Last night we met with Catherine and her husband Vince for dinner. We know her from over 10 years ago when she was a graduate student at UTA. She has since written a book and hopes to do further study in the university. They are doing very well. She is very special for us because when she was here she suffered a very serious accident where one student was killed and her recovery took nearly a year. Roy will never forget driving out to Abilene to visit her in the hospital. She is clearly recovered. They took us to this incredible restaurant where there is a huge almost football field  sized courtyard where the entire  ceiling is a huge LED video panel projecting, videos, messages you can put us by texting a number, etc. It was truly incredible and special.

Yesterday, another former student, Ted, took us around on the subway all over Beijing. We visited the Olympic Bird’s Next and Water Cube and the Summer Palace. We took the subway because in Beijing, you can only drive 6 days a week based on the numbers on your car licence to cut down on congestion and all our guests had numbers that prevented them from driving on that day.  It was the first subway trip for our kids and they did well considering this was the first time they moved around via subway.

After three consecutive days of more walking than we’ve done in years, we had a relatively light day today. We visited the home of the Beijing Opera, we had a very good pizza lunch in HouHai, a regular hangout for many westerners in Beijing and we visited Prince Gong’s Hutong house. Then we had dinner with our hosts, Willy and his family and then Jonathan had the treat of seeing a live concert of music from Hisayo Miyazaki movies performed by the local Beijing orchestra while Roy and Willy drove around Beijing to see the lights and the sites.

Of course what made this day special was the people we were with. Maria, Mickie & Al took us around all day. They are great friends from a very recent graduating class form UTA. They shared so much of themselves and sacrificed much to spend time with us. Maria even planned the whole time in Beijing. What a blessing they all have been.

We also had the privilege of seeing Lee, a former student from 5 years ago and his family who also was with him when he was in the States. He is now a high level professional with a very large company. Still he retains his humility and grace. It was so good to see him. I felt like we were able to catch us as if no time had passed.

Tomorrow we visit a church in Beijing where President Bush visited and then we have a special beijing duck meal with some recent UTA student friends and then we leave Beijing in the evening for Hefei. Willy worked wonders getting us tickets that would keep us together on the way to Hefei. Honestly, we praise the Lord for the friends the FAther has given us here in China. They have truly been a blessing and sacrificed much to make this trip very special.