Never Enough Time!

We hope that this blog finds all of you well and enjoying this fall season! The leaves have changed and fallen already here in Karamay in hasty anticipation of the coming winter. Every morning the sun sleeps in just a few minutes later and says goodnight to us much too soon after eating dinner. For those of you who live far north you might be able to relate to how that makes your day feel just a little bit shorter. Although I’m not a firm believer that “time is money” (some moments are just priceless), I do believe that just like money you can never seem to have enough time.

Such is our life here now! We’ve finally settled into a good routine for us, and although we are technically working fewer hours than we did in the States – we both teach about 24 classes a week each averaging 35 min – we find each other exhausted at the end of the day spending an hour or so planning for the next day’s activities. We have bought a large quantity of movies and yet have had time to watch maybe 10; I brought my guitar here expecting to be able to practice daily and yet I have to work hard to find time to play even on the weekend. Most nights Tiff is completely exhausted and unable to keep her eyes open while I too fight the sleep monster. We went out to eat with some good Chinese friends of ours tonight, one of whom is a teacher at the school, who said that if she were Tiff with all her extra classes and all of the extra things she does (and the school continues to ask us to do more!), she would not be able to handle it. That coming from a Chinese teacher who sleeps at the school some nights during the week because she works so late! All that to say that although we love our jobs, it has been a bit more work than we had once anticipated.

Ok, enough of our woes – I’m sure most of you who read this have lived life long enough to have much more heart-wrenching stories! We try to continually remind ourselves that we did not come here to work; we did not come here to make money; we definitely did not come here just to get away. We came here to make an impact on the people we meet here, an impact that goes beyond the English language. We may be short on time, but there are many things that we have been blessed with. First and foremost, Tiff and I have been able to keep time in the Word both individually and together – something that I think is daily strengthening our marriage. It has also taught us quite a few things in light of our work. If you ever find yourself feeling like we have this past week, overcome by work and responsibility, open up to Ps 90:17. Tiff found this one while reading and it was a good reminder to us that while we may work, it is not us who makes our work effective and enduring, but Him.

 

We leave you with this thought: I don't think it is who you work for or where you work; it does not matter when you work or what line of work it is. What matters is why you work, for what we do is transient while what He does is enduring.