Spring is the most beautiful time in Hangzhou. Flowers are blooming. I took Caleb to see cherry blossoms and tulips. Here are some pictures. Caleb is 26 months old. He is growing big and strong everyday. He loves animal shows. We got a DVD of wild life in China. He sits still on the couch watching pandas and tigers. He loves walking and running. I take him out to play with kids in our neighborhood. He loves fishing for gold fish with a stick in a complex nearby our home.

On Friday, I read a book called “Habit of the mind Ten Exercises to Renew Your Thinking” by Dr. Archibald Hart with three moms. Two moms are not believers. We read 1 Corinthians chapter 13 about love. We all chose one thing we are going to do better this week.

Love Gaoyan

After we had tea we went for a walk and found this area that was set up with some interesting traditional Chinese things.

This is a very traditional tea setting.

Jon's new friend. Jon is wearing the guy's hat.

Liam and Eryn found a game. The game is called guo (pronounced go). I do not know how to play, but there are lots and lots of little pieces. The other little boy is the son of a co-worker.

Evidently this is a place where people come to take wedding pictures. This couple was decked out in their wedding outfits.

We were going to get the kids to move, but the couple wanted to take pictures with the foreign kids!

A few weeks ago, it was Women’s Day. That is not a holiday we celebrate in the U.S. but it was on my calendar. The school invited all the women out for tea and the guys and kids got to come along. We went to a nice tea house over looking the canal. We drank tea and ate lots and lots of snacks.

This is our family eating the snacks.

I drank this kind of tea.

It is called eight treasures. There are eight things in this tea. I don't remember everything that is in it, but it has orange peal, a couple types of flowers, wolf berries, dates, sugar, and some other things. It is not bad. I think it is very pretty.

This is what we could see from the window of the tea house.

Turtle Turtle

Alex was a student of both of us last semester. I think he may be attending one of Josh’s classes this semester. He really wants to improve his English. He is also our friend. We have been having him over about once a week. Recently he has expressed interest in learning more about our favorite Book. We are trying to get him together with Frank or someone who speaks better Chinese.

Anyway, the first time he came over this semester, he brought the kids a present. Pets! Three turtles! Jon was pretty grossed out.

We had thought about getting a small pet, but we were thinking about something furry. Alex said that he thought about getting a mouse but he said it has a smell. We think that the turtles smell!
Alex also said that once the turtles get bigger, we can eat them. Yes they do eat turtle in China. I have seen them in the grocery store. They are not cheap at all. We have tasted turtle soup (when we were in China before) We do not like it. We will not eat these turtles!
I spent some time on the Internet trying to find out what kind of turtle we had and how to take care of them. The kind of turtle we have is commonly known as Reeve’s turtle. The good news is that they do not grow to be very large. They are some of the smaller turtles.

The turtles came in three small glass bowls.

We bought a tank and gathered some rocks and also bought a heater and lamp for the turtles. They seem as happy as turtles can seem.

This is what the turtle home looks like now.

I have taken responsibility for cleaning the turtle home and feeding them. So far they have not been too smelly, but that may change once the weather gets warmer.

The kids think that the turtles are great and they do enjoy watching them and feeding them. But they do not seem too attached to them.

This is two of the turtles "sunning" on the rocks.

This is the other one in the water.

I do not know what we will do with the turtles when we are in the US for a few weeks this summer. Maybe Alex can take them for us.

Skype Chat with Sisters

Elaine on Skype with Margaret, ShenLi, and Cecely:

Well, it seems that these pictures uploaded in the opposite order of what I'd planned. You were supposed to get the wide shot, then the zoom in. Anyway, you get the idea.

So, this was just this morning, our time. After having a small meeting with sister Margaret and soon-to-be-sister ShenLi, we gave Elaine a call in America. The ladies all talked for nearly an hour, I guess. We're more and more thankful for Elaine's getting to go over, the more we see the positive influence it seems to be having on her.

She enjoyed her trip to TN, too, by the way!

