Good-bye to the team

Greetings one and all. Last night we had a great time here at the Joyce's flat. We invited the DTS team to come in and have a prayer time. It was the evening of the last day of their "Lecture Phase". For those who aren't part of YWAM, the Discipleship Training School of which I (Rick) am a part comes in two 'phases' - the lecture phase, and the outreach phase. Each phase is approximately three months in length. Tomorrow, the team will be leaving the King's Lodge to go to a Christian children's festival to work in the ministry teams there. Spring Harvest is a national event that takes place annually. Thousands of kids from babies to teens will gather to have fun and hear the Gospel for a week at a time. Our team will be there for two of the 5-6 weeks that Spring Harvest runs. I and my family have decided after praying that we will not attend this part with the team, but will stay here getting ready for our 2 months with the team out in Turkey. We are getting really excited about the outreach there. So, for now, we are saying good-bye to the team. They will have a great time and have much opportunity to exercise what they have been learning about being missionaries! We look forward to hearing the stories. More later. . .

CHINA and NORTH KOREA!

Humm, I obviously need to learn to publish the photos first and then the comment... I wrote more down below! The four photos under the photo of China are all of North Korea. I was amazed how close we could actually get to this country, yet, men in nice military clothing came out with big guns so we knew were not to get any closer to the shoreline than we already were! Someday I hope to return and see this nation changed.

1. The first photo is of a bridge between two Communist countries, North Korea - on the left, and China - on the right. This bridge was bombed out during the Korean War and has guards posted on the ends of the North Korean side. It was an amazing feeling going under this bridge on the boat.

2. A photo of a man and woman walking along the coastline with a load of something. The road was barren, frozen and a long distance between villages with only a few houses. Just to give you an idea how cold it was the thermometer registered -22C or -11 F for those in the States. The wind added a bit more to the chill factor! In my many, many layers of clothing, long wool coat and hand warmers my heart went out to the people suffering and freezing in this country.

3. One of the Villages along the coast - notice the terraced hillsides. It looks like every spare bit of land is used for raising corn when the weather is warm.

4. You can get a good view of the ice along the water's edge, very cold! Factories line the edge of the nation and yet the Chinese said rarely will you ever see smoking coming out of any of them as most of them are abandoned.

One of the cities we visited with an obvious anticipation for the upcoming Olympic Games!

CHINA and NORTH KOREA!

In January I had the amazing time of going with a small team into China for 12 days. What an amazing, beautiful country! It had been 24 years since last being in this country and I was totally overwhelmed with the changes. The last time we were there it was like walking back in time a hundred years, this time it was like walking into any modern city in the world! I had the opportunity to meet many lovely Chinese people that we hope to stay in contact with over the years.

The other amazing blessing we had was to stay in a hotel directly across the water from North Korea! I woke up to the sun just coming over the horizon in North Korea. Later in the day we took a bus for an hour and a half along the river and then boarded a boat that took us along the coast line for another two hours.

Though I am not able to post details of the trip I thought you would enjoy seeing some of the photos I took while there. I'd love to share with you some of the details if you want to write or better yet give us a call!

The Ceilidh Graduation Celebration at the Lodge!