Week 4 in China

***When commenting, please be sure to code all r-ligious words for my safety! Thanks!***

Wow, I’ve already been in China for one month (on Tuesday)! That’s crazy how fast time flies! So many exciting things have happened in this time frame. Hopefully I’ll be able to share all of them with you.

On the River walkway on the west side of campus

Near the park

Starting February 24th, we began our Chinese dance classes and even have a few Chinese language classes. All of our dance classes are completely in Chinese, so a lot of the time we mostly just try to watch and follow. It’s definitely a new way to approach a dance class but so much fun! We have three Chinese classical types of dance classes. In one of the classes that Ms. Uen teaches, we wear these really long sleeves that reach past the floor. A lot of the movement uses the flick of the elbow and wrist to make the fabric flow into different lines and patterns. It’s a lot of fun. For our second Chinese classical class with Ms. Ho, we are learning folk dancing and more specifically Tibetan minority group dancing. It has a lot of attitude, authority, power, and presence coming from the upper body and head. Its playful and lots of fun. The last type is dancing with fans. They have extra fabric at the end, so it’s lots of wrist moving and shapes with different patterns. It’s really beautiful! 

View from one of our dance studios and some students practicing the dragon dance

In addition to our Chinese classes we have three modern classes with our Chinese teacher Mint. He specializes in contemporary/modern and his classes are stretching! I have many bruises from his class on my neck, elbow, hip, knee, spine, and feet, but it feels so good to finally be dancing again. I’m sore from being out of shape, but slowly my body is adjusting to the physical exercise, walking everywhere, and all the stairs (elevators are not common here). My knee is doing okay with classes, but is still pretty painful, tired, and sore. Please continue to pr-y for strengthening! Coming up on March 23rd is the one year anniversary of when I fully tore my ACL. After surgery, physical therapy, and lots of hard work I’m able to not only walk again and be in a foreign country, but I’m also able to dance. HE IS GOOD.

My bruises and Chinese language class

Learning the Chinese language is really hard, but lots of fun! Though I know that it’s not possible in one semester, I’m hoping to be fluent in Mandarin Chinese one day! So it’s really fun to be able to start studying the language now. One afternoon after classes Grace and I went to explore the city near campus and we found a beautiful park that had a skating rink in it. There were even some skates that only had two wheels to them! It was really cool!

Quiet time by the water

The Park Grace and I found

A Temple Shrine at the top of stairs that lasted forever :)

Funny translation

The two-wheeled skates and Grace&Me

Last week we had to travel to the main city for our medical exam for the University so that we could complete our visa status. Doctor offices in China are very different than in America. You go to individual stations all over the building and get your paper checked off when you’ve done that part of the doctor visit. We had chest xrays, sonograms, EKG, ultrasounds, had our blood drawn, urine test, color-blind test,  measuring of our height and weight, and vision test. It was really interesting. And I have a pr-ise report! I didn’t pass out when I got my blood drawn! (I have a history of this.) Yay Jes-s!!!

On Friday nights we have a small group where we are studying different chapters in the New Test-ment. It’s really nice to have a group of people to run with this semester. We’ve met many Chinese students that have dance groups, some English major students, and many other students. Life on campus is always busy! Here are some more food we've eaten:

HotPot-basically the water is so hot that it cooks your food. The one on the left is individual hotpot and the right is group hotpot

Middle Eastern food and potato soup Karissa made

Foreign foods in Metro in the big city....didn't eat them, but it's nice to look at them!

More foreign food that I didn't eat (icing!!!). On the right are green beans :) Veggies here are gigantic!

Bar-b-q pork, lettuce, and rice (really yummy!) and Garlic greens, potato & eggplant dish (also yummy!)

Saw these on the market shelf =) I like the Nescafe coffee brand here

We went to the main city of the province I’m in about one week ago to get some things on Dance street for our Chinese dance classes. We also made our American stop at Starbucks. =) It’s helpful for lessening culture shock to have something from ‘home’ every once in a while when you are adjusting to a new culture. While we were walking down the street, a man who was brave enough to practice his English and talk to the “Americans”, invited us to his house for afternoon tea to meet his daughters and wife. Greg (the teacher who was showing us around the city) and all four of us dancers got to go have tea. It was so much fun to meet them and talk with them. The daughters showed us their artwork and played the violin for us. The wife cut up apples and oranges to serve with the jasmine tea that had real flowers in it. 

Walmart and Starbucks in the city-familiar sites!

