Northwest Community Church

Two weeks away and it’s feels like we have been traveling for a month with all the distance we have travelled, all the children we have visited, all the sights we have seen, all the food that has been tasted and the people that have been a part of this year’s China Missions trip. I feel tired. I’ve had a cold and a runny nose for 5 days and it’s been dragging me down. Even so a part of me still feels that there is more that could be done for the children, even though we touched them ever so briefly.

We said our goodbyes to Shumin after breakfast. He took a high speed train to visit his family and we spent our last day in China walking through the Olympic plaza. We walked around the Bird’s Net stadium and went inside the Water Cube swimming pool structure. The architecture of these structures and others surrounding them is amazing. As we left around 11:00 the courtyards and building were filling up with tourists and sightseers. Beijing with its 19 million people, equal to more than ½ the population of Canada, is a huge and massive city. It’s difficult to fathom the enormity of such a center. It almost feels claustrophobic.

This was my second time to China with  a Northwest Community Church Missions team. There are numerous memories; driving with John, visiting the foster kids outside of Guilin and in Yangshuo, our first visit to the North Canton Christian Care Center in Longshui and also meeting their high school kids, going back to the Neil Taylor Christian Care Center in Rongshui and seeing the changes in kids from last year, playing games and performing skits; and being remembered.

We are all tired as we head back to Canada, each with his or her own experiences and thoughts on this trip as well as future hopes. As we leave China there are already discussions amongst the group about next year’s trip. We shall see …

Have we answered the question we asked on March 27th? I think we each found answers, some that we were looking for, others to questions that were not on our list. Personally, I think actions speak much louder than words. Being there, listening to, laughing with, hugging a child or praying with them confirms that they are valuable not only to us but also to God.

The day was spent as a holiday in Beijing. A day to relax, see some of the sites, debrief and partially recuperate from stresses and strains of the last two weeks. 

After breakfast Frank, a long-time friend of Shumin’s, drove us to see the Great Wall at the Mutianyu World Cultural Heritage site. It was a beautiful sunny day. Even from the parking lot the climb up to the wall was steep. Our legs ached after the first few minutes, we persevered and final reached the wall itself. It is an amazing site. After walking the wall for a couple of hours we took toboggans back down to the parking lot.

Lunch was at a restaurant close to the Great Wall, with fresh fish (scooped out of the pond), fresh vegetables, chicken with cashews and corn cakes.

We drove back to Beijing, said goodbye to Frank, dropped our stuff off at the hotel and rode the subway to the Silk Street shopping complex for some last minute shopping. At the entrance to the shopping center is a giant map of the world and we stuck one of our Canada / Alberta pins to mark Calgary.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Shumin. He is spending another week in China visiting family. Jeff, Alison and I will head to the airport to fly back to Canada.

Here’s also where the time zone gets us back. We leave Beijing at 3:50pm and arrive in Vancouver at 11:50am, on the same day. We finally arrive in Calgary at 6:30pm, all on the same day! It’s going to be a few messed-up days early next week.

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Depart with bulging suitcase = gifts and other things for orphans and foster children in China + some personal stuff -> hand gifts out as you travel through the country -> luggage gets lighter and has more space for new things -> buy stuff to fill empty spaces = Return with overstuffed luggage. It’s a vicious circle in which empty space must be filled. Anyone who has lived in home long enough can attest to this principle. We have all done it, we found that one or two or three or more things that we decide we want to bring back as a gift for a friend or for ourselves. Then when we repack the suitcase to travel back home there’s more stuff to pack than when we left in the first place. There were a few of us with those issues yesterday evening.

We all had breakfast together this morning. After packing the microvan we said our goodbyes to Yan and Kevin. Lots of hugs and a few emotions. John drove the rest of us to the Guilin airport for our flight to Beijing. There we said goodbye to John, our host, accommodations and travel organizer, driver, guide, comedian, man-of-many talents, a spiritual rock and a great friend.

John is one special person. He visits the foster children every 4 to 6 weeks. Today after driving us to the airport he drove 8 hours back to Longhui to the orphanage where he is the director. That was after spending time with us during the last two weeks and finding time to visit his family. Tomorrow he will drive 12 hours to another orphanage to allow that director to take a month leave. The whole time that we spent together he was always cheerful and smiling.  

In Beijing we checked into the Orange Hotel. It’s close to the Olympic venues and each room comes with a fish. We decided to visit Tiananmen Square, but access to the square is closed after 5 pm. So we decided to have dinner and a stroll in a shopping district just south of the square.

