April 2026

April held quite a bit of rain, but it was still a great month. 

I've been part of a lay preachers class at my church since February and have enjoyed it thoroughly. 

In one of my classes, the kids were just out of control. So, I created this chart to learn at the beginning of every class. For the first few days, every single time they started to disrespect me or another student, we stopped the whole class and talked about the chart all again. Their behavior turned golden. 👏👏

Now, for pictures of my loves. 

Such a candid photo.

Man, I love Lele immensely. He's improved so much and I'm going to have a huge heart break when he leaves school. 😭

Please pray for An's salvation and that he will keep searching and come to know Jesus.

On a field trip

Nature 

You can see interesting things like this often. Little girl is just hanging while grandmas chat. 😄

April 6th was tomb sweeping holiday so sister-friend, her son, and I went to Ri Yue Gu hot springs. My dear Korean sister gave me 3 tickets, and this was the perfect opportunity to use them.

This is the most peaceful, relaxing place I've visited. So many pools with different healing properties. Before entering the park, we stood in the entrance foot washing pool and ate so much food as soaking in hot springs for hours drains the body's energy. 

There are locker rooms, bathrooms, shower rooms - it has everything. In your own locker there is a towel and shoes to walk around the springs with. The bathroom has free lotions, hair products, hair dryers, and more. 

Sauna rooms.

Rose spring. This rose infused water encourages a calming rejuvenation of the body which helps to keep it young. When we first tried to enter it, there were so many old people. 

These tubes are available to rent to rest or take a nap in. 

Our tickets came with access to the fish pool. You can soak in the pool while small fish nibble on your skin.

Imperial stream - walking on the smooth pebbles massage trigger points in the feet and encourage blood flow. So amazing. 

Throughout the park there are liquid stations with hot teas and hot water. I'd recommend bringing many bottles of cool water because soaking in hot springs for long periods of time causes the body to sweat a ton. I did not feel like drinking hot water but only brought 1 bottle with me so then I ended up carrying around multiple cups of water, waiting for them to cool down. 😅

I hardly took pictures because I was focused on enjoying the water and totally relaxing. 

Some lights on the way home.

Amazing quote from a sermon at church.

Friends

I met this guy when I stopped by his shop and now I visit him almost weekly to chat with him, learn about Chinese tea culture, and learn new Chinese words. :) His hometown is a tea farm, and he loves sharing about proper tea culture. 

I stopped by a cake shop to wait for a class and met this fluffy, big buddy.

How was your April? What highlights are engraved in your memory?