A few things we are thankful to God for throughout our outreach to China:

1) We are thankful for YOU, our friends and family even though we were not together for the holiday. We are thankful for our feast of pork fried noodles and rice. We are also thankful for Chinese bakeries on every block that sell glazed almond bread, caterpillar fun bread, and pound cakes.

2) We are thankful to our gracious hosts in China who accommodated us in so many ways. For the family who allowed us to stay in their apartment with hot water while they went on vacation. For translators and bus passes. For coffee, “over the bridge rice noodles”, stories and encouragement. We really can’t thank you guys enough and we know that God will continue to bless you in China! We also thank you for following up the relationships of the new friends that we made while we were there.

3) We are thankful for meeting tons of university students and getting the opportunity to talk with them in class, English corner, coffeehouses and while they translated for us at the orphanage school. They are all hungry for genuine relationships, English conversation and many are interested and open to the Gospel. 3 people came into the kingdom and many are close behind! We hope to stay in touch with many of our new friends.

4) We are thankful for the hundred of kids that we had the opportunity to sing songs with, play and dance with at the orphanage school and kindergarten. We are thankful for dirty hands, huge smiles, joy and hugs all around.

5) We are thankful for the opportunity to visit registered Chinese churches and worship with our brothers and sisters in a restaurant, in an apartment and the church building itself.  We are thankful for their prayers and encouragement.

6) We are thankful for a safe return to Thailand where we will have 2 more weeks of class before 2 months of outreach. We are thankful for Western-styled toilets again, to see grass and trees all around and for the money-saving Thai economy.  We are thankful for friendly faces who say “sawadeekah” instead of just staring at us while taking photos and a more relaxed-pace of life. We are thankful for internet connection and a phone to stay in touch with you. We were thankful to have the modern conveniences and seeing Western culture in the drastic change of visiting China, but we are also appreciative of the freedoms and landscapes of returning to Thailand.

God bless each and every one of you guys and we hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well! Love, us