In every great story, there is an objective for the main character to complete. A miss, if you will, that he must complete before the end of the story. If they don't pursue, and complete, this objective, the story cannot be complete. In my time here in China, I have begun to realize what my objective is. But before I get to it, here's a few stories that set it up:
Last Thursday, I was coming home from basketball and had to run to make the bus I needed to get home. When I got on and sat down, several nationals were chuckling at my run to get there and how out of breath I was at that point. They were trying to talk to me but I had no idea what they were saying. All I could say was "Tingbudong," which means I don't know. I felt bad, but eventually managed to see by their motions and pointing that they were asking if I taught at the school, to which I happily shook my head yes. A little bit later, I saw them making some comments and looking at my shoes. I laughed knowing what they were talking about. For those who don't know, I wear a size 17 men's shoe. I lifted my foot up to let them match theirs against mine, and there were definitely laughs all around! It was so simple, and yet I had made a connection with these four people that I didn't know or know how to talk to.
I have a favorite stand in the Market. They take small strips of chicken and fry them, and then season them, and are so good! Each time I go now, she smiles and waits for me to motion with my hand how much I want and then goes about making it. The astounding part, though, is now she is starting to teach me some basic chinese terms for things. As I point to things and say "Jigga....." which means "this," she teaches me a word. We never spend a significant amount of time doing this, but its developing a connection once again.
I say all of this because I am realizing what my objective is in life. I'm not sure how many people reading this know who Mark Hall is. He is the lead singer for Casting Crowns and, last year, he wrote a song called "Until the Whole World Hears." The song expresses his desire to take Dad's Word to everyone everywhere, and how it is an endless pursuit. About how we need to see the world through Dad's eyes. And how we will continue to sing until the entire world hears. Mark Hall came up with this song because of emails he received from a close friend. Each time this friend would email Hall, the friend signed it Until the Whole World Hears. In hearing this story, and listening to the song again, this is the cry of my heart. I want to do whatever I can to help the whole world hear His name and know the truth. So I will continue to make connections, develop relationships, and be the voice to help the whole world hear. I'll still be documenting stories and sharing experiences, but let's call this chapter the realization of my life's objective.
Until the whole world hears...
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Heroes and Villains
Every hero in every epic story has the villain he is fighting. There is no story without good and evil. But I wonder if sometimes we focus so much on the worst villain that we forget about his little obstacles he sends to trip us up along the way. We get so set on defeating him that we lose sight of where we currently are at.
The past couple of weeks, I have been bouncing back and forth, enjoying some of the times and having a rough time with others. I think a big part of that is due to where my focus was. The times that have been rough are the times where I am focusing on back home and the good times there and the people I care about. And so I focus on stopping it, assuming it is my enemy seeking to devour me with thoughts of home and family. But the turnaround doesn't come when I have set my focus on defeating him. The change in attitude and the good things coming around happens when I focus on what Dad has for me right here, right now. When I have stayed in the present, and allowed myself to focus on what I have going on in my life currently, I have enjoyed (almost haha) every experience I have had.
For example, I have gotten so frustrated with a student in my class. She speaks almost no English, can't understand the majority of what I say and, as a result, struggles to know what to do in class. Whenever I start thinking about what it is going to take to help her the entire year, I just get discouraged and wonder why Dad even put me in this situation in the first place. But when I focus on just getting her through each lesson, like I did today, she has great success and we worked together helping her understand all of the content she needed to work on. The successes came when I focused on the current, and not on the whole upcoming future.
Every hero has a villain. Where there's good, at least for the time being, there will always be evil. The villain waits for me everyday. I may not be a hero, but I have a Dad who is helping me focus on the here and now...
These are my stories...
The past couple of weeks, I have been bouncing back and forth, enjoying some of the times and having a rough time with others. I think a big part of that is due to where my focus was. The times that have been rough are the times where I am focusing on back home and the good times there and the people I care about. And so I focus on stopping it, assuming it is my enemy seeking to devour me with thoughts of home and family. But the turnaround doesn't come when I have set my focus on defeating him. The change in attitude and the good things coming around happens when I focus on what Dad has for me right here, right now. When I have stayed in the present, and allowed myself to focus on what I have going on in my life currently, I have enjoyed (almost haha) every experience I have had.
For example, I have gotten so frustrated with a student in my class. She speaks almost no English, can't understand the majority of what I say and, as a result, struggles to know what to do in class. Whenever I start thinking about what it is going to take to help her the entire year, I just get discouraged and wonder why Dad even put me in this situation in the first place. But when I focus on just getting her through each lesson, like I did today, she has great success and we worked together helping her understand all of the content she needed to work on. The successes came when I focused on the current, and not on the whole upcoming future.
