Thanksgiving in Beijing

I hope everyone enjoyed being with family over Thanksgiving.  It's hard being away from family, knowing that everyone is getting together and eating really well.  :)  We celebrated with our "family" here.  We have a couple in our small group who is so wise and they have really adopted Jeff and I and offer great counsel to our lives and the lives of our small group members.  The Brills are from up-state New York and are getting ready to move back at the end of December.  We will miss them terribly.  We spent Thanksgiving with them at a restaurant that serves a set dinner that is actually pretty good.  The funny thing about the menu was that it included a coke, sprite, or fanta I think, but they were not going to let the Brills substitute a Dt. Coke.  This is very typical of Chinese culture.  They follow the rule and do not make exceptions, even if it seems illogical to us.  Why would you include a coke, but not a Dt. Coke when they are the SAME PRICE??!!  This kind of thing happens a lot here and it's a common joke.  Robin decided to take it to the manager and explained very nicely her reasoning.  They agreed to allow for Dt. Cokes. 

Last Saturday, our good friends, The Johnsons also had a wonderful Thanksgiving gathering of about 40-50 people.  Yes, they had all of those people over in an apartment and had wonderful hospitality.  TJ fixed two turkeys and everyone brought sides and desserts.  It was fun being with our friends, and we even watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. 


Cancellation

So, I'm going to talk in code talk for this entry because it has some sensitive material.  Ha!   

Last week, our church was supposed to hold an international leadership conference at an off-site campus here in Beijing.  This leadership conference, started and put on by a big church in the U.S., is an annual conference that is broadcast around the world, now in various locations in other countries.  Praise God!  I'm not going to name it, but you might be able to guess it.  While it's foundation is christian and has a christian message, the actual conference is for leaders and has various big named speakers who talk more on leadership development. 

Our church was holding one of the broadcast sites and leaders from around China were coming in to attend.  Well, as you may know, China has been transferring their leadership powers within the party over the last several weeks, so "things" have been pretty locked down.  For example, Jeff and I were training for a half marathon, but they post-poned it till after the political meetings because they did not want large groups congregating in the city. 

Last Wednesday, I believe it was, we got the call that there would be no worship music at this leadership conference, but now our worship team could just attend the conference without leading everyone in music.  Then that evening we got word that the whole conference was cancelled.  Basically, it was expressed that we could not have a large gathering that same week as the political party.  With it being in an off-site (not our regular building) location, we wonder too if they wanted to show that we still have limitations here in Beijing. 

It was definitely a reminder that we are still in China, there are still limits to what we can and cannot do in reaching the Chinese people.  Please pray for the Chinese government and people.

Biker Chick

Vroom....Vroom...

I have taken the next step....

Even more "local"....

Maybe a little crazy some would say.....

 Don't worry....

I wear a helmet.....

I drive slow....

And Jeff has decided that I can't have all the fun, so he got one too!  

I don't have a pic of him yet, but his is black and a little smaller.

Fall Favorites

We've been having a great fall!
 

Tired in the taxi

This weekend it snowed in Beijing and we have hit freezing temps, so I think our fall is over.  It's going to be a LONG winter.  Here's what we've been up to....

Soccer Practice every Saturday

 Grace amusing herself with mommy's phone during soccer.

Michael Jackson Party
My son loves Michael Jackson's music.  I don't really know how it started, it really didn't start till we moved over here, but he has several buddies who equally like to dance to his music.  So, my friend Tara hosted a Michael Jackson party at her apartment.  I bought hats from the silk market and white gloves.  I bought sticky sequins so they could make their own sparkly gloves.  Tara provided music, food, and games. 

Jack's good friend Leila

Her little brother Eza

An apartment complex near ours had trick-or-treating this year!  We went with Grace's best little friend, Sara.  Sara's father is from Hong Kong and her mom is from Malaysia, although they have lived in the California for an extensive time. Unfortunately, Jack started feeling sick, so he had to go home a bit early with Jeff.  That's ok, we got to celebrate again over at our friends' house on Saturday.

Jack's buddy, Josh, as Darth Vader

Grace and Sara

Picture with the apartment host