Hanging blue lights in the 360 shopping area

The B-ble Drinker Club hahaha.....Cool trees they shape around the electric wires

Organized dance shoes at a dance store

Leotards organized by size and me trying on a Chinese hat at a dance store

Dance street

The family we met in the city who had us over for afternoon tea

This past week, Grace and I were offered a job at a restaurant to be their ‘brand’ so that they could be an international restaurant. They brought us into the office, measured us for uniforms, and practically signed us up for the job before we could even blink. Later they realized since we don’t have a work visa and only have a student visa we can’t actually work, but they invited us to make dumplings with them next week. We also ventured out more in the city and went to Walking street with many vendors and the Two-Head park. 

The work outfits we were measured for.....Two-Head Park

Two head park and a purple car!!!

Something really cool that has happened to me is that I found (sorry for the coding….security stuff) IH-P people here! =) (I call them pancake people). I even found people who are from a mixxionary agency with the pancake place. I’ve met at least 4 of them here! I’ve also gotten to go to several meetings and teachings and even their pr-yer room. =) I think it’s really cool that G-d placed me with people whom I’m like to give me a taste of what it would look like to be a part of the their agency before I did a season with them. 

China comes alive at night! Food street opens and has the best food!

In addition, I finally realized the value of the model of the pr-yer room in kc. While kc doesn’t say that their model is the perfect one or the specific way to do the pr-yer room, they stress the importance of the values of structure. I was able to join a random group of strangers and still know what was going on and how the pr-yer meeting would work. It was so cool! 

Our dorm building lights up at night

Since being here, I’ve also realized more of what I want to do full time as a mixxionary. I don’t want to do m-nistry without the value of the pr-yer room. Even if it’s not all the time 24/7, but just like a few hours each day or even a few hours a week….pr-yer so important! I really want to be part of living among the locals and training them how to be mixxionaries to their own people. No matter how well I know the the-logy or d-ctrine, I’m still not gonna know all cultural things like giving green socks means you hate their mother (haha…random example). Even if they have less understanding of the-logy than me, they would be more effective in reaching their own people. I want to be part of a training/sending school that teaches how to do the mixxion stuff (like how to deal with culture shock, how to raise support, what to do when you encounter such and such) as well as teaches the the-logy part, with some sort of pr-yer room context on campus a few hours a week people could drop in for. I’m still thinking about what would be my legal reason for being in the country…and, how dance would be involved. I’ll probably do lots of the cultural dancing. I’m excited to see more of what He shows as desires in my heart.

Here are some more pictures from campus life! 

Students dry their bedding on bushes in the sunshine.....Grace and I out shopping 

Our first dorm birthday...Happy Birthday Wahyu! (Guy in the red shirt in the middle-from Indonesia)

On left: what we call lunch rush. So many people!!!! On Right: a walkway near the basketball courts

Kirsti & Grace with a cute Chinese kid

Facetiming parents is so much fun!!! You never know what you will find in teacher dorms....Captain America!!!

 Cute little kid watching Latin dancing

Another cute kid on a bus......Karissa & Grace at lunch

I love nature pictures! With warm weather coming, spring has begun here on campus:

Cherry blossoms and other flowers....Springtime is here!!!

 We saw clouds!!!! We finally saw through the smog!!! And had a beautiful sunset!!!

The campus lights everything up at night!!! 

Today was really warm and sunny and bright! We even saw blue sky today!!!! No smog!!! =) Nice weather requires more exploring!

 Blue skies today!!!! So exciting!!!!

 We explored the roof of our building today....still more drying laundry 

 The top of our dorm and 4 very-excited-for-sunshine roomies!

Thank you for pr-ying!!!!! “The pr-yers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.” James 5:16

***When commenting, please be sure to code all r-ligious words for my safety! Thanks!***

Week 1 in China

***When commenting, please remember to hyphenate r-ligious words to keep me safe!***

Hey Everyone!

So I’ve been in China for one week now. =) My heart is so happy to be back in the land that I love, that sometimes I get so overwhelmed by how much G-d is blessing me and I start crying. For as long as I can remember, all I’ve wanted to do is be a mixxionary, live in a foreign country (preferably in Asia/10/40 region), live life with the locals, learn the language/culture, and dance. And I’m getting to do all of that!

 Leaving Kansas City.....arriving in China 36 hours later!

 Kirsti and I making our way through the Houston airport.....Air China even had menus for us!

 Ms. Anna who I sat by on the plane from Houston to Beijing

 Beijing Airport

 Definitely a southern girl!

