Hello! Oh how I have missed you! I have been trying nearly every week since my last post to try to post an update for you, but with Chinese internet, it hasnt loaded. Im so happy I can finally share more of our story with you all!!
I have sent out about 3 email updates since my last post here. I will simply paste them here for you to read. No point in trying to re-write everything! I will post them in order of how i sent them. This post will be a little long because of this, but I dont want to waste my chance to update you all :)
Things here are wonderful. We miss home like crazy, but are finding ways to make this our home. We are finding where we fit. With the team, with the city, with the projects. Its all falling into place. The hardest part is still the language, but its coming along. The more we use it, the easier it is. The sentence structure is still causing problems.
Ok, here are the updates to get you all caught up to date - i will try to log on here again to write 'just for fun'. Looks like pics still arent loading :(
Christmas in China 2012
ICC had a Christmas party for all ICC foreign staff.
Teams came from HengYang and Sanmenxia for the weekend so we could all
celebrate together.
Interesting. Different. New traditions.
One question I was often asked this past month was ‘How
is Christmas celebrated in China?’ The simple answer is: they don’t. Yes, there
are Santa signs up with MERRY CHRISTMAS written across the front. There are
MERRY CHRISTMAS banners in store fronts and in restaurants. There are even
Christmas trees and Christmas displays set up around town. We went to the local
Pizza Hut and the waitresses were wearing red vests and Santa hats. All this
Christmas-y stuff is solely for the foreigners.
The locals do not recognize December 25 as anything more
then another day on the calendar. No day off school. No day off work. No
overtime rate for working. Nothing special. The other family with ICC, in
Changsha, had to call their children’s school and tell them they would be off
school on Dec 21, 24, and 25th. They also had to tell the school
that other then their character practice and spelling lists, they would not be
doing any missed school work. The teachers were okay with that as they know the
family are foreigners and it is Christmas season.
Changsha (& China in general) really likes to cater
to the foreigners. This is why the Christmas displays are up. This is why when
you are in the malls Christmas music plays, in English, over the speakers. It
was nice to be in the malls doing our Christmas shopping and being able to
listen to Christmas music. And since there is nothing special about Dec 25,
there were no large crowds in the malls!!
We had a party (above pic) on the Saturday night,
complete with a Western Christmas dinner (turkey too!!), secret Santa gift
exchange and silly Christmas games. It was truly a great afternoon/evening!
The desserts were all made from
scratch by Darcie, Brendin and Jacquelyn.
On Sunday we had a Christmas service, let by Ruth and
assisted by Brendin, Jacquelyn and the Anemaat children.
After the service, we had another potluck meal.
Christmas Eve we got up and headed out at 9:00am. The ICC
sites each had performances for us. First we went to the VTC where the young
adults put on a show for us of singing and dancing. It was lots of fun! The
‘kids’ enjoyed themselves immensely! The huge smiles and laughter gave it away.
After lunch was the Lighthouse
The performances were all well done. We, ICC team, had to
sing at each place as well. We sang ‘Away In A Manger’ and ‘We Wish You a Merry
Christmas’. We sang in English and Mandarin. They all cheered and clapped. The
Friday before (21st) EQY held a small Christmas concert for
everyone. I wasn’t able to take pictures there.
Christmas day was good. The family got up and opened
gifts together before heading out for a buffet dinner with 3 other families
(Anemaats, of course, local friends of theirs and a family from HK who works
for ICC) as well as one of the short-term volunteers and her boyfriend. Justin
called the restaurant to let them know a whole group of foreigners were coming
for Christmas lunch. The restaurant prepared a turkey for us. It was a great
meal! After lunch we headed back to the flat and everyone hung out together. It
was a really good Christmas day.
For New Years, we were/are in Kunming. Again, the day was
not a huge deal to the locals. I didn’t hear any fireworks going off last
night, and we just hung out at our friends place and played games and watched a
show. Very uneventful.
The big celebrations here will be on Feb 10, 2013 for
Chinese New Year! Now THAT will a celebration!
Another year gone, another just beginning. As the saying
goes ‘out with the old, in with the new’ has never had quite the same meaning
as it does this year. Everything this year will be different from years past.
We are looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us this year. Great
things happened last year, and I cant imagine what is in store for us this
coming year.
We pray that you all have a fantastic 2013! We look
forward to keeping in touch with you all, telling you our story as it plays out
in China, and listening to your stories as they continue where you are.
Love to you all. We miss you all. Thanks for being a huge
part of our lives this past year.
