding and they continue eating throughout the affair. There is much toasting of various family members who come to the stage briefly to be honored including parents, grandparents, and other family relatives. Several songs and a few small fireworks entertain the guests. The whole event is loud! And I do mean LOUD! Huge speakers were booming so loudly that I thought every hotel guest in every room could hear most of it. After the party inside, the new couple leaves in a flower decorated car, followed by several others. Often this include a videographer, standing in the sunroof opening, filming the procession.
Also, we recently attended our first Chinese funeral. A close friend and brother lost his father. He is the youngest of five brothers, but his parents lived with him, so the funeral was at his home. However, since he is the youngest brother, others decided the details of the four day funeral. Each day a large crowd of thirty to forty people spent much of the day with the grieving family, and ate one or two meals at their home. Buddhist monks held some ceremonies including chanting prayers, incense, and burning money (actually only blank paper). Guests give the family money to help pay the large expenses for feeding so many people for the four days. Firecrackers were exploded by the hundreds every hour. This seems to be combination of the traditional belief that firecrackers will drive off evil spirits and the general practice of using them as to celebrate any significant event.
Time Is Flying By
It doesn't seem possible, but we are beginning to make plan for our trip back to the states for July and August already. Evelyn's classes are only 12 weeks long so she will come home a month earlier than expected. She needs the time to help her father, now 95, who has decided to go into assisted living. She should arrive home at the end of May. I will follow about June 25. We will work out our schedule as to when we will be in the Northeast and when in the Southeast in the very near future. We will be in touch with all of those who are helping us here to plan a time to report to you in person about the year and our plans for next year. The one thing we hope to be able to do next year is to raise a little extra money to allow us to come home at the Christmas or New Year's holiday. During the end of December and all of January the students have gone home. We did not anticipate such a long time here without students present. We miss our children, especially the grandchildren who are growing up so fast, so we really hope it will be possible to return home during the winter break.
Will You Be An E-Pal for a Chinese Student?
Many of the students from our classes or from English Corner would like to have an English Email Pen Pal, or E-Pal as we are calling them.. They will email you once or twice a week. Chinese students want to improve their English and love all things American. They will tell you about their families and you can share about yours. Share your life events and learn abut their culture and special activities. While their English will not be perfect, you will be able to understand their message easily. Your messages to them will also help them to learn to read and write English more correctly.
If you would like to exchange email messages once or twice a week with a Chinese student they would love to hear from you. The process is simple. Just email me at BigMacTN@gmail.com and tell me you want an E-Pal. I will reply to you with details about them and will give you their email address and some other information to help you.
Feel free to pass on this information to others in your local family, or maybe even in your family weekly bulletin to let others know they can get involved.
New Life
We hope you had a very happy Easter with your family and friends. Spring reminds us of the new life that we look forward to, both now and forever. We have had some opportunities to celebrate here also. So far this school year 88 have been added to those who are speaking the King's English. It is a special privilege to help change lives and futures.
We celebrated the return of the students after the worst winter storm to hit China in a hundred years. It was very quiet here without them. While we enjoyed the time to rest and fellowship with other American teachers from the family here, we are very glad to be back teaching and talking to students. I was curious about how many students we had direct contact with in one week. So I counted up our English classes, the English Corner participants and those who had come to our house for discussions a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised to discover that we had contacted 470 students personally in that one week. Last night we had 60 present for a discussion meeting, the largest group so far. I must go buy more stools so people do not have to sit on the floor again! We are very grateful for the opportunity to be here and love all our teaching. Some of it, of course, is more important than the rest. For that part we are especially thankful.
Not only students, but also their family members, and others from the community, want to be in the family. During the winter holidays two students brought their fathers to Gary's home. One man was visiting his daughter here at the university, the other was from a local family. Gary has a big new tub in his bath room and it is great for all kinds of baths. These two men had learned much about the King's English from their daughters and wanted to become participants themselves. After talking with them they wanted to take the big bath also. More and more are sharing the good word and the good books with family and friends.
