A little over a month ago, one of my friends asked if I was interested in taking a Chinese calligraphy class. Of course I said yes! 🙂  I’m always looking to learn new things.  Calligraphy in Chinese is “shufa” (sounds like ‘shoe-fah’).  Mr. An and Mr. Gao are our teachers for our class.  They teach the class in Chinese so I’m also looking at this as a way to improve my Chinese listening skills!  I love the class!  These two men have always wanted to teach a class of foreigners.  We also have a translator for the class.  It’s pretty awesome!  Below are some samples of my work. 🙂  I hope you enjoy them!

This was one of the first phrases that we learned. You read it like this: top right, bottom right, top left, bottom left. It says 心平气和 which is a Chinese idiom for "to be calm". Our teacher reminds us that this should be our "state of mind" when we write calligraphy.

This is "cha". It means "tea".

These two characters are 'xiang' 香 and 'cha' 茶。Xiang means "fragrant" while cha means "tea". I just wrote them over and over. 🙂

In other news: I’ve agreed to perform for my class again. Don’t ask why.

Also: I just found out today that my Wednesday class is taking a week off because it is Tsinghua University’s 100th anniversary.  Sweet. I wish it was the following week.  But, now I have the day before my mom visits to clean my house. 🙂 (yes, folks, she is my surprise visitor–winner will receive their cheap Chinese souvenir when I return to the states.) She comes in just over 7 days!!

Lastly: Remember my friend Tom? Tom, his wife, my friend Jacob and I are going to meet on Friday night to eat some food and read some BOOK.  The beginnings of a new study? Perhaps! Maybe I can help them to lead a Chinese one!  He might very soon become the leader of a Chinese house ch–ch. (HC — easier and safer to write) He’s on fire for the gspl and takes every opportunity to learn more about the BOOK.  (When our study friends introduced themselves during study last Tuesday, Tom said his dream job was a pstr 🙂 and when it was his wife’s turn to tell her dream job, he leaned over to her and whispered, ‘pstr’s wife!’ hehe….)

I don’t know what (if anything) you know about HCes in China but some are “registered” with the government and some are “unregistered.”  The “regestered” ones are legal. The “unregistered” ones are not.  In recent capital city events, there has been an interesting development with one very large “unregistered” one.  I can’t remember the name of the HC but quite a few of our study friends are members at this HC.  A few weeks ago the gov’t has taken away their place of wrshp (reasons aren’t clear) and they were without a building.  (we are talking 900-1000 members).  Their congregation decided that they would not let this stop them from meeting together so they planned to have wrshp outside. This is not legal in China. When they tried to wrshp in their chosen place, the park was conveniently “closed” that day…hmm…  They tried again this past week.  Keep this congregation in your pr-yers. They need them desperately.  Technically, the wrshp that we American’s have together is also not legal, but I think that the gov’t looks past it (if they know about it) because we are foreigners. Even if they didn’t look past it, the worst thing (most likely) that would happen to us is being deported.  Our Chinese friends have much greater difficulties. Pr-y for their safety. Pr-y for their leaders. Pr-y for the country’s gov’t.  I imagine it was a similar situation for the NT Chr—ians in Acts. Read 5:29. How about the following verses…especially vs. 38-39?  Jump back to chapter 4 vs. 18-20.  This book has become much more personal during my time in China. Keep pr-ying for these people! I imagine many of them are willing to risk their lives for the sake of the Gspl.  Oh, if we could all be so bold!