Day 3 – Beijing – Powerful Day

Summary: We met with our regular families and today was more of a parent day as we interacted more with them and got to know them better. Today will also be the last time we see them unless we see them back home in Tibet. One of the highlights was getting all the kids and their parents popsicles. It’s been averaging around 90 degrees with mild humidity and we all know popsicles/ice cream is refreshing. We went to a drink/snack stand and bought 15 popsicles for ~$2.25. They were kind enough to throw in the 16^th because we bought them in bulk. 1^st time we prayed with them as we wanted to wish them well in their recovery or upcoming surgery. Got a little emotional as you could sense God was here, moving within us. As thankful as the families were for us to pray over them, I think I was just as thankful, even more for just being there, experiencing His love with all of us. Very moving. One of the father’s was again thanking us for what we do, but we responded “we haven’t really done anything”, and he cut us off and said “You may think you didn’t do much, but you give us a sense of peace in our hearts and it means a lot to us that you’re here helping us out”. I was just in awe…stunned. Wow. God is using Jason and I…we just wish we can do more, but I’ve been told that just our presence, just our conversations is making an impact. =) I continue to pray that we be utilized for Him. I’m going to remember that quote for a very long time. Afterwards, we had to catch our 48 train ride to Lhasa, Tibet. We’re fortunate enough to get a ‘sleep train’ and I was so very comfortable traveling horizontally. Good nite!

Check out the photo album for day 3, HERE! (Check out the captions for details that aren't captured down below)

Details:

Thanks to Jason’s basic mandarin, he does quite an exceptional job of translating all my questions and gathering all the responses from the families and explains to me all the nuances he can. I’m sure his Chinese is getting better by the day. We spent a lot more time getting to know the parents/aunties/uncles/grandparents. It was moving to hear about everyone’s backgrounds, what they do, and how much sacrifice for their child’s health. One of the families from Tibet is a Sichuan family where grandma and wife’s brother (who left at home his wife and 4yr old daughter) shared with us their story:

The family does some kind of manual labor jobs and they only bring in 800 RMB a month, which is about $115 dollars. The train ride for 1 person 1 way to Lhasa is 780 RMB. So, they ended up asking friends and family to borrow money to get here, and end up staying for 20+ days. They can’t even afford hotels, so they stay in the hospital and take turns sleeping in the 1 bed provided for the child. Sometimes there’s a cot…but the hospital room can only fit so many of those. It helps explain why you need so much family to help out…to watch the child, to support each other to just make it for the next 3 weeks living off of little rest, food, energy. I think I get exhausted from the 5 hours of sleep I get…but I hardly see them eating, they take naps here and there, and they just wait in the hospital for countless lab tests, blood tests, medical preparations, etc.

We prayed with the kids and families for the 1^st time. That was a moving experience as I don’t think most of them have been prayed over in person like this, and it was just surreal for me to be doing this…God is already watching over them, but I was hoping that we could all speak to him together. I started off in English (and nobody speaks, so not sure if anybody but me and Jason knew what I was talking about), and then Jason did his best in praying in Mandarin. Very thankful times. Since the hospital rooms have 3-4 families per room, we invited the others who were there as well. Everyone participated.

We had befriended this family from Beijing where the mom, her grandparents, and siblings were helping out. Her husband was in Pakistan for work. He left for Pakistan June 5^th, the family was admitted to the hospital June 10^th, and the father doesn’t come back until December!!! She is a English teacher at a university, so her English was pretty good ;-) We prayed for her family separately and she understood our prayer. She was very thankful for us wanting to pray with them. She asked “IS it for good luck?” I wish I was a more mature Christian to give her a better response, because that was an invitation to witness at a deeper level and to share more about Him…but I blew it, and offered her a meekly “yes”. I realized I could’ve talked more about His power and how God loves you no matter what happens and that He is watching over her and her family. I’ll be better prepared the next time. Altho I missed this opportunity, she’ll still be in the Beijing hospital when we return from Tibet, so hopefully we’ll cross paths again. The cool thing is that I have her email address and already sent her pictures of her and her son…so we’ll see where this takes us…

We were supposed to bring families back home, but none are medically cleared to leave until tomorrow and all of them are going to do some sight seeing in Beijing over the weekend. New batches of families from Tibet are coming into Beijing next week for their operations.

After the hospital we had to rush back to the hotel to meet our trusty driver (picked us up from the airport) to go to the train station. I haven’t been to too many train stations, but this one is HUGE. From the outside, it looked like a massive Las Vegas hotel. Another magnificent building. We explored the station where they have these “wait rooms” for dozens of trains. It was packed…so we hung out at various restaurants. There’s also a lot of cool food markets to get meals for the long trips. Ramen bowls are by far the most popular thing all the markets were selling. We bought a few for our ride. Looking at the screen, it looked like 80 trains were due into the station over a few hours. We’re about to embark on a 48 hour train ride! I thought the flight here was long (~14 hours) but 48 hours in a sleep train?

We were fortunate enough to get a “sleep train” where they fit 6 to a room that’s no wider than 6ft and as tall as 10 ft. There’s 3 beds on each side. In our cabin there’s 2 Swedish guys on the bottom, me and Jason in the middle, and a Chinese couple on top. Ventilation is going on (important) and some kinda lights are always on. I dunno what I’ll be saying at the end of this 48 ride, but for now, it’s quite fun traveling horizontally, in a sleep position. Much more fun than a plane ride…for now. Good nite!