Getting Orientated...and welcomed

Steve here.  Well I've been on the ground in Jingmen City for 3 full days.  It's been a bit of whirlwind as I came in right before a holiday.  Yeah, even though Chinese New Year doesn't start until February, they go ahead and celebrate Jan 1 also.   It's been pretty hectic as I've been led from place to place.  Everyone here is very eager to make me feel welcome and comfortable.  In fact, if anything, I wouldn't mind having some alone time!  The first day I was welcomed at the Factory....

First day meeting

The company had a big welcome meeting for me.  Everyone greeted me and said what they do.   A few brave ones attempted speaking English.  Dana will have some work to do to get some out of their shell!  I was given a huge bouquet of flowers. 

This welcome continued with an evening dinner.  In this area of China, hot pots are a common method of cooking.  The restaurants have round tables with a rotating center so you can spin to your choice of food when you want it.   Lot's of new things to taste as the food here does not resemble the "Americanized" Chinese food in the states much at all.  There's very little fried items, lots of fresh vegetables, and let's just say....interesting meats (Pork, Duck, Goose, Chicken and more that are worthy of their own blog post).

 

That's my boss in the center.  One of the uniformed factory workers is next to him.  They may have used recycled army fatigues to make the uniforms - who knows.  My uniform will be a simple collared light blue shirt with blue slacks.   

ALL ABOUT THE FOOD

The eating has continued for the last two days.  The "go to" place is near the factory in the new development zone.  They advertise local food, and they aren't afraid to show some of it off inside, or outside:

Breakfasts have been taken at the company cafeteria.  The cook is a nice guy they call "Mol".  Noodles are standard (this type is made by hand only in this local region) and really good.  There is also long sticks of fried dough.  My new favorite is this kind of flatbread on the right.  I took the leftovers back to the room today!

Did you notice the orange juice in the background.  Jingmen is famous for its Oranges.  Even though the average weather here is nearly the same as Greenville, they do not experience the deep cold snaps we have in the US southeast.  This allows citrus crops to thrive here.  The oranges have thin skins leaving much more room for juice.  Yummy!

I have a good backlog of post-worthy material but that will have to wait.   I have been on the go in the last couple days getting to know the area and the upcoming work.  I'll do my best to get back to the blog soon! 

First Full Day in China aka "It all comes down to food!"

Stephen had his first full day in China.  It started with breakfast...

The cup you see in the upper left of the picture isn't filled with coffee or even tea. It is warm milk. Not his typically morning beverage but you drink what's available. 

He did find some 3in1s at the Walmart close to us. We were introduced to 3in1s in Romania.  They're basically instant coffee with the sugar and creamer already in them. And yes, I mean an actual Walmart. I think I'll save that for a later post with pictures.  :)

Then he headed to the company. They greeted him very warmly! I'm guessing he spent most of the day getting the lay of the land. We haven't heard any details so I doubt much work was accomplished today.

This evening they had an employee dinner to welcome him on board. 

The center of the table rotates so everyone can serve themselves from the "hot pots" that contain the food.  He's even using chopsticks!

All in all a good start to this adventure!

Sovereignty...

Stephen is on his way this morning. Around 2:30am we were both lying there awake, I guess to make sure the alarm at 3:30am could be trusted. We talked about the things we were excited about, the things we were nervous about and the things we didn't even know were coming. But mostly we talked about G0d's sovereignty and how it's easy to say we believe it. We talked about the Truths we were rehearsing to ourselves. We both know it is so very good for us to go. Our personalities need the refining fire of shockingly out of our control life changes. We know intellectually that things here aren't in our control either but our lists and our plans and our organizational skills mask that fact and deceive our hearts. We go into this new year and this new adventure knowing there will be very hard days...but that those days are coming for our good and His glory. And we're trusting that the L0rd will give us many amazing moments, people and experiences as well.

...and so we go

We're moving to China in a few weeks. Steve will be overseeing an aircraft design and Dana (and Maria during the summer) will be teaching English.  That's a bit overwhelming at times but it's just for a few years and then the work comes back here. We see the L0rd's hand in this and so we go, confident in His sovereignty and His faithfulness. Confident because we've experienced Him so many times before.