Abundant Blessings

Hello friends and family,

It's me again! We have been staying busy here with the school year coming to an end and people preparing to voyage to all countries of the world for the Summer. I have now been tutoring a couple more students in English writing, have begun a class for children of Ayis, and have begun to volunteer at the hospital teaching English to the nurses. My plate has been full and overflowing with adding on little tasks here and there for end of the year church activities. It is great and I would not have it any other way!

I wanted to let everyone know that our church here has been so gracious and blessed us with the money for our tickets to home and back! So we will be coming home June 25th and returning to China on August 6th. We have tourist visas until December, but are hoping to work out the details so that we can get working visas to stay here until the Summer of 2014. However, that is all in God's hands and we are waiting on him to see where he leads us.

With the many jobs here and there and the gift from our church here, we have been abundantly blessed. Justin has even had some opportunities arise here that have been beneficial for his studio work that may lead to something greater. We have even seen God come through on some tiny details that were more wants than needs, also. Justin and I love going to the movies and we have been wanting to see a movie here. However, our limited budget has disabled us from doing so. Nonetheless, one Sunday at church, when I was sick, a man from the congregation approached Justin and told him "Thank You" for what he has done for the church. He handed him a bunch of movie vouchers to his theaters and an envelope with some money for us that has significantly helped us in paying our bills for the next month. We were blessed enough that we can even take people that have been such a blessing to us out to the movies. We are so thankful!!

Justin and I will need to raise money to try to help out with some needs that we have here in China. We will need money for bicycles (a means of transportation), for help with some luggage expenses and items we will need to purchase while home (toiletry items and other things that are hard to come by here), and for visa expenses. If you can help out we would greatly appreciate it! Any help is one step closer to supplying our needs. You can contact me via Facebook or through email at blythe.ure@gmail.com about these needs and we can arrange a way to transfer the money.

Thank you so so much for your prayers and we cannot wait to see you!!!

With Love,
Blythe

Birthdays, May Day, and Gatherings

The end of April/Beginning of May has been filled with a lot of celebration for us here in China. May 1st is a holiday here and it is celebrated in conjunction with Labor Day. For this holiday, people got off April 29- May 1. However, they had to work the Saturday and Sunday prior in order to make up two of the three days off. So confusing! Regardless, and holiday in China is an opportunity to celebrate.

Also, our friend Beili's birthday is May 3rd and Megan's birthday is May 8th. We opted to do a big birthday celebration for the two of them and originally chose Sunday May 5th as the celebration date, which lands between the two birthdays. However, Beili told us it is "bad feng shui" to celebrate after your birthday, so we had to do it earlier. With this being said, we celebrated their birthdays with lunch out at a Japanese restaurant on Sunday April 28th.

The restaurant was a lot of fun. We enjoyed delicious fish plates and lots of sushi. We were so blessed to take part in the celebration. After our lunch, we went to Dairy Queen and had blizzards for dessert. Later that night we enjoyed lemon zest cheesecake made by the lovely Joy. We definitely got spoiled even though it was not our birthday!

Following such a great Sunday, we were invited to the house of our friends Brian and Joann for a barbecue during the holiday. They have a beautiful modern home here in Shanghai with a nice backyard including a pool. On top of that, he works for a furniture company and had awesome outdoor furniture. If the weather had not been so cold and rainy prior to the barbecue, we definitely would have been in the pool.

They generously prepared coleslaw, potato salad, and vegetable skewers as sides to a meat overload. We enjoyed steak, hamburgers, barbecue chicken, and buffalo chicken. So delicious!! This was followed up by a board game new to Justin and I called "Settlers of Canton." After a little while we were victorious with beginners luck! We have already been challenged to a rematch to test if we have skill or just luck.

The following day, we were unexpectedly invited to yet another barbecue. This was slightly different though, because it was hosted by a Singaporean family. We had beef, pork, prawns, and fish patties on the grill. There was definitely a cultural difference, but it was equally as delicious!

The best part about the barbecue was the company. We met some of the family's friends and colleagues. The father in this family works in film production for commercials and we met friends of his including a photographer and two film editors. Justin and I really enjoyed their stories of living all around the world and what they have experienced. We have plans to go to Karaoke the next time they are around. I also got to hang out with the family dog, Jay Jay, who has become a great friend of mine. A little comfort because we are unable to have a pet while here.

I also had the privilege to watch some kiddos the next day while our church staff had a dinner at the pastors house. I enjoyed time with these kiddos and was thoroughly entertained by Kenneth!

He wants to be the Hulk when he grows up and wanted to make sure you could see the wings...

I have really enjoyed the cultural exposure here in China. However, I am very thankful that I can now wear shorts without being stared at quite so much since Labor Day has passed. Bring it on warm weather!

Until we meet again,
Blythe :)

Reflections on the Holy Spirit

It has been an interesting couple of weeks for me. With the youth group, we are doing the Alpha series. This week was the session about the Holy Spirit. In preparation for this, we were asked by some of the adult leaders to choose a day this week to fast and pray for the students as a couple. When I received this email, I immediately thought about how Justin and I both have health issues that disable us from really being able to fast. I got really frustrated and just felt like I did not want to answer the email.

Nonetheless, I did and I committed Justin and I to fast and pray on Wednesday of this week. When Wednesday rolled around, I woke up and then realized that it was fasting day. I was feeling sick and really wanting to start my morning with some coffee and breakfast and I was not able to. Also, plans had rolled out for the day and Justin was set to help with a video recording which would leave me at home, not feeling well, and really wanting to eat.

