Procrastination is not an option, even though I am doing just that. Like right now, instead of writing these letters, I am writing a blog about how I should be writing letters. I don’t know why I do this to myself but things have to change. Soon.

I decided to create this blog to discuss my experience in China. This time, next year, I will be a professor teaching conversation English to Chinese university students. I want to remember every significant moment I spend in this foreign country. However, before I spend a year or more teaching (depending on how much I like enjoy China), I must accomplish the steps involved. The China Now! program provides missionaries a paid job and a furnished apartment (with paid utilities) in the same city with at least one other English-speaking American. The money I will make monthly is enough to live on but not enough to pay for the expenses I’ll have in the US. I will need to raise support through the congregations and connections I have in the states. A plane ticket to China is about $2000. Along with some other miscellaneous expenses, the total cost for China Now! is $3000, up front. Monthly, I will need support to make loan payments and pay for a medical insurance plan. The amount of money I’ll need to raise depends on the plan I have and the average amount of money I’ll pay towards loans. Here is a tentative list so I can be in China by August 2011:

• Email China Now! application
• Call home congregation and ask them to be my sponsoring church
• Write letters to congregations and individuals in CT, MA, RI, PA, WV, OH, TN, etc.
• Send letters to said congregations
• Visit with the elders at local TN congregations

I have a lot to do.