How’d we get here...?

It must have started long before we were aware of it.  God was shaping our lives, our experiences, and our hearts to GO and TELL.  For Adam, it began after spending a summer in Lake Tahoe with CCC. Over the last few years of college and after graduation it was developed through the opportunities he has had. For Jess, the awareness of the tug on her heart to go started when she was young with pictures and stories from those abroad and from their biographies.  God must have thought we would make a good team and had us meet! We were married in June 2006.

 

Just a week after getting married, we departed on a three month trip to six different countries, to see firsthand what God was doing around the world.  We also thought we would return with a better idea of where God might want us to go long-term.  A little less than a year after our return, we decided to return to China.  After arriving, we have witnessed God's providential hand in placing us in this location. We are confident that this is where He wants us.

 

So here we are, committing ourselves to learning the language for the next two years.  It is our prayer that God would give each of us several key relationships here this year. Some have already been started.  In this university we desire to be the light of Christ.  We desire to give our utmost to Him who has given His Son for us.

Over the next two years we plan to master the Chinese language. Come on...how hard can it really be? Well, maybe not...but it would be nice to at least know what we’re ordering for dinner. We love China...even with all it’s quirks and oddities. When we’re baffled about something here we just say, “it’s China.” We love the people too. We’re excited to see what the coming years hold!

For those of you who don't know Chinese, you're probably wondering what in the world Waiguoren means. Waiguoren

[外国人]  is literally translated  "other country person." We chose this name for two reasons:

1. The obvious is that we're now residents of China and are foreigners here.  (We hear the word waiguoren all the time!)

2. The second comes from Hebrews 11. In verses 13-16 it says, "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one."