Not much to say, so much to say...

Well, fall lasted all of about 3 days here in Xining and the temperatures are now dropping. I've officially pulled out the long johns and started wearing my smart wool socks. Yet, today, I was sweating. Good grief. The weather here is almost like Oklahoma and Arkansas. One day its snowing and the next day, you have to shed some layers.

In the last month, a few things have happened...lets see.

Well, THIS lady came to visit me:



This is a picture of me (Shelli) and my Mom Jan on the great wall of China. Unfortunately, the fog was sooooooo thick that you literally couldn't see 30 feet in front of you. So, Mom didn't get the full experience of the wall. Oh well, at least she went! She said she had fun while she was here, but I could tell she was tired. And, the poor thing got a stomach bug her last few days. Yuck.

Besides Moms visit, the only thing we really have to talk about these days is just...well...life. We have such a great life out here. We've been blessed with a wonderful warm home with comfy furnishings, a stomach that is finally used to the interesting foods, a school that has a staff that has become our friends, great expat friends and great new doors for m1nistry opening daily.

I (Shelli) continue to go out (not quite as often as I would like) to the train station and chit chat with prostitutes. Some of the expats interested in ministering to these ladies have been throwing around the idea of opening up an apartment close to the train station to use as a retreat center (sort of). But, every time we get motivated, something else always comes up. Pr@y with us for motivation and time management to get this ball rolling.

Justin, the rockstar, is full of all kinds of opportunities these days. As you may know, he's the drummer for a band here in town called "Long Da" (pronounced with a long "O" sound) which means wind horse in Tibetan. This is a band made up of four Amdo and Kham tibetan guys and Justin. He has a complete blast playing with these guys and he's developing such a great relationship with them. They're interested in every aspect of our life and think he's just the coolest guy ever. Ha ha ha.
Can you find Justin in the band photo???



Some bad news came our way about a month ago. Our sweet kids at the orphanage that Justin teaches, had to move to a city about 2 1/2 hours away. So, our time with them will be quite a bit less frequent. This sent us into tears. We have such a great relationship with those kids, but now we wont get to see them as often. However, the school master HAS asked us to continue to come out as often as we can. So, we're hoping that we can go at least twice a month.

Gotta bring up some financial needs...
Our townhouse in Fayetteville is still sitting vacant. (going on five months) So, that means that we're paying $660 a month on a mortgage for a home that no one is living in. As you can imagine, as m1ssionaries, $660 a month is QUITE a blow to an already small budget. Please pr@y that it rents.

And/or...pray that we start receiving an extra $1200 a month in support to pay for our townhouse mortgage in Fayetteville and also the excess that we would need to have a savings account, planning for our furlough, plane tickets and what not.

Oh, and one more thing. On the last blog entry, I told you about a "coat drive" that me and a friend were going to organize. It went off without a hitch, and we (with the help of a lot of people) were able to raise enough money to purchase warm clothing and shoes for 1,521 kids in need. AWESOME!!!!!!! Here is a photo of the truck we had to load up with the clothes:



Love you all. Thanks for reading.