a brief word from Kyle

Well, here we are... It's Saturday afternoon here, so I finally have a moment to sit and gather my thoughts and actually write something. Actually, I have had time but I have been so busy last week that, by the time I could actually post a blog, sitting at a computer is about the last thing I want to do. It has been a bit of a whirlwind week for me, but I now have a week of experience teaching here at DMLIS behind me and I have gotten a pretty good handle on what I will need to do to do a good job and yet not lose sight of the real reason and motivation that we have to be here and breathing.
Kell has already given everyone a brilliant snapshot of the many challenges we face here in China, so I'll spare you a repeat of those details. Suffice it to say that we have been adjusting surprisingly quick, but it has definitely not been easy. However, there are so many things that I already love about China, in particular the area that we live in which is called Jinshitan. I am getting pretty comfortable fumbling my way through the language barrier as I search crazy little local shops for the myriad of things that we need for our apartment. The people are all very friendly, even though we seem to be a spectacle wherever we go. Even the students around the school do a double-take when they see us rolling as a full crew and stop and stare, wide-mouthed, as we pass. Almost invariably, I hear shocked whispers of "san ge...?!(there are three of them)" and they are usually surprised when I reply in Chinese, "yes, that's right, I have three children." After that I get almost cheers as they give us a thumbs-up to congratulate us on our apparent lunacy. Often, women will jump in front of the stroller to stop us so they can get a closer look at John. There seems to be a definite preference for boys here, although Lily and Zoe draw a whole lot of "piaoliang! (beautiful!)" as well.
Our experience with church here has been interesting. There are alot of believers here among the ex-pats, and we are going to start meeting here in Jinshitan instead of going all the way into Dalian, but it still remains to be seen what form it will eventually take. At any rate, I am still hopeful and expectant that God will bust through and invade our gatherings. Time will tell...