WOW!!! Is HE great or what!!!!! Last evening was our birthday party and it was planned for outside. I mean there is no other place here that will hold 170 children and 45 adults. So when at 1 pm it began to cloud over as it does nearly everday for the afternoon and evening rain which keeps this place so lush and beautiful, we went into two modes. First of all CALLING for mercy and secondly making a contingency plan. By 2:30 the skies started to shower us with rain. Our two modes increased. By 430 it was looking like the answer was the contingency plan. At 530 the skies began to clear and by 6:30 we had a beautiful blue cloud filled sky and the humidity lifted a little. Our Party was in great weather and was a grand success. We even had the Chinese camp director, the assistant principal, and the school PE teacher competing in the baloon stomp and dancing. The young people did a great job of leading the dances and everyone worked hard to make this a success. I am especially grateful to Linda, Mollie, John and David for helping me put the plan into action. It took every member of the team working together all the time at the tasks assigned to make this run smoothly. Think about it 170, 9-13 year olds stomping baloons, blowing bubbles, eating cake and dancing. Could have been CHAOS--but then we know he is the Prince of Peace.

The Chinese students are very curious about the hairy legs and arms of the men in the camp because the Chinese have almost hairless arms and legs. It is not uncommon to be sitting among the students and have them pull the hair on your legs and arm as they are fascinated by how much hair we have. Well, you know the saying "when in . . . do as the... do". The teens decided to take this to the extreme last night and remove the hair from the boys legs. Oh My!!!! What a sight--since we had no wax, they tried masking tape, duct tape, and packing tape. All to no avail. It would not stick. Finally Anna T said I always thought the hair had to be less than 1/4 in long for this to work. So Mollie, the hairdresser she is, never travels without her haircutting scissors. She snipped the hair off the legs of the boys and then applied the duct tape. voila!!! off comes the hair. Now there is a nice smooth patch of skin on the legs of Josh and Chris. Well, not to be outdone, Doug said he was ready to join the Hairless Leg Club. Dave was watching and not sure but after Doug joined the club and a round of DAVE,DAVE, DAVE, he became a member as well. Well that was just not enough, now they wanted to get Tim out of bed so Herm went to get Tim and sure enough, amid all the peer pressure, he succumed to join the "Hairy No More" club. It was all just too funny. Well, I mean you have to do something when there is no TV, no radio, no internet and only your imagination. We have it on video for all to see. Just ask when we get home.

Amid all the fun there is much work being done here. As teachers tell the story of Christmas and Easter in their classes and as Anna M interprets the story, children are seeking time with her to hear more. She has been busy since yesterday morning talking with boys who have many questions. Some even deciding that the story is of GREAT meaning to them and take special action.

We covet your THOUGHTS as the deceiver is at work here and it is the power that comes from your lifting us up that defeats his actions. You are a VITAL part of our team. Lift us up as HE leads you. Listen to HS voice and you will be in tune with the work here.

Doug, for the Guiyang team