ONWARD Page 2 March 2005

HOLLI FLYNT FROM CHINA

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I realize it has been a long time since you’ve heard from me, and I want to assure you that I am well, but very busy.

Tianjin is China’s third largest city and our school campus is located practically in the city’s center… we are close to everything. My co-teacher Sheila and I are learning the bus routes slowly but surely.

Although we are in the middle of the city (approx. 10 million people!), it amazes me how quiet it is at night when I go to sleep. So quiet, that I’ve even been able to imagine I was in my bed in Kernersville, surrounded by woods rather than cars, and people. Mornings are a different story. I’ve found that the Chinese tend to go to bed early and wake up early, as well – my opposite! When I asked a student why he wakes up at 6:00 am when his first class isn’t until 8:00 am he kind of looked at me in surprise said, “It’s my habit.” I only wish that my habits were as good!

My bedroom looks out at a canal that goes through the city. Every morning groups of people (mostly elderly) come to the canal to do their morning exercises. These consist of walking in place, rotating their arms or slapping their legs to stimulate circulation. I should probably go outside and join them, as I recently discovered one of my students considers 31 to be middle age! In that case, I’m practically in the last half of my years.

All kidding aside, in the weeks I’ve spent with students, I’ve come to realize that God chose these people to be my students long ago, and He also chose me to be their teacher – there is a reason that I was sent to Tianjin! There are about 94 students between Sheila and me and so far I only know about half of them fairly well. We just switched our students, so now I’m teaching the other half. I teach three days a week and have found that this by itself is not nearly enough time to form close relationships with the students.

God is answering our prayers, though. As the year progresses, more students are showing up during our office hours, just to chat with us. Every Thursday night we have about six students over to our home to hang out with us, and most recently we’ve started inviting students who are not from Tianjin to go out to eat with us on Friday nights. I’ve heard the school food here is not very good, but I must admit that I haven’t tried it myself – the food at my school in Shanghai (six years ago) was so bad that I’m too scared to even try school food elsewhere!

We have found that the students we’ve invited to dinner so far have been touched that we would want to buy a meal for them. It’s also been a wonderful opportunity to really talk to them about things other than schoolwork. The girls we took out last Friday asked us if we prayed before we ate and then told us that the average Chinese is atheist. One of the girls said that sometimes she believes in God, but that if she prayed her family would think she was very strange.

This same girl told me that night before that the monotony of life gets her down (I’m paraphrasing here), but what can she do – it’s life, so she must live it. Several of her classmates agreed with her. Please pray that all of our students can find joy in their lives – that they will see joy in our lives and want to know where it comes from.

Sheila and I have a small Bible study every Wednesday night (it’s rather strange to lead a Bible study with only one other person!), and we have recently been invited to attend another Bible study with five other ESEC teachers at a school nearby. Even though we’ve only attended that Bible study twice, it has already been such a blessing! We have been able to eat wonderful, home-cooked North American meals (I say North American because the woman who cooks each week is French-Canadian) and to be part of a strong fellowship with the other teachers – three are from America and the other two are Canadian. I am very grateful that they felt led to invite us to participate in their study.

I feel like I should write more since I’ve been so slack in letting everyone know how I’ve been, but I know that if I don’t stop soon, I’ll keep writing and never finish this newsletter. It a vicious cycle!

Thank you, everyone, for your prayers and thoughts, e-mails and phone calls while I’ve been here. I apologize that I’ve been so poor at contacting you first, but I want you to know that I haven’t forgotten you! Just thinking of you all back at home brings a smile to my face! In Him, Holli

P.S There is another ESEC teacher in Tianjin named John Per-lee. One day after our group’s “foreign fellowship”, John and I ended up sitting next to each other at lunch. He and his family came to China from the Atlanta area, so we already had much in common.

John asked me where I was from, and I said the Winston-Salem area because, while Kernersville is a great place, most people from out-of-state have never heard of it. I figured if I said Winston-Salem, he might recognize the location. I was right! John said that he had some clients from Winston-Salem, so he was familiar. As we continued talking, he said, “Now, my mom, she’s originally from Kernersville.” I nearly choked on my tea! It turns out his mother is Dorothy “Margaret” Kerner (an associate member of KMC) and a member of the founding family of our fine town!

John knew about Moravians, Korner’s Folly, and all the major landmarks at home. His mother is a sister to the Rev. William Kerner, a retired Moravian Minister, and a member of Kernersville Moravian Church.

It’s amazing how truly small the world is, isn’t it? Whenever I want to reminisce about home, there’s someone in Tianjin I can do that with. Praise God!

(From the Kernersville Moravian Church Newsletter)