An Overall Progress Report

We have already prepared and sent a short video highlighting the work over here that will be shown soon at your special "Mish" day service, but before that day gets here, let us tell you about some of what's going on:

First up, George. He's probably the best guy we've got right now as far as enthusiasm, willingness, potential for growth... George has been mentioned before, I think -- he's the guy who came down from the north of China to look for work in HZ. He's teaching Chinese to Josh and to the Clarks. He's full of energy and joy. He's been hosting a mid-week group at his small apartment for a few weeks now. Josh goes over there, but actually, George is definitely the main teacher. They invite new people to join them, so it's a mixed group. George has said that he'd like to start a "family" at his place -- which is exciting because we would like to see the W3 group start to spread itself out a little more and eventually reach out to more people in more areas. He's doing great overall, but you should pr*y for him. He's recently broken up with a long-time girlfriend whom he left behind in the north when we moved down here. She is a sister, but her f*ith is very weak -- in fact, pr*y about that, too -- and she has not always been the best thing for George as far as peace, encouragement, and (frankly) purity. He took a big step to move away from her and get focused on better things, and he is happy to have done so. Of course though, it's always hard when a relationship finally comes to an end. Anyway, besides that, he also needs to find a steady job. He was trying to sell insurance [ask the Davises if you want to know just how hard he was trying!] but it didn't work out, so now he's looking for something else. The dream was to come to HZ, get rich (!), and provide for his marriage to the girlfriend. Now he's unemployed, piecing together an income with informal teaching and translating, and he's broken up. But really, he's got such a good attitude about it and realizes that it has been the right thing for him. His f*ith has grown tremendously and continues to grow daily! Remember George.

Besides that... as we've alluded to already, the Clarks, the Davises [well, Josh], and now the Hardins (hooray!) are ALL studying Chinese on a regular basis! Hallie even has her own tutor(s) and will begin her personalized lessons tomorrow! That was one of the things that had hounded each and every one of us. You know, you get here and you think, "Now I'm going to really learn the language," but something comes up, and another thing, and another thing, until suddenly you realize that three or four months have gone by and you haven't really made any progress, you don't have a teacher, and you are stuck in a rut. So, we all talked about it and kind of motivated one another and -- sure enough -- now we've all found teachers, and we're all learning! In fact, the whole George thing and his desperate need for money is what got the Clarks to "take pity" and hire him as their teacher. So once again, mysterious ways... Now he's having to take pity on them as they mumble through the dialogues.

In other news, The Clarks have been hosting a children's English class at their place on Fridays, while Gao Yan (by herself the first week, and then with Margaret) tries to reach out and teach the moms some "other things". The first week was hard; some of the mothers were unprepared and unwilling to read the particular Book that GY had wanted to share. And even when she tried to read from another less-threatening but still related children's book, there was less than complete cooperation and interest. The second week went much better, thankfully. It went so well, in fact, that GY -- whom we thought would just about never take up a teaching offer from us again -- is actually looking forward to their next class!

And maybe the last thing -- at least for now -- is that we keep waiting for Shen Li to take the plunge. She's sure to be the first; we just don't know when she'll say that she's completely ready. She and her daughter are so sweet. The Clarks [which, if you haven't figured out, is us] are meeting with her, as usual, this Sunday morning. We'll just wait and see. We don't want to put any pressure on her; we're content to let Him nudge her along.

So, that's it. Others might add some news as it becomes available, but that's an outline of what's going on with all of us right now. Other issues to be thinking about: jobs and housing for all of us in the upcoming semester(s). The Clark place is now looking secure; the Davises have the house, but Josh might (?) be looking at other schools; and the Hardins are considering a transition away from Jennifer working and are having to wonder how that might affect their work and housing. We are all busy, yet we are also looking ahead to further opportunities -- seek guidance and open doors on our behalf. And remember the Hardins as far as health goes. They've had, at least recently, the worst run of it -- it seems like it's rare for all of them to be healthy at once. As Spring comes on, it would sure be nice if they (and all of us) would have a nice, long stretch of really great health.

Thanks, Love, and Goodbye for now!

Hardin update

Well, I haven’t updated in quite a while. Jon’s parents are still here. However we have not been able to do very much with them because it has been raining and raining. It has rained everyday for about 2 weeks.
Classes have started again, well we are in the 3rd week. I guess that is going pretty well. The last few days I have been sick. I started feeling bad on Sunday but by Monday I pretty much just laid around all day. I had a class on Tuesday and I went, but it was not good. I let them out early and stumbled home. I may actually be on the mend now. I am able to sit up and type. I slept all day today. I had to cancel my class today. I am hoping I can make it to class tomorrow. It is such a pain to make up a missed class. I am thankful that Jon’s mom was here today because I did not have to worry about doing as much for the kids. Please remember Jon and his parents and pray that they don’t get sick. The kids have been sick too. Pray that they will get better quickly!

Also, the school is trying to give me at least one other class (maybe more). The problem is that it is either Friday night or Sat. or Sunday. None of those days are good for me! I hope to be back to normal and on track in a few days!