Andrew, Darcie, Brendin, Jacquelyn, Andrea, Alysa
JANUARY 30, 2013
Once again I find myself at the end of the month without
sending an update all month to you all. I know I said I hoped to write
something every week, if not every other week (or fortnight as it is called
here). Trust me that none of you have slipped our mind, even when the updates
aren’t getting written.
Life seems to be so busy and the days all run together.
There have been a lot of changes for ICC this month. We said goodbye to Elena
as she returned to Switzerland. She was here for 3 months. She was an amazing,
mature, kind, caring 19yr old. When she was out with us the locals stared in
disbelief calling out ‘wu ge haizi!’ – 5 children! So, she became known as our
5th child. We all miss her. We welcomed a new lady here for the next
3 months. The new lady comes to us with years of experience in Early Childhood
and Special Needs. She will be here until the end of March. Today we said
goodbye to Mike and Ruth, as they return to the UK, who have served ICC for the
past 4 years. Some may remember us talking about them. They were the ones we
first had contact with at this time last year. They helped us immensely with
getting ready to come to Changsha. They helped us settle in when we arrived. I
know they will be missed, not only by us, but by all of ICC.
This month also saw some great things happen. The
Anemaat’s had been fostering a now 16mth old orphan. Just before Christmas they
received the documents stating that they could adopt her! January 7th
saw them sign the official Chinese papers and legally changed her name. They
now have to go through making it all legal on the Australian side of things.
This month the twins turned 5! They also started a
preschool/kindergarten program. They attend Mon-Fri, 8:00am-12:30pm. They are
eligible to go back from 2:30pm-5:30pm (they can stay over the lunch break, but
then they need to nap and we don’t want that happening), but we think that will
be too long of a day. Their first week there was hard on everyone. They weren’t
too keen on going, but this week has been wonderful! They run to school and go
in with their laoshi (teacher) with no complaints. We can see their school from
our living room window. The commute is about 5 minutes, from our door to the
school door, walking.
Brendin and Jacquelyn continue to improve with their
acceptance of being in China. They still miss their friends a LOT (I cant blame
them, I miss my friends a lot too!), but Skype and email/texting apps help us
all with that. They are doing great in school and really love finishing at
noon. Jacquelyn has said that she would like to continue home schooling when/if
we move back to Canada. Having the afternoon off has its advantages!
We had our 3 month review this week. Yes, it’s been
nearly 5 months since we arrived, but it’s only been just over 3 months that we
have had a full-time working schedule. There are no concerns! Yay! They want us
to stay on with ICC. What a relief. Now that Ruth and Mike have gone back to
the UK, their role as Team Life Coach(es) (TLC’s) is available. We are being
trained to move into this role. Justin and Lisa have talked with the China Area
Director (Kyla) as well the member team committee (Terry) and everyone agrees
that we would be great for the position, but we aren’t ready for it yet. We
agree. By October 2013 we could be in this role, fully. We are taking on some
roles now, and will slowly be taking on more and more roles as we get settled
in Changsha. In the meantime, Andrew will continue at Lighthouse on Thursdays and I will increase my time in
EQY to 3 half days and LH to 2 half days. We will also have 3 half days of
language and a half day devoted to TLC tasks.
We have been encouraged to take on more language studies.
If we are going to be here more than 2 years, which we feel we will be, Justin
and Lisa want us to be more focused on our language studies. We have added one
more half day of personal study. Right now we can’t afford to pay for a tutor
for another class, so we are going to be doing some intense self study.
Finally, I thought it was time for a short financial
update. We are settling into a set budget, which will be great for us. We are
going to be living on $150 more then we have coming in monthly. We still have
about $4000 in our ICC pot (over and above our monthly supporters) that we can
draw on to cover our expenses. The time is coming, however, where we do need to
have our yearly supporters consider when they will be able to send in their
support for this coming year. We also need new supporters. I am not going to go
into detail now about asking for support. Just keep it in the back of your
mind. Our biggest expense is going to come in August when we must renew our
medical insurance (CAD$10,000) and our visas/permanent residence cards
(CAD$500). To renew our visas requires us all to go to Hong Kong for a minimum
of 4 days. That will cost us about CAD$1500. Other than that, your support has
gone towards keeping a roof over our head, food in our bellies and allowed us
transportation to and from work (via the bus system). Your support has also
gone towards Andrew being able to take a group of boys, every week (different
groups each week) to Maidanglao (McDonalds). The boys look forward to this
outing. So does Andrew. Brendin often goes with them. ICC has not put this into
their yearly budget (this outing was started by a past ICC foreign team member)
so it is up to those adults taking the boys out to pay for the meals. The cost
is small, in Canadian terms, but significant for China. It costs about 300RMB a
week. About CAD$50. Mike was one of the men that would help with the boys and
help cover the cost of the meals. Now that he is gone, the cost will be greater
for Andrew and whichever other adult comes (usually Justin). Your support is a
HUGE blessing to those we serve. If it weren’t for your support, we couldn’t be
here to serve the abandoned and disabled. So, thanks. Thanks for your support.
