Spring travels and updates

We are traveling a lot these days but for only short distances from one city to another.   Our week at Dripping Springs, TX was delightful.  Eve Mickelson, a friend we knew in Peachtree City, lives there now and she treated us like royalty.   She prepared a delicious dinner for us at her house soon after we arrived.  Eve went with us to Red Lobster to celebrate our 55^th anniversary.  She invited us back to her house for triple chocolate cake and ice cream.  Then she gave us the rest of the cake!  Ron has surely enjoyed getting a piece from the freezer every day.  Eve included her friend Vivian, another widow, in our get togethers and we had so much fun.  We also went with them to a fast food pizza place on Wednesday night and to Texas’s famous What A Burger on Sunday night.  Foy and Beth Forehand bought our dinner on Sunday night.  For those people who have not been to Texas, What A Burger is as famous as McDonalds.  We can see their buildings everywhere.  Food is good!

Sunday, the church secretary, whose husband is one of the elders, (Janice and Carl Garner) had us for lunch at their beautiful home which has a spectacular view of the area.  It's a panoramic view that includes Austin, 20 miles or more away.  Their daughter, Carla and their grandson were there also, so we had a great time and a delicious lunch.   Carla's husband, John, is the minister and his father is also one of the elders.  It was good to get to know them.   Lunch was delicious.

Monday brought us to the next location.  We parked in the rear of the Leander Church of Christ.  There was a power hook-up, water and sewer at one area but there were some low lines to go under.  Ron drove about half-way under until we got to the lines and then he came out, got a ladder out, propped a mop up that was at the back door and pushed it higher.  We still weren’t sure he could go under it so he said, “Pat, how about you getting on top of the RV and you can hold up the lines as I drive under?”  I knew he was kidding so I said, “Hush yo mouth and get back inside that RV!”   He said he just wanted to see my reaction.  He knew I was not getting on top of the RV even if he was not driving it.  He got out once, went on top and put the wires over the stuff on top of the RV and then drove under without a problem.  This morning, he got a taller ladder from the church and while I held the ladder steady, he got up and pulled the lines in and put ties on them to raise them higher.  It was not a power line that was the problem.  I think the young people had run some communication lines back to the building they use so they were thin wires.  They are now well protected from anyone driving back to this area.

Tuesday we were invited by one of the elders to meet him and his wife for lunch.  It was a really colorful and cute Mexican restaurant.  We had a fun time with them and discovered that we knew many people that they know.  They were sweet to us Wednesday night and told us to stay as long as we want to and come back again.  There was a lot of interest from the members about our work.  No doubt Ron will be asked to deliver a report and sermon on Sunday when we come back through this area.  

We will be in Lampasas tomorrow and Ron will meet with the elders of the church there on Tuesday night.  We will probably visit some other church in the area that we have not been to before, on Sunday.   They also have a spot where we can park.  We need to drive on Wednesday to be with the church in Hamilton, TX for Wednesday night.  I don’t know where we will be on Easter Sunday.   Ron is making appointments along the way as we travel back to Lewisville.  Ron will have a meeting with the Lewisville elders to go over the work on April 11^th.  On the 14^th, Ron will fly to Houston for just one day to speak to a group of Chinese doctors and nurses planning a medical mission to China.  They will work at the newly constructed hospital in Wadian, Henan.   Donated medical supplies and tools are being taken to China by various individuals.   I think Ron will get everyone going to China to take an extra suitcase of supplies.  Dr. Lou Smith of Tennessee, brought a truckload of medical things to Leigh Ann's house in Georgia.  Leigh Ann has to get them to people who can take them to China. 

Our worker is in the process of finishing the remaining things to be done on the hospital building and start pricing and purchasing the equipment.  Ronald has completed his work there and has been traveling to check on things at the care centers the past two weeks.  If you receive our newsletters, you know it's a beautiful building.  Ronald has done a great job with the construction even with many problems. 

