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October 29, 2005

It is about 3 p.m. Sabbath and we have just returned from an excursion to walk for about an hour along the Qiantang River. We did this on our own with the help of a map and a couple of taxi drivers. The river is at sea level so its level changes with the tide. It was at near low tide and there were a few men wading in the muck apparently looking for mollusks. We walked most of the distance between two bridges; one a suspension bridge with a very modern design, the other had two spans with arched supports. The second had two levels with traffic going both ways on each level. The haze was so bad my first picture of the second bridge did not show the bridge.

Carlyle and Laura Welch took us to church this morning. He is Loma Linda’s resident physician here and is a cousin to Wally Welch with whom I went to school years ago. The group of believers we joined are meeting in a couple of intersecting hall ways, one opening to the outside, in the back of a Sunday church that is under reconstruction. There is supposed to be more than 200 in this congregation but because of limited space there were only about 100 there. They used a closed circuit TV to make it possible for all to see and hear. We were seated on folded wooden chairs and there was a lady there who translated for us. There was a guest preacher who gave two sermons ­ one for Sabbath school and one at the worship service. We sat through both with only a couple of choir numbers between. Following the second one a local pastor told us that the guest pastor came from a city where the Adventist congregation had just opened a new church building that seats about 2,500. Our hosts had to go to another church to speak so we found our way home by catching a taxi.

I spent a good part of both Thursday and Friday working with the university faculty preparing laboratory materials for the course I am to teach. I am glad I brought almost a full set of slides with me since their collection is very limited - about a third of the materials we usually include in a histology course. Friday morning Laura Welch took Darleen to the “wet market” where fresh fruits and vegetables are available in abundance. Fortunately we had been able to find some bleach so that we could enjoy a beautiful salad today consisting of tomatoes, lettuce, onions and celery. We enjoyed Friday evening supper with the Laura and Carlyle Welch and Linda and Les Ide (sp?). Les is a periodontist who is on a second tour here in the last few months. We had previously met Linda and Les at the LLU Centennial Gala. We leave tomorrow for our trip to Bejing and Xian. I don’t know if I will have e-mail contact while touring so don’t expect any thing from us until next weekend.

We have received several responses to our first china report but have not replied to all of them. Just know that we appreciate your interest, love and prayers.

Paul and Darleen.