Good Morning from Beijing! Traveling to Zhengzou today!

Hello all! It is Sunday about 12noon here. I thought I would post one more time before we leave today for Zhengzou. We are all checked out of our hotel but we will be here until 2pm. Frank our Concierge has been very helpful since we have been here. He has helped us with all of the small things that make traveling in a foreign country sometimes difficult. He helped us have a late check out so we could rest and he arranged for a taxi to take us to the hotel in plenty of time to make our flight. We were able to sleep in this morning until about 9am. We were so tired after climbing the wall and walking around all day. We are just going to chill today. The whole reason we are here is going to require all of our energy for the next five days. Bill and I are both anxious and nervous to meet our group of kids and translators. We want to be vessels for God and help these kids have a great week full of love and laughter and let these precious children see the light of Christ in us. Here are some things I wanted to share with you. I wish all people in the USA would come over here and see for themselves what it is like to live in a place that is suffering ecologically. With the extreme industrialization of china, It has been extremely Hazy with pollution to the point where it is sometimes difficult to breathe when you exert yourself. I have barely seen the sun since we have been here. Even with all of the initiatives China is doing to reduce the pollution, like odd and even driving days, shutting down construction, factories and pollution causing industry, it has still been pretty bad. It seems worse to me than it was two years ago. Jackie said that most homes and businesses are heated with coal. It is the cheapest energy source for them at 150 USD per ton. It is also one of the dirtiest. China is also having a very hard time finding suitable safe drinking water. Bottled water is the only water you can drink here. I don't want to give the impression that I am complaining about it. I am just so very thankful for the clean safe water, clean air and blue skies of the USA. People have no idea how important it is to recycle and find cleaner alternate energy methods. I need to do a better job of it myself and will. China is looking to us for the answers when it comes to protecting the environment but they are way behind us in that area.I pray that they spend more of an effort to find a way to make things better and safer for their people instead of trying to become the economic giant that they are fast becoming. Jackie said that China is no longer "a sleeping Tiger" They are awake now and working with 100% capacity to be the best. Most Chinese work seven days a week in very long shifts without batting an eyelash. You do not see that work ethic in the USA. If the USA continues to send jobs overseas and do the things that our government is currently doing, rewarding the lazy through most welfare programe etc. we will be surpassed by China and that is a scary thought if they no longer need us. Be wary! Be very wary! I hope to see some more comments from you all. It gives us hope and boosts our morale to see your loving words. Thanks to my family for your continued support. Is anybody else following? Please jot me a note. I hope that you are reading and enjoing our mission expierence. I would love to hear from you. I love you all. I will try and make contact again once we get to our next destination. I hope we have an internet connection?
Here is a short clip of us driving in Beijing.
walking around the neighborhood near our hotel.