Hello,

We are back in Beijing! We had a good time in France and as usual I gained about 1kg per week... 

You might have heard there has been some flooding in Beijing, and actually Beijing has never seen as much water in the last 60 years.  I heard ten died in Beijing unfortunately.    Everyone is safe at Bethel.  The houses in Doudian are built in what use to be a large pond but we built a pool that is also used as a safety against flooding by pumping the water out!  I’m glad we got this idea... not a drop came in the houses!

While we were gone Mary organized a second eye screening in Zheng Zhou for 59 children in orphanages and poor villages.

Some of our new staff are very athletic and run marathon, climb mountains, etc. All the things I use to do when I was young... so they got the idea to train some of our children for a mini marathon! we found 3 volunteers who will run with them, attached by the wrist. One of them is a professional marathon runner who runs a marathon in 2h19min. He will skip one of his own race to run our race with the children, that is a Champion attitude right there!!! I hope one day he can brake my personal record which stands at 1h13min with jet lag and strong winds.

Nancy is making progress with preparing for the opening of our Changping project for VI (Visual Impaired) and mentally delayed orphans. Opening is set to October. We just get out of a meeting with Emmanuel, the kind and gracious landlord, and did I mention smart, handsome and ... French?! we still need to raise another USD10,000 for renovation like insulation, painting, heating pipes, a few windows and doors. If you would like to help, then do not waste another minute and contact your favorite French man (and probably the only one you know I know).

The students in Doudian are having their exams today and will have one month of vacation in August.  In China, students also have long vacations during Chinese New Year.

I wanted to thank everybody who expressed their encouragement to my family about our coming plans to take a break in the US and then open Bethel in the Philippines.  Life is a journey, an adventure filled with surprises, and we are glad we can open a little window to take you on our journey!

Don’t worry, I will continue to write my newsletters and update you with what happens in China and our lives. 

The odd question of the week: does anyone know someone in Bloomington, Indiana? we know a young chinese couple who is moving there today, they are in the plane as we speak.  The husband will do his Phd in Mathematics at the University there, since I don’t have time to teach him all I know in Mathematics (I am actually struggling with Emilie 5th grade maths... somebody tell them that we invented the calculator!!! ).  They don’t know anyone and I told them that for sure I could find someone who knows someone who could help them. 

Voila, have a great week,

Guillaume