August Facilitators

So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite spoke out and said,
"I am young in years and you are old;
Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you what I think.
"I thought age should speak,
And increased years should teach wisdom."

Job 32:6-7

I can really identify with this verse as of late. Every summer during the months of July and August, new teams of volunteers come in from America to relieve the year-long staff so they can leave and go home for a month. The July team, with few exceptions, was magnificent and totally devoted to the work here. We will all miss them as they leave over the next few days. The August team has come over the past week and they are a different story. The July team was mostly college age who were more than willing to adapt our philosophy and teaching methods. The August team is mostly
retired teachers long stuck in their ways and their teaching methods. In a word, obstinate. Since I switched over to admin last session, part of my new duties include training of new facilitators and at every step it has been a battle. Instead of teaching them our ways, I feel like i have to defend them.
Most of the trouble is with one family who in about a week's time have managed to tick off four out of the six administrators here, and the other two are getting pretty fed up.
I don't know what Henry, the guy in charge of the recruitment agency in California is saying, but apparently he's promising the moon to get people to come. Every other sentence that the new fac's says is "But Henry said we would have this.."or "But Henry said we would be able to do this!" Another big problem, is that they get a hold of American media like Voice of the Martyrs and assume everything in it is complete 100% unvarnished truth. Now I have nothing against Voice of the Martyrs as they do a terrific job in reporting persecution but having noticed their journalistic style and actually being here, I do suggest that what you read be taken with a grain of salt. As I've said before, everything you have ever heard about China is true...in some places and quite false in others. A few of the new fac's are under the impression from American media that legal, government recognized churches are completely dead and no real spiritual growth could ever exist in a church that is registered with a government. I resisted the temptation to say "hey idiot, how do you think your church in America got its tax-free status?" and instead responded by telling them that I have attended Haidian Christian Church, a quite legitimate and legal church in Beijing and found it to be quite spiritually alive and just like any other church in the world. Except for the fact that there is a whole lot more Chinese people, but I think that's pretty common here. There's just so many problems with their preset attitudes. First, try and find an illegal housechurch. It's not like they have billboards advertising location and times. Second, a foreigner going there will be like a neon sign that screams for attention to the government. Thirdly, you're going to get yourself and everyone with you in trouble and lose your visa permently. Fourth, you will make ESEC look bad and destroy our relationship with the government and fifth, and most importantly, it makes Christianity look bad by sneaking in the shadows like you were doing something wrong.
Some of them loosened up a little bit and adapted a "wait and see" attitude, others insist that the government has more nefarious things in mind and no good will come to going to a church in China. Everyday it's a new fight not to get these people to do something stupid that will undo decades of trust building with the government and get us shut down. Some want to visit underground house churches, others want to go all billy graham on a street corner.
The main problem is that these people don't realize that they're not on vacation and this is not America. The Total Immersion Program is a very intense, fast paced, high stress environment that involves many sacrifices. However, it is well, well worth it but these challenges need to be realized and the cost needs to be counted before signing up to volunteer....and they just don't get that. So to paraphrase Job's young friend in his problem with a few old timers...

So Dan, the son of Kyle the Americanite, spoke out and said,
"I am young in years and you are old;
Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you what I think.
"I thought age should speak,
And increased years should teach wisdom...but you guys are killing me."