October 20, 2003

Dear Friends,

Even though Wuhan is supposed to have the “worst weather in China,” the Lord has blessed us with a spectacular fall. It has been pretty dry with cool nights and sunny days so we are praising the Lord for this time of comfort. Wuhan is actually three cities that are close together but are separated by two rivers (one being the Yangtze, the largest river in China). It’s a very big place, with a population of almost nine million. It’s often called “River City” by the Wuhan people. The campus of our school is in Wuchang, which is the part of Wuhan where most universities are located. We are close to East Lake, a very large, beautiful lake, and a great place for a stroll. The students enjoy going there on the weekends. Our university recently celebrated the hundredth anniversary of its founding. The original founder of the school was an Episcopalian missionary named Boone (probably no relation to us).

Jay is again teaching international economic law to both graduate and undergraduate students. Susan is teaching teachers this year and finding it quite a challenge, as she is supposed to come up with a program for training the Chinese teachers to use English to teach subjects other than English. However, that is only one part of our work. One particularly rewarding thing happened recently to us. We were invited to attend a banquet at the end of an academic conference. The unusual part was that the subject of the conference was “The History of Christianity in China.” Several top universities in China have set up programs in “Christian Studies,” and recently our school hosted a conference where some professors from these universities came together to read papers, compare notes, etc. Since we know some of them, we were invited to the dinner, an amazing thing to witness. To think that only a few years ago such a gathering could not even have taken place, and now it was happening openly and with full academic approval! These are wonderful Christian people and it was wonderful to be involved with them.

. After dinner we all went to a local coffeehouse and talked with several Chinese students. The next day, Saturday, we entertained some students in our apartment, with conversation and dessert. This particular group will be going to England soon, so we had English tea and fruitcake. Then on Sunday after church, we had a Chinese professor and his wife over for tea and went out with them for dinner and didn’t get home until nine o’clock. So you can see that our weekends are usually somewhat like a small classroom outside of class.

During the October holiday we traveled to Hangzhou, a city about 300 miles away where we lived for three years. We still have friends there who were anxious for us to visit and we wanted to see them. Our trip was such a blessing because the Lord allowed us a glimpse of the reasons that we came to China. We had been able to share with several teachers who took classes from Susan, and when we returned we found that they are still meeting together and discussing the Bible. They are hungry for teaching and were so excited that we were there. We had late nights discussing the Word with them and trying to come up with ways for them to study in English. Susan has sent them some material and they will be meeting every Thursday to study the books of Acts and John.

We also met with one of Susan’s former students. He has his doctorate and has attended Regent College and Hong Kong Baptist University. His faith is so visible and he is now a professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, which is becoming the top university in China. To show you how the Lord plans all things well: Susan taught him English. He has now applied to the United Board for a fellowship to do research at Loyola University in Chicago. He will study the early church fathers and would be the expert on that field in China. The United Board is involved with sending us so it’s a full circle. One of the teachers in Hangzhou said, “We know that God has brought you here. We want Him to bring you again.” This is something that we will be praying about over the next couple of years.

We have had a rough time healthwise since we came here—one small sickness after another, culminating in a bad case of food poisoning a week ago. Now we are both feeling fit, and Jay has been able to purchase an electric tricycle to help him with the long trek to class. We ask for prayer for our health and for our apartment, which leaves a lot to be desired. We would love to hear from each of you and do let us know how we may pray for you.

Love and Blessing,

Susan and Jay Boone

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 86