A Fun Little Project, or Two...

Hello Lovely People!

Since the job situation did not work out as planned, I have been home and working out new plans for how to move forward. Justin and I have been praying consistently about what God wants us to do and how we can work within his will. I have been doing little jobs here and there to get by and we have been praying for God's provision to purchase plane tickets.

While being at home, I realized that we had quite a few spices in little baggies (how they are sold here) that were making quite a mess. I decided that I wanted spice jars, but did not want to buy any. I was not sure what to do, but the thought was brewing in my mind.

Also, Megan had purchased some jelly that appeared to be grape. In reality, it was blueberry, which was a simple mistake since everything is in Chinese. Since no one really wanted to eat it on their bread, I decided that I could find a use for it. I found a recipe for oatmeal bars that could be filled with any jelly. This is what the process involved...

They ended up being delicious and basically tasted like blueberry breakfast bars. I would not mind making the again sometime. When I finished, I was cleaning out the glass jar and then had the idea to use it for the spices.

I messaged our friends here and asked them if they had any small glass jars. They are not hard to come by here because all the jellies come in small jars as well as condiments. I made my own labels, covered them in clear packing tape, glued them on, and this was the result.

I am proud of my two little projects and how I was able to use barely any money to do them. Can't wait to see what else I can come up with!

Until I write again,

Blythe :)

Journey to Hong Kong: Another Adventure for the Books!

Greetings!

Justin and I went to Hong Kong last week, when I was off for Qing Ming (Tomb Sweeping Day). We had to go for a day to renew our visas. We were fortunate enough that our parents were able to loan us the money to go, because I would not receive a payment until the following week.

We heard a lot of great things about Hong Kong. However, most of those were about shopping and eating. We had a pretty limited budget for the trip, so we decided to find some places close to our hotel to walk around in the short time we were there. We flew in on Thursday evening and came back on Friday night.

This was a huge adventure for us because we were going somewhere we had never been, by ourselves, with a lot of travel involved. We began at about 2:30 on Thursday. We caught the bus out our back gate to get to the subway, and road it to the terminal station, which took about 30 minutes. We were then in for an hour ride on Line 2, one of the longest and most popular subway lines in Shanghai. We passed most of the major tourist attractions in voyage to the airport. After reaching Guaglan Road, we had to cross the platform and get on a second metro (still Line 2), and travel for an additional 30 minutes to the Pudong Airport.

Once we arrived at the airport, we had to check in and go through security. We had dinner in the airport and headed to our gate. We were supposed to take off at 7 pm, but we were delayed 30 min. When we went to board, we were loaded on a bus and driven out to the tarmac, where we boarded a plane on stairs. I have done this before in Honduras, but this was Justin’s first experience doing this.

Waiting for our flight at Pudong Airport

We had a 2 and a half hour flight, which was rather interesting. We traveled on a smaller and lower budget airline, which generally leads to questioning how the flight might be. In addition, I was out of motion sickness medicine, which had me concerned, since we were on a smaller plane. I did not get sick at all, thankfully. We had fun watching all the other people on the plane, crocheting, etc. We even enjoyed an end of flight exercise session led by the flight attendants. It was a rather pleasant flight.

Once we made it to the airport, we cruised through immigrations and happily walked away with just our bookbags. We were able to exchange American currency that we had with us from January and then got Airport Express passes that would take us to and from the airport. We took the Airport Express to Hong Kong Island, a 30 min trip, and got a shuttle from the Express to our hotel.

We stayed at the Empire Hotel. It was pretty nice considering the price we paid for it. We were not expecting that they would require a 500 HKD ($65 USD) deposit that evening to check in to the hotel, so we surrendered all but 100 HKD of our currency. We then walked to a McDonald’s and grabbed a quick meal just before their midnight closing time, since that was about all we could afford :).

 We slept for the night and planned out our couple of hours out the next day prior to our departure. We checked out early, retrieved our deposit, and headed in search of the nearest Starbucks (a real treat for ourselves!). We both enjoyed an Asian Dulce Latte, which you can only get on this side of the planet! We walked around and got to see what Hong Kong was like and saw quite a few familiar stores, including 7-Eleven and Circle K.

