We're serving in Beijing and Tibet to children who suffer from congenital heart disease. Here's a little journal of what we experienced. Being there, talking with them, understanding all the love poured out...it's amazing. I hope this blog will have inspiring words, pictures, and videos to share God's love with you all.
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!
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! =)
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 ;-)
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.
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:
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?
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.
Summary: We started off the day by going to the temple that’s 10 minutes walking distance from our hotel, led by a personal guide. After lunch and much needed rest time (Jason got hit by a combo of altitude sickness and too much inhaled incense), we met up with Gina in the afternoon and she took us to the Lhasa Hospital. HUGE. This is Touching Heart’s hospital headquarters. We saw the catheter machine (provided by the foundation and the government) that performs the complex surgeries. After visiting some recuperating kids of all kinds of illnesses, we went to the Foundation's office that acts as the operations for Beijing. Gina then took us to the Blind School and I was floored by how impressive this organization cares and loves blind children. We were given a heart touching tour by one of the alumni of the school who now is on staff and teaches english. It’s a boarding school of 43 students (all ages) and 13 staff. Easily, this is one of the most moving experiences of the trip. Another very memorable part of the trip was treating the 4 guys to dinner at Lhasa Snowland and thoroughly enjoying our conversations and delicious food. I wish we could hang out with them in the states, but God has bigger plans for them here.
Details: This has been one of my favorite days thus far with visiting the blind school and having awesome company for dinner. God, thank you for blessing me with this experience.
Starting with the morning… I didn’t understand much on the temple/monastery tour (even though the guide’s English was fine). The guide seemed pretty knowledgeable as he went on and on about the different statues, buddahs, shrines, idols, etc. It was a bit overwhelming. The temple was huge with incense burning everywhere.
We were planning to meet the 4 guys (Tyrone, Eddie, Sam, Burt) after lunch, but altitude sickness combined with all the incense took out Jason and he ended up taking a 2 hour nap. I relaxed in the hotel courtyard resting with my water. =)
After our rest, we went to the hospital to meet Gina and she gave us a tour of the facility and we met Labala who is the liason between the foundation and the hospital. She showed us the cath machine and took us around the pediatric ward as we handed out our stickers and lollipops. We also learned that the foundation also helped fund 2 ICU units, the cath machine and other projects for the hospital. I don't know if I have all the facts/figures, but you can always check out http://www.seapc.us/tibet/index.htm
After the hospital Gina took me to get some medicine for my hand, as I needed hydrocortisone cream. We also visited her husband’s office where he sells Tibetan crafts. He’s also starting up his own company that will sell activity equipment like trampolines and pogo balls. Afterwards David also took me to get my contact solution and case! Thanks so much for helping me replace my toiletries!
Yea!!! Off to the Blind School. WOW. Gina had already taken some friends earlier in the morning, but she took us also we had a wonderful time learning about the school from Eun-Jin (22yrs old) who is blind herself. She was a student there, came back, and is now on staff. She LOVES school and being a student as she plans to go to another school (college?). Please check out: http://www.braillewithoutborders.org This is a boarding school where kids stay for 3-4 years and then they must go into a regular school or they go on to other vocational schools, like massage school. The whole school is completely free where everything is paid for with donations. AMAZING. There’s 43 students with 4 different types of classes: toddlers, middle school, massage school, and one other vocational type of class. The school prepares the students on how to survive in the real world. Such a touching story. I could write so much more, but check out the founder’s book at http://www.arcadepub.com/ ISBN: 1-55970-658-9.
We wanted to support and just love the 4 guys, so we decided to treat them out for dinner. They took the bus to our hotel and they choose a delicious restaurant. We had such a fun time hanging out, enjoying each other’s company. You can feel the brotherly love…yet we’ve only just met them. We had many great conversations about Tibetan culture, girls, Christianity, food, technology, living life, and more. They are so dedicated to their calling here in Lhasa, Tibet. Very admirable. Sam was our comedian for the night…or we picked on him the most…either way you look at it, we were always laughing with him. Eddie, always so thoughtful and God centered…you can just tell his heart is just beaming for Him and flat out compassionate for people. Burt is like the big brother and conversation starter. They all respect each other so much. Tyrone is the fatherly figure and they all look up to him. If these guys were in the states, I think we’d all be good friends. Thank you all for leading and teaching by example. Much love.
The drivers here are crazy, and there are basically no traffic laws here. Red lights are literally a suggestion. It is not uncommon for a taxi to drive on the wrong side of the road. Here's a picture of us about to get hit by multiple cars.
