January 5th, 2010

Dear all – This is the beginning! It is 10:56 AM in the Atlanta airport. I’m sitting at terminal T11 waiting on my plane to Chicago. I’ve checked through security with no problems (thank the Lord!), with my guitar and computer. I’ve already shed quite a few tears about leaving for this semester, and I want you to know how much each of you mean to me. I’ll be praying for you when I’m gone. I’m fighting off the urge to whip out my guitar right now and play it, but I think my fellow passengers would kill me. So I’m refraining. The letters for this semester are going to be a little different from the last ones that I sent. First, I have A LOT better idea of what I’m getting myself into, and I’ve such a better plan than my last trip to China (even though I think that the whole trip worked out fairly well, to say the least). I’m also going to try to pay more attention to you, the folks who are reading this. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m not enjoying my trip by filling these letters with negativity. I want to paint the most objective portrait of what is going on in China, and to also let you know the things that I am learning. If you think that I’m being negative, LET ME KNOW. Even though I’m not to China yet, my journey has already begun. Passion 2011 has been amazing, and I think that I’ve been more convicted than ever before at this conference. And it has been great to see the Lord working in the lives of those who have been with me. It has also been amazing to share this Passion with Morgan – my girlfriend, if you didn’t know that – as this was our first time to spend a Passion together. If you’d like to know some more about Passion, just let me know, and I’d be happy to share. But this is what has been the best thing about the whole trip: On Monday night, we were getting ready to listen to the main speaker, and Louie started to talk about the growing Church in Mainland China. We got to see some shots of the Passion Conference in Hong Kong (as Passion cannot be held on the Mainland with current Party norms). One of the attendees, Jesse, came from Beijing with a group of 20 college students. After attending Passion, Jesse was back in Beijing and was visited by a reporter from BBC. She talked to the reporter about the Church in China, and it was so great to hear what she said about her ministry. As Louie always does, he had brought Jesse from Beijing to come to this Passion. Jesse prayed for us in Chinese (which was awesome to listen to), and all I could think about was how cool it would be to meet her while I was in Beijing. Throughout the conference, I kept getting sicker and sicker (sinuses), and by that night, I was done. I took some NyQuil at James’ house and slept till noon the next day. So while the rest of the group was there the next day, they saw Jesse. They met her and talked to her about me going to China. Morgan got her phone number and email address for me! I’ve already emailed her about my trip, and I’m going to meet her while I’m there. But that’s not the best part. Jesse is studying at the Foreign Studies University of Beijing, which is located in the HaiDan district (University District) of Beijing. I’m going to MinZu University, also located in the University District. So I looked them up on Google Maps, and our two universities are located across the street from each other! I can’t wait to see what the Lord if doing in Beijing. With this said, I’m going to have to be pretty careful about what I say in these emails. I don’t want to implicate any of the Beijing students or reveal any names, and I want you to pray for protection for these students as they share the gospel. If you have anything sensitive that you would like to ask me, code it or send your thoughts to Morgan, so that se can tell me. If you’re saying something that is a euphemism, just use italics. Also, I may try to write a blog vicariously through Morgan. If so, I’ll send you the link to the webpage. Otherwise, I’ll just keep up the email list. By doing a blog, it’ll be a lot easier for me to share pictures and such, cause Morgan can just link them to the blog, instead of me having to load them on FB with the sketchy Internet connection in China. I’m saying goodbye to hamburgers, leggings as pants, Greek life, free access to information, big cars, hunting, guns, American movies, worship services, and all of the other things that make my life in America what it is. I’m jumping into the capitol of the largest country in the world, with the fastest growing economy in the world, the land of white rice and fried pork. If nothing else, this will be a culinary adventure, and I’ll keep you up on the crazy things I consume. Hold down the fort! Love, Jamey