Life is exciting learning new things and finding where everything exists. Some things I have done this week include: setting up life in a dorm on campus, shopping at the local Waka store (sort of like Walmart, but much more hectic—and fun!), getting Chinese minute by minute cellphones, exploring food street, exploring campus, ordering dinner in Chinese, auditioning for placement in the dance program, registration with the school, overcoming jet lag, meeting lots of people, calling some friends that live in a different part of China, and continuing with B-ble school homework from KC. 

We arrived on the last day of the red lantern festival

 Rock garden on campus and Waka store (like Walmart)

First dorm meal and train track on campus 

We live in the international co-ed dorm on campus also known as Russina Square (other squares are Italian Square and Spanish Square). There are many little stores on campus to eat at as well as shop at. We have met Indonesian, Korean, Laos, Kyrgyzstan, and Philippine friends. Our Indonesian friends took us to eat dinner the first night and to get cell phones. We also had breakfast in our dorm this morning with our Korean friends. Getting to hear all the languages and cultural nuances from all these nations is a blessing!!!!

Russian Square-the international co-ed dorm

View from our dorm window and first dinner in China with Indonesian friends

 Exploring China to find lunch!

 A spanish restaurant!!!! (I think I found the only one in all of China!-we will see how it tastes) and the East Gate to campus

 The gondola at the top of way to many stairs....and an exotic looking bird 

 Palm trees on campus near the gymnasium and swimming pool......and the soccer/track stadium behind our dorm 

I ordered my first meal in Chinese on our third night here. I was able to ask for fried rice and chicken. Later I took Kirsti and Grace (other American dancers here for the program) to the same restaurant. We got rice, broccoli, and fried corn with sugar on it (kind of like corn bread-really good). We had asked for a small chicken plate (or at least that’s what we thought we had ordered) and thought that they had just forgotten it. Later during the meal they brought us a huge pot of soup (really yummy broth, mushrooms, and leeks!) that had chicken in it. But I doubt you could call it chicken! It was more like chicken parts!!! None of the parts were identifiable….but it was yummy!!!!! Haha….it was quite the experience. =) Plus they lady gave us a discount because she remembered me. The Chinese are so sweet and patient with us as we point to pictures and try to order in our broken Chinese!

The chicken 'parts' soup, broccoli, and fried sugar corn! (And newest roommate Grace!)

Last night I was able to eat joutsa at Food street (an amazing street with lots of restaurants, local street vendors, and street vendors from other parts of China! Really yummy food!!!). I’ve missed this food for 3 years since I had it last time I was in China. Usually the meat in it is pork, but this time it was donkey! So I get to add another strange food to my list. It was so yummy!!!!!!! We’ve also eaten a pretzel type bread with yummy meat on the inside from a street vendor. Never fear though, I have eaten normal foods like peanut butter, apples, kiwi, granola bars, cheezits, chicken, green beans, potatoes, rice, and eggs. (The foreign faculty teachers blessed us by giving us a bag of imported foods—cheezits are gold here!) We even made scrambled eggs in our rice cooker. You invent new ways to do things when all you have is a rice cooker!

Though most of the food is unrecognizable to us, we still manage to find more American looking dinners!

The dance studios are amazing and beautiful. I am so excited to be able to dance again. We will be taking Chinese traditional dancing and Chinese folk dance in addition to our normal ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, and rehearsals. I am so excited to learn traditional dancing!

View of campus from the roof of the Dance building....our dorm is the pointy tower near the middle of the picture

River walk right behind the dance building

View from a small hill on campus.....exploring campus on a sunny day!

You either walk, or ride the bus to get anywhere in China. Riding the bus is fun because you get to meet more locals! Since we are Americans, anywhere we go we get stared at, pointed out, and gawked at. It's unnerving at first, but you get used to the stares and giggles. One little kid in Waka the other day inhaled sharply and said, "Meijoren!!!!" which means, "Americans!" like he had just seen the President. Haha. You also get your picture taken....often. Sometimes they will just sneak a picture and then other times will come up and ask if they can take a photo with you. It's definitely different than just blending in with everyone else in America!

 Cute little kid with his Grandma.....Do you have lion statutes in your grocery store? :)

 The Three Self Church near campus across from Food street....Everyone's bedding drying out on the bushes...you don't see that in America!

