Largest ball pit EVER!!!!

This week has been another week of learning how to live in China. We had some good and bad days this week. But, overall we are learning a little more everyday about life in China as well as learning more about the children at the orphanage and our work here. John continues to work at the orphanage daily doing various things. Right now, he is spending most of his time working with the accountants at PHF and getting a handle on their finances. This past week, a project was kicked off to build 3 new children's homes at Shepherd's field. Desiray has started doing some of her work with Child Sponsorship, and plans to start more this week. Her work with PHF is done more slowly as she does not have as much time to be at the orphanage when she is also caring for Alyson and Austin. Speaking of Alyson and Austin-they are still doing well and are continuing pre-school. Mom has also started doing a little homeschooling with them which is going well.

Today we went to Beijing to the BICF (Beijing international Christian Fellowship). It was a wonderful time of Worship with people from all over the world. After church we spent some time in Beijing together as a family (we were able to use a driver from PHF-which is a huge blessing since he knows how to get around and get to different places-plus he speaks a little english).

We went to a place we saw in a "Beijing for Kids" magazine called Fundazzle. It had the largest ball pit we have ever seen. The kids had a blast!! Apparentely all the ball pits that were once in the United States have been moved to China and are now in this one large ball pit in Beijing:) Notice also the picture we took of this sign about not throwing the balls-sometimes the Chinese get their words a little mixed up when they try to write things in English. We thought it was pretty funny.

A few things you can keep in your prayers this week:

-The kids would keep going to pre-school as some days they don't want to go

-Patience as we continue to learn how to live in China, and as we try and learn the language. (Our tutor starts tomorrow)

-2 children from PHF had heart surgeries this week-pray for their continued healing (Elijah and Parker)

-Pray that our Visas would get converted into permanent work visas quickly and with no problems so that we can get our driver's license. (which would help our transportations issues)

Anyway, I guess that is about it for this week.

Blessings,

John, Desiray Alyson and Austin Christen