Joey: Beijing

Hello everybody!
First, I would like to say thank you for your prayers and helping us make this trip possible. We all couldn’t have been able to be part of this trip if it weren’t for you! Thank you!

We first started off our day with a “continental” breakfast while watching the rain fall outside our hotel, but the rain didn’t stop us. We still went to the Great Wall and later the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Luckily, when we were walking on the Great Wall, the rain stopped and scared all the tourists away so we had a cooler day and pretty much had the wall to ourselves. God definitely blessed us with a beautiful morning. We were also blessed to see a remarkable view of the mountains that surrounded the portion of the wall that we walked. I’m sorry to say, pictures can’t do justice. Tammy already went through half of her memory card because the view was so amazing. I don’t blame her because who wouldn’t want to take a lot of pictures of this good-looking group with the Great Wall behind us? We finished our visit with a first-class lunch at Subway! Delicious as usual.

After taking an hour break at the hotel, we took the subway to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. I think most of us finally realized that the Chinese don’t mind being in our personal 3 ft. bubble. Unfortunately, the entrance into the Forbidden City closed right before we arrived, so we weren’t able to walk through. We were still able to take pictures of the front of the city and have a small history lesson from Erik about the Chinese government and Tiananmen Square. While walking across Tiananmen Square, the ladies were bombarded with dozen of requests to have pictures taken with the friendly locals. A Peking Duck dinner followed our national monument visits. For our first authentic dinner, everyone seemed to enjoy it! Connor, Katherine, and Jonathan decided to eat the duck’s brain…I’ll let you ponder that for yourselves. We finished the night with ice cream at the locals’ favorite gourmet restaurant: McDonalds.

Everyone is doing well and enjoying the “cooler” weather due to the rain. We’re definitely excited to meet the rest of the teachers and students that we’ll be with for the next two weeks. We’re also extremely eager to be the hands and feet of God and being a light to the people who don’t know Jesus and His love. Again thank you for everything that you all have done to make this trip possible and for the prayers that give each one of us the strength and the compassion to live out God’s purpose. Much love and tell the Rockies to pick it up again…