I just came back from an unbelievably incredible adventure. I had the opportunity to go with three other individuals from JFBC to China for 9 days. I have always been so fascinated by the Chinese culture, its history and its people, so I was thrilled for the opportunity to go and visit. The purpose of the trip was two fold. First we wanted to meet with a group of young business professionals and be an encouragement to them. Second, we wanted to investigate two unreached, unengaged people groups in a more rural area. Due to the nature of our trip, I will be intentionally vague on some of the details; I'll even leave many of the most incredible details out all together. I will also leave out many pictures identifying people and places. However, I would love the chance to tell you more about this trip and share what I learned. Let the journey begin!
We met at JFBC on the 18th at 5:30 in the morning. Ryan drove all of us to the airport so we could arrive in plenty of time before take off. We started with a short 2.5 hour flight to Detroit, and then we enjoyed a couple of hours in the Delta Sky Lounge; I was very thankful to be traveling with two sky members! Finally, it was time to begin the 13.5 hour flight to Beijing. Wow, that was long, but it was a good flight. I was able to sleep for a few hours, watch some movies and read. We flew north over Canada and came within 30 miles of the north pole. Obviously we headed west too, and I can now say that I saw the sun rise over Siberia; never thought that would happen! After landing in Beijing, we checked in to the hotel and headed out for dinner. We were trying our best to stay up for a little while longer to help our bodies get adjusted to the 12 hour time difference. Our bodies were telling us to do the exact opposite of what we were doing! We settled on a restaurant to enjoy jiaozi which is basically a stuffed dumpling. We tried a couple of different varieties since all food is served family style. It was pretty tasty. However, sitting down to this meal is when it dawned on me I would be eating with chopsticks on this trip; I don't know how to use chopsticks. You would think this would have been a pretty obvious concept beforehand, but it didn't cross my mind. Thankfully, the others were gracious with my fumbling and instructing me on what to do. I would say my skills improved greatly during our time overseas. We headed back to the hotel after dinner, and I did anything I could think of to stay awake until 8:30...shower, write in my journal, unpack and repack. Finally, I just took two Advil PM and went to sleep. When my alarm went off at 7:30 the next morning, I was in the same position as when I went to sleep. Thankfully, I didn't have any jet lag issues after that.
After breakfast, we headed out to explore Beijing. We wanted to be in the sunlight as much as possible to help our bodies adjust. This city is fascinating! The history here is amazing. Luckily, our trip leader, Walter, lived in different parts of China for about 19 years, so he was able to share a lot of his knowledge with us.
We started in Tiananmen Square. Pretty much in the middle of this famous area is this huge building which houses Mao Zedong's deceased body. There were two huge statutes outside showing various Chinese individuals who contributed to society; oh yeah, there were armed guards around it too.
This is anther large monument dedicated to Mao. Behind it is the Great Hall of the People which is where the government meets. Behind us facing the Great Hall of the People is the National Museum of China. Walter explained we were there shortly after a national holiday, so there were lots of tourists from around the nation visiting these famous sites with us. A lot of them hadn't seen Americans before, so we received quite a few stares, and a couple of people asked to take pictures with us. It was a little odd to be completely surrounded by people and yet look completely different.
This beautiful floral feature was close behind the large monument.
From across the street, we could see the entrance to the Forbidden City. Above Mao's picture is the famous balcony where emperors and leaders could address the people.
We walked through the entrance and made our way through the outer courts. Unfortunately, the gate to the inner court was closed. Apparently they do upkeep and maintenance every Monday afternoon, so we weren't able to buy tickets to go any further. This is the gate to the inner courts though.
Since we couldn't go any further, we walked over to Zhong Shan Park. It was quite lovely, and I enjoyed our walk through it.
Walter explained that most bridges like this are crooked because it was believed ghosts only traveled in straight lines; this would keep them out.
A beautiful scene.
After our walk through the park, we enjoyed a delicious lunch and then made our way to the Temple of Heaven. This is where the emperors would come several times a year to make sacrifices to "the God above." The layout of the temple, its courts and its rituals are all very similar to what we read about in the Old Testament. It's one of the many signs that points to ancient China being monotheistic and worshipping the one true God. I pray that they return to that heritage someday.
I was interested in this older gentleman as we left the Temple. He was writing with water on the sidewalk. I'm not sure what he was writing, but I wonder why he was doing it. Obviously, the water will dry pretty quickly, so I wonder if he rewrites it or just lets it go? How far does he write? Is he there all day or just for a bit? I don't have any of the answers, but I thought it was pretty cool.
