KennedysOnline

Zach’s class is greeted by the villagers

Two weeks ago, Zach’s 3rd grade class joined last year’s 3rd graders for a trip to the country. A village pre-school was their destination. They left at 8 AM on a Saturday, and returned around 3 PM. Though they were only gone 7 hours and drove only 2 hours from home, the kids who left that morning returned home changed.

This little village is within the same province (Tianjin) as our major city by the same name, but the lives of her people are vastly different. Last year, the 3rd grade class at our school raised money to have windows added to the classroom walls. The school has no electricity, so without lights and windows, these preschoolers were learning in a cold, dark room. The students from our school wanted to visit again this year, and invited the current 3rd grade class to join their friendship with this little village.

 

The children’s classroom (now with windows!)/ village view with corn drying in huge piles

Zach was nervous about going, especially since neither his dad or I could attend. He was frustrated that he wouldn’t be able to speak Chinese well, and wasn’t sure how he could help. Since both Daniel and I feel this way alot, we certainly sympathized with his concerns, but strongly encouraged him to see what G-d could do through him if he was willing to be available.

 

The low building is the bathroom (adults are too tall to stand all the way) surrounded by drying jujubes (one of the local crops)/the inside of the school’s restroom

Thanks to another mom who is fabulous photographer, we were able to catch a glimpse of just how much G-d had in store for Zach that day.

Zach (in the orange pants and blue sweatshirt) greeting the children and their families – for those of you who knew him in the States … this is not the same painfully shy kid … he is brave and kind and willing to take risks when it matters. We are so proud!

Zach playing a game in Chinese – here he is being asked to be the “hao pengyou” or good friend

The current 3rd graders (Zach’s class) will be visiting the school again in the spring. Their teacher will be working with them to develop a service and fund raising project for a need that they as a class identify. We are so very thankful for the many blessings we enjoy – and also for the times we are stretched and refined.

** for more great pictures and commentary about this special day, see our friend Kimberly’s blog entry: http://gesweinfamily.com/?p=767