Nǐ hǎo! It has been a busy month for us here in X-town. We have finally started language lessons, and they are going very well! Our lǎoshī (teacher) does not speak in English during the lessons, which can make for some rather interesting misunderstandings. Thankfully, she is incredibly patient and has a wonderful sense of humor. (Otherwise, I don’t think she would have given three of our guys the foreign names “Panda”, “Happy”, and “Special”.)

Also, the smog has started to settle in X-town, and we have all bought our quite fashionable face masks to keep ourselves breathing easily. Incidentally, my roommate and I discovered that the face masks also work quite well for cooking with hot peppers. (We may have added a few too many to our potatoes one night, to the point where we couldn’t breathe in the kitchen without coughing…)

As far as our work here goes, I think most of the events of the last month can be summed up best in the form of prayer requests. Please pray:
-That God would continue to work in the hearts of our friends with whom we have shared the gospel. (In particular, pray that our friends Vera, Terry, May, Emily, and Claudia will continue to encounter God firsthand.)
-That our friends who have decided to join the family of Christ would continue to grow strong in their faith. We are finding that negative reactions from family members and strong cultural ties to Marxism are causing some of our friends to change their minds after deciding to follow Jesus.
-For our team in general. Some have not been feeling well, and others have been a little discouraged by various setbacks. Pray for encouragement and perseverance.
-For encouragement for our fellow believers on these campuses. A few weeks ago, officials were going around and taking down the names of every person on campus who is a Christian. Please pray for courage and faith.

Thank you so much for your continued love and support! I cannot wait to fill you in on what God does in the coming weeks.