Moving- Steps of Faith

Sept. 20 we took the next steps in our adventure, packed off and headed to Xenia, Ohio.  God has been tremendously gracious to us, providing for us, and especially for Daniel in SO many ways.

DREAM TEAM TRULY REDEEMED!

What a thrill to watch the US team beat Spain!  We are still on "China time" so 1:30 am was like the middle of the afternoon for us!  It has been amazing to watch these guys.  It was fun, multi-millionaries "letting their hair down" and truly having fun!

So what's the difference in this team??  This team has had a Spiritual basis the whole time in Beijing.  The Chinese said they would provide chaplains for the teams-- Right!  However, USA basketball REQUESTED a chaplain from AIA.  Two of our staff members with men's basketball have been doing devotionals with the team DAILY!  They said usually they get about 5 min. with the team.  This Olympics they have had 45 minutes with the team and there have 15-20 team and family members each time!  As far as I understand it is members of the men's and women's team!

Now we know where the glory REALLY belongs!

USA REALLY IS IN THE OLYMPICS?!!

We are back in the USA!!  We are here in Seattle for one night then early tomrrow morning we finallly head back to Decatur and DANIEL!!  He has been doing well with Grandma!

It has been GREAT to be back here and watch Americans in the Olympics finally.  All the broadcasts in China were almost all about Chinese athletes and teams.  Sure, we show a lot of favoritism here, but China was a little TOO much "home town" stuff!

What a thrill to watch the women ROCK in Volleyball tonight too!!  YEA!!  There are some cool Spiritual stories too.  Misty May-Tranor does a lot work with us at AIA.  One of the women on the indoor volleyball team came back to play for the team ESPECIALLY to reach

 the team for Jesus!!

I had a bit of a run in with Volleyball when we were at the great wall.  Or should I say volleyball ran into me!  At the wall you go up on a gondolla and then you can come down on a slide/tobaggon type thing.  As we were standing in  line to come down I noticed the person in line behind me was an American.  She had one of those "official" tags on AND she had an NBC logo shirt on AND she looked like a journalits I h

ad just seen on the internet that morning.  So, being pretty persceptive I asked her if she was connected with the games.   She was, and she is 

Heather" the commentator for beach volleyball.

As we were getting on the slide I overheard her tell the guy friend she was with how she had broken her fathers back in car race.  I didn't catch the whole story, but I heard enough to know I had better be booging down the toboggan trail!  (We each had our own bobsled)  Ravshan was in front of me, so I knew I would have clear sailing.

Unfortunately, there were some older Czech gentlemen in front of Ravshan.  Unfortunately, there had been cold beer on the wall (there was cell phone reception too!) so they I guess decided to take a more leisurely speed down the mountain.

They spaced us out as we took off so I couldn't really see anyone ahead of me, and crazy Heather was still behind, somewhere.  All of a sudden there was a drop in the slide, a tight turn and a straight away.  Ravshan was at a dead stop in the straight away with the Czech guys holding him up.  You guessed it, Heather came flying down the mountain, forgot how to break and slammed right into me FULL SPEED!!

Thankfully, neither one of us were hurt and the Czech guys did get moving again.   But it was a close call when I almost got "spiked" right off the Great Wall!

It's fun to watch the Olympics now, some of our friends are still there and we know about where some of them sit!  We saw ourselves on TV today too.  The NBC website has games logged by day and sport.  We tuned into the USA v. S. Korea game.  After the first half you could see us sitting in the front row.  I have a white tank on, Ravshan a black shirt, and our "spirit" filled Czech friends sitting next to us waving a Korea flag!

CAN YOU SEE US??? What makes LeBron laugh??

Tune in tonight and watch the US women play!  We got to go to the game!!  We also got to sit in the first row and just past half court!!! On the visitors side) It turned out to be a hilariously fun night that just capped off our day!    AND WE MADE LEBRON JAMES LAUGH!!!

