One month

Hey everyone,

It has been exactly one month since I returned home from China. The Olympics have come and gone, and all of the blissful, harmonious excitement that went along with them will soon be washed away as "life in America" starts to take over again.

School, work, presidential elections, hurricanes, celebrity scandals, social drama; all of these things will soon occupy our time and the TV stations, and the glory of Beijing will soon fade away into the thick, foggy, humid background of our minds.

I've been really busy lately, which is somewhat bad, because I still have not completely finished unpacking, but also it is very good, because everything in my life since returning has been full and bright and wonderful. I have had a lot to do either way.

But, I know that I will not forget Beijing. I will never forget Sichuan, or the people there, or the people at T.I.P. that I worked with, or my students which I grew close with, or the way that I found God alive and well in both in the big smoggy city of Beijing and also the remote rural farmlands of Shiban village in Sichuan.
Everything I experienced in China was beautiful and unforgettable, and my memories of these places will not diminish as the headlines do.

I am thankful and fortunate because I was asked to speak at my church one Sunday and share about my trip. It was a blessing being able to pass on the things that I was blessed with while I was there.

But also, a large part of me knows that so many stories are still left untold - that there are countless things I must write about, somewhere, here, even, but then so many more that I will be unable to tell.

I still need money to pay off my debt to teachoverseas.org - so I'm going to write letters about my trip and send them out soon.
Hopefully that will be a good way to summarize my thoughts.

Also, I've added more pictures to my older posts, so go back and read them!

Xie xie!