Day 10 - Final Day - Thank You

Summary & Details:
Well, this is it. The last day in Tibet, and the end of the missions trip. What a wonderful, heart warming, eye opening experience. Thank you to all of you, family and friends, for all your prayer and support.

On this last day, we were going to spend the morning with Tyrone, Eddie, Sam, and Burt playing basketball. Burt had the great idea of getting us out on the court. They all got up early to get a ball, but then ran into complications where the ball had no air and we couldn't find another ball or a pump. The poor guys spent 2 hours trying desperately to find a way to play, but it didn't work out. But it ended up that we all cooked together our final meal (which was DELICIOUS) and just hung out. Quality time. Priceless. For me, just living life with these guys was one of my greatest highlights and where I saw/felt God moving the most.

We caught the plane this time to go back to Beijing. We had a 1.5hr drive to the airport, and then a 6 hour plane ride. Once we arrived in Beijing we met with the Beijing Director of the foundation, Dr. Lawrence Ng. We had a wonderful time of sharing and debriefing. Thank you Lawrence for making time for us!

Click here for the last day's pictures!

Jason and I reflected quite a bit of our travels on the relatively quick flight home, and with Lawrence. Many lessons learned, many moving experiences, many things to be thankful for...

Now that we're back home, we'd love to share our journey with you and relive a lot of these god-filled moments. Looking forward to catching up with you soon!

- Mark & Jason














PS - We had a lil scare on the plane to Beijing because somebody got sick so they made the last 7 rows of the plane put on masks while the other 50 rows in front of us turned around and took out their cameras and made a circus of it. I thought we'd be quarantined but luckily the sick person was deemed not contagious. And no, Jason or I did not catch anything while out there...we're perfectly healthy, so don't be afraid to approach us! =)

Day 9 - Tibet - School Kids and Back Home...to Lhasa

Summary:
On the 6 hour drive back to Lhasa, we visited a glacier, a palace and a school. The glacier we visited (at it's base) had an elevation of 5500 meters or 18,000 feet. If Jason and I had the time (we probably didn't have the energy) to climb this glacier, it's going all the way up to 23,600 feet!!! For comparison's sake, the basin of Lake Tahoe is ~6,200 feet and the highest point at Heavenly is 11,000 feet. NO AIR up there. We then visited a mini palace that was quite a hike and got some good scenic shots. Afterwards we visited a school that had 60+ kids whose ages were 7-12. Prayed for them and handed out the rest of our stickers and candy. We also got to play basketball with them! =). We capped off the night by meeting up with the missionaries at Yak Steak House - DELICIOUS place with great indian food.

Day 9 Photos are HERE (lots more pictures and captions!!!)


Details:
I got to see lots of scenery that I could actually stand on (the palace, the bottom of the glacier, fields, etc).

The school was a place that the foundation had screened for heart disease last year. We met with the principle and handed out the remainder of our goodies. The kids were so orderly and wel behaved. They were so happy to be getting these simple little treats. You can just see the life in their eyes light up. We prayed for them...just like in the hospitals, I did it in english, jason followed in chinese. After we prayed with them and handed stuff out on the basketball court, I was ITCHING to play ball...

I hadn't touched a ball in weeks and I remember asking several times - who's got a ball? They brought out 2 nice weathered leather NBA stamped basketballs. I was almost as happy as the kids! One kid knew how to dripple and shoot. I was asking what kind of ball skills they had: could they dribble, shoot, pass, etc. I can't speak their language so I demo'd what I wanted them to do and they were able to show me their stuff. They don't have a coach or a PE teacher to show them how to play, so they just learn on their own. They just play and run around. Definitely a lot of fun.

After the 6 hour drive back I was anxious to see our missionary friends again. We had a wonderful dinner and hang out time with the missionaries at a popular restaurant called Yak Steak House. It was actually a continental menu with chinese, tibetan, indian, korean, and american food. Unfortunately, they pulled a fast one on us and paid for dinner...it was supposed to be OUR treat! But we'll get them back later ;-)

Day 8 - Tibet - Road Trip and On The Streets

Summary:
Had an early start to Tibet's 2nd largest city, Shigaze. It's a 6 hour drive through the country side. It was a very scenic drive where I plugged in my headphones, listened to praise music and reflected. I had another hot/burning sensation...which is a good thing =). Our 2 goals in Shigaze are to 1) visit another hospital 2) talk to the locals and get usage statistics on cell phone usage. These stats hopefully will provide the foundation with numbers on internet and text messaging usage to help with a special SMS project. We were on the streets for 2 hours while Jason surveyed Tibetans in chinese while I scribed and recorded results. Had a relaxing night.

Day 8 Photos are HERE!



