Newsletter 2

Since last writing to you, I have been able to secure a flat. I just can't move in yet, due to the fact that I have no furniture. I got the keys to the place last weekend and on Sunday went to Ikea(a big home store) to find the items that I needed for my place. After spending 3 hours picking out furniture, I went to place my order and they didn't have in stock half of the items that I wanted. More importantly they didn't have the bed in stock. The bedroom in my apartment is very tiny. Ikea has lots of beds, but only one was a size that would fit in the room. So I am back to square one on the bed again. I am planning on going out this week to a few different places to hopefully find a bed. Please pray that I can find this quickly and have it delivered soon. The rest of my furniture is being delivered on Tuesday night sometime between 6 and 10pm.

The day I received the keys to my apartment, I went with my realtor to sign the papers at the building so the security guards would know who I was. After signing the papers, the security guard said something to the realtor in Chinese and then she translated for me in broken English. "No pray in morning." "No pray Buddha." After hearing these sentences a few times, I realized what she was actually saying. The building doesn't allow praying in the hallways to Buddha in the mornings. Often times families will have little alters outside of their front doors, and will present offerings, burn incense and pray very loudly to Buddha. I am very thankful that I found a place that doesn't allow that. At the same time this makes me very sad, that the people believe in this.

School has started up and I am meeting lots of students. My brain is on overload with the number of students that I am meeting. The school is on a seven day cycle. (We don't go to school on the weekends) but in that seven day cycle I teach 18 lessons. 9 different classes. each class has 40 students in it and so that means I have 360 students to teach. I hope that I can eventually learn some of their names. Please pray that my mind will grasp them easily.

Praises:

• I found a nice flat, the location is great. 5 minute walk to the train and then just two train stops from the school, so about 20 minutes total from door to door. Then to church is about 30 minutes door to door.

Requests:

• able to find cheap/nice furniture
• able to quickly learn the students names/connect with students