China: How it all began Pt. 2

So, I've realized after reading through my last post that I like to digress a lot! "So I digress..." Should be put anywhere that I decide I'm going to randomly go off on a tangent. I guess that just goes to show I have a million thoughts flying through my mind all at once. I guess that's how it is with most things in my life- and when I stop to think back on a memory, so life-changing as this choice to go on a long term missions trip to China, a lot of feelings and thoughts come back to me all at once. I basically told you how it all happened through this lovely woman, Catherine, and how she actually approached me, and asked me about whether I'd be interested in this trip to China with a bunch of teachers for a month during the summer. And then I proceeded to tell you how within two weeks of knowing about the trip, I had already bought and paid for my expensive plane ticket to China. I hadn't met the people I'd be going with, and I honestly didn't know a single thing about it, besides the fact that we were going to teach English, and somehow do the m-word also (just so you know, the "m word" is missions, but from here on out I might be calling it that- or maybe call ourselves "ambassadors for the L*rd", etc.)

Anyways, I believe that this was a HUGE leap of faith for me. I mean, I have randomly said yes to plenty of trips, but each of them has only been a week or two long. This is TWICE as long, and I actually have to work while I'm there, it's not just for vacation or for fun. So, it's a pretty big commitment. These ladies that go on this trip are mostly retired teachers, and they all spend the entire year planning for and anticipating this trip. I have only spent the past 4 months really thinking about it, and now- in the two weeks before I actually leave to go to China, I can actually start planning. I didn't have time before this to really plan. As in, lesson plan. Yes, there will be lesson planning involved. We will be actual, real teachers there, and we are expected to provide a service to these children of China, to help them learn and grow so that someday they can move to the United States and be successful in whatever industry they choose to be in. Just the fact that as an American we know "American English" is a HUGE commodity, and they want this SO badly. English with any other accent is fine, as well..they just want to know ENGLISH! We often take the things we have for granted, such as education, food, clean water, money, etc. But, one of the things most Americans definitely take for granted, is having the knowledge and ability to speak a worldwide spoken language, one of the most powerful languages, English!

Now, I just need to learn how exactly you teach such a language to these already brilliant people over in China. I guess I will be researching and figuring this out. We have had training for three days back in April, but that was 2 months ago, and I already feel like some of that has slipped away from me. I have to review and refresh what I learned. I will be doing some of that on here, possibly..but that might bore you, haha..

So, instead, I'll probably tell you how I'm preparing for this spiritually, and what I hope to gain from this experience. I haven't decided if I'll blog while I'm there, but if I do, I'll have to make another blog for that time, because this one has too many spiritual things on it, and I don't want to get in trouble while there.

Well, I will write more later! Basically, I have told you how it all began...now I'm going to get into the prep mode! ;) Later~