Coming Soon

We are developing a new BLOG. Please keep this address on your FAVORITES, as we will be unveiling the new site ina month of so.

We will probably include it in our last newsletter to come in MArch/April.

I'm learning how to refine and make more useful BLOGs (technologically) so it's taking time to do it al.
Thanks

B&C

The truth about "Seven"

I've been processing important things with my closest Chinese friend for the last year and a half. I'm encouraged as of late as she is reading Good Books and watching Good movies. But yesterday she said that she and some friends watched the Brad Pitt movie "Seven" and so she was scared to read about John. I told her the two men weren't related, so don't be scared. So she spent some time looking for the 7 deadly sins and cleaning her room as to not be a 'sloth'. She said if that is what the Good Book is about she's not sure she wants to read it. I reassured her it was only a Hollywood thing.

A Bird Flu Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving celebration with all the American teachers and a few from Europe too. We even had some visitors from neighboring cities come and commit complete gluttony with us. But our Thanksgiving had little to no poultry because all the chickens in Qinhuangdao are in the process of getting inoculated for 'Bird Flu'. So pork and beef it was! We had a awesome time and ended with some football and frisbee on the beach. It was no Dallas Cowboys, but we fun none the less.

Wrapping things up

We have just a few weeks left in China. Brad's done with classes and Carrie's started our packing. A lot of loose ends totie up. Please be thinking of us as we try to be wise with our time and in relationships. We'll especially miss our teammates and close Chinese friendss. We have a lot of transition ahead as well with school, jobs, a new child.... Thanks for your Thoughts.

Pee-Traps

Thanksgiving is coming soon and we have something to be thankful for...pee-traps.
Yep, good old pee-traps. If you don't knowwhat those are, as I did not until last spring, they are the little bends in your toilet / sink pipes when you look under the counter. They hold water in them always, which prevents "smells" from returning to visit your home.

In China, they don't have those. SO you can imagine what walking past any bathroom is like, among other reasons here. But lest I regress from the story...our toilet has had an ongoing problem of constantly running lightly, but we've chosen not to fix it for a long time, b/c it keeps the water moving and there are no smelly odors to greet us anymore. Well, those days are done. The repair guys found that water was leeking from our apartment, came up here, and turned off our 2000 flushes. Some things even nice candles can't even overcome.

This Thanksgiving, be thankful for pee-traps. We will be.

Support Info

Many of you are supporting us and have been interested in continuing supporting us through our transition and pending pregnancy. We are asking all funds be sent to our home in Texas. We can give you our address if you contact us via email. We don't want to post our exact location info online, so please email us and we'll give you our address to send funds. Thank you.

He makes it grow

Wonderful news!

We have a Plant that we have been watering for a year or more now and just last week, it came to life!! Someone planted it; another watered it, but He made it grow!

how very exciting and beautiful!

We're Hoping for much sunlight to stay upon it, despite the winter around it, that it would bear much fruit.

Abolish Death Penalty?

One of my students was giving his "persuasive" speech in class tonight against the death penalty. His first reason for abolishing it was that it is cruel and "brutish". IN his concluding remarks, he offered some alternatives to the death penalty, like education...and, to use his words, "torture". Yes, he said torture. In my response to him after class, I did inform him that some people would clasify torture as "brutish" too. (The class laughed)

A Dangerous Thing

Prayer is a dangerous thing. As I was thinking about things this morning, I thought about the Katrina disaster and then I though about the earthquake in Pakistan. I thought of the many prayers and much mindfulness given to New Orleans last month. Then I thought about how little I am reminded to pray for Pakistan, though its deaths are between 20-3oK people, with 2.5 MILLION homeless (without hope of refuge or comforts as we have). By comparison, it makes Katrina look like a trivial event. What a horrible thing to happen in Asia! Yet, I wonder what leads to less mindfulness and decrease in prayer....perhaps prejudice, apathy, hatred in the heart? Certainly they're far away, but 30K dead voices are very loud. 2.5 million homeless are louder. It comes down to simply being unloving for we are plainly told by Him, "Love as I have loved you." May we find mercy and forgiveness from Him and press on to love without partiality (see James' book among others on this).

Selah the Flower girl

This past week, Selah got to strut her stuff down isle of a friends wedding. This is not a traditional Chinese wedding thing to have, but this friend wanted her and two other foreign girls to be included in the festivities. Her and the five year old ran down the isle, each launching the flower petals as if it was game 7 of the World Series. They were on a mission.

The wedding was a beautiful union of a brother and sister who are living faithfully and sacrificially on a minute by minute calendar. I've been fairly depressed at the state of marriages here, so it was encouraging to actually be excited for their union. Most marriages are a social arrangement with important economic ramifications, that's it. Very little relationship acutally goes into the marriage. If the boyfriend cannot provide a proper dowry upon marriage, the marriage will not be blessed by the parents. Most parents also are anxious to marry off their daughters so that they can have kids and the grandparents can take care of them. All that to be said, the wedding was wonderful and Selah loved the center isle.