 We then made our way to Times Square to see what that was about. There was a rather large mall, and it was made to look a bit like NYC. We found a Forever 21 that carried our sizes, and each opted to buy one pair of shorts (since we have none with us) instead of having a more pricey lunch.

Soon after, we headed back to the airport, where we ate lunch. We checked in and waited for our plane. Unfortunately, after boarding, our plane was delayed for an hour due to weather. This would not be a big deal, except for the fact that we were trying to catch the metro in Shanghai before it closed for the night. We landed in Hong Kong at 8:50 pm and had to be on the first part of the metro by 9:30pm in order to cross the platform by 10pm. We literally ran to immigration and had the officers chuckling at us being in such a rush. We got on the train right at 9:30!

On the Airport Shuttle

Kinda cool city view

Finally on the Metro again!

We took the train for 90min and then decided to go to a different stop, where it would be easier to get a cab. We accidently got off at another airport and after seeing a line of 50 people waiting for cabs, decided to go to the last stop. At about 11:30 pm, we got in a cab that was just waiting there. We paid very little to get home and were so glad to finally get there.

Just another adventure to put in our book!

Until next time…

Blythe

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Hello Lovely Friends and Family,

I want to share with you about this week and what has been happening on our end of the world. As I have told you about in past posts, I got a job with Golden Kids International School. However, they encountered quite a few problems with opening and acquiring government approval for the construction of their campus. This past Monday, I was asked not to come to work and was told I would be informed of the next steps soon. I waited for almost two days to hear the decision on what was to be done.

The company decided that they would not be able to open the school until September, possibly. Therefore, they tried to offer us positions in the head office until that time. They offered me a position that was a decrease in my salary and would require nearly and hour and a half travel to and from work each day. I could do this position until the school reopened or keep it if I decided to. I told them I needed to talk to Justin about it and decide what to do.

I know that it seems that having a job is better than not having one, which is very true. However, this position would require a lot of sacrifice. One sacrifice would be a decrease in pay. Another would be spending 3 hours on public transportation daily. Thirdly, I would not be home but to eat and sleep. I would not be able to take part in any of the youth ministry activities and I would have to quit tutoring. With all of this sacrifice and a lot of factors in play, the offer was just not good enough for me.

We put together a counter offer and requested help with transportation, etc. Justin and I spent two more days praying and seeking counsel about this situation while in wait. We made very specific requests to God in prayer and asked that he make the right decision very clear to us. Today, we received a call from the company concerning their decision. They gave us three options. The told us we could stay with they original offer including a 10 RMB allowance for transportation, we could leave with an additional half months pay, or leave and get a recommendation letter. I knew in that moment that I only had one choice, because the additional 10 RMB would not help alleviate the travel at all, so we chose to leave with the pay.

To all of you out there that have been praying for us so diligently, we greatly appreciate it. We know that we are here for a purpose and that we have to seek God in all that we do. We know that with all that has happened this week, we have made the right decision, and we have incredible peace that only God can provide because of it. We are also very thankful for an incredible loving and caring community here that has supported us so much. We could not make it without them!

I will continue to seek work and do what I can to help support us. Justin has some exciting prospects on the horizon, which may be just what we need. Please keep those in your prayers as the details are worked out.

We also have to come home in July for multiple reasons. We are hoping that we can save the money to get there, because the company had promised to help get us home, which will not be happening. We have to buy tickets fairly soon in order to get them at a reasonable price. Please pray that God will provide the funds to do so.

Also, if you are willing and able to provide us financial support, please contact me at blythe.ure@gmail.com. I will arrange a time to give you a call and talk to you about how you can help. It looks like we will need $3,000.00 USD to get home in July and we will need to purchase tickets in about a month to get them at that price. This has been very unexpected and we are asking for support in whatever way you can help.

We are believing that God will work everything together for our good.

With Love,

Blythe

Feeling Like I am in a Valley...

Hello out there,

I hope everyone is doing well as we move forward from the Winter and into Spring. It seems that Shanghai is beginning to develop some color for the new season and the sun is peeking through the dreariness that has clouded us for a while. Nonetheless, the last week or so has left me feeling a bit weak and weary.

