Conference

Our time in Thailand is over and we have arrived back in Hengyang to many happy welcoming shop owners.

Many of you may wonder about our schedule and when we start teaching again... The Chinese calendar is very different than what we are use to in the States. Wes and I finished teaching on Jan. 7 and return to the class room on Feb. 21. During this time all students go home for the Chinese New Year Celebration. It seems as if Hengyang becomes a ghost town. The Chinese New Year is a numerous day complete celebration and the days before that are used for preparation. Fireworks, Food, New Clothes and the giving of money aid in the celebration.
Where were we during the craziness...Thailand. (Seriously... Chinese New Year is craziness :-)

ELIC plans the winter conference (called ATC) for all teachers and families to attend. During this time about 600 teachers (and children) serving in China, Laos, Cambodia, Mongolia, Vietnam and Thailand gather for refreshment. We have a time of singing, truth, teacher training classes and country updates. I was very privileged to be able to share about the four new believers we have in Hengyang.

The theme of the conference this year was Broken and Restored. We were privileged to have Michael Card (you may know him from music like El Shaddai or Love Crucified Arose) as our Truth Speaker each day. He spoke on the practice of worshiping through lament. He used Job, David and the Father's son as examples of how to worship through wilderness experiences. It was a refreshing look at passages we have read and reread.

My heart was touched many times throughout conference... but allow me to share just one thing resounds in my heart!!
Is. 42:16 -- I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do, I will not forsake them.