Dear Friends,
Greetings from mid-Michigan! Well, time flies and another year is gone. We have been in Michigan a bit over three years. Here are some highlights for what had happened in 2000 in the Huang family:
David turned 14 two weeks ago. He continues to do well in school and is now the first chair in trombone playing. Melissa is now 10 and continues her gymnastics class.
My brother Zhiyi is still continuing school at Lansing Community College. He will be finishing his last class for his associate degree in computer science Spring of 2002.
Besides serving in the Lansing Chinese Christian Ministry (LCCM), Guijie became a discussion leader at the woman's Bible Study Fellowship.
Zhiyong traveled a lot in the year 2001. First he traveled to China in Spring time and for the first time went to Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, a pretty place where he found the giant honey bee and dwarf honey bee and Western and Asian bees all foraging on the same plant! He also took hundreds of pictures (of bees course!). In summer our whole family went to the Capecod for the Eastern Apicultural Society meeting and kids had fun on the beach. We also visited old friends and then came back via Niagara Falls (the main picture above!). In July he went to UC-Davis for one bee experiment and visited quite a few friends in the Bay area (one of them ever since 1983!). Of course checked the Golden Gate Bridge out too. In August another bee meeting in Port Deposit (nice sunsets along the river!). He came back from the meeting Sept. 9 from Maryland. Two days later... you all know what happened... We were all shocked that this could happen and are still in pain for the loss of lives.
Late October Zhiyong went to South Africa for the Internaional Apicultural Congress. Durban is a very pretty city, but not too safe to walk around alone. Here is a picture from Zhiyong's hotel window overlooking the Indian Ocean, too bad he did not have time (or courage?) even to take a swim. Here is a close-up of the original "Killer-Bee" (i,e. African bees, Apis scutellata) -- notice any difference? Perhaps Not.
On the way to S.A., Z had 9 hours in the airport so he checked Amsterdam out a bit. After the meeting Z went to Stuttgart, Germany for a missionary trip and Guijie joined him. We had a quite an experience serving God in a place far away.
Other regular meetings were Santa Fe in October and ESA in San Diego. Too much travel and no time for work! So complains Zach (Zhiyong's Michigan name:). However, he is very very happy to visit so many friends, almost everywhere he goes, he will find friends there. In fact he has started a project (friend-hunting) to find all his old buddies in the Beijing Language Institute (circa 1982!) and found 9 of them so far. Next year's project: start a web-site to keep track of friends.
Oh, Zhiyong's new invention has got him into the newspaper a few times. Maybe he will even get rich! you never know.
We pray that all of you will be healthy, joyful, (and wealthy if needed) in 2002.
Happy New Year!
Zhiyong, Guijie, David, Melissa, and Zhiyi
