Hi Everyone

We are back in Shangri-La after two weeks in and around Kunming. This meant that we missed all of the action around here, which I think was probably a good thing.

Our time in Kunming was really encouraging. We went to the BCi retreat outside of Kunming. It was really good to network with other people in Yunnan and hear what they are doing and how their projects are progressing. At the moment we need a lot of ideas and help from others who have been down this road before.

After the retreat we went to a training farm that BCI has. It was a blast. We hung out with the agricultural experts (one of them who lives in Aman and often works in Iraq), fed the goats in the goat project and walked up and down the teraces. Alianna really enjoyed the goats. She wanted to be with them as much as she could. I fell in love with them as well. Maybe we will get Alianna a goat instead of a puppy and then we can just eat it when we have to go to overseas ;) That way we don’t have to worry about someone looking after it while we are gone. I just suggested this to Karl, but he doesn’t think it is funny.

Now we are back here and it is very cold still. It was a shock to the system again, because Kunming was nice and warm already. But our trusty stove is helping. We were only back in Shangri-La for a few days before Karl installed a woodstove. He spent many hours designing one and had it made right before we left, but didn’t have time to install it. It was quite a bit of fun to watch him design the stove and make a model out of cardboard. Alianna thought it was a great toy. Eventually he loaded the cardboard model on his bicycle and took it to a stovemaker to weld it for him. Great was his frustration when, in spite of the model and detailed explanation of how to make the stove, it still turned out different than he planned. Flaws aside, the stove works so much better than any local stove, which is basically just a metal box with a hole in the front (without a door) where you stick long logs in. Needless to say it is a smoky, sooty, inefficient business.

Karl has been running around, getting some stuff planted. The man he mainly works with has really been on his heart. He thinks the same, but is still in the beginning of his walk. There is still so much that he doesn’t understand and has questions about. He is also illiterate, which complicates things. The thing is that working with illiterate people forces one to rethink how we present the Truth. It is also important to present it as much more than just “principles” or a set of teachings on different characteristics of G and what we as his people are supposed to do, but rather as the story of Great Love giving all to completely change who we are... and the direction that our personal story was taking . This is where dis’ing is really important. I actually wonder if it isn’t what all of us need – deep and meaningful relationships with people to encourage us to walk in a deep and meaningful relationship with Him, rather than hour after hour of impersonal teaching. As Karl has found this week – by sharing life with others, hauling manure and planting fields, there is more than enough oppertunity to teach and just as much oppertunity to learn.

Alianna is doing well. She is speaking more and more and really understands a lot. Her favorite thing to do right now is make animal sounds. She does a pretty good rooster impression.

I wish that we could say that her skin is looking good, but unfortunately it got much worse after we got back here. She looks better today, but for a while there her back, chest, shoulders and arms were covered in angry hot, red, crusty welts. Life was really uncomfortable for her for a while and it was hard to see her struggle like that. She is so much happier when she isn’t so itchy.

We have been back in China for a while now. Our time in South Africa was busy but very good. We definitely didn’t get to see many of the people we wanted to. On our way to China we went to our conference in Thailand. This is always a good opportunity to network with people and be encouraged. This was also the first conference since the appointment of our new international director, so it was good to be introduced to him and his family.

Well, this is it for now. We will stay in touch and let you know how it is going here.

Much love

Karl, Ida and Alianna