It's working!

Where do I begin? As most of you know, Bonnie, Hannah, and Bonnie's friend Catherine came to visit China last week. Bonnie spent a lot of time with "the ladies". We spent time with them too.

Jon and I had been feeling a little discouraged because our group had not met on Sunday while we were in the US this summer. I think they planned to meet. They took song books and talked about it, but it never happened. I am not exactly sure why. Margaret was out of town a lot this summer as was Elaine. I guess that was part of the reason.

Finally, it seems as if everyone is back in town and most everyone was at worship last Sunday. It was great! Elaine has come up with some ideas of ways our group can serve others. We are pretty excited about it.

Margaret said some really nice things about our family and she told how she shared the Bible with her friend Jane (a.k.a. Chong Chong's momma). Now Jane and her family all go to worship in town every Sunday and she is talking about being baptized. Margaret and her husband often go out with Jane and her husband and they talk about life and spiritual matters.

Elaine told us how she was able to share her faith with a friend of hers. We are super excited because these ladies ARE sharing and teaching others!

Sunday night Margaret arranged for us to have a meal together at a tea house. The ladies and their husbands (and kids) and Jane, and Bonnie were all there. Margaret made sure we prayed before the meal, even though the husbands were there. It was really a good time to strengthen relationships.

One specific prayer we have had lately is for the ladies' husbands. We all want them to come to know Christ as their wives have. After dinner, Elaine's husband had a debate with Bonnie. Jon was helping Bonnie and Elaine was translating. No one was convinced that evening, but Li did tell Jon that he would talk with him more. We hope to really continue and develop that relationship.

Last weekend was great and very encouraging to us. Please join us in continuing to pray for these ladies and especially their husbands.

BBQ: The Early Report (by Jason)

It seems that I'm the first to get on here since the Back-to-School BBQ ended a couple of hours ago, so I'll go first...
Several of our friends/students came:
(Not sure how the layout will look on your computer, but...)
There's Ashley holding Phoebe:

Then, here's Cecelia holding Phoebe:

And finally is Ice holding Phoebe (again), with Jerry, Jenn, and I in the background:

And then... well, there are more pictures of more people holding Phoebe, but I guess you've got the idea...

PRC is pretty popular in the PRC!

The best thing, though, in addition to all the free baby-sitting, was that I got to lead us in a few songs and more-or-less preach the gospel mostly in Chinese to all 20 or 30 people who had come out this afternoon.
May God bring the increase!

Cecely: It's Another School Teahouse, Of Course!

Our school invited the foreign, and some Chinese, English teachers to one of the school's teahouses and then to a dinner afterward to celebrate Teacher's Day. We actually had always seen this cute little building on an island on the school's small lake, and had always wondered what it was. Well, it's the school's other teahouse, of course! Silly us. It has a more formal style, with dark polished wood; the teahouse we had always visited before on campus, which is behind the school's teafields, has a more rustic bamboo style. Anyway, it was an enjoyable Teacher's Day celebration with fruit, sunflower seeds, and of course plenty of tea. We enjoyed talking with the other teachers, catching up on what they did over the summer, and they enjoyed seeing how much Pheebs has grown. Afterward we had a good school dinner with soy-cooked pork, fish from the sea, and other delicacies. Then, as China's Mid-Autumn Festival is soon approaching, we were given our annual gift of mooncakes from the school. More about mooncakes and the festival later.

Our apartment is on the corner of two pretty busy streets. We hear all sorts of comings and goings. Many times I hear people yelling but when I look out, I can't tell if anything unusual is going on. Yesterday was a little different. I heard some yelling and looked out. there were a few guys around and a cart on the far side of the street. One guy was on the ground (maybe sitting) and another it looked like, was under a cart. Another guy was yelling at him. He was dragged out from under the cart and they had his hands behind his back. The guy that was sitting was handcuffed too. I mean really handcuffed. I guess I missed seeing the actual arrest. Three or four guys put the two handcuffed ones into the back of a silver minivan. Then they took the less cooperative guy out of the van (the one that was under the cart). They brought him over to the sidewalk. They were not gentle with with at all. He was not fighting them, but they were mad at him. They slapped him some and I even saw a few kicks thrown in. We watched it some and then decided to video it. I am not sure why. We did manage to get a few still pictures but you can't really tell what is going on.

The guys dong the slapping and arresting were wearing plain clothes but we think that they were police because they had real handcuffs. Normal citizens do not have handcuffs in China. Eventually some uniformed police came in a police car and van. They took one "criminal" away. They also videoed and took pictures of whatever was inside his cart.

It was really weird. As an American it was disturbing to see the guy getting hit and kicked, but he was caught doing something bad. The criminal justice system here is very different than in the States. There are no Bill of Rights, Miranda Rights, or innocent until proven guilty. But we do really feel safe here. I don't fear for the kids like I sometimes do in the US. There are few repeat bad guys here. Bad criminals (murders, rapists, drug dealers, and corrupt government officials) don't get second or third or fourth chances.

We enjoy many rights and privileges as Americans. Sometimes we forget that other countries do not share our views about what rights people should have. Yesterday was reminder that this is NOT America and this country can be VERY different than home.


This is the cart that was involved some how. There is a box in the back that they opened and took pictures of.

passing it on

We were very encouraged to see that this past Sunday Cecelia brought someone new with her, a girl who has named herself "Arily". We were even more thankful when we saw that Arily was holding the Bible that Cecely loaned to Cecelia last semester! And Arily spoke up during our discussion. She was able to give examples from the Bible about things she had learned in her reading these past few weeks. She mentioned some things about Joseph, and we asked her how much she had read, and it turned out she has already read most of Genesis and Exodus! So glad that Cecelia passed that Bible on and let someone new read it this past summer. Praise God.

"It's that squash blossom special..."

Phoebe's latest trick: eating squash! [There's supposed to be a picture here, but maybe we'll have to try again later.]
We just got our internet connection going here at the new place.
We're 80% or better on unpacking and setting-up house.
It's been extremely tiring. Besides the "normal" issues of moving into a new apartment overseas [dealing with jetlag, cleaning, going through what the last folks left behind, going through your own stuff, deciding where to put everything, reminding yourself to stop and eat before your faint, napping from 4pm to 4am...] there's the baby, which certainly has complicated things from what we're used to.
Anyway, it's going okay.
School starts Monday.

Clarks returning

Well, this is our last night in America for a long time. We are overnighting in Chicago tonight, and leave for shanghai tomorrow morning. We have really enjoyed the summer home with Phoebe and all her grandparents and our friends, but now it is time to go back and get settled back in and get to work. It is a little sad to leave, but also exciting,and comforting and familiar all at the same time. No wonder I feel so strange about going back, there are so many mixed feelings. My parents are so dear to me and it was hard to leave home, but china is very dear, too, in it's own way, and as we have said before, it is also home. We feel prepared to go back. We have bathed it in prayer, every step of the way. We have read some interesting stuff this summer, too, and had some time to think it over and discuss it slowly. Thanks for this time. It was very refreshing. It will be good, though to be at our post again, and it feels good to be back on the blog. We would appreciate your prayers for our travel, phoebe's health, settling in, and of course, the work. Pray that we will find those He is calling. We care deeply about this work, and really want to please Him. We are humbled by this task, and we need your prayers lifting us up. Thank you, clear creek, for sending us, and fellow team members, we will see you soon! We have missed you.