Maren's Hometown

We flew from Beijing to Maren's hometown of Changchun today.  We had a guide meet us at the airport and take us to our hotel.  The drive from the airport to our hotel was similar to Missouri: corn fields!  Once we got closer to downtown, it instantly became a big city (our guide said Changchun has a population of 7 million). She then showed us a few places we might want to eat and took us to Walmart.  The Walmart was nothing like the ones in the U.S., and it was 2-stories tall. We will never again think the Walmarts in our town are crowded (you have not seen a crowded Walmart until you have been in one in China!).  We had to buy bottled water because the water is unsafe to drink in China.  The Walmart, KFC, and Pizza Hut are all across the street from our hotel.  We ate at Pizza Hut tonight.  It was quite a humbling experience to be the only English-speaking people in the restaurant; we pointed to pictures and ended up getting a cheese pizza as we requested. 

We are quite excited to meet our Maren tomorrow morning.  Our guide is picking us up at 8:30AM to take us to the Civil Affairs office, where we will get her and complete a lot of paperwork.  We appreciate all of your prayers...please continue to pray for Maren as she goes through a difficult week.