PAY. IT. FORWARD.

To repay the good deeds one has received by doing good things for other unrelated people.

The premise — based on the book and movie “Pay It Forward” — is to act without the expectation of being paid back, but with the hope that the recipient pays the favor forward by helping someone else.

A few weeks ago I bagged up a ton of Grace's clothes that she had outgrown and took them to my school to give to one of my students parents. The clothes were still in perfect condition just too small. We LOVE hand me downs in the U.S. so I didn't think anything of it. When I brought them to the school one of my Chinese co-workers asked me what I was doing with the clothes and I told her I was going to pass them on to one of my students that was a little smaller than Grace. My Co-worker immediately said you can't do that here, did you ask the parents in advance? You can't do that at the school. I didn't understand. She basically said that it would embarrass the parents if I did that here and I needed to ask them in private first. She said we don't do stuff like that here in China. I told her it wasn't targeted at anyone in particular, just that I didn't want to throw the clothes away and wanted someone else to use them. She continued to tell me that it would be VERY uncomfortable if I offered these to the mother without talking to her about it first.

After hauling them back home that day, I left the clothes bagged up in our apartment for a few weeks. I knew that there were tons of people that could use these clothes, so I decided I would take them out into the courtyard of the community while no one was looking and just leave them there for someone to go through on their own.

I went back into my apartment and within 5 minutes I looked out of my window to see a crowd of grandma's and moms gathered around the bags of clothes, checking them all out and all choosing some to take. They looked so excited all chatting with each other and showing the others what they got.

I realized in that moment that sometimes it feels even better to do something for someone without expecting a thank you in return, or without being noticed.

I recently read a quote from Max Lucado that said " Do good things. Just don't do them to be noticed. You can be too good for your own good." How awesome is that... Love it, and it's so true.

It reminds me how great it feels when someone has done a "random act of kindness for me" or paid it forward by helping me. I think the world would be a much happier place if we all we made it a goal to "pay it forward" at least once a week. It doesn't have to cost anything. You never know just how far it will go when you do something nice for a stranger.

I believe each of us has the power to better someone’s life simply by doing small favors, somtimes anonymously.

I'll leave you with one last quote by Max Lucado that I love ....

"Slay the desire to be noticed. Stir the desire to serve God."

God Bless,

Jessica

Dora the Chinese Explorer...

Grace has a lot of friends here in Shenzhen, but I think Dora is quickly becoming her number one "bestie" .... Grace's sunday school teacher told us today that they are as thick as thieves in children's church. During worship service all the kids stay with the adults and these two hold hands and sing like little old church ladies.
I have never seen two little girls hug each other so much. These two girls are PURE JOY.
What's even more amazing is the family that Dora is blessed with. She has two beautiful, parents who love Jesus with all of their heart. After church today we went to lunch with a bunch of friends from the church, and we sat at a big table with Dora's parents and her new born baby brother. Her parents speak great English, and her father actually preached the sermon this morning.

As I was talking with Dora's mom about her family and children, we started talking about the fact that she has two kids. In China there is still a very strict one child law and I very rarely make friends here that have two kids. She starting telling me her testimony and I couldn't believe my ears.

She said that when she became pregnant with her second baby the police were sent out to her house to arrest her husband and to take her to a facility to force her to have an abortion. Because they are Christians they refused to do this no matter the cost. They packed up little Dora and were on the run until they made it to Hong Kong where they were free to have their baby in a hospital there. She said that no hospital in mainland China would allow them to be admitted because they already had one baby. Today they are blessed with two incredibly beautiful and healthy children.

I admire Dora's mom and dad so much. They probably will never know just how much their story touched me today.

Today I am even more grateful that I come from a place where I am free to do just about anything I want. They asked me today how many kids were we allowed to have and I told them as many as I want. I could tell they were in awe.

They have a video testimony that I will post soon... Just wanted to share their story.

By the way.... Grace thinks her friend Dora is the REAL Dora the Explorer.. After all she does have the same hair cut haha! :)

Our Stomping Grounds in China

One of the courtyards outside of our building. In the afternoons this area is FILLED with grandma's and grandpa's and their grandchildren.




Our Building... and there's actually palm trees here. I love that, one thing I never expected to see here!

Another Area where all the grandparents in the neighborhood mingle.

Community Ice cream and drink store we frequent quite a bit!

Heading to the community pool

This is the community pool for the residents in our neighborhood. We usually get swamped with our kindergarten students when we are there. So much fun.

We were VERY surprised to see this pool after our school moved us into this neighborhood... I never expected this for sure!

Swimming Buddies



One of my students Caroline and Grace playing in the pool together.

I'll post more soon... this is just to give you a glimpse into what our neighborhood looks like :)

Help us build a Children's Ministry

We are so excited to be apart of a "fellowship" of new believers who are hungry, growing, and VERY excited about their new life with Christ. Recently one of the directors asked Jon and I if we would be interested in helping this church get the ball rolling on a children's program.

Most Chinese people who have become Christians have no clue what to do for the children during the service. They have NEVER been to a church like we all have back home, and so they don't even know what "sunday school" looks or sounds like. We will be starting from scratch providing materials, children's bibles, snacks, activities, you name it. We are going to Hong Kong where there are tons of Christian book stores and will be picking up things to help these amazing families create a program for their sweet children.

If you are interested in contributing please message me. You are all apart of this journey and we couldn't do it without you.

Just thought I'd share what Grace looks like most afternoons...

When your blonde hair blue eyed American daughter goes to kindergarten in China... she will probably come home looking like this every afternoon...

Her teachers LOVE her, and LOVE playing with her hair. I just brush her hair and let them take care of the hair do's on school days. She comes home with something super cute and VERY Chinese just about everyday haha! :)

Summer is here.... and it's a cool 110 degrees outside. Fantastic ;)

Wow, time has flown by since we arrived in January. We are now weeks away from our "summer break"... Our kindergarten school lets out on July 15th until school starts back on September 1st. Funny thing is that school starts back on September 1st no matter what day of the week it is.. Strange isn't it?? Anyway we are looking forward to the break, and also excited about some cool things that have fallen into our lap in the last few weeks!

We have been asked to train and register with one of the local orphanages in Shenzhen to be apart of their "Weekend Outing Program" which is designed to help abandoned children get out into the real world at least twice a month. Some of these children have never been out of the orphanage. Many of them have never been to the park, the grocery store, etc. The weekend outings are important so that the children can get one on one attention which is something they never receive on a regular basis in the orphanage.

Also one of the churches we attend has asked Jon and I to step in and help create a children's sunday school program. There are a lot of families at this fellowship with babies and young children, but because this is ALL new to them they have NO clue where to start with a program for the kids. Please pray for us as we get the ball rolling on that too.

Well that's all for now... Please keep us in your prayers as we take on new challenges this sumnmer!

Jessica