It takes real Commitment

There are things about living in China that take real commitment. For one, as believers, we have to be proactive about our faith and the spiritual input that we get. Times of prayer, worship and the Word are all things we have to work hard at cultivating in our home and in our hearts - and for the moment, do not have the luxury of having these things handed to us at a Sunday service. Kyle also has to be proactive in the language - finding every opportunity to emerse himself in his learning and bare the most fruit from this experience. Even though we live in Beijing, finding this emersion takes constant effort which is why we are so pleased that just this week he managed to find himself a language partner. And finally we have to be proactive in our support of our National team during this Rugby World Cup; because not only do the Chinese not even have a name for this game called "Rugby", but they do not make results or games accessible on their Chinese TV.

We are 6 hours ahead of everyone in SA...and let me tell you that 6 hours is a big difference when main rugby games are being aired at 9pm European time. It took quite a lot of determination and effort to get out of our toasty warm beds (remember it's Autumn here...brrr) at 1:30am on both Sunday and Monday morning this past weekend. When most people were stumbling home and talking to the taxi drivers in slurred speech to get them safely home to bed - we were surprising our security guard by LEAVING our building and getting in a taxi to be heading OUT at that hour. And all in the name of patriotism; to feel close to those of you at home who at 9pm at night snuggled up in front of your TV's to watch England beat France and SA thrash the Argentineans. If we wanted to feel like real supporters we had to watch the game in the smokiest 24 hour pub in the whole of Beijing, walk 30 mins in the cold at 5am, catch 2 subways and then a taxi home - just in time to eat breakfast and freshen up before Kyle headed out to uni for 4 hours of Chinese. Talk about commitment! We're still trying to get back into regular sleep patterns; and despite the fact that Kyle is running his first marathon on Sunday at 8am, the madness will continues again this weekend for the final - because we wouldn't miss it! So think of us when you're watching England getting beaten on Sunday (3am our time) and know that even across the miles we're screeming like true South Africans right along with you all and holding the SA flag high...Go the Boks!!!!