Before I went to Tibet, I heard a lot about their staple, tsampa. It is essentially a dough made with barley flour and yak butter tea (more on "yak butter" later). I finally got to try it today, and it was quite non-repulsive. It was a extremely dense and flavorless, but not bad if you eat it with other things (kinda like eating rice).
It seems calorie-laden foods are very important in Tibet. After not having breakfast, I got very tired. I took a huge 2 hour nap after a big lunch and felt much better afterward.
Oh yes, about yak butter. Apparently in Tibetan, "yak" is a male, so "yak butter" does not technically exist. They call the females "bee" instead.
Long Summary: What an exciting day! After a good nite's rest we met with the rest of the staff and missionaries from Touching Hearts. In order to protect them, and for their security, we cannot use their names, take pictures of them and post to this blog because of the "Internet Cops". So, I'll use fictitious names and their true ages: Tyrone (late 30s), Eddie (22), Sam (mid 20s), and Burt (28). Tyrone came to our hotel room to bring us to their house. Our 1st cab ride was flat out CRAZY...yet something I'd expect in China. I really wish I bought the new iPhone 3GS to take video, but traffic signals, lanes, pedestrians - they don't matter! Tyrone and Burt cooked us a delicious vegetarian meal (most of them are from North East China where they don't eat a lot of meat). It was very eye opening and humbling to learn about these 4 guys devoted to God and serving in Tibet. They have a special love and compassion for the Tibetan people and are learning to live a lot of the Tibetan ways to show respect and to build better relationships with them. The other highlight of the day was going Church at Gina and Darren's house (not their real names either). Jason re-capped that in the previous blog entry. While Jason is super healthy because he drinks a lot of water, I on the other hand was battling a mild case of altitude sickness. I had headaches on and off all day...feels like MSG headaches. I was also given extra oxygen, but by that time I was already feeling pretty good.
There's no photo album this time because I couldn't take very many pictures as we were with the staff all day.
Short/Lite Details: This picture is a Tibetan couch that also can be used as a bed. I purposefully got Eddie's hand in the picture since that's all I can really show of him. The 2nd picture is of how the people boil water. The altitude really affects the boiling point.
I woke up with a headache, went all day with headaches, and slept with a headache. It's not painful or severe, just more uncomfortable. It comes and goes, but if you just sit there for awhile and drink a lot of water, you're all good.
Driving here is ridiculous. Again, I wish I had video capabilities to show our crazy adventures of how our taxi drivers drive in between lanes, go into head on traffic, squeeze their way in, and use the horn all the time. The horn has several meanings: "Don't even think about it. I'm coming through. Get out of the way. I'm here. Don't move, I'm passing you."
The 4 missionaries live in a house donated by the foundation. A Tibetan woman and 19yr old son also live with them. They all learn about Christianity together. Tyrone is the leader of the household and gives most of the lessons. The Tibetan woman teaches them about language and culture. It was great learning about each one's passage to where they are now and how God guided them to where they are now. They don't know of their future plans or how long they plan to serve in this capacity, but they really just turn it over to Him.
They try to absorb and blend in as much possible, taking on a lot of the Tibetan culture. One thing is that the Tibetans don't believe in killing things...even flies. So, while we were in the living room, there's a ton of flies, but they don't kill them, and just let them be. We kept swatting them away, but just let them be. Eddie said that those flies drove him CRAZY for a few weeks, but eventually learned how to coexist. The missionaries help the foundation in all capacities with taking care of the kids, managing the patient data system, caring for the families, inviting people over to their house, and doing lots of prayer walks.
Doing church in a house, in a living room was amazing. (details are in Jason's blog post) Just that it was coordinated and we were meeting in a hostile territory. It gives a sense of hope that these missionaries can indeed make a difference and reach out to so many people. It'll take a lot of time, energy, and faith, but it seems there's a bright light in store for them.
I was given the oxygen tank from another traveler at Church. I didn't need it by that time, but could've used it earlier in the day!
We had our first experience with a house church in China today. If you are not familiar with house churches, it is one of the few ways the Chinese government allows Christianity to be practiced. Chinese citizens are not allowed to meet in large groups in church buildings. The alternative is to meet in people's homes. Today, there were about 12 people attending.
