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November 2001
Dear Friends,
Precious time with our family has been a highlight of our time
at home. We have both been able to stay with our mothers and help
them with decisions about the future years. We were with our daughter
in London for a few days, and we’re looking forward to seeing
her when she returns in December from her year as an intern for
her church. We had a beach holiday with our son and his daughter,
and we also peeked in on their daily lives in Chicago. We picked
up our granddaughter after school, and we went to Starbucks where
our son is working a few hours each week while he finishes his
dissertation. He makes a delicious latte.
We thoroughly enjoyed sharing last August with other mission
personnel and with the Louisville Worldwide Ministries Division
staff and hearing all that people sent by PC(USA) are doing to
witness to the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the world.
We’ve been able to meet so many new friends in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania; Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Rochester, Minnesota;
and Marshfield, Wisconsin. We’ve shared what we’re doing
in China and loved hearing what is going on in their churches.
We have felt warmly welcomed and even entertained by the congregations
and the individual members. We are a denomination filled with
wonderful people! Just last weekend we attended the First Presbyterian
Church in Richmond, California, and were excited to meet the pastor
who is new since we were last there. We’re looking forward
to meeting dear friends in Walnut Creek, Danville, and Lafayette
as well as a trip to Seattle and one to Moorpark in southern California.
To be a small part of what God is doing through the work of PC(USA)
is such a privilege.
There have also been moments of humor when we’ve had to
laugh at ourselves. We are ignorant about many aspects of life
here. We don’t even know how to use a cell phone, which we
found out when we had to try to use one. We’re pretty handy
with e-mail and word processing, but Powerpoint seems like a magic
trick, and much of the Internet remains a mystery. We spend a
long time when we have to decide about purchasing such mundane
things as cereal or pillows. In China, we are excited to find
one of each; here, we have fifty kinds of cereal and fifty different
pillows to choose. Decisions are difficult!
We have recently heard that we have two invitations to universities
in China for August 2002. We’re now praying about this next
location, and we ask that you pray that God will lead us to the
place where we can be most useful. While this time at home has
been wonderful, we’re beginning to look forward to returning
to our life in China. We’re in daily communication with students
in China on e-mail, and we’re missing them.
This is the season of hope. We hope in a certain future. We hope
in the God who will one day wipe away every tear. We pray that
the God of all hope will fill you with His peace and joy during
this season when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Blessings,
Susan and Jay Boone
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 179
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