10 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted in Personal
Continuing from the prior post about my trip to Xinjiang. More pictures:
Naked baby butt! This wasn't an uncommon site. I was told that China was trying to "crack down" on the practice leading up to the then upcoming Olympics in Beijing. In at least one market I saw a small boy (maybe age 3), nude, walking with his parents. Culture shock!
10 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted in Personal
Tags
Ürümqi, blogging, china, desert, ESL, food, hami, humor, international, memories, photos, pictures, second mecca, summer trip, Travel, Turpan Depression, urumchi, Uyghur people, Xinjiang
In the summer of 2002 I took my last – to date – foreign excursion. This time it was to teach ESL (conversational English) in Xinjiang, China. Leading up to the classes I got to see some of the region and photos are posted below of my time there.
An SVG map of China with Xinjiang highlighted in orange and Ürümqi highlighted in red Legend: File:China map legend.png (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Following this trip I took no further mission trips or adventures as I needed to focus on finishing my degree.
Our team was completely made up of Louisianans and while we initially started out in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, we settled in Hami to teach. While in Hami we taught at a local college – that was out for the summer. Our students were part of a summer camp and I taught the oldest group of students – basically high school students (with two who were actually in their thirties).
It was hot, hot, hot. Not only because it was summer, but also because much of Xinjiang is desert and has the second lowest – in elevation – region in the world, the Turpan Depression. Thankfully it was a dry heat and we Louisianans are pretty used to heat.
04 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted in Personal, Religion - Christian
Tags
christ, christianity, Easter, faith, Good Friday, jesus, Maundy Thursday, monologue, Passion, Peter, Religion and Spirituality, youth ministry
Peter's Denial by Rembrandt, 1660. Jesus is shown in the upper right hand corner, his hands bound behind him, turning to look at Peter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So I volunteer once a week and help out as a “leader” at/in our church’s youth ministry on Tuesday nights. I’m paired with the 7th grade boys… hyped up animals! Keeping them on task is a task! There is a reason why I picked secondary education as a major – focusing on high school – and why I also never used my degree… But, they’re good kids. They’ve just got ants in their pants and their mind is racing in multiple directions at warp speed.
Anyhow, the youth minister asked if I’d take part in something he was calling a “Cross Walk” which would be part of the youth ministry’s way of approaching Easter. The Cross Walk would involve three monologues from three Biblical figures concerning Christ’s death; Peter, Mary Magdalen and a Roman centurion. I was given and accepted the role of Peter and asked to write a monologue that provides a unique response to what happened to that individual vis-a-vis Jesus’ final hours leading up to his death. As we were going to be speaking to teens, we had to write as if our listeners were Biblically illiterate. Our effort was not to add to the character but flesh them out based upon what we knew.
