One of our alum\u00adni (Netha\u00adneel Flake) post\u00aded this to a group dis\u00adcus\u00adsion list and I thought some of you might find it inter\u00adest\u00ading. To give you con\u00adtext, Nate was a lin\u00adguis\u00adtics major who set off for the Ori\u00adent upon grad\u00adu\u00adat\u00ading. He had no def\u00adi\u00adnite plans except to prac\u00adtice his lan\u00adguage skills.<\/p>\n
\nFor those of you who know me and might be won\u00adder\u00ading, I\u2019d just like to let you all know what I\u2019ve been up to in the last month. <\/p>\n
So, it turns out that after spend\u00ading a week in Chi\u00adna (Xia\u00admen) mak\u00ading friends and find\u00ading a uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty to spend a semes\u00adter, I had to return to my Aun\u00adt\u2019s house in Hong Kong to apply for a Chi\u00adnese stu\u00addent visa. But, while in Hong Kong, I found out my class\u00admate from my YWAM dis\u00adci\u00adple\u00adship train\u00ading school in France was in Tai\u00adwan with his Los Ange\u00adles church. They were in des\u00adper\u00adate need of a trans\u00adla\u00adtor and helper in their sum\u00admer Eng\u00adlish camp, and I was in des\u00adper\u00adate need of a place to spend a month, so I came on down. I\u2019ve had such a great expe\u00adri\u00adence among these Tai\u00adwanese Chris\u00adtians that I have decid\u00aded to study here instead of China\u2026also, I need make a bit of dough on the side to pay my bills, and frankly, teach\u00ading Eng\u00adlish in Chi\u00adna is like work\u00ading for peanuts. <\/p>\n
I feel a lot more at home here at this church than I do at Stan\u00adford. Peo\u00adple seem much more coop\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtive than com\u00adpet\u00adi\u00adtive, and work\u00ading with the kids here has been much more reward\u00ading than Bayshore (that may be because while at Bayshore I learned a few things about deal\u00ading with kids from the first day you meet them). I\u2019m real\u00adly hop\u00ading I can find ways to have an impact on the kids here of all ages, both in Eng\u00adlish class\u00ades and hope\u00adful\u00adly also on pub\u00adlic bas\u00adket\u00adball courts. We\u2019ll see what actu\u00adal\u00adly hap\u00adpens.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m very very aware of God\u2019s work in my life right now. All I was hop\u00ading for dur\u00ading this six month win\u00addow was a few friends and if pos\u00adsi\u00adble, con\u00adtact with a church. Now I find myself com\u00adplete\u00adly immersed in both. Being sur\u00adround\u00aded by pure-heart\u00aded Chris\u00adtians with healthy life goals (as opposed to the self-con\u00adcern\u00ading over\u00adachiev\u00ading one I\u2019ve devel\u00adoped over the years) has already begun to have its effect on me. I\u2019m excit\u00aded to know that I will be spend\u00ading the next 6 months liv\u00ading in a room at the church\/pastor\u2019s house and earn\u00ading mon\u00adey by tutor\u00ading most\u00adly young adults that I already know and like.<\/p>\n
All I have to do is get all the visa paper\u00adwork for the uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty fin\u00adished by tues\u00adday, fly to Hong Kong, get the new visa, hang out with my friends in Xia\u00admen and then come back here in ear\u00adly sep\u00adtem\u00adber (if I come back ear\u00adli\u00ader, my visa will expire before the six months is up). <\/p>\n
So, when you think of me, pray that with such a com\u00adpli\u00adcat\u00aded plan every\u00adthing will fall into place. My biggest fear\/lack of faith\u2013going broke\u2013appears to be tak\u00aden care of. Instead of hav\u00ading to beg peo\u00adple to help me find a job or let me be their tutor, every\u00adone has come to me and asked. A cou\u00adple high school stu\u00addents gath\u00adered enough of their friends togeth\u00ader and orga\u00adnized their sched\u00adules so that I can reach my min\u00adi\u00admum mon\u00ade\u00adtary require\u00adments teach\u00ading one Eng\u00adlish class, twice a week. <\/p>\n
Well, that\u2019s it. I just want\u00aded to stay in touch. Write me back when you get a chance, but if you don\u2019t I under\u00adstand. We\u2019re all too busy for our own good, aren\u2019t we?<\/p>\n
Your Broth\u00ader in Christ,<\/p>\n
\u2013Nate\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Get\u00adting this email was cool for two rea\u00adsons.<\/p>\n
1) It was good to hear from Nate.<\/p>\n
2) It remind\u00aded me of our vision<\/a> all over again. When we touch the cam\u00adpus, we touch the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of our alum\u00adni (Netha\u00adneel Flake) post\u00aded this to a group dis\u00adcus\u00adsion list and I thought some of you might find it inter\u00adest\u00ading. To give you con\u00adtext, Nate was a lin\u00adguis\u00adtics major who set off for the Ori\u00adent upon grad\u00adu\u00adat\u00ading. He had no def\u00adi\u00adnite plans except to prac\u00adtice his lan\u00adguage skills. For those of you \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cNate Flake\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-testimonies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-4y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}