Dont Judge, please

Okay. I know this may post may cause some uneasy feelings, but I feel I need to discuss it.
Im sure you have all seen, or heard, what happened in China last week regarding the toddler who was hit by a car. If you havent seen the video you can YouTube it and find it. I read the comments below it and, quite frankly, it made me mad!


People are saying that it is a lack of compassion and they are saying that they dont know how anyone can just go by and not do anything. They are also judging the Mom for not knowing where her daughter is.


Has anyone ever taken the time to learn what the Chinese culture is like? Us North Americians can not fathom walking past an accident and not doing anything about it (in fact, today I called 911 on my way to work as I drove past a semi on fire to make sure help was on the way), but that is how we are raised.


Yes, there were camera's filming. But the people dont know if it is working or not. True, there are cameras everywhere in China, but how many actually work? Who knows?


A friend of mine, who lives in China, sent me an email the other day saying that her Mandarin tutor risked her life on the way to the session. What you ask was so life-threatening? The young lady helped an elderly lady walk across a busy intersection. Yes, something as simple as this is very dangerous in China. The older lady could pretend to fall and break something then blame the young person and try to sue her for damages, the elderly lady could walk really slow and be hit then blame the good Samaritan. Unreal to us, but very real to them. My friend said that her tutor did help, and nothing happened. This is a PTL moment.


With this in mind, maybe its not so hard to see why so many would walk past a young child and not help. If you can imagine the possible implications of helping someone walk across the street, what worse implications could be made about a child laying in her own blood? You and I know that the person helping wasnt the one who hurt her, but what if the camera in the market was a fake? How would anything be proven that you werent the one who hurt her? Especially if you were in/on a vehicle...


As far as wondering why the Mom didnt know her child was gone: this happened in a market place. The family was most likely working in the booth. Kids are always with their parents in the booths from the time they are born. This is their second home. As infants it is very common to see the child in a cardboard box to keep them safe, but as they grow, they are allowed to wonder. I have seen this. The mom wasnt be negligent, by Chinese standards.


I could go on and on, but what I want to say is basically this: dont judge another's actions if you dont know them or their culture. Yes, this is very very sad, and yes, I cried watching the video, and yes, if I was there I would've stopped and helped the child. When I am in China and I see a child hurt, my natural instinct will be to go help with no regard to the fact that I could go to jail for it. The Chinese's first thoughts are not about purposely ignoring the situation. I believe their first thoughts are "If I go help, I may be blamed and then sent to jail. Then what will happen to my own family?" The Chinese ARE compassionate! This family is compassionate. How do I know that? I dont really. But I can assume they are compassionate based on the fact that the child is FEMALE. This is important when many girls are abandoned and regarded as worthless.


Thanks for taking the time to read this. And please pray for China, that they will start to treat accidents differently, and that just because you are helping doesnt mean you are guilty. Please pray that the people that witness an accident will be bold enough to help out.

No Turning Back Now

A quick update: I sent off the assessments yesterday. Sent them AirMail so they will be there in 7-10 days. Hopefully they will still process things quickly on their end. Apparently we will have a 45 min Skype interview (each) with someone about our assessments. After that, they will talk to International China Concern. I'm not really too concerned, but your prayers would still be welcomed!!


The closer we get to finalizing all the paperwork, the faster time seems to go. Does that make any sense? What started out as 2 years to plan is now all of a sudden down to about 10months. Seems like a very short time to get things in order. However, I know that if this is in God's plan for us, then he will make all things go smoothly and 10 months will be more then enough time.


Anyways, thats all for today. Hope you are all having a wonderful month. Thanks, again, for your support. Love you all :)

Questions Questions Questions

For those of you that have been wondering about my Facebook questions, here is the explanation. Today we completed our Personality Assessment Inventory. This assessment apparently will tell the evaluators something about our personality and somethings about who we are as people. We completed this questionnaire as well as a personal inventory questionnaire.


