Unblocked!

so a fairly random event showed me that Zanga has been whitelisted by my favorite countries Government - this is great. Its been years since I've used Zanga due to the block, and I'm a totally different person now. I look at my last entries and I feel like I'm pretty awesome.... world traveler for sure, a bit philosophical, and arrogant enough to put a picture of myself on the beach on my frontpage - thats going to have to change. And now - I'm a dad of two kids, I stay home for breaks, I'm an athletic Director, and I have altered a Marvel comic logo to say 'Harvel' and I'll get that picture up here as soon as I can. I don't know if I'll stick with zanga though - I've become a Windows Live fan.

I'm in charge of something that might be bigger than something that I should be trusted with tomorrow. Soccer tournament, 22 teams and around 280 people to take care of. We'll see what happens. In some ways it seems small - its just this thing thats going to happen and then its going to be over and forgotten, and in other ways it seems huge.. because its a ton of work to get something like this ready. right now it seems small.

Sonya, my oldest girl is two and alternately sweet and precosiouse depending on the weather. Levi, he's 8 months and loves to smile, they are both cool kids and they both gave me a hug when I got home today - first time ever. very cool. In other cool news I got a dairy queen ice cream, which is awesome because I havn't gotten one for at least half a year - I've been going for the 9 kuai mc donalds blizzard over the 17 kuai dairy queen one to save cash - but the dq product was so much better I can't believe what I've done. Plus this way I don't have to go into McDonalds, which always leavs my clothes smelling rather pickelish.

this is such an intersting entry. I must have some words to get out. I learned this week that there is a direct correlation between thoughts per sentence and a future of Ulzheimers disease. Very straightforward writing with one thought per sentence gives about an 80 per cent correlation with an Ulzheimers patient. Sentences with several thoughts in them, or even hidden meanings belong to people who tend to have strong memories until the end. Exception to this rule: Agatha Christie - lots of thought density in her writing and still lost her memory at the end. Very sad. I would encourage everyone in the world to start litening to the RadioLab Podcast. Its super cool.

It has come to the time of day where I will attempt sleep. Good night.

Currently Listening Magical Mystery Tour By The Beatles see related

Gotta love the Sweet Taste of India....

  I think this will be mostly pictures.. but that's how we like it anyway right?

I'll try to put them in order.

In case you don't know... Sara, myself, and 3 other leaders took a handfull of korean and american students to Bangalore india to do some cross cultural ministry - never mind that we live in china for the moment ok?

In two words. It rocked.

More than I could have ever imagined. I don't know if I have ever seen a clearer evidence of my God going before me and preparing the way for his work to be done - for his love to be shared - in order change both the lover and the beloved.

We visited two organizations 1. Touch india ministries and 2. World Vision - both organizations rocked, and both had issues, both had a total heart to see people learn to love God.

Touch india sponsors the Thomas childrens home - a christian school whose enrollment is 1/4 orphaned children, and 1/2 enrolled are from the 'untouchable' class of India

 1000 kids in this school Kindergarten through 10th grade - guess how many teachers?? 20. They have 110 kindergarteners in 3 rooms - no toys - no napmats- no crayons - no playdough- no fingerpaints - no computers.  And the principal is volenteering. yep.

The orphans come from a nearby 'hostel' called thomas memorial childrens home for the needy. Here I was amazed by what I met. 

They were praying for US on the left there - for quite some time I might add. Directly above are some big smiles next to Sara.

At the orphanage we just played. We bought some balls and threw kids in the air and caught them and did majic tricks and played tag and sat in the shade - it was good. One of the wardens said she saw one of her charges smile for the first time ever. There are 250 orphans at the hostel - which is in desperate need of more staff. There are perhaps 20 beds for the whole lot of them - no chairs or desks or anything like that - just a big floor and a roof over a large room. There are some bedrooms off the sides - but most of them don't have anything that would lead you to recognize them as bedrooms.

Touch india also sponsored a slum school. The Thomas shchool  (above) is about 6$ a month for tuition - but for the unsponsored orphans and city kids who cannot afford it - there is a free school.  Kindof a one-room school house bit. K- 6 all together.

We didn't even have to do anything to make them smile - they just started laughing when they saw us  - (it might have had something to do with our promised trip to fun world that got them out of school for the day... maybe)

These kids had problems too - they were not orphans, but sometimes living with the parents is a hard blessing.

The World Vision visits were rough - but also cool. World Vision did a great job at empowring the local desire to improve thier destitute situation, and then sharing the gospel with them in the process. The rescue process is much slower this way - but also more permanent. We visited some classes that were tutoring sessions for kids in forced labor - they were afraid of our outstreached hands. We visited an Aids help center for children born with Aids - we played with them knowing that they would not live to be 13 at the most. We visited slums of thousands of families living in cement and stick houses, living in open sewers, and visited a child-led organization to educate the slums for child and womens rights in india. It was another planet.

Everything was both great and terrible. Great was our God Terrible was humanity. There was always hope. At one point we were with a classroom of kids who were from abusive families. We feared we had met our match. No amount of dancing and handshaking and singing would produce a smile. It wasn't untill we were actually leaving, and the kids figured out that we weren't there to harm them that they were ready to feel the love we had offered - at the last possible second hope showed up and smiles broke through, we were able to have a very happy farewell - complete with flowers.

Our students enjoyed it to say the least - us leaders are still reeling from it actually. I'm confident God was pleased  

Ahhhh christmas time is nearly here!! Just two more weeks of school....