We returned from seeing the Great Wall (which now pales in light of the

  rest of the events tonight!)  We got great tickets which were in the first row of the second section.  We ended up sitting next to these Czech guys.  (we had earlier in the days that Czech's LOVE beer.  These two fellows were NO exception!)  They began to cheer for Korea-- KOR E A they yelled. (which happens to be Ravshan's moms' name!)  During the 2nd quarter they headed down the stairs and lited in the first row.  At half time we followed suit and once again sat right next to them.

So here we were, front row seats to the greatest show in town..  OH, and the MEN"S US team was also in the stands.  Our Czech friends began cheering KOR E A  and we answer        ed with USA.  The gym was fairly quiet because the US team was up by 40 by this time!  We were sort of the only ones cheering.  Ravshan said Lebron looked over when he heard the yelling and then started laughing!                                         

They made quite a stir with Chinese lining up all up and down the aisle to take their pictures.

The second game was hilarious too.  It was Russia v. Spain.  The 2 Czech guys left.  In their place came a Russian guy from Irkyti.  The WAY north of Russia.  They are sometimes a bit peculiar and funny.  This guy was no exception.  He started recruiting Chinese and Korean fans to cheer for Russia.  (We were sitting directly behind the Spainsh bench!)

The game was great.  Russia was down by as much as 17 and came back to win it by around 20!  Fans on BOTH sides were pretty spirited!  The Russians were led by the AMERICAN, Becky Hammon.

So tomorrow we pack up and head for home.  I am ready.  Even though the past 2 weeks have been absolutely incredible in SO many ways!  We are missing our boy and are anxious to get back for the "next steps".

Personally, I'm anxious to get back to the USA and FINALLY see some coverage of US teams.  We only get Chinese televsion here which means almost all that we see is China playing someone, or replays of them winning another gold medal.  You would think there weren't even any other teams here!!

                                                                                          

       

GREAT WALL OR THE VILLAGE?

Just as I was bemoaning the fact that I probably wouldn't get to go to the village, fate seemed to take a turn.

Ravshan and I had just finished breakfast and were heading up stairs to collect our things and get ready for our outing to the Great Wall.   We turned the corner and ran into Carl.  "You are going to the village today", he said.  Wow!  Did that change our plans!

We decided that it's possible that since the Wall had already been there 4,000 years, it may be around a few more.  The chance to go to the village, however, comes seldom.  15 minues later we were in a cab with a friend from the Phillipines and on our way!

Arriving there we soon discovered that my name had been OMITTED from "the list".  Apart from a miracle I would not be in the garden today!  If your name is not on the list, you simply don't get in the door!  Security is tight!

Carl had given 6 names.  The chief said he had given the  6 names, but if my name didn't make the list,  there was nothing he could do.  The Chinese gal in charge spoke only English and chinese.  Carl English and Russian, and the Federation official spoke only Russian!  

I prepared myself for plan "b".  Whatever that might be.  But, I remembered how fate had directed me the day before in the square.  I trusted that fate would direct me again.  Soon it did, the manger gave her oK and I was in!!

What an incredible expereince!!  The gardens there are SO well kept.  Flowers of all kinds everywhere!  Athletes from all over too.  Everywhere I looked there was a cluster of athletes from a different country or part of the world.  ALL shapes and sizes!!  The gardens were the same.  All in different places.

Soon we went to the cafeteria.  It was huge, and food from ALL over!  We had lunch with people from Cuba, Kyrygzstan, Bulgaria, Uganda, Iran, Russia, Kaz, Belarus-- and the list goes on!

Talked with the American coach of the Russian basketball team!  Encouraged a silver medal winner from Bulgaria (when you win the silver, you have lost the gold!)   coffee with a Cuban that I later saw competing on tv about an hour later!  

The gardens and flowers in the village were quite interesting.  So many blooming, or ready to burst forth.  There was one particular African variety that we got to see bloom for the first time today!  The gardner had been working with it for quite a long time.