Breakfast was at 9am today, finally a day that we could sleep in, at least a little bit. The, appropriately named, 7th Heaven Café serves eggs (scrambles, sunny side up, easy-over), with toast, orange juice, banana pancakes and coffee. They even make milk shakes. After breakfast we went out to buy some additional items for the two foster children that we were meeting today.

Yangshuo is a Chinese tourist town. You are constantly asked if you want to buy something or are interested in seeing any number of the local attractions. Bartering is required since prices are usually inflated past anything reasonable.

We had lunch with our two foster kids that we support here in Yangshuo. They had just returned to their high school after the holiday weekend, as in Longshui these kids also board at the high school during the week and only come home every second weekend.

In the afternoon we caught a local bus back to Guilin. The bus runs every ½ hour or whenever it’s full. Since busses are close to the largest vehicle on the road they can also command passing privileges, which means that they spend most of their time in the center of the road on top of the center lines, it doesn’t matter if the lines are solid or not. It surprised us more last year, this year you didn’t even blink if other vehicles were coming at us in the opposite direction, you knew they would get out of the way eventually.

We celebrated our last dinner together as a group with some rice wine. Yan and Kevin stay an additional day in Guilin while the rest of us head off to Beijing. John will drive us out to the airport tomorrow morning. One last ride in the microvan.

John met us at the hotel in Guilin and after a Chinese fast food breakfast we took taxis to the Guilin Riverboat docks. After the taxis had departed we found out that we were at the wrong location. We were at the riverboat dock for “local” tourists and we should be at the dock for “foreign” tourists. We spoke with one of the toll booth agents and he offered to drive us to the other dock for 50 RMB, about $8. It turns out that many people end up at the wrong location and they have a van available for just that purpose. An easy way to make $8. We speculated that perhaps they have an arrangement with the taxi drivers.

Although the day was somewhat cold and wet the riverboat journey down the river between Guilin and Yangshuo was breathtaking.

After arriving in Yangshuo went to see the Silver Cave. Yangshuo is John’s home town and he suggested that this cave was worth the trip. With seven people squeezed into his microvan (John found two more chairs) we drove about 40 minutes to the cave. We were not disappointed. The cave is huge! There are massive stalagmites, stalactites, columns, stone waterfalls and many other cave structures. The walk through the cave took about an hour.

This morning we went to the orphanage in Rongshui for a short visit and to say goodbye to the staff and children. It’s a special holiday long weekend in China and some of the children had left to visit relatives, but many remained at the orphanage.

After handing out gifts to the staff we said our goodbyes to both the staff and children. Most asked us to write phrases in their notebooks and we received countless hugs. They accompanied us along the path from the orphanage to where we catch our rickshaw. After many more hugs and goodbyes we finally did get in and drive off. It’s tough to leave.

Gobi, the director of the Christian youth center, who we met on the first evening in Rongshui offered to drive us to Guilin. We packed ourselves into his minivan and drove the 4 hour journey to Guilin. He then had to drive back to Rongshui, pick up his own belongings and drive to his relatives for their long weekend get together. We are continually amazed by the generosity of people, some who we have only met for a couple of hours. These people go, quite literally, out of their way to help us. Christian love in action.

We went for an early dinner because we were meeting with Alvin, the past coordinator of the foster children around Guilin. He brought with him 6 kids from his neighbourhood. We exchanged gifts and talked for a while. They were primarily interested in where we were from, why we were here, what we liked and didn’t like. What struck me was how well these kids spoke English. Paul, age 12, talked about school, Guilin and we even had a discussion about basketball – his favorite team is the LA Lakers. These kids have better condition and together with their education and language assistance are further ahead than many kids at the orphanages. It does explain, in a very obvious way, why the orphanages are always looking for volunteers to help the children with English (Chinese comprehension optional )

Have you ever lit a fire on the floor inside a house? We had four fires burning at the same time today. The orphanage had planned a barbecue as one of the Sunday activities. Unfortunately it was a cold, rainy and quite windy day. So the barbecue was relocated inside one of the older buildings on the property. That building will be renovated this year. It’s a brick and concrete structure so it was a perfect alternative for fires to roast hot dogs, chicken, chives, potatoes and zucchini. After planting some fruit trees we went back to the hotel for an hour to warm up before returning for the evening activities.

