Dateline Tuesday, January 7, 2014.

God used the rains from yesterday and lots of medicines to keep our allergies under control and keep us going. We went to the office of Mr. Zou, the economic development official for the county.  We had a letter written by Jim as president of the Alamo Club to deliver to him.  We did not have an appointment but God arranged for Mr. Zou to meet with us.  Mr. Zou shared the development being done to the city and county infrastructure to make it more friendly to tourism and business development.  Two things of note were the development of a port along the river and his request for help with waste management and recycling technologies.  If anyone reading this blog has experience in these matters please get in touch with us.  The development of a business platform is central to our long term goal of reaching the M-People so we want to look into each  possibility God brings to us.

We went by the museum to see Mr. Xie but he was not in.  We ate at the pizza restaurant in town.  The pizzas at Manna Pizza are far superior based on American standards.  Our translator wanted to walk the city and we ended up at the Buddhist temple that backs to a mountain.  Our translator, a young man about 28 years old, wanted to climb the mountain for the view of the city.  God was gracious and no one died of a heart attack and the view of the city from the mountain is awe inspiring.

Tomorrow we leave first thing to return to the province capital to debrief with John and his wife.  As I reflect on our experiences here during the past week, my statement is “I love these people and this land because Father has made it so.”