The team

I feel strange, we are not going to the U.S. this summer.  It is weird.  For the past 6 years we have spent at least 6 weeks in the US during the summer.  This year we are not going.  (we will visit in the winter).  

Most of our American friends have returned to the U.S. at least for the summer. 

Last year in Hangzhou it was a record-breaking summer.  The temperature was well over 100 degrees for more than two weeks straight!  So far, this summer has not been too bad.  We have had a lot of rain and that has kept the temperatures down.  In about a week, it will be really hot, but right now, it is not too bad. I am thankful for that.

Another thing that feels weird is that Josh and Gao Yan (and their kids) have returned to the US for good (at least for now).  The Clarks returned a year ago (and the Taylors too!).  

We are extremely thankful for our team mates!  We have been so blessed by Clear Creek and our team. I cannot imagine how things would have been if we had not had their love and support, especially during the first year or two.  

We miss you guys on this side of the world.  We also wish you all the best as you transition and continue to transition to living in the US.  We love you. 

These are not the best pictures.  They are pictures of a print that has been on my notebook for several years.  The first picture was  taken at the first time we were all at Hixson. The second was  when we were all together in Arkansas for some training.  In the bottom picture, Caleb is only a couple of weeks old.  Our families have really grown and changed!

Please keep praying for The Clarks in Louisiana, and The Davis' in Missouri and of course us in China.

Movie Night

I am terribly, terribly behind on the blog. I am sorry. There is probably no way to really catch up properly.  I guess the best way is to just jump in and post.  I do plan to look through my pictures and make some posts of old stuff.

We have started to hold "Movie Night" again.  We used to do this every other week, but until recently, we have only held one since moving to our current apartment.  Several people had been asking when we were going to do it again.

Every other Friday we night we hold movie night in our apartment.  We just watch a movie, have snacks, and hang out.  We watch either a DVD or streamed movie.  We watch things we think the kids can watch, but not just "kid movies".

We have watched movies like Soul Surfer, Courageous, Fire Proof, Indiana Jones (the kids were a little scared of that one), Despicable Me, Harry Potter, Narnia movies, and once, Jon downloaded a bunch of classic cartoons.

We use this time to invite lots of folks and have others bring friends.  It is a just a time of fellowship and fun.  We want to show others, that Christians are not weird and we do enjoy being with each other.  It is a great time to start having conversations and a chance to see if people are interested in learning more about what makes us different.

We had our first (again) movie night 3 weeks ago.  Two of Jon's colleagues came.  The group was small, but we even had a conversation about the Bible.  Shelly is planning on starting another study and she will probably invite Andrea (one of Jon's co-workers).

Last week we had a larger group, and we invited a girl that we met outside a noodle shop.  She seemed to really like it, and was interested in the fact that most of the folks there were friends from church.  I will invite her again next week.

Movie night has been one of the most enjoyable tools we have used to try to grow our ministry.  Please pray for this effort.