The personal questionnaire was pretty basic. General questions about who we are, our upbringing etc. This Personality Assessment Inventory, on the other hand, was a little different. It was 344 questions where we had to answer using the following scale: F (false, not true at all), ST (slightly true), MT (mostly true) or VT (very true). We had to use the the HB2 pencil and color in our choice. If we wanted to change our answer we had to put a X through the wrong choice and shade in the proper choice. Some of the questions were okay, others were right out in left field and some were just plain stupid.


Here is a sample of some of them:

• I have visions in which I see myself forced to commit crimes
• Sometimes I can not remember who I am
• My favorite poet is Raymond Kertezc
• Sometimes I get ads in the mail that I don't really want (dont we all??)
• Since the day I was born I was destined to be unhappy
• My favorite sports event on television is the high jump (isnt everyones??)
• I can relax even if my house is a mess (yes, I answered this one with a ST)
• I think I have 3 or 4 completely different personalities inside of me
• I can often feel my heart pounding 
• I have great plans & it irritates me that people try to interfere 
• People say I'm a perfectionist (VT, I know)
• I've heard voices no one else could hear
• I don't mind driving on freeways
• My favorite hobbies are archery and stamp-collecting 
• I've had times when my legs became so weak I couldn't walk (only after a mountain race!)
• Most people look forward to the dentist
• My best friends are those I use drugs with 
• I'm the target of a conspiracy 
• I frequently have diarrhea

There were a large number of questions on suicide, alcohol use and drug use. Those 3 topics took up about a 1/3 of the questions. I got a laugh out of some of the questions and some were thought provoking.


The next step is to send these forms back to the company (which is in Australia). Once they are returned, they get marked, then we have a Skype interview. That will complete the process and this company will send their 'results' to International China Concern. We will then wait to see what ICC has to say.


Thanks to all my friends for supporting us through this journey (even if you dont really want me to go :D). I look forward to sharing more with you! It will be about 4 weeks before we hear back from Australia. Please pray for us to be content while we wait (waiting is not one of our strong points) for the 'results'.

Learning New Things

ok, friends, here goes nothing...i have never written a blog or anything of the sort, so I'll see how this goes...
I decided to start a blog to, mainly, keep everyone "in the loop" about our journey to China (with a few 'extras' thrown in every now and again).
For those of you that dont know about God's plans for us, here is a little recap of the past couple years (it will be short!)

• we had our first 'taste' of China in October 2009...we fell in love with the country and the people
• we felt, almost immediately, that God wanted us in China 
• over the following few months, we investigated some options for a work visa in China...they all bombed...
• I (Darc) returned to China in January 2011 where I volunteered with an orphange
• it clicked! China + Orphanage = The Inkpens :)
• we investigated more options and were put in contact with International China Concern (ICC)

It is now October 2011...2 years after we felt God calling us to China. We have completed the application packages, had a couple of interviews with ICC, and are now going to be completing a personality/psychological 'test'. Once this 'test' is complete we will find out if we are accepted by ICC for long term missions work in their orphanage.The city we will be working in is Changsha, Hunan, China.


I will be home schooling all the kids. Brendin will be in grade 8, Jacquelyn in grade 6 and the twins will just do pre-school things. We have been given the advice that perhaps the kids take some time off from intense school work to get involved with the community and to learn the language. Neither Brendin nor Jacquelyn want to take time off school so I will have to come up with a happy medium for schooling and learning to live in China.


So, this is where we stand: both skype interviews went well and everyone is excited for us to come to ICC, we have been put on the internal email chain for ICC so we can become a part of the ICC family, we have the assessment packages and just need to complete them (& return them)


Please (continue to) pray for our family and that we would be, in fact, following where God is taking us. Also, please pray for protection over our family as we know Satan does not want us doing the work of God and he will do all he can to stop us. We have all felt out own attacks in the past few weeks/months and are expecting it to only get worse.


Thanks everyone for your support! Hopefully I can keep up with this blog and keep you up to date on our lives and how God is working in us all.