This experience really made me think of the early church, and how they had to struggle against the Roman government. Despite these setbacks, the people had and energy and an attitude I have not seen very much at home, and seemed so much more willing to serve the Lord. They did not have a guitar, but they worshipped God nonetheless with a deep fervor. We take too many things for granted sometimes, like the ability to meet in a building. Really, church is about the body of believers, and that's it.
We had a very nice sermon by a man who originally came from Singapore. He spoke very eloquently in Chinese, and I really felt like the grace of God allowed me to almost fully understand the sermon. The sermon was about what it really means to know God, to pray, and to forgive. There were many points made, as it was quite a long sermon, but it was captivating at the same time. I became emotional at some parts when he talked about the real faith we can have in a Christ we cannot see or touch, versus the emphasis Buddhists place on physical idols. I really felt His presence. It gave me a real hope that Christianity not only could survive in Lhasa, but even thrive. This hope was definitely felt by the members of the church.
May God's will be done here in Tibet, as we are here and after we leave.
Summary: Woke up at 6am and looked out the window to find some amazing snow capped mountains (Himalayas?). Quite a pleasant surprise! I thought today would be a typical "train day" just like yesterday, but it was quite different. I actually did some quiet time (I should be doing it every day), played some random music - which all seemed to play Chris Tomlin songs because I was feeling anxious about what's in store for us in Lhasa, Tibet and not sure how exactly we were going to be used. We're both eager to jump in and use our strengths, but perhaps these are opportunities for us to listen more to what He is trying to say, and he probably is speaking out to us (or at least me) in a different way and I just need to listen for it. A few minutes and praise songs later, I knew. I've felt this "hot/burning" sensation a handful of times, but when I feel it, it's His way of telling me He's there...embracing me so that I can let go. It was great feeling close to Him. Thank you God for all your love and all that you do for us. Thank you also to all the people who believe in me and for supporting me. On a lighter note, 48 hours on a train isn't too bad if you're traveling with good people...thanks Jason and our new foreign exchange friends. For the bonehead moment of the trip...I left my toiletry bag on the train! It's got all my contacts, medicines, shaver, etc...I hope I can get it back soon and that it's not on a 48 hour ride back to Beijing. =(. Had a nice meal with lots of Yak, which is Tibet's main animal/food.
Details: Waking up to snow capped mountains blew my socks off. That was impressive.
I finally opened up the Ramen box and had it for breakfast along with my Gatorade from the Google office. I don't know how many hundreds of Ramen boxes are consumed on this 48 hour train ride by all the passengers, but you can always find a plethora of people eating it at any given time. On this trip, it is the "Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner of Champsions".
I did s'more hanging out with ouer new foreign friends. We learned not to eat at the dining car anymore and just wait for the carts to come by with food. Got into some great discussions which I'll talk about a little bit later.
Getting back to quiet time, I just wanted to do more...being on the train kind of limits what you can do. Jason and I are not here to be on vacation, but we're here to serve and hopefully be a blessing to all we come in touch with. So, during quiet time, I tried to find the meaning in the idle time by journaling and listening to music on my iPhone. I've got ~300 songs on my phone and set it to random...I was hoping the shuffle would bring up some praise songs, and what more perfect way to get connected to him than Chris Tomlin?!?!? (Why is it that he always comes up when I'm trying to seek Him?). First song that came up was "Sing Sing Sing".
As I was preparing my heart, I was just thinking "Oh boy, another day on the train." The adventure was yesterday and the novelty of a 48 hour train ride is gone. But as I saw there pondering, journaling, listening to His inspiring music, I had time to reflect. I was reminded that all of this beautiful scenery is all his creation. And that all these families we're working with are experiencing so much joy and gratefulness...and really, miracles are working all the time. I was learning to focus on why I'm here...to learn and lean more on Him instead of me trying to force my own ways. Other songs that played and helped get me into it are Chris Tomlin's "Awesome is the Lord" and "Glorious". And then Casting Crown's "Praise You In This Storm" started playing...
I was just trying to hold it together. One particular lyric called out to me about 'Barely hear your voice through the rain and hear him whisper "I'm with you"...and that's when the Hot/Burning sensation started. Tears were coming down my face...not sure if anybody saw...but there was a roomate of ours, a chinese soldier noticed as he sat across from me as I was writing, looking out the window. I was feeling His love. This was His way of encouraging me that all will be all right...He's got it covered. Thank you God for picking me up. Everything happened in perfect timing. I don't know how you feel His love...but this is one way where the unexplainable happens and you just feel it...I did.
