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This past week November 20 ­ 26 was an eventful one. Last Sunday the Director of the program that I am working with, Jay Zhang, arranged with a friend, Susana, to take us in her car on an outing. Susana is a traditional Chinese physician. We left at about 10 o’clock. They took us around the north end of West Lake and across the Xiling bridge to the largest island in West Lake. There is much to see on this island as in ancient times it was the location of the Hangzhou Art Academy. For the past 100 years it has been the seat of the Xiling Seal Engravers Society. These are artisans who specialize in Chinese calligraphy and the making of seals. These are really stamps used to imprint the seal on documents. Also on display is the Stele of Sanlao. This is a stone tablet about 4 x 2 feet inscribed with Chinese characters telling names and dates of death of early eastern Han Dynasty (200 B.C. ­ 128 A.D.) emperors and officials dating from about 100 A.D. Solitary hill, the central part of the island is the site where several emperors of the Song (960-1279) and Quing (1644-1912 Dynasties had palaces.

(To help me remember these historical eras I have put them in order here. Warring states period, 476-221 B.C., Qin Dynasty, 221-207 B.C. Han Dynasty, 200 B.C. ­ 128 A.D., Era of Disunity 220-618, Tang dynasty 618-907, Song 960- 1279, Yuan dynasty, 1279-1368, Ming Dynasty 1368 ­ 1644, Quing dynasty, 1644-1912 )

As we walked around the island we saw 4 wedding parties taking pictures. It was a very cool day and we shivered for the brides . We stopped to admire the very picturesque Crane Pavilion with a statue of two cranes beside it. A short distance from the island we went to a restaurant for lunch consisting of mushroom soup, cucumber sticks with sauce, savory bamboo, stir fried snow peas, broccoli stems and perhaps other items. Then we walked in a garden that overlooked portions of West Lake, a lotus pond and a pond with many large gold fish (carp). A row boat was tied up at the bank on an inlet while a couple of men sat near by. We were told their job is to go around the lake picking up litter. Although there are mechanical street sweepers there are people all around the city occupied sweeping the streets and picking up litter. You do not see litter along the streets.

I am relatively free on Tuesdays so we thought we would try to do some shopping on our own. Laura Welch has expressed a desire to have some pansies and so as a gesture of appreciation we thought we would get some for her. After getting some pictures of pansies off the internet we began inquiring where we might find these. We were directed to the bird and flower market that is very near the walking street we visited at night last week. This is a large building. I think it was 4 floors. Below ground level were fish, at street level were all kinds of cut flowers and off to one side pets, birds, dogs, squirrels and a wide variety of other animals. Another level had mostly Bonsai plants ­ most remarkably trained plants of may varieties. As is the case in most of these kinds of stores it consisted of numerous stalls each with its own proprietor and specialization. The orchid booths were especially beautiful. But no Pansies could be found.

After coming home for lunch we thought we would try again to find the street where many shops offer silk items for sale. We had tried the previous week and ended up in a big company’s show rooms especially aimed at tourists. Darleen had previously been with friends to the silk street and wanted to go again. We have a new neighbor from Iowa, Dr. Tong. He speaks Chinese so I asked if he could write the directions on a piece of paper to show to a taxi driver. He did and then decided to take his Chinese map and go with us. He sat in the front seat and we ended up in another big silk store. On the way back we concluded that we had not reached the destination we had identified on the map so that excursion remained for another day to complete.

The rest of the week was filled with classes, midterm exam and shopping and preparing for Thanksgiving and Sabbath. I had class Thanksgiving morning. We had a nice evening Thursday with 3 friends joining us for supper; Carlyle Welch, whose wife is in the States, Trudie Loo, Darleen’s friend who has been here for 3-4 years, and Nancy, the lady who is the housekeeper in these apartments. They spoke varying levels of English and Chinese so there was a great deal of translating going on in both directions. The discussion ranged from the organization, "Lightning from the East" to a mentally deranged man that has come in contact with most of us. He claims to have the solution to the world’s ills so that we can have peace.

Sabbath was an especially memorable day. Carlyle had asked Trudie, who is very fluent in both Chinese and English, to go with us to visit the Bible class that meets Saturday morning at 8 o’clock in the big beautiful Three self Church that is only 2 blocks from us. This is a Bible class that is taught by one of the pastors of this Sunday church. He spent the hour expounding on the last half of Romans 8. This was very well done and biblically based. He did suggest that some people have the gift of praying in tongues but of course that is something that can be debated both ways. There were 300-400 people in attendance. We left there and took a taxi to our regular place of worship. We were unable to focus on the lesson or the sermon because Jane, our interpreter, and the 3 of us repeatedly digressed to talk about the themes being presented from our own perspectives.

It was such a beautiful day, Carlyle arranged for Trudie and her roommate to go with us on a walk in the hills to the West of West Lake. Except for our short walk in the hills behind Wushan Square, we had not had any experience like this before. In these hills there are many trails unlike anything we see in the States. These are all paved with coble stones and or concrete strips and, instead of switch backs to ascend a hill, they go straight up the side with stairs, many, many steps. We eventually reached the crest where the trail looked over tea gardens or plantations and in the distance, West Lake and Hangzhou. We had a wonderful time sharing about how the Lord has and is leading in our lives. Trudie’s roommate was a nurse here when Trudie first arrived.

Trudie’s Chinese parents took her at the age of 6 from the states to Singapore where she learned Chinese. She retuned to the States (I don’t know at what age) and became a nurse. It was when she was practicing in the Commnity Hospital that Darleen knew her.

To renew her Chinese Trudie asked her new friend to read the book Desire of Ages with her. As a result of this Trudie’s friend was baptized a year ago. It is another beautiful day and we have already been out and found the pansies so now we will go and try one more time to find the silk street.

Thanks for letting us share with you. This is the only way I know of recording our experiences so that we will not forget.

God bless you all. Paul and Darleen.