24may，12，09
Version 2 Vol. #12 May 12th, 2009
Greeting from the Unique City of San Ming, China,
“He Dyed His Hair”
I was thinking of what some of my highlights since the last time I updated. One of the things that came to my mind was “He dyed his hair”! It was a morning almost like any other morning my boys got up stretch and went outside to play basketball, but something was a little bit different. Two of my boys had different hair colors. Every other Chinese person had black hair, but these two boys had brown hair. One of my boys borrowed some hair dye from one of his classmates and when I was not looking dyed his hair and one of the other boy’s hair. It was so embarrassing for them to have different hair colors many of the children came up to them and comment about their hair color. Needless to say both these boys were more then willing to accept their punishment of a short hair cut.
A “NEW” favorite pass time
Several weeks ago as part of a way to strengthen my relationship with my boys I taught them how to play monopoly. The first Saturday night I taught them we stayed up to 11:00pm playing. I taught my boys so well that I have lost almost every game I have played with my boys. Now the only problem I have to get my boys to finish their homework before they start playing.

A Loved Chicken Poxed Boy
Chicken pox has once again come to San Ming Children’s Village. When the children get chicken pox it means that they are quarantined to stay at the children’s village. One of the young boys who got quarantined because of chicken pox tried to help me with my woodworking. It ended up that he was a big help, but only for the first several minutes. After the first several minutes he would lose concentration. I hope and believe that he learned something with the time I spend with him.
An Adventure at MC Donald’s
Every Monday evening I like to spend some time away from the Children’s Village this time helps me refocus and reenergizes for the next week. I usallly take a walk along the river. This Last Monday I walked to Mc Donald’s and ordered an ice cold coke. I sat down at one of the table and was quietly sipping away at my coke when a young person comes up and asks to talk with me. This person wanted me to help them with their English. I say okay, I have some time lets talk. As we talked this person gave me a chicken leg. After about 20 minutes of trying to understand what this person was saying he left and before I could leave other person asked me if I could help them with their English. I agreed under one condition that they buy me an ice cream cone. He agreed and for the next 15 minutes we talked. After the second person left and third person came and I got a chicken wing from the third person. I was at MC Donalds for almost 2.5 hours but when I left I was very full.
Thanks for the Prayers and the Support,
Stephen Burkholder
PS: For all those still in the cold parts of the world - As I write this letter the current temperature is 96’ F
Joh 4:34  Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.