Want to travel/work in China? Contact Tom and Mary Lois. There are several missions being organized now for future service.

By Mary Lois & Tom Sanders

"nee-how" – hello
"sheh-sheh" – thank you

You now know the only two words I know in Mandarin Chinese – and that after a 24 day stay in China!

Before and after our mission trip to Nanning, GuangXi Province in south China, friends asked if we could speak Chinese – how could we teach in China without being able to do so, they reasoned.

But we didn’t go to China to teach in Chinese – we went to teach English Conversation and be the presence of Christ in that setting.

Teaching English Conversation

Our setting: The Summer English Program – a summer "camp" – sponsored by the Foreign Language Department at GuangXi University, Nanning.

We arrived on July 8 after long flights – tired and eager at the same time. There were 15 on our CBF team from around the country – South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Indiana, Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida.

After settling into our university provided furnished, air conditioned apartments, we enjoyed a banquet hosted by the Foreign Language Faculty. We also met Ginny Su, our faculty liaison and soon-to-be good friend.

On July 9 Brenda Lisenby, CBF Representative to China, (dark blouse in picture right) led our orientation and planning sessions. On July 10 we attended church, then spent the afternoon doing evaluations (picture left) and separating the students into novice, intermediate and advanced classes. Finally, on Monday, July 11, after opening ceremonies, classes began.

Our students ranged in age from 14 to adult. Tom & I teamed with Luke Dove from Mississippi to teach intermediate speakers. Most of our students were eager to learn, although some were shy about actually using English – perhaps afraid of making mistakes. They were polite and friendly and noisy and endlessly curious about us and why we had come. They laughed when I tried to pronounce their names and cheered when I got them right.

What a challenge! What fun and frustration! What a great experience! (Mary Lois & Tom with Students, picture right.)

They had MP3s and ear phones around their necks, picture cell phones in their pockets and hand-held computer translators in their book bags. These were kids from families with the means to pay for the program and most had traveled to Nanning from around the province to study with us.

(Cell phones & MP3s)

A typical day’s schedule:

Mornings:

7:20 AM – Breakfast – all meals were provided at a university restaurant. Breakfast: Boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt, Nescafe, noodle soup, boiled sweet bread or sponge cake – and the occasional peanut butter and jelly on toast (we were Americans after all!).

8:10 AM – Walk to our classrooms – we walked a lot and climbed stairs – Chinese buildings don’t always have elevators. Our apartment was a 5^th floor walkup and our classrooms were on the 2^nd floor of an ancient building about two blocks away! (picture right, Foreign Faculty Apartment Building)

By the way, did I mention how HOT south China is? Let’s just say that walking and teaching in that constant "sauna" helped combat the calories we put on at each meal – Tom and I both lost weight! (If you want to know where we were, look at a world map, find Vietnam, and head due north. Just across the border into China is GuangXi Province.)

8:30 – 11:30 AM – Teach three hours – our team rotated classes of about 20 students each, so we only taught one hour three times – got that?

12:00 PM – Lunch – another banquet – we quickly adapted to using chop sticks, although knives and forks were available – When in China, etc., etc.

(picture left, Every Meal a Banquet) 

(Tom and the 4-cashew test - yep, he's a genuine Chinese!)

Afternoons:

2:30-4:30 PM - Monday-Wednesday-Friday – activities – a more informal setting for English use. Tom and another teacher, Ann Harmon, led Bingo and UNO and discovered that Bingo helped more with English usage. Judy Lively and I led the American folk and pop song group – good for pronunciation and fun!

Other groups did more American cultural activities: line dancing, golf, baseball, relays, American wedding.

Evenings:

5:20 PM – Dinner – another sumptuous affair!

7:00 – 9:00 PM - Tuesday & Thursday – English Corner. These evening sessions were held in a central garden area of the university. (picture right)
As soon as we arrived we dispersed around the courtyard and sat down. The students quickly congregated around us in little groups and for two hours we talked about anything and everything!

•  Do you go to church every Sunday? Yes (here was the opportunity to share our faith!)
• What is your favorite Chinese food? Pork with pineapple; beef and veggie fried rice; rice noodles with anything!
• Do you like China? Yes
• How is China different from America? (topic for an entire evening!)
• How do you celebrate Christmas? Details! (another opportunity to share our faith – the Chinese government doesn’t mind. They tell these children that this is part of our American culture!):

The Presence of Christ in China

The presence of Christ -- could we really be that in this largest of all communist countries? Yes!

CBF partners with GuangXi University to provide faculty for their Summer English Program. To our surprise and delight we discovered that the university recognizes that we come not only to teach but to share Christ. As long as we don’t preach in the classroom, any question about being a Christian and religious celebrations may be answered freely.

Christianity in China is thriving and post-denominational. No longer is it forbidden or even frowned on. The two protestant churches we attended on Sundays were full and had multiple services. One church baptized over a hundred the Sunday we visited (they have baptism twice a year as a rule) and many of those being baptized were young adults. But except for the separation between Roman Catholic and protestant, there are few denominational distinctions there. 

In worship the hymn tunes were familiar, if the words were not. Each Sunday, for 30 minutes before worship begins the congregation practices the hymns of the day. The voices raised in praise to God were wonderful. In these two churches the pastoral leadership is bi-vocational and the preachers we heard were both women. (picture right, Hymn Practice, Zhong Shan Road Church)

Pray for these Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ as they reach out to their country in the name of Jesus.

Impressions

China -- a country living in "waves" of civilization:

Rice farming using the most ancient of techniques – water buffalo and wooden plows in small rice paddies in the same way they have done for 3 millennia or more – produces three crops of rice a year. 

Factories large and small produce products for use in China and the world at large, including household appliances, cars, TVs – you name it, they make it

Needing to catch up to the rest of the world the Chinese have jumped over many early technologies and moved headlong into the advanced space age of satellites and digital everything. Computers abound, especially in internet cafes and libraries (GuangXi University’s new library has one wing housing over 600 computers with internet connections!); MP3s and ear phones; picture cell phones with ear phones (everyone in China must have a set of ear phones!!).  

Tall, gleaming new apartment and office buildings are built next older apartment buildings – perhaps 10-15 years old – of concrete, black with premature age and just a little bit frayed around the edges (NO ELEVATORS!). And next to these are ancient 2-3 story buildings of handmade brick and mortar – no stucco – with shops in the front and living quarters in the back and upstairs for the family – and the curved roofs westerners associate with Chinese architecture. (picture right, Ancient Town)

Side by side with small family shops are department stores (including Wal-Mart!). Large restaurants and noodle shops coexist with KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonalds.

And in the midst of all of this booming, independent commercial economy and communist rule are Christians wanting to learn and witness and grow in their faith.

(KFC in Nanning)

For more pictures, CLICK HERE

For even MORE pictures, CLICK HERE then click on "Slideshow" to view the Sanders' album at Shutterfly.