I know Calgary just got a dump of snow, around 30cm, and you may have little sympathy with me when I say that cold here in China meant that is got down to 13C today. Yet none of the buildings at orphanage have the “luxury” of a heating (or cooling) system and I’m not counting the kitchen, they still use wood fired appliances. So the inside temperature is very close to the outside temperature. There’s no going to the thermostat and turning up the furnace or flicking on the gas fireplace or going back to the hotel to warm up. These children only have one option, put on some more clothes. David, the director, told us that they had snow three times this winter. No, they didn’t get enough snow that they had to shovel the driveway; they did however get extra blankets to keep warm. The things we take for granted …

We helped make dumpling and dumplings and dumplings when we came back to the orphanage. A constant flow of children helped as well. They all have assigned chores and are expected to help with all activities. We are constantly surprised by their helpfulness, cheerfulness and sense of integrity. When it comes to candy, balloons or games, they all treat each other with the same set of rules and ensure that everyone gets the same.

In the evening they put on a show for us and we finished the evening off with sparklers and fireworks.

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We took a motorized rickshaw to the orphanage this morning. Two bench seats down the sides, vinyl covering, sometimes a rope is secured at either end of the roof hanging down the center and serves as a place to hang-on (if you so choose), an open back and for 25¢ per person you can be taken anywhere in Rongshui. They are everywhere in China and the standard form of short distance transportation. They will allow as many people as they can fit to increase their fare. Last year’s record was 14 children and teenagers in one of these contraptions, including a couple of Canadian teenagers hanging off the back and standing on the rear step. When you take any type of transportation in China you must leave your canadianized expectations at home.

The children were excited to see us again and ran to give hugs, in particular to Alison and Kevin who they were especially excited to see again. Teenagers and adults returning from abroad to see them again, that’s a significant statement for these children. For them, the actions speak louder than may words. We had a great reunion, played games and handed out gifts that we had brought. During the afternoon when they went back to school we painted the handrails and gates of the main building. In the evening after dinner they sang for us and we sang for them, we did a skit, prayed, handed out some small gifts and interacted with them until just before 10pm. Just being with them, having time to visit and smile, that says a lot; and often that’s just what they need. It was a late day for the children and another late day for us.

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Another long day of travelling. This is one big country, well I guess not unlike Canada. But unlike Canada there are more roads, more people, more bicycles, more scooters, more motor cycles, motor trikes, cars, trucks and every other kind of transportation device that you can image. Today consisted of 2 hours in the micro-van for John, Shumin and Karl, with Yan, Alison, Kevin, Jeff taking the bus from Longshen to Guilin. John’s van arrived ahead of the bus group and we went shopping for lunch and snacks at one of the local supermarkets for the train trip south to Rongshui. No we didn’t buy the pre-packaged chickens feet. We said goodbye to John at the train station. We will see him again on Monday.

We then boarded the regional train for the 5 hour journey from Guilin to Rongshui. From Guilin is wasn’t too bad yet after Liuzhou the train was packed and people were standing in the walkway sections connecting the cars. Just after 6pm we arrived in Rongshui. David, the director of this orphanage, and a group of people from a local Christian youth center picked us up at the Ronshui train station. After a quick trip to the hotel and a shower we were off to dinner with David and friends. We had an opportunity to discuss their work here in Rongshui and how both the orphanage and the youth center have supported children in this town and surrounding community. By the way, China only designates city status on towns that have more than 100,000 residents. Rongshui is big, it just has not passed that magic number yet.

We are all excited to see the orphanage tomorrow morning. I can only describe it as the feeling that you have when you are about to visit a place again and the first time you were there you had a great and very memorable time. Now as you think about going back to that place all the past memories and experiences flood back at you and heighten your anticipation of this upcoming visit.

It was an early morning to begin yet another 5 hours journey in our pint-sized minivan. Not something to look forward to.

The tough part was leaving Longshui. You feel like you only just got to know a few of the children, shared some time, a hug, some smiles and a few laughs. You taught each other a couple of words in a new language and laughed as the other person stumbled through the pronunciation difficulties. But none of that matters because somehow you shared a common bond. It’s that basic, for these children just being there for them is enough.

This was the first visit of a group from Northwest Community Church to the orphanage in Longshui. As we leave Longshui, squished into our sardine-can van, plans are already being discussed how next year’s team could stay longer and what they could do to for the children. 

The countryside to Longshen is beautiful. We took lots of pictures and climbed up to one of the villages and it’s terraced fields to stretch and work the legs. John’s fantastic driving skills once again brought us safely to our destination. In Longshen we met up with our team members from Kuwait, Yan and Kevin Chen.