May 2000

Dear Friends,

We seem to have survived the winter. Living through the winter reminds me very much of the Lord’s words that we need to endure to the end. The winter here has seemed endless. The average temperature was 20 degrees below zero (Centigrade), and the ice on the street reached a depth of about 6 inches. During a trip arranged by the school for the foreign teachers to the city of Harbin, the temperature was 30 degrees below zero. While Harbin was a very interesting place to visit because of the ice and snow sculptures, it is a trip we will not repeat. But now it is early in May and there are beginning to be buds on the trees here, and we’ve had several days of mild temperatures and plenty of sunshine so we’re glad that we’re nearly at the end of the cold weather. We’ve managed to stay warm in our apartment and most of the classrooms have had adequate heat.

During the time of cold, we’ve been very busy with classes and preparing lessons. Susan has had an extremely busy year, as she agreed to take extra writing classes and has had papers to grade most evenings as well as lectures to prepare. She is teaching all the juniors, all the seniors, and about 25 of the graduate students in the English department. Every class has been a writing class; however, each section has been different so the preparation time has also been more than usual. She enjoys teaching writing because it is a subject where a teacher can see students begin to catch on to the concepts and improve. This has been very exciting for her.

She has also been able to develop close relationships with many of the students. This spring we have had the graduate students over in small groups for "pot lucks" on Saturday evenings. Those times have proved to be great for getting to know the students individually. Jay has had an equally busy spring. In addition to his usual course of international economic law, he has been teaching two new courses, business law and legal English. This has meant a great deal of extra preparation time, but both classes are for the same group of law students that he had last semester, so he’s been able to get to know the students better. He has particularly enjoyed the legal English course because it has proved to be a little less formal. Just last week he even conducted a class on the Microsoft antitrust court case, which the students seemed to like.

We were instrumental in helping the English-speaking fellowship find a meeting place on Sundays. As you may remember, when we first came here, the group was not meeting together out of a sense of fear. We offered to contact the official church to see if we could meet in the church after the Chinese worship. Actually, this is the legal way for foreigners to meet for worship in China. Some of the group was reluctant at first, but the Lord closed every other door so, at last, we did approach the church. It was evidently a work of the Lord, because the process only took a couple of weeks and we are now meeting together in one of the nearby churches. They have welcomed us warmly, even providing a tea party after our first service. Then we were invited, along with two of the other foreigners, to have lunch with the pastors. Susan gave the sermon last week and Jay is scheduled to speak later in the spring. We do thank you for your prayers about fellowship; we feel that the Lord has beautifully answered.

We think our school has appreciated our work here, and both of us received awards as outstanding teachers this past year. We have been asked to stay and teach here at this university again in the fall, which will mean that we can continue to build on the relationships that we have started. Susan has already had preliminary discussions about what and how much she will teach. Jay will be doing that before the end of the term. We would appreciate your prayers for our students and colleagues here. Changchun has little economic development, and many of the students do not have an easy time. Pray for us as we try to witness in our own quiet way to the love of the Lord Jesus. As always, we would love to hear from you and any prayer needs that you have.

Blessings,

Susan and Jay Boone

The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 162