Details:
The hospital visit was humbling. There was huge remodling, renovations, construction all over the place - there was dust and dirt EVERYWHERE. New hospital buildings going up and lots of dirt roads. I don't know how safe and healthy this place was because there were a lot of people smoking IN or right by the hospital doors, too much incense burning and there's all types of sick people (many kids) just breathing in all this dirt. I was really in disbelief that people actually could recover in these conditions...but it just made me pray more and to continue to ask God to have his hand over these people to love and to heal them. It's so very sad to see each innocent child suffer so much. I don't know what some of these kids had, but the symptoms they had were severe - blindness, heart problems, digestive issues, all kinds of wires/hoses connected to bodies...just a tough place. Made me reflect more on my own 2 boys to be ever so grateful for their health. Thank you God for protecting and watching over to all our family and friends for being in relative good health.

During Quiet Time and reflection heard these great songs...which led to another hot/burning sensation:

• Indescribable - Chris Tomlin
• Who Am I - Casting Crowns (I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow)
• Salvation is Here - Hillsong
• You Never Let Go - Matt Redman (VBS 2008 version)
  

Culture vs Religion

Much is said about the role of religion in Tibetan culture. Virtually all Tibetans are Buddhist, and with that come various beliefs about what can be eaten, rituals they perform, and even the role of their leader, the Dalai Lama, who cannot be mentioned in China.

Before I came here, I read much about how the Tibetan culture is being slowly destroyed, either by the Chinese government, the immigrating Han Chinese, or both. It made me wonder whether or not I was helping to contribute to the loss of culture by being here.

My eyes were opened when we first met Eddie. When Tyrone brought us to their house, I noticed there were many flies. Eddie mentioned that the reason there are so many flies is because Tibetans believe flies are important living creatures and they should not be swatted. Waving them away is okay, but killing them is not. He said he was important to keep with the Tibetan tradition, despite how annoying the flies are, because it shows respect to their culture and it helps to build relationships.

There is also the issue of the gift of the Tibetan kata, which is a scarf symbolizing respect for the receiver, as well as prosperity and fortune. The kata is seen all over Tibet, on cars, houses, as well as temples and monasteries. Eddie explained that the kata is also an important cultural item, and it is good to respect it by accepting the gift if it is given to you.

It reminded me of parts of 1 Corinthians, Chapters 8-10: "To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." In order to win the Tibetan people for Christ, we must first respect them and their culture. If that means living with flies at home, so be it. Even though we know killing a fly is okay, we should be okay to hold back if it prevents someone from stumbling.

I have realized many traditions associated with Christianity have had other origins. The Christmas tree, for example, started out as a pagan symbol. The Easter bunny apparently has its roots in a Germanic goddess dating back to the 8th century. What's stopping the kata from being used within the context of Christianity as well?

Taking to the streets

In Shigatse, our task was to try to find out how many people use cell phones, text messaging, and the Internet. In other words, find out how "connected" people are. This information is not available anywhere on the web, so we decided to get these stats by 1) fishing them from the mobile companies (China Mobile or China Unicom), and 2) taking an informal survey of a wide demographic.

The first task did not prove fruitful at all, as I had somewhat expected. We pretended that we were interested in buying a cell phone and plan, ask them about their user base, etc. The sales people didn't know very much, and the language barrier proved to be too much.

As for the second option, I did not relish the idea of talking in broken Chinese to complete strangers. I really don't like talking to people unsolicited, let alone in a strange land, where too much attention might draw the attention of the military. Nonetheless, Mark encouraged me to talk, while he took notes.

The first few people we approached brushed us off quite quickly. We also managed to scare away some younger girls as well. However, we started having successes. I managed to talk to a group of Tibetan men and women, once we found someone in the group who could translate for us. Once we started conversing, we found that the people were generally quite friendly. Our hit rate was about 66%.

I can do the Asian squat as good as the rest of them!

We did come across some unfriendly people, such as a lady who told me "you can barely speak, and you're asking me to answer you?" Generally speaking though, I found the (mostly) Tibetan people willing to talk. Due to the commercial nature of the busy street in Shigatse, we ended up surveying about 30% Han Chinese as well, which is not necessarily a bad thing because there are many Han Chinese in Tibet. Due to the elevation, they also experience a high incidence of congenital heart disease.

The highlight of our experience came at the end, when we met a Chinese guy who ran a store in the area. As soon as he picked up my accent, he asked me "Eh?? Where are you guys from?" I told him we were from the States, and he got very excited. He asked to see US money, to which I hesitantly pulled out my smallest bill, a $20. After we asked him and his employees the survey questions, he asked to change my $20 for RMB. I looked up the exchange rate and changed it for him. He said he was excited to show his family back in Hebei, who has never seen foreign money.