From here we visited a huge market and then headed to dinner for the famous Peking duck. You take the super thin crepe-like items, put the cucumber and onions on it and then top it with the duck dipped in plum sauce. You then roll it up and eat it with your hands. Quite tasty. I have always enjoyed the Chinese food back home, but this was quickly growing on me.
After dinner, we were all starting to fade quickly so we headed back to the hotel. Walter's pedometer registered over 11,000 steps that day!
We left at 5:45 the next morning for a flight to Chengdu. Walter's associate, Matt, picked us up and took us to lunch and to have some discussion on what the next few days would look like. We then had a little bit of time to clean up and get ready for the evening's event. We met with a group of about 25 young professionals for dinner and a time of encouragement. Bill led a great devotion based on Genesis 3, and then Grady and I shared our testimonies. We also sang a song together which was awesome as both Chinese and English were sung at the same time. Afterwards, we spent about an hour and a half answering lots of great questions about combining our faith and our work. After wrapping up, I spent several more minutes with a wonderful young woman who has a young child. She wanted to know how I handled the guilt of working while being a mom. Apparently, some issues are ones women around the world can recognize. I am so thankful we had this time with this group; it was something I will never forget.
By then, it was after 10, and we were all pretty tired from our long day. We headed back to the hotel for the night. After breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding. Look at this cool entrance.
This is Bill, Grady, Walter and me in front of the sculpture just inside the park.
Look at these adorable baby pandas in the nursery! These guys had been born in August. I wanted to take one home. Apparently, China would frown on that though, so I left them alone. I can't get over their cuteness.
We followed our guide over the red pandas and watched that group for awhile. I loved this sign that was all around the park reminding us "I'm the national treasure and I hate noise."
Soon we came up on the giant pandas. Simply beautiful. Most of them were by themselves since giant pandas prefer to live a life of solitude. Several of them were eating bamboo which was fun to watch, but what I really loved was watching this guy climb a tree to take a nap. It was awesome!
Here is the beautiful Mei Lan who is the face of the World Wildlife Federation's "Earth Hour" because he has what is considered to be the perfect panda face with his extra white fur. Mei Lan was actually born in Atlanta in 2006, but since all pandas are on loan from China, they asked that he be returned in 2009.
It was a lot of fun to watch this mother panda and her cub who was probably about 1.5 years old. They wrestled together, and it was just fun to watch them.
Baby pandas out of the nursery! Can they get any cuter?
After our time at the panda center, we ate lunch with Matt and his family and then started our drive out. A few hours later we were in a city further to the south of Chengdu. We noticed the terrain becoming more mountainous, and Walter noted we were in the southern part of the Himalayan mountain range. Upon arrival, we started looking for a hotel, and came up on one on the main road. I'll be honest, I was a little nervous about staying there in its current condition. Thankfully, they told us about another hotel that accepts foreigners, so we went to look at it. It was a fantastic hotel; one of the nicer ones I have stayed in while traveling actually. It sits right by the lake, so you have beautiful views from your window. Since it's at the bottom of the mountain though, you also have these steps to deal with if you don't have a car.
The view from my hotel window; not bad, huh?
The next day we started the drive out to a more remote and much smaller city. We followed the lake out of town though and saw a few more beautiful views that I posted below.
At one point on the drive, we pulled over so the men could have a restroom break; my bladder of steel came in handy on this whole trip as I discovered I'm not much of a fan of the squatty potties that are everywhere. A group of people at this same stop invited us to come out back where they were having a bbq. The ladies assured us it was clean chicken. The gentlemen would poke through the pieces to find the best ones to offer to us. I'm not kidding when I say that this was my favorite meal of the entire trip. Not only was the food itself delicious, but I love the fact that these individuals simply invited us over to share a lunch with us. They had no idea who were, and they probably don't see many people who look like us along their path, but they were more than willing to share what they had. We saw this concept of sharing what they had available many times throughout this trip, and each time it was awesome.
A little while later, we met with a group of 8 who shared with us about their faith, their lives and their vision. We stayed for about five hours just asking questions and listening. It was a fascinating time. I left so encouraged by this group. God is at work, and it is humbling to see. When it was time to leave, one of the individuals offered me a gift of a beautiful spoon from her people group which I gratefully accepted; there was no souvenir I could have purchased that would mean as much to me as that spoon did.
