December 1998

Dear Friends,

We have been blessed with a beautiful autumn. By early November the weather is often cold with rain, but for the past several weeks we have had cool temperatures with warm sunshine in the afternoon. We have not had to put on our many layers of clothes yet, but that is probably not far in the future. As most of you know, this is our third year in Hangzhou, and in some ways it feels like home. We have enjoyed deepening our relationships with many of our Chinese friends and colleagues. In our last letter we explained about Jay’s surgery during the summer, and we are happy to report that he is doing very well. He has been out of the neck brace for about one month now and has begun an exercise program to strengthen muscles that were not in use since last summer. We are praising God that everything turned out so well, and we thank you for your many prayers and words of encouragement.

The big event of the semester has been the merger of the four main universities in Hangzhou into the largest comprehensive university in China. As you can imagine, this has not happened without difficulties, and there are still many employees in the former schools who are worried about their jobs. While the merger is technically complete, there are still many decisions that have not been made, and everyone is wondering what the next steps will be. All of this does not impact on us in a major way; we do not always know just who is in charge of our department or how many hours we will teach. Eventually, however, things do seem to work out.

Because of the merger, Susan, who teaches all of the doctoral candidates, has a lot more students and has had to increase her teaching hours. She is now teaching fourteen hours for the university and two hours for the seminary each week. Jay’s teaching load hasn’t changed much; he still teaches in both the law school and the management school. His law students are the same students he had last semester, so he is getting to know them well. Law is now the preferred major for Chinese students, which means that the students in the law school are among the brightest at the university. His class in the management school is a small seminar, so he is able to spend extra time talking to each student. We have both agreed to work on recording projects for Susan’s department. We will be recording a listening textbook as well as recording the book on oral English that Susan wrote, which is now in publication. As you can tell, it is proving to be a busy semester.

Our church fellowship continues to be an enriching time. Recently our group hosted a potluck at the YMCA for Chinese friends who are Christians and some who are seeking. To our great joy, three of Susan’s young teachers came. One even brought her husband. Two of these women have made commitments, and the third and her husband are reading the Bible every night. One of the women has become a special friend who often comes to our house for discussions.

The work at the seminary is a delight. Recently, one of the young teachers told a story of his first experience preaching the gospel. He was eighteen and lived in the mountains near one of the lakes in our province. He and his friends went up into the mountains to share the good news. He said that since he didn’t know very much about the Bible, he just sang hymns. I will add here that his voice is beautiful and his eyes shine with the glory of God whenever he sings. He sang for three hours, and then they fed him and asked him to sing for another two hours. From that hymn sing four churches have grown—the largest is over 600 members. Every week, some of the seminarians and their teachers go into the countryside to preach the gospel. The Chinese church is alive and growing, and it is a privilege to work alongside these dedicated servants of the Lord.

We so appreciate your prayers and support. We enjoy hearing from many of you through e-mail as well as letters. We would ask you to pray about our placement for the next academic year. We expect to move to another location, and we ask that God would lead us in his will.

We are writing this at the end November, and we hope that it will reach you before the end of the holiday season. With that in mind, we are praying that your Christmas this year is filled with the peace and joy of the birth of our most precious Lord.

Blessings,

Susan and Jay Boone

The 1998 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page 161