This week has been a continuation of the business, but also great in the way it has been blessed with many opportunities. My classes continue to give opportunities to share about many important things. I am teaching a British Literature class, that has also included literature from throughout the world, but has been looking at many important topics in life such as choices, dreams, love, and fear. The students seem to be loving it and I am really enjoying getting their views on a wide range of topics. They are starting to excel at finding meaning in the literature and expressing their views and beliefs. Our Sunday Open House brought many new students as the freshmen have started coming. One of them even shared with us that she is family. We did a fall activity dealing with leaves and talked about how they will celebrate this time of year in their hometowns. Many of them are very far from their homes. We even got a chance to make cookies with our Chinese tutors, which was fun for all of us. We made 60 cookies and have almost eaten all of them. Patty had a women's get together--all guys kicked out including me. It was a great success and may become something of a regular event. The girls loved getting together and being able to talk and share their emotions and such. I went out with some students to the city center to go shopping and hanging out.

This week, the weather has been very nice, but I have been a little too busy to enjoy much of it. I did get out to go walking in the countryside on Tuesday though. It ended up being a two hour hike, but walking through the countryside and villages is one of my favorite activities. I love the farmers here. I have also been looking for "real" pumpkins so Patty can do a painting or carving event in the coming weeks for Open House. I went through the village where i saw them last year and there were tons of them there, but very expensive. Maybe I will go back with Patty and others and see if we can get a few (they sell them per pound). The leaves are slowly turning colors here, but there are not many trees that are not pine trees.

In other events, we were able to judge the Oral English Competition twice now. It was a great opportunity to support and encourage students in their English learning. There were all levels of contestants, from those who memorized something to those who tried to just stand up there and speak and then those who got so nervous they could not speak. I also think I would have gotten a bit nervous also. It is a great opportunity for them to get a chance to show their talents and show that English learning is important at our school.

In two weeks, I am planning on traveling to visit our friends in the Southern Yunnan province for their Hani New Year. I am very excited to see our friends after one year, but a little crazy too. It will be two days of traveling to get there and two days back with two days of spending time in LuChun. I am not looking forward to the 12 hour bus ride through the mountains to get there or the 12 hour train ride to kunming, but it will give a chance to go shopping for Christmas presents in Kunming. Patty does not want anything to do with the travels, so i guess I will go solo on this one. I will be more prepared then the last time--bring the passport and food for the travels.

On Friday, we have also been invited to go on a picnic with the students--they call it a bar-b-que, as we will go into town and buy nearly $100 worth of food and then go to a scenic place to cook it and eat together. It is always a great time to spend together with the whole class or 43, so it could be interesting. We hope we have good weather, as it has been sunny and warm the last few days (our first days of sunshine this month).

There was one development to keep in mind this week, our friend, Neil chose to not participate in the finals of the Oral Competition because a friend thought he cheated in choosing the numbers. He wanted to show that their friendship was more important so he chose to not come. Patty went to talk to him later and he said it was because of a movie we showed and things he was reading in a book from us. Patty shared more with him about the sacrifice of our friend and he said that he wanted to know him. May the father reveal more and more to him.

As for farming here, most of the rice fields have now been harvested and now the farmers are getting out with their water buffalo to plow the fields. It is a fun time to see the farmers all active again. We wish you all many blessings during this week!!