Week 19

 It has been a wonderful week. John is over his muscle spasms; I am over my cold and all is well in our little winter world.

We have been very grateful for our tunnel all week because the snows have been heavy and the air frosty. It is remarkably simple to just not go anywhere or do anything that requires braving the cold. We have said a 1,000 times how grateful we are for that tunnel!

Our temple tunnel

This week we were warned that workmen would be coming in to drill holes in our ceilings—front room, kitchen, and bathroom—to provide better ventilation and air circulation. We were instructed to cover up furniture and equipment for the dust that would be over everything. Wednesday we came home to find the ventilators in place and our apartment clean—no dust. I have never experienced construction that was so beautifully cleaned up. Only in Germany! (We can’t help but draw a contrast between this and our Xi’an “hovel,” where the junk pile from last year’s construction project is very likely still there and the Gobi dust is omni present.)

Clean Construction! Remarkable.

The sad point of our week was learning that one of our branch members in China, Amanda DeLange (whose mother’s maiden name is Laing and came from the same area of Scotland that our Laings came from), has been in the hospital in Xi’an, just diagnoised with level 4 cancer. Amanada is a remarkable woman who a number of years ago began a foster home in Xi’an, called Starfish, for “broken” babies—those who were unwanted because of physical problems spanning the gamut from cleft pallets to heart problems and anything and everything in between. What will become of the little ones who will be left without Amanada’s care for them, I don’t know, unless a miracle of miracles comes about to preserve her life. She has surely been part of the Lord’s own work of caring for the one. Our prayers are with her and we invite anyone reading to join us in her behalf. We do believe in miracles if it is in the Lord’s plan for her life to continue . . . but if not, we know she will be welcomed “home” with open arms for her goodness.

Amanda and Starfish 

Have a wonderful week reaching out in love to make a difference for someone!