Because so many of our Freshmen friends have classes on Wednesday night and Sunday morning we have begun another discussion meeting at 2 pm Sunday afternoon. The Friday night group that was meeting at Jordan's home is now meeting here as well. He will be going to a different part of China for the spring to work with his bees and help the farmers there. He will return in September. So we now have four meetings each week at our home.
Saturday is the only night we are not in a meeting of some kind. Monday through Friday we are teaching students from 7 pm until about 9 pm either at our apartment or at English Corner. Sunday evening we join Gary and Signa for the evening meeting at their apartment. We usually eat dinner together afterwards and enjoy a great time of fellowship with them and some of our Chinese family.
Special Events
Jen Jen is the Headmaster's secretary who takes care of any needs we have in our apartment. In a previous news update I included photos of her and her boyfriend when they took me fishing last fall. In December the were married and we were invited. It was quite an honor to be included. The wedding was held at a large hotel restaurant as the ceremony is entirely secular here. The participants dress much as American wedding parties. The more traditional red wedding dress is rapidly giving way to the western white one, but red is still a prominent color is any celebration here. Guests are served a family style dinner, beginning even before the wedding and they continue eating throughout the affair. There is much toasting of various family members who come to the stage briefly to be honored including parents, grandparents, and other family relatives. Several songs and a few small fireworks entertain the guests. The whole event is loud! And I do mean LOUD! Huge speakers were booming so loudly that I thought every hotel guest in every room could hear most of it. After the party inside, the new couple leaves in a flower decorated car, followed by several others. Often this include a videographer, standing in the sunroof opening, filming the procession.
Also, we recently attended our first Chinese funeral. A close friend and brother lost his father. He is the youngest of five brothers, but his parents lived with him, so the funeral was at his home. However, since he is the youngest brother, others decided the details of the four day funeral. Each day a large crowd of thirty to forty people spent much of the day with the grieving family, and ate one or two meals at their home. Buddhist monks held some ceremonies including chanting prayers, incense, and burning money (actually only blank paper). Guests give the family money to help pay the large expenses for feeding so many people for the four days. Firecrackers were exploded by the hundreds every hour. This seems to be combination of the traditional belief that firecrackers will drive off evil spirits and the general practice of using them as to celebrate any significant event.
Time Is Flying By
It doesn't seem possible, but we are beginning to make plan for our trip back to the states for July and August already. Evelyn's classes are only 12 weeks long so she will come home a month earlier than expected. She needs the time to help her father, now 95, who has decided to go into assisted living. She should arrive home at the end of May. I will follow about June 25. We will work out our schedule as to when we will be in the Northeast and when in the Southeast in the very near future. We will be in touch with all of those who are helping us here to plan a time to report to you in person about the year and our plans for next year. The one thing we hope to be able to do next year is to raise a little extra money to allow us to come home at the Christmas or New Year's holiday. During the end of December and all of January the students have gone home. We did not anticipate such a long time here without students present. We miss our children, especially the grandchildren who are growing up so fast, so we really hope it will be possible to return home during the winter break.
Will You Be An E-Pal for a Chinese Student?
Many of the students from our classes or from English Corner would like to have an English Email Pen Pal, or E-Pal as we are calling them.. They will email you once or twice a week. Chinese students want to improve their English and love all things American. They will tell you about their families and you can share about yours. Share your life events and learn abut their culture and special activities. While their English will not be perfect, you will be able to understand their message easily. Your messages to them will also help them to learn to read and write English more correctly.
If you would like to exchange email messages once or twice a week with a Chinese student they would love to hear from you. The process is simple. Just email me at BigMacTN@gmail.com and tell me you want an E-Pal. I will reply to you with details about them and will give you their email address and some other information to help you.
Feel free to pass on this information to others in your local family, or maybe even in your family weekly bulletin to let others know they can get involved.
Ron & Evelyn McFarland
Home: 011—86—716—802—0513 Cell: 011—86—1592—797—1720
Email me for information on how you can call us for free.
(Mailing Address: Please include phone number below on all mail)- Department of International Exchange & Cooperation
- Phone 806-0039
- Yangtze University
- 1 Nan Huan Rd.
- Jingzhou, Hubei 434023
- P.R.C.
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