Driving a little further, we found "the" hotel that would accept foreigners in the area. Again, it was nicer than we could have ever expected. We were prepared to be sleeping in the mountains or on the concrete floors in the homes of people we had just met. To have a comfortable hotel room (with western toilet!) was an absolute blessing. Upon waking up the next morning, I saw some sheep being herded through town. I can't say I see that very often.
We again met up with our new found friends and headed further into the mountains to explore another unreached people group. We were told it wasn't too far away. I soon learned we have a different idea of what "not too far" actually is. About an hour into our trip, we turned off the paved road. It was probably another 1.5 hours on the unpaved road. Luckily, we were in a 4 wheel drive SUV, but our companions were in a minivan. I'm a little amazed they were able to make it; you can see what part of the road we traveled on looked like in the picture below. They said they spent their car ride praising God through song and prayer which is really awesome in my opinion.
At one point, Walter's altimeter registered that we were 7400 feet up though we did come back down some to get to the village. Before we arrived, we pulled both cars over for a time of prayer for the people we would meet and their village. It was amazing to hear prayers offered up in three languages (English, Mandarin and a local dialect) all at once. Kind of like a miniature Heaven. Upon arrival in the village, we found a gathering of people because a traveling photographer was in town. It was really cool to see some people in their traditional dress since they were taking pictures. Funny thing though, a lady told us later she didn't think the photographer was very good because her face still looked fat; women around the world are never happy with our pictures! I also just loved the lady squatting and smoking a pipe.
One of the families showed hospitality again and invited our group to their home. We knew these individuals had probably never seen a white face before which they later confirmed; regardless, they opened up their home to us. We spent quite awhile here learning more about them, their history, their beliefs, their concerns and their traditions. It was all very interesting and valuable information. They offered to kill a chicken and prepare it for us, but we didn't want to take one of their valued commodities; we agreed to settle on them making potatoes for us instead. So, they built a fire and then tossed the potatoes in. About 20 minutes later, they were ready. We took sticks to scrape off the ashes and then enjoyed them; they also provided a mix of spices and onions to dip the potatoes in. Fellowship around food is always nice.
They showed us around their home. It's one room about the size of our living room. There were no windows; the only light came in through the doorway and a single light bulb. There was a couch to sit on, and a sink to clean things in. It was completely concrete. It was too dark to see what was in the back part of the room. They had family pictures hanging on the wall. They also had an opening to a space above the room which is where they keep a lot of supplies. Next door to this one room was a stable for a massive pig and some chickens. On the other side of the room was a small shed like area for supplies also. The men said there was a bathroom next to the shed, but I didn't even go and look. As with all the houses, there was lot of corn hanging from the side. Apparently, they are very good at growing potatoes and corn. They said they are farmers because that's what their people group does; they asked if our nationality in America determined what our profession would be.
At one point I stepped away from the group to see what was on the other side of the house since they lived at the end of the village houses. I came across an older lady carrying these branches back to the village. Yet another reminder of what a difficult life this must be.
However, this was the view when I turned around from that lady. How stunning to have this beautiful clear water running past an open field with horses, sheep and goats in it while seeing the mountains behind it. Interesting enough though, when we commented to one individual about the beauty, she just said "this area isn't beautiful." I wonder how much else she has seen to compare it to. I am always in awe of God's creation so this seemed like a natural place to just spend a little bit of time thanking Him for these people and this adventure.
Too soon it was time for us to head back; we didn't want to navigate those roads in the dark. We said goodbye to our friends and headed back to the larger city for the night. This day was really a lot to process, but it was amazing and unforgettable.
The next day we started the journey back home via Chengdu and Beijing again. We spent Sunday morning at the international fellowship meeting. It's a registered gathering of believers from around the world. I know I heard people say they were from the US, Singapore, Ghana and Khuzestan; I'm sure there were many others too based on the size of the group. We sang songs together and heard a message reminding us how we're not of this world. Again, it was like a miniature Heaven. The next day, we left Beijing, flew about 3 hours to Tokyo, had a couple of hours lay over and then started the 13 hour flight back to Atlanta. Again, it was a long flight, but it went fine. I had time to watch 4 movies, 2 tv shows and read quite a bit. It was very nice to get home and see my family again. I took today off to rest, catch up on laundry, go to Publix and just process everything I saw and learned. Again, I left many details and stories out of this blog update. I would love to talk with you and provide more details and let you know how you can support the work going on in this great nation. I am so encouraged by the individuals and the workers I met along the way. It is easy to see that God is in the midst of a great work in China. I am humbled that He allowed me to play a small part in His plan. Now that I have faces of people in my mind, I feel it is both easier and more urgent to pray for this nation, and I hope you will too.
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