A couple days ago it was really cold and snowed, but usually the temperature has been in the mid 30s and 40s one day. So It’s not too cold. =) Except we didn’t have running water for 3 days, so that was fun…..and cold! The foreign teachers building we call “Little America”. When you step through the doors, it literally is like walking into America. It’s nice to have the comfort of a quick ‘normalcy’ fix, but I really like living in the Chinese way of life!

Most of the snow was gone by lunch...much like a Georgia snow!

Pr-yer requests:

1) That internet would be sustainable when I go to take tests online for the B-ble school in KC. Living in a 3rd world country, the internet is very spotty and slow. I’ve had several tests lock me out because my internet crashed while I was taking it and had to reload internet and so it logged me out of my tests. 

2) That I would adjust well to Chinese culture—Crossing the street here is like a video game. There are no real rules in China and so people drive whenever they want to and wherever they want. So safety as I re-learn how to cross the street. And also grace to accustom myself to the way things are done here. Usually things take 4 times as long as they need to. We just spent 3 days without running water, but we have water again, so that is nice!

3) That when dance and language classes start next week, we would be able to balance our schedules well

4) That finances would come in—there have been many large expenses that were unexpected that the Chinese forgot to tell us about. So my budget for the trip was way under what it needs to be.

5) That my body would adjust well—In China you walk everywhere…..which is great for physical health, but the first couple weeks of adjustment time is hard on your legs and feet! Also the air quality is not as good here (lots of smog), so exercise is hard to do outside. With lots of dancing coming up I want to be able to be in shape but haven’t had much time to exercise. Pr-y my body will be strong, esp. my knee that I tore my ACL in last March. In addition, I have started to get a slight head cold. Pr-y that it would clear up quickly.

6) We have 4 roommates in a tiny room. Pr-y that we would be able to adjust well to close living quarters and be wise in giving each other the space that we need. 

7) Language barriers to be broken and for me to learn Mandarin Chinese quickly!

8) That we would be walking, shining, bright lights for J-sus. We really are only here to proclaim Him and want to do that with excellence!

Riding in a tuktuk with Kinah :)

Thank you so much for keeping me in your thoughts! Love ya’ll lots!!!!

***When commenting, please remember to hyphenate r-ligious words to keep me safe!***

8 hours til launch.....

I leave today in 8 hours. I'm so excited and my heart is full looking at G-d's sovereign hand in my life! I'll update you so from China!


Praise report: I only had to pack my suitcases once.......ONCE!.....and they weighed 37.5lbs and 47.3lbs! G-d is so good!!!! That never ever happens......ever. Usually I have to pack them a couple times each to get them to weigh the right amount. I'm blessed by the fact that He knew it would help my stress level to have them weigh the correct amount.


Pr-yer requests:
1) That my luggage makes it---without anything being stolen!
2) That Kirsti and I have a safe flight there and good times in airport
3) That customs goes smoothly
4) That we are refreshed and ready to go when we hit the ground
5) That I finish my school in the next 8 hours.....
6) That we would feel His love, grace, peace, and joy
7) That we would see great miracles!

Love ya'll lots and talk to you soon!

~Ashton

Safety guidelines

I leave on Tuesday....5 days! I'm so excited for the adventures G-d has planned for me for this season!

This blog is a little more technical as I will be addressing highly important security issues. Due to the area I will be in while in Ch-na, I have to be very careful with what I say on Facebook, email, and blog entries. As you may have noticed from my last posts, I have to hyphenate all religious words. When commenting on my blog (please comment! I love to hear from you!) please also hyphenate words like: G-d, pr-yer, mixxions, fai-h, salv-tion, H-ly Sp-rit, Jes-s, w-rship, beli-ver, Chr-stian, ministry, relig-on, B-ble, ch-rch, evang-lize, Chr-st, g-spel, disc-ple, etc.

Also, my posts might sound a little dry, or boring like I'm just dancing, or just having coffee with a 'friend', or just going shopping with 'friends'. But I will try to relate the truth of what is happening the best I can without compromising myself or others on the ground over there. My goal is to post every two weeks or so.

Pictures will be difficult to add as I will have to be careful about faces in the pictures (both American and Ch-nese), location defining buildings in the background of the pictures, and other security compromising issues.

Right now, the area I am going to is being looked into because they have reason to believe there has been Chr-stian relig-ous activity going on. Many of the foreign beli-vers there are being found and deported whereas a lot of the national beli-vers are being imprisoned. Please keep this area in your pr-yers. Since security is so high right now, my posts will be bare for a month or two until I can get a feel for what is going on.

Love ya'll lots! I highly appreciate your prayers!