Hello from Kathy

Our week of ministry is over - already! In some ways it seems like we have been here for months and in other ways it feels unbelievable that we are within a couple days of getting on the plane to come home.

Our team did an awesome job during our week of ministry - and every single person was needed! We now see more clearly why the Lord spoke to the hearts of so many of Garland's teens to come on this trip. The seven teens who live in China who were part of the teen program this week are quite isolated from any peers in each of the cities they live in throughout China, so with our six and their seven - we had quite a respectable youth group for the week. The JHF teens were six boys and a girl, and we brought six girls, and they became wonderful friends in our four and a half short days together.

The teens also did a great job serving as our drama team and music team each morning. The skits Paul Tapp wrote and rehearsed with our team over the last couple of months were a great hit. The kids LOVED Dr. Pearl the Science Girl (Heather Weitz), Marvelous Marlena (Gracie Jorgens), and her Assistants (Loryn Butters, Emily Roberts and Lauren Cosgrove). I'm guessing most of the kids had never seen goofy skits like this, but once they caught on, they couldn't wait until Dr. Pearl showed up each morning. They were also quite releaved when Marvelous Marlena saw the Light and gave her life to Jesus at the end of the week! Being the music and drama team put an extra burden of responsibility on the teens as we met every morning about 7:15 to practice the skit and music for that day. I am very proud of how each of them rose to the occasion of what was needed of them.

I could go on telling you how we saw that God had ordained a special role for each person on the team to meet certain needs. All the parents said this was the BEST children's ministry that any team has brought JHF and that they had the best conference ever because their children were so happy and so eager to come be part of all the activities we had planned throughout the day. We worked very hard each day from early in the morning until late at night, but it was well worth the effort as we saw the children respond so eagerly. Most kids in JHF are in traditional Chinese schools that emphasize rote learning, so hands-on, creative learning experiences were receivied with anabashed enthusiasm.

As the week went on, we realized that many of the JHF people at the conference were either home schooling their kids or teaching Chinese kids with very few resources, so for the last night Christin set up a "store" for any JHF workers to come select resources out of our ministry supplies that we did not need to take back with us. Quite a few families were overjoyed by our generosity and the luxury of having some things that we think nothing of having and can get more of easily.

I believe that what our team was able to do truly furthered the work of Christ throughout China and also in Afghanistan, as one of the women staffing the nursery is married to a Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot who serves in Afghanistan. She was thrilled to be able to take things from our preschool supplies for her church in Afghanistan.

Tomorrow we are going to worship at The Gathering, a church that meets at the Lotus Hotel and the one that my godson, Jason Tompkins, who is a doctor in China with the C&MA, is worshipping with while he and his wife are here in Chiang Mai for the birth of their third son, Hudson, who was born in the hospital next to our hotel the morning we arrived in Chiang Mai! God's timing is amazing! After church, we will have lunch with Jason and his family, and then we are going to go to a factory that makes the colorful silk parasols that Chiang Mai is famous for.

Well, it is late, and I am being too wordy as usual! Love to you all, Kathy C.

P.S. When we got back to Chiang Mai today, we had lunch at The Sizzler . . . and an American-style meal was a welcome treat for us all!