Every hero has a villain. Where there's good, at least for the time being, there will always be evil. The villain waits for me everyday. I may not be a hero, but I have a Dad who is helping me focus on the here and now...
These are my stories...
Monday, September 13, 2010
All the...Small Things...
Hey everyone,
This one's a little late, sorry about that. I thought I would change up the tone and go with a little more positive chapter here in my latest post. I'm finding there are a bunch of little stories here and there that make for great reading! The post may not be as long, but these are all just little things that make me smile thinking back on them:
First, there was my experience last Wednesday in the market. As usual, I was being stared at by everyone as I waited for my food to cook because the nationals don't expect a white American to be ordering food there. On this night, though, there were two boys, probably in the 10-12 age range, waiting in line behind me and one stepped up and put his coins on the kart a little early. I decided to make a connection. I picked up his coin and, using my favorite magic trick, made it jump from one hand to the other. When I opened the hand where the coin was now at, his jaw simply dropped and he said "Wooooowwwwww!" I could have died of laughter right there on the spot! Every adult in the area, including the vendor I was buying food from, had a big smile on their face and started speaking Chinese with the boy, and then to me. I eventually figured out they were saying "again," so I did the trick slower, showing him how I did it. He saw the catch in the trick and said "Awwwwwww" as he shook his head and all of the adults started laughing. The rest of my time waiting on the food, and my departure, could not have been a warmer environment, and I had the biggest smile of them all.
This past Friday, with it being the day before Ohio State played Miami of Florida, I wore my jersey to school. It was the 4 jersey from the days when Santonio Holmes was WR for the Buckeyes. As I was watching the kids leave from school for the weekend, one of the 4th graders in my science class came out. His name is Sota. The thing about Sota is that he just tells is like it is with no thought for how it sounds. He walked out, pointed at my jersey, and said "Why are you wearing that?" I replied "Well, this is the jersey of one of my favorite players." He then replied "Well, 4 in Chinese is suh (sp?) and suh means death. Have a good weekend Mr. Harmon." And then he walked away. Does it get any more classic than that?
Only two short ones here, but they were small encouragements that really gave me some laughs. I hope they brought a smile to your face, as all the best books need a rebound chapter to stay interesting :-)
These are my stories...
This one's a little late, sorry about that. I thought I would change up the tone and go with a little more positive chapter here in my latest post. I'm finding there are a bunch of little stories here and there that make for great reading! The post may not be as long, but these are all just little things that make me smile thinking back on them:
First, there was my experience last Wednesday in the market. As usual, I was being stared at by everyone as I waited for my food to cook because the nationals don't expect a white American to be ordering food there. On this night, though, there were two boys, probably in the 10-12 age range, waiting in line behind me and one stepped up and put his coins on the kart a little early. I decided to make a connection. I picked up his coin and, using my favorite magic trick, made it jump from one hand to the other. When I opened the hand where the coin was now at, his jaw simply dropped and he said "Wooooowwwwww!" I could have died of laughter right there on the spot! Every adult in the area, including the vendor I was buying food from, had a big smile on their face and started speaking Chinese with the boy, and then to me. I eventually figured out they were saying "again," so I did the trick slower, showing him how I did it. He saw the catch in the trick and said "Awwwwwww" as he shook his head and all of the adults started laughing. The rest of my time waiting on the food, and my departure, could not have been a warmer environment, and I had the biggest smile of them all.
This past Friday, with it being the day before Ohio State played Miami of Florida, I wore my jersey to school. It was the 4 jersey from the days when Santonio Holmes was WR for the Buckeyes. As I was watching the kids leave from school for the weekend, one of the 4th graders in my science class came out. His name is Sota. The thing about Sota is that he just tells is like it is with no thought for how it sounds. He walked out, pointed at my jersey, and said "Why are you wearing that?" I replied "Well, this is the jersey of one of my favorite players." He then replied "Well, 4 in Chinese is suh (sp?) and suh means death. Have a good weekend Mr. Harmon." And then he walked away. Does it get any more classic than that?
Only two short ones here, but they were small encouragements that really gave me some laughs. I hope they brought a smile to your face, as all the best books need a rebound chapter to stay interesting :-)
These are my stories...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Transitions...
