Hi Friends,
We arrived home 10 days ago and have been adjusting to our return since that time. We both had a wonderful time and hard to believe all that God did while there. I think the best way to say Thank You for your prayers and support.
Kathy's story:
1. Arrived safely after our Chicago plane had problems with the fuel supply. Amazing (but a God thing), there was an "empty" 777 sitting a few gates away and we were all transferred to that plane and headed on to China (pilot had never heard of that happening before but we know Who provided that!!)
2. Arrived at my city, Xifeng (she-fong) in the Gansu Province, Central China to find out that our city hadn't seen many Americans. Our Chinese businessman sponsor held welcoming ceremonies at the town square, complete with TV coverage and everyone wanting to take our pictures (felt like real "celebrities"). All we had to do was wave, smile, and say "hello" to total strangers and we would be surrounded with new friends, old and young alike.
3. We felt such freedom that all the teachers spoke in detail on Christmas, Easter, God's Book and heaven for the first week we were there. A few of my 22 students acted like they had heard the stories before (one teen who had lived in Singapore for many years) but most of them had not. What a blessing to tell them of the love and joy we have in our hearts because of our friend and savior!
4. I was able to keep up with the very hectic schedule of daily walking about 2 miles back and forth to the school, brief lunch with 2 1/2 hrs of fun activities in the afternoon, brief dinner and back at night for games, carnival, Easter egg hunt, movie, etc. God has been so good to me with my health. (I was even able to do all the touring events back in Beijing)
5. Several of our team were able to present the Gospel, hand out Chinese Bibles and tracts but all of us planted the seeds of love and truth.
John's journey:
1. He safely traveled thousands of miles in central and east China where he taught our friends. At one location, he taught 34 young leaders who are in training to enter their mission field. At another location, the church had won a legal battle to worship openly in an actual building (which had air conditioning too). What a miracle that place is.
2. There were 2 teams of teachers: Woody hosted one team and John hosted 2 young preachers who taught some excellent college level courses, encouraged believers and prayed over many needs.
3. Both of these teams (7 men) came back to English camp and helped us the last 2 days. It added excitement to camp with the new men. John helped me teach my kids how to play baseball - they know basketball and soccer. Had lots of fun.
As you can see, your prayers prepared the way and helped us with many things during the 3 weeks in China. You will meet some of those teens in heaven one day - some who may have heard about the Lord for the first time in July 2009. Much love to all,
Your friends, John & Kathy
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