I’m looking at the clock on my screen as I type this, taking way too much time thinking about when we should try to actually go to sleep tonight given that we need to wake up at 3am in the morning for our 26-hour-long journey. Let me know if you have suggestions. Any way I look at it, it isn’t looking too pretty.
We are going again to a university a few hours from Beijing for what is known as English Week. The going again is significant. We’ve had teachers at this school for nearly 9 years now, starting back in 2008 when two young guys took a big risk and said yes to moving to the other side of the world to do big things. Those who led this whole thing before us trusted that the one who cracked those doors open the doors to work there to begin with would sustain and grow it too. Here we are. Going again. Packing our bags to lead a team of 18 to go serve up a camp-like week to hundreds and hundreds of students, coming alongside the 5 full-time teachers there now.
The school administrators are excited. The students are buzzing. And, the teachers are ready for some reinforcements to work alongside them and encourage them in what they do everyday.
It’s all good, especially for me because my hubs is leading the team and leading me. I’m a little anxious…of course, I am. I always get nervous before these trips. Every. single. time. (okay, so I may be entirely predictable.) I don’t know what shakes me up more–the fact that I’m leaving three of my babies here at home or the fact that I’m taking my 11-year-old baby with us for his first trip to China. Oh, it’s going to be a wild trip experiencing it with him this time. Maybe more than that, we are very aware that we are on the cusp of significant work this coming week and, therefore, very likely a battle.
Here we go…again.