SHIC

1. Township Doctor Training

2. Land Proposal (English Language)

3. Hospital

4. Foster Care

5. Staff

6. Dental X-Ray Machine

7. 4-A Friend Sports Program

8. Character First Training

9. CAF

One of our TDT doctors in training needs an appendectomy soon. Since this would cause this doctor to miss up to three weeks of classes, we have decided to have the doctor drop the program this time around. This missed training would be too difficult to be made up.

We have interviewed two new doctors and accepted both of them for this session. One is from the Liaozhong area and the other is from the Yingkou area. Both doctors have started this past week. Now, with the two new doctors minus the one leaving, we still have 43 doctors in the program. There will be no more interviews for additional doctors for this session because any new doctors will have missed too much training to-date.

Among the 43 doctors we have chosen one monitor and two group leaders. All three are doing a great job. They are cooperating well with us and are a great help and blessing among the doctors and the program.

Ten of these doctors participated in the Character First training on October 24-25. They were blessed and benefited by it. Now they can share with the other doctors what they have learned and the other doctors can share with them what they have gained from the missed two days of classes.

Last weekend many of the doctors made a trip home; by Monday all had returned and were in class for further training. This coming weekend's activity involves sports-basketball, chess, and Chinese checkers. These activities are not required but the doctors are encouraged to participate.

We have started a new aspect to this TDT program that we did not have the first time around. It is called the English Corner. We have had two of these so far and from all appearances the doctors are really enjoying it, as well as the English speakers. One night a week the doctors will meet with English speaking staff and volunteers and for one hour hope to improve on their English speaking skills.

We hope that this version of the proposal comes together quickly and then for grace and favor in communicating to those who are interested in funding this work! We hope for the grace and favor for the officials here in China as they read and make decisions over the Chinese proposal they have already received concerning this property and the work we desire to do there.

We need to be introduced to another contractor. We need three bids to go into the proposal so that the potential funding agents can see that we have done our homework. I went to the Chinese church in another district because I heard that a builder had his heart changed during the time that he was building their building. I asked if they could introduce him to me. Assuming that that meeting will take place, we still need to be introduced to one more.

The little baby who went into the hospital about two weeks ago for a shunt placement will be coming out of the hospital on Tuesday this week. She is doing well and we will continue to monitor her progress in our continued care unit (our hospital).

We have received two new babies in our hospital. One three month old with a cleft lip/palate, pneumonia, malnutrition, broken arm, etc. and the other baby, which is about seven months old, has been diagnosed with cleft lip/palate and malnutrition. We hope that these two babies will soon recover and be restored to good health.

Yesterday and today we moved our hospital unit to the new location, inside of the Rehabilitation Hospital. Yesterday we signed the contract with them for the use of the west wing on the fifth floor and also with a large storage room on the third floor.

The entire negotiation process was very stressful but finally it was successful. We signed the contract on Monday. And it was so funny. Immediately after we signed the contract everyone, the hospital administration and us, we all heaved a sigh of relief and smiled real big. Then one of the vice presidents, grinning from ear to ear, said, “now we are one family”. From then on it has been just that, “One Big Happy Family!” In times past when we have experienced something similar, I have always wondered when the axe was going to sneak up on us and fall hard but I don't feel that way this time. I feel that we have crossed the threshold of suspicion and fear into a relationship of trust, acceptance and respect.

Our floor is so beautiful. It feels like heaven. It is so pretty. Today I will hang beautifully framed pictures including the one of the big beautiful angel guiding the little children over the bridge.

The children are doing well. We hope that they will continue to do well. The weather is changing and Li Li has a cough. Please keep these children covered that they will not get sick during this change of the weather.

Dong Fan--We now have a new helper for him--we hope that he will be able to adjust quickly to this change of helper and also that this new helper will have wisdom in her every dealing with him. He can be tricky at times when he does not want to do something.

Please continue to believe with us for Da Bao’s new foster mom. We feel that it would be healthier for her if she were in a home where she is loved, wanted and appreciated.

Cynthia is doing much better these days and she hopes that she will be able to move slowly back into her busy schedule of events coming her way. She is continuing to take three more weeks of antibiotics by mouth and to use her inhalers. We hope that she does not have a relapse. This struggle has been very hard on her--her worst attack in about ten years.

Becky Johnson will be getting married this summer and will move to XiNing with her husband. Valerie will move to NK to work on an agricultural project, in line with her expertise and background.

Becky is a design engineer, who has been working with me on the proposal for the property especially. Valerie is a great administrator who has been our Project Coordinator. She has taken a huge load off of me during her time here.

Derrick Choo, IT Tech, is here presently, for three months, revamping our website and creating new promotional materials for us including some short videos clips. We hope that he manages to get these things done in spite of and because of the business of the staff. It would be wonderful if Derrick could stay on with us.

A couple of our staff will be traveling to LinZhou this week to deliver the precious cargo. We ask for their safety, for help in installing the equipment, and for more precious opportunities there with old friends and new.

We will soon begin contacting the US teams and be back in touch with the Chinese counter parts. I also must choose a staff member to take over the administration of this project or hire a new staff member. I need someone who is enthusiastic and has administrative skills.

We began our in-house Character First exercises this week. We are focusing on ‘Enthusiasm’. We will be focusing on this for about one month. There are many interesting texts. The animal that goes with this character trait is the humpback whale. They sing a song for hours on end. The same song, breathing in the same places hour after hour. Then this whale learns a new song every year. This so speaks of the seasons of our lives.

We have met with two production companies now and need to meet with another one. Becky has made a list of tasks that need to be accomplished by a Chinese staff member. He seems enthusiastic.

We hope for the approval by the government. We have not yet prepared the formal presentation. We still need promotional materials from the artists to do so. Artists are not well known for administrative drives. We hope that these artists would have at least a temporary mind of administration so that they can get it together to send their promotionals to us. These folks have made verbal commitments. However we have yet to receive their promotionals.

MPH