Friday, December 23, 2011

Part 2 of my trip report- Finally!

Dear friends,

Here is part two of my trip report about Beijing and surroundings. I have been asked by several to get this posted. Sorry for the delay. I have had major responsibilities at our regional missions conference, a dear friend from our growth group went to be with the Lord (her memorial service is today), a visit from my brother Paul's family, a trip to Denver and Christmas and events surrounding that. So, I have been busy.

I received an all clear for now from my oncologist. I almost had surgery this Wed. to fix the position of my bladder's neuro stimulator. It got dislodged from the correct location on the back of my right side when I fell down steps in the summer. The insurance clearance didn't come in time, which is sad since my whole deductible was met and it would have been 100% covered.  I will have to wait and see if we can afford it sometime next year.

Some of our 16 at the Fritz's on Thanksgiving ( ;
All our kids were home last weekend and Allison is now in Madrid with Tyler and his family for Christmas. Jenni leaves on Monday so she can be at work on Tuesday, and Laura plans to leave on the 30th for Baltimore and then Bradford, England until the end of March. She will continue working with Greg from there. Jesse leaves on the 1st. We are enjoying our time together very much!

Here are more touring pictures of my time in China and also some of our training.
One day we got to visit the Cultural Park in Beijing. As the picture at the entrance implies, all of the 56 people groups of China are show cased. They have sample houses and performances by the various 20 somethings from these people groups wearing their ethnic clothing. We enjoyed getting our picture taken with several of them. 



This was one of the sign posts in the park. At one point some Chinese girls came up and asked to have their picture taken with ME! I guess I was a rarity there!
After a Dai dance program, they demonstrated a water festival. They took smaller containers and dipped them to fill them with water, and then flung the water at each other. It was to signify pouring blessings on each other. Pretty neat!
Try to imagine these figures down in a lower courtyard that isn't open yet. They are made out of metal and are life sized. I could only show you a few here. There were many more.  These are women riders playing polo!
 These jade carvings are tiny and done in the sides of a 8-10 foot high solid piece of jade. They are only an inch high. Even the chain above to the left is carved out of the solid piece! Amazing.

Here I am teaching. I can't show you pictures of our students. I can tell you that the 28 students at this training in the country was fantastic! We had 3 days with them and taught 8 to 5 and in the evenings. Kimberle and I took turns teaching for about an hour at a time. We covered about 25 topics, some for 2 hours. We gave them time to apply what they were learning by writing their own materials for the programs they are doing. These were 3 network leaders and the rest were Sunday school teachers. They were from 6 different areas.

We taught approximately 25 topics over 3 days. Kimberle and I switched off with each other. We taught from 8 to 5 and again in the evenings. One thing we have them do is to draw their community. This gives us an idea of how their area is layed out and what things influence the lives of the children. This one shows a Buddhist shrine near the river that the kids go by every day. They set a goal of  at least one new way to reach out to the children in their community. 

Here I am teaching about discipleship. I love teaching this lesson. I came up with these pictures to help explain the process.

Another thing I enjoy doing is teaching about object lessons- how to do them and demonstrating some. If you don't have visual aids, you ARE the visual aid!

Here is my lesson on how to write a Bible lesson. You didn't know I could write in Chinese, did you? ( ;  Again, we have them take what we have given them and actually write a Bible lesson they can/will use. Then it is practical training that they have learned and are already using. They absolutely LOVED being taught how to do this! And we loved teaching them!



This is the 4 hats Gospel presentation. First we are born with a veil of sin which separates us from God. Then Jesus came and gave His life for us and provided a way to a restored relationship with God- a crown of thorns. If we accept what Jesus offers, we trade in our veil of darkness for a helmet of salvation. When Christ comes back or we die, we are wearing one of these 2 hats. Either the veil which means forever separation from God, to helmet which gets turned in for the crown of life- eternal life with God in heaven. Which hat are you wearing?
 This Gospel presentation is the 5 Shirts. First you have green. The girl on the left was the only one with green on. She represents creation and has her arms up like a tree, signifying man one with God in relationship before sin entered the picture. Then we had someone with a black shirt come up to show how sin put up a barrier between man and God. Then a red shirt to show how Christ's sacrifice provided a way for man to be back in relationship with God. The white shirt shows how through prayer our hearts can be cleansed and we can be restored to a personal relationship with God. Lastly, someone with a gold or yellow shirt comes up to depict heaven, and our eternal home there if we have done the prayer shown in white. Each of these is shared with scriptures. It is easy, costs nothing and you have participation. You can use it anywhere in the world no matter what your budget! (The blue shirted guy was our translator.)

 These are some samples of our training. I hope you get a feel for what I do when I go train overseas. I am gearing up for a big trip at the end of Feb into early March and am beginning the fundraising process. I would be honored to have you join my team financially and consider supporting me. I have to raise about $5000 to go. Just write me an email at nancyfritz@aol.com and let me know. I will get you the information you need. You will get a tax deductible receipt.

God bless you and Merry Christmas!

Nancy Fritz
509-990-8465