Sadly enough, the day got crazy quick, I forgot to pray with Justin before he had to leave, and then I gave in to eating something anyhow. I felt like a complete failure and felt like my efforts were worthless. Justin then contacted me and told me that we were invited to a barbecue that afternoon. I was thinking, “Of all of the days, God, really?”

That afternoon, I packed up my stuff and walked to our friend’s house where they were having the barbecue, and we really enjoyed our time and the food. All the while, I felt pretty guilty for not following through with my commitment. The next day came and went, while I hustled and bustled around and we still did not pray for the youth.

However, this morning, I woke up determined that I would pray about the Holy Spirit session and how the youth would be affected and would encounter this topic. When we sat down to pray, though, I realized I had NO idea what to pray about. The topic of the Holy Spirit has split up churches and people around the globe and all of my life I have done what I can to avoid any conversation about the Holy Spirit, because I HATE conflict.

So, I prayed a bit and then just felt like I did not know what to do. I even got pretty nervous about the fact that I had to have a discussion with a small group about the Holy Spirit when I had no idea what to say. I looked over the questions for the group and thought, “well, these are not to bad…” and went on with my day.

Before I continue with my story, I will rewind a little bit. I promise, it is valuable information. I grew up in a church where it was not common to see people speaking in tongues or healing people. When I first saw this happen, I was really weirded out and did not know what was going on. It just made me very uncomfortable. I encountered it here and there in my life, but when I saw it to the extreme on TV or somewhere, I really thought that people were just acting crazy and faking it all to make themselves look good or “more holy.”

This last summer Justin and I went on our first mission trip together with our church to Guatemala. Justin had been on one other trip and I had led quite a few up until this point. I had seen many instances of miraculous healing and spiritual gifts in action and so had Justin. However, this trip was a little different.

The leader of the organization we were with judged our team from the moment she met us. Because of our outward appearance, she immediately called our spiritual maturity as a team into question. From that point forth, we were treated as though we a lower class version of Christian than she was. And just to be clear, this was not only a perception, because she even said that we were.

Because of such treatment by her, I immediately rejected advice and counseling that she tried to offer in various forms. She was adamant about “being filled with the Holy Spirit” and what that meant in her terms. Nightly there was a time that she prayed for people and it was about them being filled with the Spirit to the point that they fell out and lost control of their bodies.

Do not get me wrong, I have seen these events occur before and believe they were very real. The problem was not with the actual events, but with the motivation behind them. She used them as a way to elevate herself above us and act as though she was more holy. Because of this whole experience, I have been very resistant to any talk or actions revolving around being “filled with the Spirit.”

Going into youth this weekend, I was not sure what to expect, because I am working with a completely different group of people. I was just terrified of having a similar experience as the one we had in Guatemala. During our youth night, we watched this video. I do not think anyone has quite captured my belief about this and so clearly. I was a wonderful video to watch and felt like God was speaking directly to me.

The night ended up going incredibly and we had an awesome opportunity to pray over all of the students. It was refreshing to me as well, because I had so much fear and bitterness about the topic, which seemed to just wash away.

So many people, so little time...

Lovely friends and family,

As you know we came here for a couple of reasons, but the most important was to reach the people here for whatever period of time we could. One of the biggest realities that has hit me since being here is that there are A LOT of people here. Driving down the road, you pass by one compound after another of gigantic building housing tons of people. It is one of those things that you cannot believe until you see it.

I think the moment this became a reality to me was during Qing Ming (or Tomb Sweeping Day) at the beginning of April. Qing Ming is a way to honor those who have passed away by visiting their graves and redecorating them. It is also a time to celebrate the coming of Spring.

I was running late the day prior to the holiday and decided to take a taxi instead of a bus. When I got about a mile away from where I needed to be, traffic came to a complete stop. After waiting 15 minutes and watching the cost of my ride increase, I decided to get out and walk. There was a cemetery on the street where we were stopped and everyone was trying to get to it. This is what I saw on that walk...

As I was walking in the pedestrian lane, a car honked at me to move because it was driving in that lane. It would have taken possibly another hour to get to work if I had not walked. This is just a tiny illustration of how many people live here.

With that being said, there are so many people here that need to know about Jesus and it seems as though it would be impossible to reach them all. I made a friend named Sherry, who was my co-teacher. In the time that we were working together, she expressed to me that she is a Christian and was very excited that I am too. Since we no longer are working together, she wanted to meet with me because she misses me.

The beautiful Sherry!

I met up with her at the metro station and she decided she wanted to take me to Pizza Hut, because it is a "Western restaurant." On top of that, she had brought me a gift of some items for my home. She is just too sweet! When we arrived at the Pizza Hut, I was ready to order a pizza and some drinks, but she had something different in mind. Pizza Hut in China is like eating at a nice restaurant. You get appetizers, an entree, and dessert. It was slightly bizarre for me, but the company was fantastic. :)

While we were talking, she caught me up on everything that had happened since we last saw each other. Then, we started talking about church and doing volunteer work. She was expressing to me how she felt so bad for the poor in China and how she desperately wanted to help. She also told me that she wishes that people who know about God could teach those in China who do not know about him. She has such a sweet spirit and a sincerity about her that is beyond anything I have experienced.

After having dinner with her, I realized that I am so thankful to have met her. I want to continue my relationship with her and try to connect her with other Christians in China. I am glad that I can impact the life of one person in China who can help impact the millions here!

Please keep Sherry in your prayers when you think about us. I have so much more to share... Hope to get to all of it quickly!

Sincerely,
Blythe