Another month gone. I hope it wont be another month till
I write again. February will be busy again as 4 team members are away and its
Chinese New Years. I will have stories to tell next month!
Pr*yer Requests
·
One of the little girls from LH is in the
hospital with high fever and a possible lung infection. She has been in for a
week and we don’t know when she will be home. She is one of the ones I work
with.
·
That our kids will continue to adjust to life
here
·
Financially – that we will be able to stick
within our new budget
That our ICC family will
adjust to having 3 team members gone back to their home countries, a new team
member for 3 months and 4 team members back in their home countries for the
month
·
That we will all survive our first Chinese New
Years! I have been in China for their New Years before, but no one else has.
Celebrations begin the evening of Feb 9. There will be about 72 hours of
straight fireworks, day and night, then it will just be evening fireworks for
about a week
PS: I have been unable to access the Blog to write
another update. If you know of anyone following on the blog, please let them
know that I am not ignoring the blog, I just cant access it.
Take care, and Gd bless you all!
MARCH 2013
Dearest friends,
It is that time again when
it feels like it’s only been a couple of weeks since I last wrote to you all
and it has really been more than a month. As I write this, it dawns on me that
6 months ago, today, we left Airdrie. It also dawns on me that 1 year ago we
began the task of really sharing with everyone our hearts and Gd’s plan for us.
It was also at this time we had to step out of our comfort zone and ask who is
able to financially support us .We have been extremely blessed by everyone who
partnered with us. It is that time again, when we must step out of our comfort
zone and ask for new financial partners.
I ask that you take the
time to read this entire update. Yes, it is focused on our finances, but please
read.
I would like to
‘highlight’ some amazing ways Gd is providing for us through each of you:
o Gd uses the young. Our youngest supporter is 14 years
old at $20/month. He uses his own money from his part-time job to support us.
o Gd uses the poor. One lady came to us and said she
could only support $10 a month for 8 months and if that was ok. Of course it
is!!
o Gd uses the financially able. Two families are 3.5%
partners with us.
o Gd uses the hungry. We have a family who struggles to
provide for their own family yet felt Gd strongly calling them to partner with
us and committed to being a 1% partner.
o Gd uses the comfortable. There are average people,
like you and me, who stepped out of their comfort zone and committed to being
1% partners with us.
o Gd uses everyone! Gd has used everyone to pr’yerfully
support us. Without your pr’yers we wouldn’t be here.
Our estimated expenses
prior to coming out have been in line with what we are experiencing. Therefore,
a 1% partner remains to be at $35/month, $420/year. However, this is not the
minimum or maximum partnership you can have with us!
Last year we asked for a 2
year commitment. We received an out-pouring of commitments. This year we ask
that you consider removing the ‘2 year’ bit to your commitment and simply
commit, for as long as we are here, or for as long as you can.
Monthly Supporters
We are looking for 10 new 1%
monthly partners. We know Gd has called us here not only for these 2 years (18
more months) but also to return after our furlough for another 3-8 years. In
order for us to continue to serve with ICC we need monthly supporters. As you
will see, below, even $10 a month is a huge commitment to us.
Yearly Supporters
We are also looking for 4
more 1% yearly partners. Yearly supporters are important for such expenses as rent,
medical insurance and airline tickets (for our furlough). Yearly partners also
help with the expenses of our yearly (mandatory) work related retreats, visas
and permanent residence cards for all of us. Our yearly expenses are due in
July.
We ask that you
pr’yerfully consider partnering with us this coming year, and in the years to
come. We know that many of you reading this are already monthly or yearly
partners, and we must give you a HUGE thank you! This is also our yearly
partner’s first reminder that the new financial year is upon us and we need you
to think about when you are able to send in this years financial support.
There are a couple ways
you can partner with us.
§ Log on to www.chinaconcern.org and support online. This method, though, must be done via credit card.
Once on the site hover over YOUR LOVE. Click on DONATE. From there, click on
WHERE MOST NEEDED. Follow the prompts and complete the support. Once completed,
send an email to canada@chinaconcern.org letting them know that you want the support you sent
in to be designated to the Inkpen’s in Changsha.
§ You can write out post dated cheques and mail them
into ICC Canada. Be sure to include a note stating that the support you are
sending is to be designated to the Inkpen’s in Changsha.