The workers in Wadian will also need to make a survey of the homes in this area to determine who is poor and deserving of a medical card to give them free treatment.   We will start out as a children’s hospital because we would be overrun with people if it was opened up to everyone.  They will not turn an adult away that has an injury or something that we can correct.  The first team going in will probably examine children to establish a medical record and see what they need at the present time.  This province is the most populated and perhaps the poorest in China.  The need is great for medical care for the poor.   Chad Jackson with Jackson Healthcare may also get a team together to go before the end of the year.

Ron is planning to go to China on April 16^th.  I’m debating whether I will go with him.   We have a problem with the government at one of the orphanages.  After Ron meets with the elders on the 11^th, it may be decided that he needs to go to that location on this trip.   The initial trip is planned to meet a man who is over Christian bookstores that is very interested in our orphanages.  He can’t travel in China alone and we don’t have anyone that could meet him and show him around at this time.  Ron is primarily going for that reason.

Ronald has to leave China every so often to renew his VISA.   I think it’s been six months now so he’ll fly to Manila and meet Gigi.  They will spend some time together there for her birthday and if she’s successful getting the next VISA, she will return to China with him.  They have to meet a couple in ShenZhen early in May to interview them as potential orphanage directors.   We relocated Jerry, the director at the Jackson Care Center in Zigong to run the new hospital.  His wife, Christine, has been running the orphanage but we need a couple to go there so she can join her husband in Wadian.

Ron has been making reservations for a group going to work at two of our orphanages at the end of May.  Ten will go to Wesley’s House in Pinggo and 10 will go to John Connor Brown in Tiendeng.   Adults and teenagers are included. 

Little Addie, who was adopted by Connie and Stan Burnette, will be in the group going with her parents.  Here's how she looked when we brought her to the U.S. and the pictures of her when she started kindergarten this year.  She is a very precious little girl and everyone loves her. 

She is the child we brought over about four years ago for her to begin yearly surgery on her joints that would not move.   She was found at our orphanage door in a box, wrapped in a blanket, the morning after she was born.  She had so many things wrong with her, her parents knew there was nothing they could do for her.  She was lovingly wrapped up so I have to believe they thought “Maybe her only hope is for the Americans to help her” and they were right.  No child like this will be neglected if there’s any way Ron can find someone to help them. 

The trip to the orphanages will be an eye-opening experience for this group, especially for the young people.  People who go, say it changes their lives and they want to go back. 

Our work continues to be busy all the time; both with things going on in China and at home.  The amount of computer work between the workers and the U.S. (orphan reports, letters from orphans to their sponsors, and the medical work for sick children) is a daily task.

Taking the gospel to every creature in every nation is not an easy job.   We know Dr. John Bailey, a retired dentist in Colleyville, TX and Dr. Fred Massey, a retired OB-GYN/Oncologist in San Antonio, TX who are both part of several medical missions every year, going to foreign places.  The working conditions are horrible as well as their living conditions to go help people and take the Good News to a lost world.  I just received an email today from Dr. David Darrah, a retired physician in Tennessee, who went with us on at least one medical mission to China.  Here’s what he wrote:

I went to Madagascar with an American/European medical mission team of 52 persons from March 1--10. It was a very long trip there and back (with which you are very familiar traveling back and forth to China) and we hope the effort was not only beneficial to the poor people we saw and treated but pray the government will allow World Madagascar Voice (a branch of World Christian Broadcasting) to ship and install the transmitters in the radio station that has been built in that country.  Only time will tell but you also are familiar with dealing with foreign governments.    ….I keep thinking I will someday write a letter or note to my children in China; it isn't that difficult but I also have children in India, Ghana, Guatemala and Haiti.

God continues to bless us and the work in China.  Thank you for your prayers and interest in our work but please remember the sick and suffering all over the world.   Many need prayers for physical healing but others need the life-saving spiritual healing of salvation.   Our workers all over the world and Christians struggling with life problems need your prayers.  We cannot despair because so many evils are in our society.  They have always been present.  We may not seem to be winning the war against Satan but I know the Bible says Jesus will overthrow him and his kingdom.    We just need to keep on doing our part in this battle.   God bless you!