Round… 4? WordPress

Hello, and welcome to our blog. My name is Christian, my wife is Leigha, and …

Nah, most of you are already familiar with who we are and our journey to China. (And if you aren’t, you can check out older posts or the about page, or we probably explained the blog to you in person).

So let me set out what I’d like to do in this post:

• Provide a bit of context for why we’re on a new site and haven’t posted in over a year
• Navigate through the last year or so in our lives
• Introduce a new style of blog posts that will hopefully continue into the future

Those of you who have followed our blog in the past might know that it used to be hosted at ccstoltzfus.mennonite.net. This was because of my work as a Systems Administrator for Mennonite.net while I studied at Goshen College. Mennonite.net was a small non-profit that sought to serve small congregations (as well as a few small businesses) with website services and support, and my time with the organization taught me a lot about websites, Linux systems, small, tight-knit organizations, and the overlap between the “secular” world of Computer Science and the “sacred” world of church work.

I loved my time with Mennonite.net and was saddened to hear the news that the business was shutting down at the end of last year. I began the process of migrating our blog to a WordPress site but never got around to finishing it, and here we are many months later!

I’ve learned, in the last few years, that it’s quite difficult for me to keep up with people who are at a distance. My guess is that this is likely true for everyone to some degree, but I so often find myself lacking energy and drive for calls or emails or messages or what-have-you. This is disheartening and somewhat confusing because I so deeply appreciate and value and love our friends and family scattered around the globe — you, if you’re reading this. I dearly miss the good times, the friendships and camaraderie that I’ve had with many of you at different points and different places in my life, and it’s hard to understand the lack of activation energy I have to maintain those meaningful relationships.

But I think it’s primarily a product of engagement where I am, as well as an unfortunate reality of the modern, globalized era. I tend to spend my excess time and energy on people, projects, and plans on my current side of the world, and that is by no means an attempted slight against you wonderful people on the other side of the world! I do feel guilty about how little I keep up with many of you, however, and I hope my friends and family know that I truly do love and miss you and value our relationship. And one day, if I live closer to you, I will eagerly look forward to more engagement and quality time.

But that’s why we keep this blog, and why we are going to these lengths to restart it – as a way, impersonal though it may be, to keep in touch with you, dear reader. This isn’t meant as a substitute for personal communication, but, knowing that we simply can’t keep up with everyone, it’s at least better than nothing. (And now we’ve had a year of nothing, so I guess you can be the judge of that!)

I’ve also been reflecting recently on the consume/create dichotomy. I find that I spend most of my “free” time in patterns of consumption, in which I imbibe entertainment (books, movies, games, podcasts) — even corporate, relational entertainment like playing board games — without producing anything or stretching myself. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing — and during the school year, I spend most of my waking hours working, and I spend most of my working hours either planning or reacting in what I would consider creative work — but it is something I’ve noticed, and it has been more obvious over this longer-than-usual summer break. And a blog is one creative outlet that also promotes reflection, makes space for processing, and helps keep record of thoughts, feelings, and realities over a period of time. So those are some reasons to restart our blog as well.

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So, what have we been up to in the last year? Let me see if I can hit some highlights.

• Last fall, Leigha was chosen to head up the CDIS-hosted ISEF Science Fair. (Reminder: CDIS is the school where we work, Chengdu International School). This science fair is for international schools across China, meaning Leigha was coordinating communication with schools from all over the country; the winners of the fair got to participate in the global US-based ISEF science fair.
• We took a wonderful Christmas trip to Yangshuo 阳朔, Dali 大理, and Lijiang 丽江. These are three beautiful parts of China, though the true blessing was being able to travel with dear friends. Maybe we’ll get a post about this (or at least some pictures) up sometime.
• I taught an Ancient Civilizations course, which was a blast for me; the 8th graders I taught were at a great place where they were willing to try new things and have fun with skits and videos and projects but were also able to maintain levels of maturity and thoughtfulness that aren’t always common in middle school :). And I really enjoyed getting to learn more about ancient culture and religion for myself!
• In the Spring, Leigha began her MA in Education (Curriculum and Instruction) with an emphasis on Leadership. Her coursework has kept her busy, but as of this writing she’s already 2/3 through her degree and feels she’s learned a lot about schools and about teaching. Studying while teaching (more than) full time is not something that works well for everyone, but she’s worked hard and has done a wonderful job!
• This coming year, we’ve had some updates to our schedules – I will switch departments and will be teaching middle school mathematics (General Math, Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1), and Leigha will be adding Yearbook to her rotation of AP Calculus, Pre-Calculus, and Physics. We’re both excited about these new opportunities, and look forward to working together as 2/3 of the CDIS math department!
• We’ve continued studying Chinese, though balancing language learning with a full schedule remains a challenge! Leigha passed the HSK 4 test, which represents an “intermediate” Chinese level, and has studied vocabulary far past that level. I tend to take longer and spend more time in my studies meandering and asking questions about the meanings or use-cases of words and grammar, and haven’t formally progressed as far as she has. Both of us still love the language and are much more able to have conversations than months and years ago — but we both wish we spent more time immersed in the language, especially during the school year when we spend most of our time and energy focused on school.
• We signed a contract to continue working with CDIS for two more years (2022-2024). We have no idea what post-2024 will look like, but we hope that China continues to be a part of our story no matter where we go or what we do.

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Finally, I want to lay out a bit of where this blog could be headed. I say “could be” because I make no promises! It’s possible the school year will sap my enthusiasm for this kind of creative project. But writing about it will make me more likely to enact it, so…

See, our blog started as simply a more efficient way to update friends and family. Instead of writing newsletters and trying to maintain and update a complicated email list, we posted online and let whoever wanted to subscribe do so. Naturally, this meant most of our posts were simply updates of what was going on in our lives, with a bit of reflection thrown in here and there.

Ideally, I would love to make space for snapshots of various parts of our life here in addition to the kinds of updates we have sent in the past. A more ‘immersive’ feel, if you will. My guess is that anyone who kept up with our blog in the past had a good idea of what we were up to generally, but that, unless we talked to you individually, you probably didn’t know anything about what our city is like, what the language is like, or much about Chinese culture. There are many areas of life here to explore in more detail. Here are some of our ideas:

• Weather
• Transportation
• Food
• Apartment styles and complexes
• Holidays (Chinese New Year, National Day)
• Chinese language
• Chinese history
• Fun facts

Some of these may include opportunities to research a bit and present a brief summary here, which would be helpful for us to continue learning more about the country in which we live, too.

I have also played with the idea of processing my current theological and personal thoughts, readings, and considerations here, though I don’t know if that will come to fruition.

In any case, hopefully you will be hearing more from us! Smash that subscribe button (by which I mean enter your email, if you feel so inclined) and feel free to leave us a comment or send us a message!