Volume 4, Issue 1

We were excited to spend the holiday season at home in Harbin with our teammates and friends. It’s been great to host some student and international friends to our apartments and share some American holiday goodies with them. We even mimed our way through the Christmas story to students on campus! (read more)

We hope your holidays were amazing and that you continue to remember the Father and His great gift!

New Year, New Wait (Weight)

The New Year brings something we’re quite familiar with, waiting. We’re in a holding pattern again. Two months ago the wait was for Corbin to arrive. And he did. Now the wait is for his residence permit. We know the residence permit will arrive, just like Corbin, the question is when. We need the permit if we attend ELIC’s Annual Thailand Conference in two weeks. The conference is a great time of focusing on the organization’s priorities and goals. It’s also great to reconnect with other teachers and hear how the Father’s at work on their campuses.

During the waiting, we’ve spent some fun times with friends here in Harbin. Just this past week, brothers and sisters on campus hosted a great banquet celebrating new life found in the Son. We traveled twice across the city. Once to the government office to file the paperwork for Corbin’s residence permit (really, just to take a quick picture of Corbin on the official camera). The second time we traveled across the city for a play date with a sister and her family. The sister, Christy, runs a private school for brothers’ and sisters’ children.

The New Year also brings resolutions for the coming year. So here they are: commitment to language learning, to lose weight by eating right and exercise, to continue to use cloth diapers more than paper diapers on the little ones, to transition Kanyon to a big boy bed, to train Corbin to sleep through the night, and to build relationships, live as servants, testify truth, and serve in China.

While we don’t know what the waiting will bring, we know the Father is using this time to grow us in our relationship with him. We continue to draw close to the Father and hope the same for you. As you wait for what the New Year brings, we hope you feel the weight of the Father’s love and grace.

Think Tank

1. Residence Permit: Favor at the local government offices for Corbin’s residence permit
2. Sleepy Babies: Corbin to sleep through the night and Kanyon to transition to a big boy bed
3. Financial Profile: We are behind and don’t want to be in the red at the end of the year
4. Healthy & Safe: During the cold winter months in Harbin

Fill our think tank! Please send us your concerns to lift up.