Happy Niu Year!

Happy Spring Festival! This is the Year of the Ox.

We just got back from our trip to Harbin. This Northeastern city is famous for an Ice Festival that starts in late December and runs until mid-February. We spent three full days there and stayed at our friends' apartment, which was located about one hour from the downtown. Thank you J & J! We had four students help us while we were there, acting as our tour guides were Enya, Daniel, Tony & Shirley. We really enjoyed our time together, they wonderful, cooking dinner for us every night. On our last night there they made hot pot for Andrew's birthday and picked up his cake for us. We attached a photo of them below from the night of Andrew's birthday. Please pray for them. Two of them are Christians, and two of them are not. They are staying in Harbin for the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year. Tony is a college graduate and is looking for a job, Enya and Shirley are both Juniors in the local school, and Daniel attends a school about 2 hours from Beijing. We were very blessed to have them with us.

Sunday our worship was in the evening due to folks heading back to work this weekend. We had a great time on Saturday night celebrating Gray's 50th birthday at Gary & Danita Jackson's home. Danita cooked a great Mexican feast, we played games together, and ate cake. There were about 30 people that attended.

Ski Trip: Before we left for Harbin we went skiing with Andrey, a brother from church. We had a great time with Andrey. Andrew could not find a ski boot to fit him, so he decided to snowboard instead, which he has done once before. There was one ski lift and one long trail. The other much shorter trails for beginners were on the same hill, which used skit tows.

Orphanage and plans: Almost every week Jaime goes to the local orphanage and spends time with the children. She enjoys exchanging English lessons for Chinese lessons with the children. This week will be her last visit for awhile, because she is heading back to the States to visit family for one month. Please pray for her to have a safe and enjoyable journey. Also please pray for her cousin, Kathleen, who was just diagnosed with Acute Leukemia. Kathleen is getting treatment now and has to remain in the hospital for 30 days. Please remember to pray for Andrew as he remains in China for his continued work and studies. Keep us both in your prayers as we will be apart for a month.

Trip to Sichuan: Gary & Danita and two members of the Wangjing church are in Sichuan this week visiting the 9 families that our church is sponsoring. Please pray for their safety and time with them.

Marcus & Julia Rodriguez: Please continue to pray for Marcus & Julia as they have gone to Julia's hometown for Spring Festival and will be enjoying hiking in Yunnan province too.

Facebook photos:
Skiing in Beijing
Harbin Ice Festival
Harbin's Songhua River & St. Sofia Church
Harbin's Tiger Park