The infestation was caused by some of the worst flooding in 50 years in central China. In the past two weeks, more than 400 people have died, 105 are missing and more than 3 million have been forced to evacuate their homes.
but only a few hundred miles away in kunming city, lorna and i are doing well enough.
2 days ago i (david) went on a trip with another brother here in kunming. we took a team of 10 chinese americans to some villages. lorna wasn’t feeling well so she stayed home.
it was raining during the whole trip, so the roads were wet and slippery, which makes chinese traffic worse than it usually is — a thought that is hard to imagine as it is already the worst i’ve ever been in!
had a great time though. passed out hundreds of presents from america to the poor village kids. they were pretty excited to get coloring books and yoyos and american candy. i was excited about the candy too. the only other option was what we affectionately refer to as “village slush” — a common meal in villages, cooked into a slush in a public wok. everyone double-dips with their chopsticks. kinda rough. but no belly problems this time, PTL!
my birthday is next week, july 27th. i’ll be turning 29.
we got out VPN up and running! now i am able to access all my blocked webblogs! we’ll be staying in touch more and updating our sites a lot more often now. we can even reply to comments again! woohoo.
we definitely dont post as much as we used to or as much as we would
like! its tough when all these websites are blocked by the government.
but it’s time again for our monthly comic! it seemed to be such a big hit last time. i hope you enjoy! please print it from the link hereand stick it on your fridge!
we
have been good. i (david) got really sick last week. major diarrhea.
thats normal here, hence the reason i do not feel ashamed! i had to use
the bathroom 20 times before noon. it was rough. something i ate.
we
had a huge training, the biggest we’ve ever had here. underground. it
was excellent! very exciting. wish i could go into more detail now.
have
lots of people coming in and out of our home regularly. we’re pretty
busy. i’m also doing lots of video editing. lorna is studying chinese.
our marriage life is great! so good to be together. in fact, if i didnt
have her, i wouldnt be living in china im sure!
we are going on another trip tomorrow with a team of 10. going to the villages. then we have a number of other trips planned.
we pushed our trip to the states back a couple months. not sure when we’re coming. we really need to do lorna’s US visa. we’ve been waiting forever.
drop us a note here! we’ll try to update more. but we really need a VPN! can anyone help? we have such a hard time accessing our blogs…
it’s a weird feeling. manila is so alive and open and democratic and free. china is so controlled. i mean even now i’m openning my blog through proxys and trying to set up a VPN so i can even access this page! ridiculous.
but in the end, we are together. that’s what makes any place enjoyable: being with my wonderful wife lorna.
i
wanted to post this comic, the first of many to come! we’ll be doing a
monthly china project comic alongside our quarterly newsletter. please
feel free to print it and stick it on your fridge or something! just
another way to remember us. click on the link under the photo, download, and print directly.
stay in touch! if we don’t reply to your emails or comments here, please don’t be offended. it is very difficult to access our blogs because of the government control over the internet here. we’re doing our best with what we got.
we do plan on visiting the states in august. no dates set in stone yet, but we want to catch up with family in arizona. if anyone in prescott has an extra vehicle we could borrow, we would be very blessed! thanks!
we’ve been here in manila, philippines for almost 2 weeks now.
time flies! we have really been having a good time here. really, its so
healthy to get out of china and be refreshed. see the bigger picture of
life. remember all the people who are lifting us up as we live on the
front lines of the field in a communist nation.
the
wedding was great. beautiful. always good to share in the family’s joy.
but i feel like i’m able to do that more here in the philippines than
in america. we really need to get back to the states for a while…
but we go back in only one week. [mixed emotions]
this week we are helping our parents move out of the house they have been in for 22 years.
they really need to move. the house is falling apart and plus they need
a new environment. the only problem is, accomodations are really so
expensive here in manila. but we found a decent place and they should
be moving this week, before we go back to china. lorna has been helping
them pack the stuff today.
[tattoo]
i’m pretty happy with my first tattoo!
the chinese character surrounded by the chaotic soundwave means
"righteousness". it’s my favorite chinese character, packed with
meaning. break it down and its 2 elements mean "I, myself" under the "lamb" = "righteousness".
wow! we have a little reverse culture shock being back in what we consider "the real world". where:
the internet actually works fastthere is no internet censorshipwe can actually watch movieseat ice creambe somewhat normal
not used to that kinda stuff…
we watched shrek 3 last night with our family! that was fun. now we are preparing for my sister in law’s wedding this saturday.
it is hot as hades itself here though! killer. we’re trying to find an apartment to stay in that has aircon.
actually
something you can pray for us about: we are really wanting to purchase
a place in manila that we can rent out while not in the country and
stay in when we’re back. like a small condo. it’s about $40,000 to
$50,000. of course we dont have that money at all, but something to pray for us about. thanks!
stay in touch! we love you all and want to be connected. always thinking about you! blessings from asia!
this
week has been extremely busy. as usual i guess. on top of all the
discipleship training we have going on, and the video editing, we
decided to help remodel one of the rooms in our fellowship and make a
youth room for the young people.
in
one week we knocked down walls, built a stage, painted walls, and fixed
the whole place up from top to bottom! it looks sweet!
lorna painted all the flames on the wall. she’s such an artist!
the
first service was this morning at fellowship. it rocked! complete with
videos and a rocking youth band. tiring but i am still charged up!
tomorrow we are on our way to the philippines for 3 weeks.
14:00 kunming - shenzhen 15:30 shenzhen - hong kong turbojet 19:00 hong kong - manila
it has been exactly 10 years to the day now that lorna and i first met in the hong kong airport! i was living in hong kong with a small team of graduates from teen mania ministries, hosting short term teams, etc. lorna’s team arrived from the philippines, and we went to pick them up at the airport and lead them around hong kong and china.
you won’t believe this but the first time i saw her walking into the airport waiting hall in her pink dress, i leaned over to my friend kyle and said, “i think i can marry that girl!”
ok. ok. it took a while. 7 years of chasing her! but it was worth every moment!
last night before we went to bed we were reading our journals from 10 years ago. it is amazing! sometimes we can still not believe that we’re together. my life is enhanced in every way because of my wonderful wife!