The sun shone bright and hot today, but there was much water to keep the gardens watered!

Won the race, made the match, lost the camera

Sunday was sort of a bummer of a day.  We made it to the match to see Lena play again.  We were even able to find tickets the cheapest yet.  Of course, there were the scalpers, but we held out and found a guy willing to scalp for not quite so much.

Again we were about the only 2 people rooting for Kaz.  Howerver, a couple of Brazilians set next to us who had never seen handball before.  WE got explain it to them, and by the end they were chanting KAZ AK STAN right along with us!

The game was exciting, but Kaz came out flat.  Angola hung inthere and the game ended in a tie!  So now we needed to trust that the French would beat the Chinese later in the day in order to give Kaz a berth in the final rounds.  Well, the French proved to be not too trustworthy as they lost to the Chinese and Kaz is out.

Ravshan and I had tickets for fencing later that night.  Carl had them as gifts from the Belarus Olympic committee.  We arrived at the Olympic green just a little before start time.  What we didn't know was that we were going to have to walk/run a mile to get in to the ONLY entrance on the Olympic Green.  Then we had to run a mile back to where we started to be able to enter the building!

We were racing down the street dodging pedestrians and desparately looking for a gate.  Thankfully, no one got hurt, but as we neared the gate we could see that there was about a thoursand people waiting in line!  Our match started a 6pm- the birds nest track and field crown was already gathering-- it holds 90,000!!!   

We finally neared the security check point and I reached down and realized my handy camera had fallen out of it's little pouch.  Ravshan still had the big camera, so that was good.  however I had grown quite find of my little "point and shoot".  Now it is back to using my phone camera, but it doesn't cooperate with the computer so I cant download the pictures.  Anyway.....

In the end we learned some lessons.  Directions in Chinese are not always able to be found.  They really don't mind if people are inconvienced and must walk several miles.  Be prepared for the crowds.  When you have free tickets, take your time, you will see at least half of the match!!  If you can't  be on time--- be early!!

As we reached the fencing venue (covention center)  The entrance was on the opposite side, the fencing hall on the 4th floor, and our seats of the far side and through the last door!  I really felt like I had competed in an olympic event by the time we arrived!!

The fencing match was interesting.  I had never been to one before. I guess I had envisioned it to be very formal- a little like tennis.  It was more of an attitude of a bar crowd!  you can almost imagine yourself in a great hall of a castle somewhere with the kings putting up their best 2 guys to a dual!

We had a real treat in seeing American v. France in the gold medal match.  we arrived just as the Russian team beat Italy for the bronze.  The top American fencer had been diagnosed with a rare blood disease two months before and was told he would die within 2 weeks because of his low blood platlet count.  Miraculously, he was given some medication and his count bounced back.  The Americans would be down by 10=15 points and each time he came in he would bring them back to 8 or 5 down.  In the end, the French were simply too strong and outdueled the Americans for the gold.

Ravshan and I also raced past Alexander Karlinin.  The great wrestler of Olympics passed.  They call him the Russian bear.  I can see why!  He was bending down taking someone elese's picture, so we really didn't want to interrupt him.  But I tell you, the size of his calves were like tree stumps!!

Fountains of Tienamen

As I began my evening Ravshan was away at the village and I just trusted that I could find a gardner or guard of somekind to show me around.  In the end, it seems I did find a very good guide.  It seems as though he had known the place forever.  He was able to show me the special things about it, and the special meanings to the people.   I love those times strolling through the gardens with the caretaker.  There is one that always seems to be there if you just trust that person that they can really show you around.  So far, this fate has always been successful!

Who will be the last to enter the gate??

It is about the people, not the fountains!
My "forever friend"  Nathan~~  

Here are the fountains.  Sorry, I'm not great at the blogging yet!  They were just amazing as each one amazed me in the story that they seemed to be telling!  In the end, the story is not about the fountains, but about the people!