I have to confess I was at a loss for what to write about this weekend. It's the reason I haven't posted until now. But as I think about my time here, I'm over the one month mark. I had hoped that I would be making some smoother transitions, and yet some of them are still rough. Here's a few of the harder ones I have dealt with lately:
Family
I haven't been this far away from my family with no way to easily return ever. It didn't phase me at first, but things were a little rough this past week. It's so hard not to be able to see my brother starting varsity for the first time, and knowing this is what he has worked for all this time. It's even harder knowing I won't get to see him play varsity in his career. When my mind finally came to that realization, a small part of my heart just broke to pieces. There's also a part of me that is missing getting to see the incredible strides my sister is taking in getting herself back on the straight track again, and I couldn't be more proud of her, or of my beautiful niece. And then there's my youngest sister. I will have the possibility to see her final year of marching band and every single performance she decides to be in senior year if Father leads me back home after my two year contract. But not seeing her get her drama and singing experience in the next two years is making it a little tough too. And finally there's mom and dad. I couldn't care more for two people if I tried. They've been there for me through everything and, now that they're not there, it's just a rough transition. The transition of getting out from underneath them had to be made, and I am becoming better everyday for it, but it's rough not even having the ability to see them.
Friends
This transition was a little less rough after this past week. I finally got to talk with my two closest friends on the planet. It was all I could do not to smile with this big goofy grin the rest of the night and going to bed, but it was bitter sweet. I had the best night I've had in China so far, but it wasn't even anything China related. Not all of my friends would be available, obviously, but there were a few weddings where I know I would have seen so many special people in my life. I feel as though all of my friendships have been thrown to the wayside in my move here. Being a social person, it has just been tough to not have people around that I am comfortable sharing certain things with.
Fellowship
Those of you who know me know I absolutely enjoyed fellowship more than anything else in my week. Yes, a big part was fellowship, but another part was my ability to serve others. It's so hard to be going to a fellowship where everything is small and I don't have the ability to serve in the capacities that God really skilled me to serve in back home. So I guess part of it, as well, is the frustration of not knowing how to serve here in my new fellowship. But there's more than that: I'm just having a rough time not having the big community around me that I had before. I've gone from a community of around 550 or so, and knowing a majority of those people, to having maybe 20 other people. I can't tell you how much I underappreciated what I had when I had it.
Please don't take this as a posting just to complain, but understand that every story has a few sad chapters. This is the first week that I consistently struggled with missing things for 7 straight days. I want to have my mind completely here, and yet it's just been rough. If you know me, you know I usually can get myself completely into whatever I do, and that's what I will continue to do. But if you talk to Father, please just ask for His help with my transitions. It's been a rough week...
These are my stories...
Family
I haven't been this far away from my family with no way to easily return ever. It didn't phase me at first, but things were a little rough this past week. It's so hard not to be able to see my brother starting varsity for the first time, and knowing this is what he has worked for all this time. It's even harder knowing I won't get to see him play varsity in his career. When my mind finally came to that realization, a small part of my heart just broke to pieces. There's also a part of me that is missing getting to see the incredible strides my sister is taking in getting herself back on the straight track again, and I couldn't be more proud of her, or of my beautiful niece. And then there's my youngest sister. I will have the possibility to see her final year of marching band and every single performance she decides to be in senior year if Father leads me back home after my two year contract. But not seeing her get her drama and singing experience in the next two years is making it a little tough too. And finally there's mom and dad. I couldn't care more for two people if I tried. They've been there for me through everything and, now that they're not there, it's just a rough transition. The transition of getting out from underneath them had to be made, and I am becoming better everyday for it, but it's rough not even having the ability to see them.
Friends
This transition was a little less rough after this past week. I finally got to talk with my two closest friends on the planet. It was all I could do not to smile with this big goofy grin the rest of the night and going to bed, but it was bitter sweet. I had the best night I've had in China so far, but it wasn't even anything China related. Not all of my friends would be available, obviously, but there were a few weddings where I know I would have seen so many special people in my life. I feel as though all of my friendships have been thrown to the wayside in my move here. Being a social person, it has just been tough to not have people around that I am comfortable sharing certain things with.
Fellowship
Those of you who know me know I absolutely enjoyed fellowship more than anything else in my week. Yes, a big part was fellowship, but another part was my ability to serve others. It's so hard to be going to a fellowship where everything is small and I don't have the ability to serve in the capacities that God really skilled me to serve in back home. So I guess part of it, as well, is the frustration of not knowing how to serve here in my new fellowship. But there's more than that: I'm just having a rough time not having the big community around me that I had before. I've gone from a community of around 550 or so, and knowing a majority of those people, to having maybe 20 other people. I can't tell you how much I underappreciated what I had when I had it.
Please don't take this as a posting just to complain, but understand that every story has a few sad chapters. This is the first week that I consistently struggled with missing things for 7 straight days. I want to have my mind completely here, and yet it's just been rough. If you know me, you know I usually can get myself completely into whatever I do, and that's what I will continue to do. But if you talk to Father, please just ask for His help with my transitions. It's been a rough week...
These are my stories...
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