A Letter from China

'M & A'. Posted on 22 June 2009.

There are thousands of opportunities for native English speakers to teach English in China. The door is wide open! Restrictions on the open sharing of your faith vary from college to college. ‘M & A' are our longest-serving English teachers and their lives and witness have had a powerful impact on literally hundreds of young Chinese students. Here they share the situation following their move to a new teaching situation in a comparatively small city:

Here we are, by the grace of God, and we give Him praise for His intervention to make another year in China a reality. The school is a further education college for students whose academic level is not high enough to gain entrance into university. Their hopes of getting a job after their two years here are very slim, given that even university graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to find employment in a highly competitive job market. However, we are here not only to teach them English, but hopefully to encourage and motivate them so that they can face life positively no matter what happens after they graduate.

Our schedule is pretty full with 16 hours of classroom teaching per week plus preparation and other extracurricular activities. We both teach listening and oral three times a week. ‘A' takes the two first-year classes (of over 50 students) and ‘M' takes the two second-year classes (of around 40). ‘A' teaches writing once a week, while ‘M' takes another small class of younger students who had dropped out of the education system and need to catch up. Overall the students' English level is much lower than where we have been before, especially in listening and speaking, so we have to gear our level down and build up from where they are. We had some fun with the first years last week choosing English names, getting to know the students and building up their confidence and motivation.

We have settled into our flat, with a few teething problems still to be ironed out, most of them to do with various pieces of electronic equipment - our hotplate cooker, the computer, washing machine, water filter, the wok! All these modern conveniences are the things that cause the greatest frustration - if we let them! The early pioneers definitely had an advantage over us in not having to cope with such problems!

Apart from these minor problems, our flat is quite comfortable. One of the things we thought would be a problem was the traffic noise from the busy main road, which runs just outside our bedroom and office windows. During the day there is a lot of heavy traffic - trucks and buses grinding/roaring along blaring their horns. However, we seem to have adjusted to the noise and it hasn't bothered us too much. China is a very noisy place, so we have come to accept this modern pollution as an inevitable part of life here.

Our greatest adjustment is having to restrict our speaking to students about the things that we love to share. Because of the restrictions that have been imposed upon us we are unable to talk about anything to do with the Bible or the Lord Jesus. We can't share the hope there is for those who are lost and hopeless and have never heard where they can find hope and direction. We can't mention anything that would stimulate students to think about creation or the deeper things of life. We are literally forbidden to speak about these things on penalty of expulsion from the school and from China. We realise that we must comply with these directives, as we have been strongly warned what will happen if we don't.

It grieves our hearts that authorities can prevent people from hearing the Good News so freely available to us in our own country, a freedom which we so often take for granted. ‘M' was talking to one of the students who was telling him how worried she was about her future. He felt so empty and grieved in his heart not being able to offer her any real answers - not able to share with her the real hope there is in knowing and trusting our Heavenly Father's provision. We are bringing this burden before the Lord Who is also grieved but is in control of all things and sees the hungry hearts who are searching for something more.

We are asking Him to show us how we can be effective in our witness and He is showing us new strategies. A word He has brought to us in the last few months is from Isaiah 43 where it says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland... I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they might proclaim my praise." Although we are silenced, His Spirit is free and His Word is not bound. We are asking that we would be filled to overflowing with His Spirit so that our good works will shine out in such a way that people will see we are different and will recognise His life in us. Pray that they will ask us "why?" and then we can give them a reason for the hope that we have.

Another strategy the Lord has shown us again is that we are to be "watchmen on the walls" and take our place to "stand in the gap" as priests before Him. Across the road from the school there is a lovely hill planted with trees, shrubs and bushes of many varieties. A 20-minute walk takes us up to a vantage point over the city - and the school campus - a great place to proclaim Who is Lord over all other authorities. As we walk around the campus, we are also aware that because He is in us, He is also in the school, whether they want Him or not! He is interceding in us all the time. We are learning how to let His love flow out of our hearts to touch those around us, even without opening our mouths.

A surprising and delightful development in the last couple of months is that we are having contact with a number of previous students and we have been able to do some watering and fertilising of the seeds that have been planted during previous years. Some of the students are now teachers in this area; some are doing further studies at the local university. Other students are contacting us by email and we are able to encourage them by writing.

These opportunities are wonderful and make us aware that the ways of our Father are not bound to our limited expectations or previous experiences. Certainly the Lord can bring about His purposes in spite of man's attempts to control and restrict us. All these experiences are causing us to depend more fully upon Him in everything and bringing us into a new rest for we see that the work is totally up to Him. We make ourselves available and He will use us when and how He wishes. This is the rest He has called us to - to cease from our own works and to enter into His work. "His yoke is easy and His burden is light."