International China Concern Canada
Unit 7B – 5707 Sidley Street
Burnaby, BC
V5J 5E6 CANADA
**100% OF YOUR SUPPORT COMES TO US!
THERE IS NO ADMINISTRATION COST TO YOU, OR US.
Thank you to everyone for
your support! Without you, we can’t be here. The children and local staff of
ICC thank you for partnering with us. They see so many foreigners come in for 3
or 6 months then leave. It truly is a blessing to them that we are here for at
least 2 years. With Gd’s blessings, we will be here for 5-10 years. We are
trusting Gd to rise up more partners to sustain us for many years to come. He
has been faithful this past year that we are encouraged for the coming years.
I’m sure some of you are
wondering if we ever struggle with living on faith. The honest answer is YES!
It is scary. We are unsure. We even sometimes panic that the support won’t come
in. Then we look to Gd. We remember His promises. We remember His faithfulness.
I’m not saying all our problems disappear. I’m saying that we choose to trust
Gd. He has never steered us wrong, so why would He now? We trusted Him a year
ago with our journey. He has not changed. His plan for us remains. If He was
faithful last year in our support raising, He will be faithful this year and in
the coming years. No, it’s not easy. But we trust. We believe. We have faith.
We live on that faith. We live on His promises. We trust in His faithfulness.
He will never forsake us. He will provide. One way or another, He WILL provide!
In the smallest of ways. In the largest of ways. In the most obvious of ways.
In the strangest of ways.
The chart below shows you
a glimpse of what your partnership gives to us and therefore our work with ICC.
WHAT YOUR SUPPORT DOES FOR US
|
AMOUNT
Canadian / RMB
|
WEEKLY
|
MONTHLY
|
|
$10
62
|
Milk for the family
|
Bread for the family
Internet for the home
Gas for the home – used for cooking (gas stove) as well
as to heat all the water
|
|
$20
124
|
A trip to McDonalds for some of the children in Lighthouse (Andrew
takes a rotating group of children to McDonalds each week, this comes out of
our expenses)
Meat for the family – chicken, ground beef/pork, spare
ribs
|
Bus passes for Andrew and Darcie to get to the projects
and around town, and for Brendin & Jacquelyn to get around town (twins
are free)
Cell phones for all of us to keep in contact with each
other, team members and projects
Office supplies/craft supplies for the ones Darcie is
working with (paint, ingredients for playdough, etc)
|
|
$35
218
|
Fruit and vegetables for the family
|
Cleaning supplies – floor cleaner, laundry soap, fabric
softener, dish soap
|
|
$50
311
|
|
Family event out – bowling, swimming, rock climbing,
movie
|
|
$75
467
|
|
Team meals – mandatory once a week, relationship
building time/staff meeting – this covers all of us, 4 times a month, to eat
out
|
|
$100
622
|
Mandarin lessons for Andrew, Darcie, Brendin &
Jacquelyn
|
Utilities for the flat (average)
|
|
$330
2000
|
|
School fees for Andrea & Alysa (full days, 5 days a
week) Local school where they learn Mandarin and get to be with kids their
age
|
|
YEARLY EXPENSES
|
|
|
|
Medical Insurance
|
$10,000 Canadian dollars
|
This is due at the beginning of August. We are looking
into cheaper insurance for Canadian residents. Please pr’y we can find a company
that will insure the 6 of us for a more reasonable cost.
|
|
Rent
|
$4,535 Canadian dollars
27,600 RMB
|
This is paid
every 6 months.
|
|
Flights home
|
$9,000 Canadian dollars
|
We want to come back every 2 years. This is the
approximate cost of 6 return flights.
|
|
ODDS AND ENDS – FUN
TIDBITS
|
|
A serving of either jiao zi (dumplings) or tang bao (steamed buns)
from the street vendor is 4RMB (66cents)
|
|
One serving of noodles from the evening street vendor is 6RMB
(99cents)
|
|
An ice cream bar is 3 to 6RMB (49-99cents) – a nice treat on a hot
day!
|
|
Taxi rides start at 6RMB (99cents), average cost of a ride is 10RMB
($1.65)
|
|
Bus fare is 1 or 2RMB (16 or 32cents), depending on the bus route, no
matter the distance
|
|
One 500ml bottle of water – under 4RMB (66cents)
|
|
One ‘tong’ of water (19L) – 10RMB ($1.65) – includes delivery
straight to your flat
|
Thanks for
coming along side us on this wonderful journey!!
May Gd bless
each of you!
Love Andrew,
Darcie, Brendin, Jacquelyn, Andrea, Alysa