Summary: I had one of the best sleeps I’ve had in weeks. I didn’t realize how tired I was and how comfy the thin mattress would feel. Slept a solid 8 hours! I explored the train and saw 4 different types of cars: sleep cabins of 6, sleep cabins of 4,”the masses” seats only, dining car. I don’t know how the people in just the seats car did the 1st overnite sitting up…it’s worse than an airplane. I saw many many many beautiful sites going through the countryside: huge mountains, many different fields of crops, tiered plateaus somehow built into all the mountains, lots of green…and the pictures will paint a better description. I learned more about China/Tibet from foreign exchange students: 2 from Michigan, 1 from Holland. They were teaching me about Chinese culture…including how to use the Chinese toilets (I got a good technique now!). Pretty uneventful day as we were just enjoying the scenery, mingling with other foreigners, and living out of a bed.
Details: Once I plopped down into my bed/seat last night, it was super comfy. I got tired real fast and ended up just conking out around 11 and woke up around 7:30ish for a solid 8 hours! The motion of the train and just being so tired helped me get some really good rest. A little cramped but it doesn’t matter if you’re super tired.
When I awoke this morning, I wanted to explore the rest of the train and find out what were the other accommodations like. There’s a 4 person sleeper that is slightly bigger with doors and controls for lighting. Our cabin has no door…open to the hallway. There’s 1 main dining car where you can sit down and be served. Food here is NOT good. Had my worst meal of the trip here…granted it’s still food, but no flavor, and stuff was undercooked. After the dining car I stepped into “The Masses” car, which only has seats but people’s luggages were in the aisle, and I have no idea how people could sleep and be comfortable in a huge cabin that fits everybody like a airplane. Made me appreciate my 6 person cabin a whole lot more. After an interesting breakfast, came back to my cabin where folks are hanging out in the aisle that has a very small seat and you gotta walk sideways to get by. The pictures will show you what I mean. The food carts are perfectly made with no room to spare in going up and down the aisle with hot food and snacks.
So, what else do we do on this train ride? In the cabin to the right and left of us was a tour group going to Lhasa as well. They’re all students who go to the universities in Beijing. Basically mingled with a bunch of them and shared stories, cultures, things about Tibet/China with lots of laughs. We did hit a serious topic tho…how to use the Chinese toilet. Skip to the next few sentences if you’re not into bathroom humor. Really. So the students who have been in Beijing for 10 months explained a great technique of how to use the toilet. It works great. They understood cuz it took them awhile to learn, so they were just passing on vital trade secrets. The trick is when you pull down your pants, don’t pull it down all the way to your ankles…do it right above your knee and squat. Also, toilet paper is not supposed to go down the toilet…it goes into the trash can next to it, otherwise you can clog up the toilet and everybody will be upset that YOU clogged it.It was much more comfortable going this time =)
Changing topics to more of the beauty of the ride:The scenery. Amazing. I’ll let the pictures and the brief (if any) aptions in the album do the speaking.
Lights out…time to go to bed! 1 more day of train travel…can’t wait to take a shower. Yes, I haven’t bathed nor had a fresh set of clothes since Thursday morning. I know. Gross…but hey, everyone on the train is doing it and we’re all just comfortable right now. Good night.
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 16th because we bought them in bulk.1st 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!
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 andthey 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 1st 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 5th, the family was admitted to the hospital June 10th, 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!
Summary: Morning started off with visiting the magnificent Olympic center. I was in awe. The place is huge, beautiful, and you just are amazed at what China accomplished with the 2008 Olympics. We hung out with the kids and brought them their goodies as Jason's other suitcase arrived. The kids LOVED all the candy and stickers. So genuinely happy. Spent a lot of quality time getting into deeper discussions, taking a lot of pictures, playing with my iPhone, and enjoying the kids. Please continue to pray for us as we are just starting our trip...we leave for Tibet at 9pm tomorrow on a 48 hour train ride. I miss family back home and playing with all these kids makes me miss home even more.
Check out the photo album for day 2!(Keep in mind, these pics are taken with my wimpy iphone 2 megapixel camera. Jason brought his SLR, so he'll post it later) Again, more details are in the captions! =)
Details: 2nd day on the subways and Jason and I are pretty much feeling like experts. We know how to hop on and off, blend into the masses, go against the masses, transfer lines, and read the map to get anywhere we want. The olympic sports center was awesome, inspiriring, and MAJESTIC. The best deal/purchase I got was getting a popsicle...it was the most refershing thing in 90+ degree weather. It was only 1/15th of a PENNY! So so so good.