Last Monday, I was very sick with what I think was a sinus infection. My brain was clouded, my nose was stuffed,  and even a little movement resulted in a headache. I decided to call in sick to work, because I could barely even talk, much less teach. On my day home sick, a series of unfortunate events unfolded. Sunday night, we had a lovely dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread (which we have dearly missed!). However, when we went to do dishes, we discovered that the faucet was no longer attached to the rest of the piping. This resulted in the kitchen floor flooding and a ridiculous pile of dirty dishes. So, the next morning, while I was home sick, we exhausted our small supply of towels and still had a soaked floor. Our only solution was to close the kitchen doors and block the water with the already drenched towels.

Notice the towels and the bowls trying to contain the water...

I then made a quite pathetic and frantic call to our friend Beili (mind you, I had no voice), explaining that we had to have this repaired and now. We have had quite a few problems getting repairs done in our apartment, so we could not let this go, like everything else. The repair man from our complex came pretty quickly and turned off the water and told us we needed to go purchase a new faucet so he could replace it and left. Within a couple of hours, the faucet was replaced and the water turned back on. However, we now turn the knob right for hot and left for cold. We know we could fix this, but we would take the risk of breaking something else in the process.

We still have some other lingering problems in our apartment. A washer that floods the floor when we do laundry, no lock on the back door, and a hot water heater that has to be reset at least once a day. Justin and I also have a major leak in our room, which we found out is a problem for the whole first floor in our building. It was not treated properly when it was first built and the result is a rather soggy and mildewy wall. After a long discussion with our friend, and bypassing the agent (who we found out was not passing information on to the landlord) we are hoping to have these repairs done without too much more frustration. Each item in itself is manageable, but altogether, they are rather overwhelming.

A small portion of the wet wall

The water seeping in through our window

 Later in the week, after my illness subsided,  I encountered some difficulties at the school. The main difficulty was lack of communication between myself and everyone else. After I came back to school, I was told that I would need to make up my sick day, which did not coincide with my contract, so I had to set that straight. Then on Wednesday, the principal had a meeting with someone from head office and it resulted in a lot of third hand information. I was told that the principal was quitting, the other teachers were leaving, and the principal who came in to assist with marketing was taking over (even though she has her own school). This was all passed to me through a series of three people, so I had no idea what was really the truth.

The next day our principal did not come to school, and showed up later to collect her things. The second principal left halfway through the day and we were dismissed early by a very angry principal who was leaving. We were told that the one student would be asked to leave until the school was ready. When I arrived Friday morning, we had no principal at all and were told we would need to tell the mother of our student that he could not come on Monday.

Thankfully, I had a Skype call with my supervisor that afternoon, and was able to get some clarification. She notified me that our school is not able to recruit students, because we do not have the appropriate license. To get the appropriate license, we must build a playground for the students. A playground area is ready, but we have been unable to build the playground, because we have to get the permission of the community. However, there is no community leader, so we do not know who to get permission from. The solution: Close the school temporarily and pass out papers to the whole neighborhood asking for permission. Whew! I was told I might be working from home in the next week or so, in order for this task to be accomplished.

I went home for the weekend and incurred terrible neck and shoulder pain to the point that I could barely sleep or move. I tried to deal with it the best I could and hoped it would go away, but it did not. I eventually made a pleading call to my friend to see if she could take me somewhere for a cheap massage. I am so thankful that she did, even though she was hosting guests. The next day, I felt much better.

This week at work has been interesting. I have not been working from home, and the student has still been coming to the school because the mom just leaves him. However, this is causing problems for us, because when inspections are being done, they want to fine us for having students on campus without a license. On top of that, work that I have done to decorate my classroom, has to be undone, which is very frustrating. I am not sure what to do while at work, so I just wait. Thankfully, there is a holiday this week, so after today, I am off until Monday. Below you will find pictures of the neighborhood, the school, and my class.

Current building we are using

Second building in progress

The road where we are located

Compound surrounding school, mostly international

Wishing there was a die cut

 

Morning circle, all handmade and individually cut out!

As you can see, progress is being made. Unfortunately, we are now at a stand still. For me this is very challenging, because I highly value productivity. When I ask what the next step will be, the principal responds with, "I don't know." I was also very excited at the prospect of students and being able to teach, and I now feel stuck.  I need a lot of prayer, we need a lot of prayer, so that we do not get discouraged in this. Please keep us in your prayers.

Sincerely,

Blythe