Happy Birthday Barry!

So here's to celebrating... Barry style.

1. We said hello to roughly 37 people.
2. Dropped off a very small gift to someone.
3. Hugged our family (Malissa Grannis, Calvin Messmen) good-bye as they flew back home.
4. Taught English- and taught slang from a popular American song.
5. Met a new friend, Grace at the grocery store.
6. I wore blue.
7. Colored too many Star Wars pictures (but for Barry it would've been transformers as a kid).

What's a birthday without balloons? Then we bought 20 bottled waters and set off to find all the people that deserved them most...

These guys. EVERY single day, there are groups of them sweating and grinding just to make the landscaping pretty here in ShangHai. I love the way Tanner notices them and always tells them "XingKu, XingKu!" Which means "you're working hard". Chinese people LOVE to hear that, and Tanner loves the response he gets.

The boys memorized lines in Chinese "thanks for your service. You work very hard. Drink this water." Then they'd hop off the bike bench and hand it over.

Side note: When buying water, Hunter got some peach juice. He asked if he could have it to himself, and not have to share w/ Tanner. To avoid the envy of his little brother, he even said he'd wait 'till we got home to drink it. It really was a treat, as I never buy this normally.

Then we got to the bottom of our bag and only had 2 waters left, but the last group had 3 guys.
Hunter realized this too. And I told him "we'll wait 'till one of the guys leave so we can give the others the 2 waters."

But kids are so pure and innocent. Quietly he said:

"Mom, I think I want to give my peach juice to the man that doesn't get water." Lame that I took a picture of such a quiet moment, but I had to.

Earlier on this venture Hunter said "Mom, are we sharing the gospel when we give water?" I said "Sure!"

Then I thought about Christ being the living water, when we partake of it, we will never thirst again... and this is about as much missionary work we are allowed to do in China.

In China, missionary work is against the law, currently. You cannot proselyte your religious beliefs with the local people, only with foreign passport holders.

I thought long and hard about what Hunter asked on this special day. While we cannot share the gospel, our actions can have just as strong of an impact. And the time will come when we can freely share of 'the living water' with all of our Chinese brothers and sisters.

But for today, we can share His love... through kind words, bottled water, and peach juice.

Happy Birthday Barry, we felt you close today. Thank you for all that you have done to mean so much to so many people.