It's been a busy month since we last wrote. I would like to first draw attention to our 6 new folders of pictures to the right (dated: June 30).

With the end of the school year also brought our last English SPACE, our last free English Class and all the end of the semester grading. Elyse is working hard on her master's degree. (We are EXTREMELY looking forward to when this degree is over.)

This past weekend we visited Yangzhou and saw our sister-in-law, who is now 4 months pregnant. This upcoming weekend we will be taking a day trip (8 hours in a bus) to visit a friend of ours who is almost completely blind. (He had to stop his MA work when he started going blind over a year ago.) We have heard he is doing well, though his body is failing in more ways than just his sight. During this past month we also had some friends visit us in Zhenjiang and take the Hudson Taylor/Pearl S. Buck tour (both of whom lived in Zhenjiang).

We are looking forward to a short visit to the States this summer. We will be in Ohio at the beginning of August.

Some other tidbits: the Wal-mart that was supposed to open 2 years ago opened in June and is a 5-10 minute walk from our house. This is much nicer than the 30 minute bus ride to the shopping center we used to need to go to on the other side of the city.

Elyse received her immigration visa today. More details later, but I wanted to note the day.
Rob

This semester we have been meeting with a young couple for premarital counseling. I am sure many people would be better to ask, but it isn't heard of in China and they wanted to talk with an "older" (yikes!) married couple, so they had to settle for us. Actually, it was a great time. I do feel it was beneficial for them, and I know it was beneficial for Elyse and I. When you are looking to help others, it makes you talk about the same issues yourself. It was excellent.

They also asked us to host their wedding on May 2, 2009. We were a bit hesitant at first, but finally agreed. Chinese and American weddings are quite a bit different so try to think of the master of ceremonies as a combination of  the pastor and DJ at an American wedding. There is no reception in China, the wedding is one big event.

They wanted their wedding to be a meaningful outreach and I would say it was. They had their friends in a choir to sing about the source of true love. Elyse kept things flowing throughout the ceremony. We wanted to make sure that the responsibility of the man to lovingly lead his wife was present, so I gave the main talk, with Elyse translating. (It was also fun to watch the fellowship work together, people had many different responsibilities and did a lot to decorate and prepare.)

It was an honor to be asked to "officiate" this wedding. We ask that their marriage would be blessed.

Note: No, we are not licensed to host a wedding. If you understand Chinese weddings, you will understand.

On April 24, we had a run in with a local gang.

After our English class for college students, several students had questions about the corrections on their writing, etc so they stayed while a group of students left. This was our first time in 3 years to not walk with the students out to the bus stop. We left with the rest of the students about a minute later.

As we were nearing the main road, we saw a crowd gathered. That's normal, so it raised our curiosity, but no alarm. Then we saw two of our students standing in the middle of the crowd... this raised a bit more concern. It ends up that two of the students had been walking and got to the middle of the street when they saw several motorbikes heading toward them. They weren't sure which way to go and the drivers didn't know which way to go so one of the bikes hit one of our students. We didn't see it, but apparently she stopped rolling about 15 yards away.

Hit and run is fairly common, but the driver was responsible and stopped. He and a friend went with the two girls and Elyse and I to the hospital where she received a CT scan and other checks.

While we were talking, around 20 of his friends came and went and they had matching jackets and used different names for each other. It ends up that the driver was one of the heads of a local gang. Later we saw that several (and presumably all) of them had concealed weapons.

While some of the underlings were quite irritating and a bit scary, the head was actually quite responsible. While many lies were told, as far as we can tell the head (we referred to him as "big guy") didn't lie to us. He is into a lot of bad stuff, but as one of his friends said, "If we did it, we will say we did it. If we didn't do it, we will say we didn't do it." Honor among... whatever it is they do.

One of the girls we were with took a picture and there was some heat in the air until they saw she deleted it, but it ended up working out ok. He paid for the exam (though his friends thought he was crazy) and then left one of his underlings to pay for anything else (the guy ran away later that evening, but it wasn't a problem and we just want to let it go).

For a few nights we had a concern they may come to our house and cause problems (Rob is quite easy to find if you just ask around for the "tall foreigner"), but we haven't heard anything from them and it seems to be over.

This is our first run in with a gang and it was interesting and quite sad. They had girls hanging around and were physical with them while talking about the difference between their wife, girlfriend and girl on the side. They were proud of their beating others up, etc. Such a sad life.

With the economy declining all over the world, and with so many single men here, we are expecting to see more and more crime and gangs all over the world. So many are looking for friendship and purpose. Not all end up in gangs, etc. but whereever they find the love they are looking for, many do not find it in the ultimate source of love. Very sad.

Yipeee!

We have been working on our green card application since we got married almost 3 years ago (though we weren't in a rush about it until this past year since we couldn't leave for the States yet anyhow). It has been forms on forms, several trains to the consulate in Shanghai, 1 flight to the consulate in Guangzhou, frequent calls to the States to get details taken care of and many, many prayers.

Today (April 22, 2009) at around 10am we received an EMS envelope from the consulate in Guangzhou. We opened it with hope, but with an unwillingness to get too exited until we saw "Congratulations! Your immigrant (or K) visa application has been approved;..."

Breath....

Elyse got swung around a few times by her very excited husband and we are now looking for air tickets to Guangzhou to drop off her passport and then wait three days for them to give her the immigrant visa. When we arrive in the States we will go through some more processing and she should receive her green card within a few weeks after arriving in the States.

We are extremely excited and grateful for your many prayers during these past few months as we have hit the most critical time in the process.

Thank you,
Rob & Elyse

Note: If you are going through this process and would like to talk, feel free to contact us. We may not be able to help, but we understand that sometimes it is just nice to have someone to listen that has been there before.