Handing out lollipops and stickers was such a great joy. It really warmed up the kids to us and made things so lax and comfortable. Day 1 was nice and comfy too, but just this bonding experience was great...and the families joined in too. I had other snacks like fruit roll ups, gummy bears, gushers, red vines and shared it with everyone too. We all have sweet tooths. Yes, I made Pasang give the kids several reminders to brush their teeth as I probably gave them a whole months worth of sugar in 1 day. Boys got super hero stickers (batman, spiderman, Cars) and girls got princesses, unicorns, and other girly stickers. We also handed out goodies to the other roommates in the room, trying to witness to others as well. All the kids loved it.
We just ended up staying in their rooms, talking to them, learning about how they live life. Apple did a great job making the iPhone intuitive to use for anybody of any age for any culture. The kids loved looking through my pictures and listening to songs. Some they had heard of...and talking about the Christian praise music opened up doors to many good discussions. They can't read english but somehow they choose a lot of Chris Tomlin and Hillsong songs on my iPhone. Blasting this music in a chinese hospital, learning about how some of the kids attend church, witnessing to others...very surreal. Don't know how to describe that one. Jason did all the conversing/translating on his own too! Pasang was out with other parents taking care of their needs. Sometimes Jason and I found ourselves just with the kids with NO parents around...i'm glad they felt comfortable they could just leave while we hang out. Good times!!!
Summary: My 1st day! We arranged to meet somebody from the foundation to receive instructions and our tasks for the day. This somebody is an amazing Tibetan woman named Pasang who is virtually taking care of all the families' needs and acts as the translator/liason between them and the doctors. Our hotel is about a 40 minute walk/subway ride to the hospital and we began to learn how to get around on public transporation. All the surgeries are at Amzhen Hospital (close to the Olympic Center) and there are ~7 families that made the trek from Tibet that either just had surgery a few days ago, or were waiting for their surgery later in the week. We met all the families and spent time getting to know each other through Pasang and Jason since he knows enough Mandarin speaking basics. The surgeries that took place were successful and the big take away is that these families are so happy and full of life because lives were saved and you could just tell they were so appreciative for all the help received (medically, financially, and even spiritually). After the hospital visit, we checked out the foundation's modest and homey apartment. It was a great 1st day to see hands on what these families have gone through and how evident their happiness for the simple, yet important things in life are appreciated. Life. Photos from Day 1 are HERE. Captions have more details in the photo album!Disclaimer: I am horrible with languages and I totally butchered the kids names, but tried to spell it out phonetically. Sorry if I can't spell! Here's a few pics: Details: With hectic schedules and the crazy dynamics that exist in the world we live in, our plans had changed and we were told to do 1 thing for the day: call somebody from the foundation to find out our daily tasks. We called Pasang in the morning and she was busy with the families, so we met up at 12:30 at Amzhen hospital. Getting to the hospital would be an adventure as Jason and I were on our own, going to learn how to get around. The subway is pretty clean and efficient considering the millions of people that it serves. I love public transportation that's so convenient and fast. Beijing's system is pretty darn good.
The kids are amazing. They had successful 3+hr surgeries and they look and act just fine! Very sturdy, happy kids ranging in ages 11 months to 24 yrs old. Some kids have waited 2+ years for their surgery. All the kids came with their parents, and some with uncles/aunties, and grandparents. They stay about a week and a half: arrive a few days before, have surgery, be monitored, recuperate, travel. All the kids have great attitudes. None of the 7 families knew each other before coming (they came from all over Tibet) but when they're here, they seem like they're all one big happy family, supporting each other, helping each other with getting food, etc.
After the hospital, we visited the apartment where the foundation's staff sometimes stays, along with doctors, and other families. It's real close to the hospital, very simple...and you just wanna keep doing more for them. We've got it so very luxiours in the states...quite an eye opener thus far...and it's only the beginning of the trip. Unfortunately, i know it's just going to fly by. Please continue to pray for us so that we continue to be a blessing to these families and to the foundation.
One last tidbet. I'm also really thankful Jason is here as his Chinese has been a life saver in talking with folks, and just surviving beijing. I don't speak diddly squat!!! Not even guesstures would save me here. =)
Wow...can't believe it'll be one more week until Jason Ko and I head out to China where we'll be serving for the the Touching Hearts Foundation. So much to prepare for, so little time. We have passages and scripture to prepare our hearts and we're all praying for His will to be done through us.
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