I like Christmas for lots of reasons.. and I guess they are the same reasons as everyone else.. but here in china.. lots of things are extra special. 

For example, every year of our marriage so far, sara and I have made a gingerbread house.. which has been nice.. but this year... sara would have none of it.. we were going to make a gingerbread CASTLE or bust... so... here ya have it.. the colossal ginger bread castle... its really large - I can't explain it to you except to have you come to my house.. its big.. and entirely edible.. we plan on eating it in January.

Pretty Big eh?

Christmas in Qingdao has gotten lots better from the first year here.. The first year, there were no christmas trees, no lights, no celebration.. not much anyway - except for a misspelled "Mary Christmaas" banner infront of sunnyworld plaza. Now there are trees lit up at every store - lots of lights everywhere, and even English christmas music playing in the big grocery stores.. its kinda nice.

I heard 'Joy to the World' in chinese the other day walking past a store.. it was a cool thing.

This is probably the biggest tree in town.. the jusco tree - its our grocery store

It seems to be a little over decorated near the bottom.. but hey.. beggars can't be choosers right?

This store has also installed a Starbucks - which really helps the christmas spirit from time to time - a little hot chocolate goes a long way - even if it is the same as a quarter of my grocery budget for the MONTH!! =)

Sometimes Sara and I stay in for a date - since its starting to get cold.. you don't really think about the ramifications of a date when you have no car - its not good to get frostbite on your way to a romantic dinner.. so sara and I make our own... One of Sara's favs is below.. she likes the sushi with a side of cheeseburger and gatorade.. its a classic

Sushi really is good - from what I hear..... my problem is that I really like the effect of the wasabi - I can't taste anything but that little pill of green goo that I put on my raw fish.. it clears the sinus passages for about 52 hours... its so cool.. The other day I accidentally ordered wasabi covered cucumbers... wow.. they were kickin' !!

I found out that wasabi is actually an antibacterial agent - which is why we still have Japanese people today.  Eating all that raw fish.. they ingest amazing quantities of bacteria without getting sick.. how do they survive the germs?? Oh yes.. the magic killer ingredient - wasabi - you can actually feel things dying inside of you when you get too much.. its great.

This last picture is one of our fair city that Sara took today - you can see those new towers being constructed?? Yes.. your correct - they are huge. The square building closer to the towers is where our fellowship meets - on the 25th floor it provides quite a view - these new buildings are monsters though - you can't see here, but they are supposed to be sail shaped to help commemorate the upcoming olympic events in town.

Good news - I don't know if I've ever asked you to pray for shawn park before.. but God has just turned on the Spiritual juice in one of my 8th graders... the kid is incredible. He's kinda what the world needs ya know?  He's one of those guys that eveybody loves, can make anybody laugh  - and yet is still a real person with deep feelings and thoughts - he's wildly popular, and he's been really standing up for his faith lately - testimonies in class and out - witnessing to his friends and everything.  He's a cool cat.  Unfortunately for us, he's moving to Beijing next year - but its soo cool that our Father has given him what he needs to prepare for the move - its extra cool because I know that He is also preparing Beijing.

Things are good - perhaps great. Lots going on in the Harvel world but it would bore you to hear me tell it all so I won't

Hey.. Mary Christmaas in advance.

-Jason

Currently Gaming WarCraft III Expansion: The Frozen Throne By Blizzard Entertainment see related

Thanksgiving

It has been a GREAT Thanksgiving.

The week leading up to thanksgiving was a bit hectic, but the weekend was sweet.

The weekend began with a High School basketball tournament, which we received a first, two seconds and a last - so lessons learned on every level. 

We had our thanksgiving meal on friday because it worked out better with our friends, so thanksgiving day??? yep - PIZZA!! the worlds greatest food.

We went ahead and held youth group friday even though it was a holiday weekend.. cause.. yeah.. only the Americans have a celebration during the break - the kids thought we were crazy to cancel youth group just because Americans were going to be eating more than tier normal gorge.

Sara and I found some new places in town, and saw a couple nice parks, and we even got a new view- Qingdao is nice.(This is a summer shot of a similar view) 

I broke out the winter coat this week - sad to have to do it, but its always nice to see the winter clothes come back out. I found a huge cannon at an old fortress in town from WWI

We found a couple trees that changed color. We both have colds - so we're ugly, but we were happy to find a colorful tree.

God is still doing great things!  We have 12 kids going with us to Bangalore India, and one of them had an anonymous donation for the whole price of her trip - God is good isn't he?  Sara started her 'Justice Mission' curriculum today, and once again, God used random events to prove his lack of randomness - the first video lesson was from India, and we honestly didn't know till it was time to show.

New bulbs.

So.. today we were at a department store in town and we're looking for a rather odd shaped bulb for our kitchen. We get to the store and find that there is only one such bulb left on the shelves, and the box has already been opened, and the little plastic seal has been broken.  The bulb however seems ok.  So we go to a nice attendant lady and ask her if they have any bulbs whose boxes have not yet been opened - responds 'yes'. 

She leaves and comes back a couple minutes later saying 'here is your new bulb' Except that she hands us the exact same box that we originally gave her, except for this time the box has tape over the opened part. What can we do??  We say thank you and buy the bulb. 

P.S. When we get home, we find that the previous owners of the house left an extra bulb for us to use when the need arose.