After six weeks, Lent came to an end yesterday.  It was a long and hard season for me.  I started out in the U.S., waiting for visa...

When I was going through the hard time I wrote about a few weeks ago–which felt a bit like a long season of Advent waiting–one of the...

My Chinese class just finished reading an essay about emperor Kangxi, one of China’s greatest emperors.  Somehow in our discussion,...

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday.  I love the memories from when I was young and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins gathered...

On my last trip to the Great Wall, about five minutes after I arrived at the top of the wall, a kid (maybe about 12) mustered up the...

Matchmaking is alive and well in China.  Not through an official matchmaker, but through everyone’s efforts, especially those over 50....

Spring comes quickly in Beijing, and quickly proceeds to summer.  We hit the upper 80s already at the end of April, as we usually do....

This past weekend was a 3-day holiday in China, for the traditional Tomb Sweeping holiday.  I decided to do something that I would find...

One of my favorite memories from the time I was in the U.S. this fall was teaching several groups of people to make Chinese dumplings....

My first project after returning to China was finding a new apartment.  The landlord of my previous apartment sold it, so I couldn’t...

Every time I post about my attempts to cook Chinese food, American friends who have lived in China ask about The Green Beans.  This dish...

Shortly after I arrived in China, I visited Yuanmingyuan (The Old Summer Palace) for the first time.  That was in October, and I could...

“Every lament is a love-song.” –Nick Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son, pg. 6 I’ve been crying a lot in the last few days.  Its a little...

Spring has arrived in Beijing!  Actually, we had a day or two this past week that felt like summer was about to arrive (but most people...

This post is a reflection on what living in China is teaching me about Lent—the six weeks when the church remembers the suffering and...

Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year) comes to an official end on Monday.  Throughout these weeks, a couple people have said something...

This winter, instead of taking a vacation some place warm and sunny, I took a trip to Michigan.  Even though January is arguably one of...

A year ago, encouraged by Velvet Ashes, I picked a word for 2015.  I honestly wasn’t completely sold on picking one word, so I didn’t...

Last winter, I saw snow on the ground ONCE, and it wasn’t very much snow.  Winter was cold and dry.  After surviving the previous winter,...

Foreigners in China have a phrase, “this is China,” sometimes abbreviated T.I.C.  It is usually used to describe situations that don’t go...