Memoirs from China

Thursday, March 19, 2009
Memoirs from China - Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes for our goodwill music missions trip to Beijing and LangFang, China. During that time we ministered to roughly 12,000 people in schools, the University of Beijing, an orphanage, and Beijing International Christian Fellowship. We performed in some form, 10 times in 12 days.

We really wanted to do a bunch of blogging on the trip, but a packed schedule and a very tired body made it impossible to complete the task. When we got back to our hotel every night, we felt like we had about 5 minutes of energy before my head was begging for the pillow. That was enough to plug in the video camera, try to transfer the files. We recorded TONS of video and took lots of pics. The kind of keyed up energy we were expending during the day going to our locales, and performing was like nothing we have ever done before. This was our first time to China, I don't speak the language, and we were there working, not touring, so it was very intense the entire time. The final layer on that was the fact that the government was having it's annual meetings in the same hotel as most of what we were doing. So the presence of guards, and secret service agents everywhere was unsettling also.

The other reason we were hesitant to blog, was because of security. We didn't want to say anything that might contradict the rules of the government, and get us in a jam. We weren't really completely sure don't know how tight the watch is, but I have heard that the internet is regulated, at least for the Chinese. Later in the trip an English professor told me it is hard for them to monitor all of the English e-mail, because of the translation, and the sheer volume. We decided to take no chances though. While we were riding in a taxi with one of our friends who lives there, he informed us that one is advised not to talk certain ways in taxis and buildings, etc. While we were there, the government was having their annual meetings across the courtyard from where we were doing a lot of our events. So the tension was a bit high. It being our only time there, we had no other frame of reference to know if the presence of guards and barriers was normal in any way. As we were leaving Beijing International Christain Fellowship, a Chinese man with wild hair, dandruff, and crusty nose, ran up to us and said with wild eyes, 5 years I stand outside this church, his eyes darted toward the guards, he said, "if they find me, they put me in mental hospital!" he then ran back toward the front of the church and disappeared into the crowd.

Since the foundation of our trip was to minister in Church, as we were prepping to leave, we were not totally understanding the rules of Christianity in China. What we found out from the people we met there is that if you are not a Chinese citizen, it is ok for you to practice Christianity. If you are Chinese, and you attend a registered church, you will be punished harshly. So the church where we played was made up of Korean, African, Singaporian Australian, and every other nationality you can imagine. Everyone had to show a passport to get in.

There is a meeting chapel in the section of the hotel where the BICF offices are. This was in the main section of the hotel where the government meetings were being held. No regular citizen could walk into the front doors of this hotel. We had to go around the back side and up the stairs to the chapel. We learned later that through the week, 14 different groups of the BICF have their service ther in the chapel. This is in addition to the two services in the two enormous sanctuaries they have in an auditorium across the courtyard from the hotel.

I have been coverting the video files to the format where I can work with them. Then I am looking at them, and... Now back at work and gigs with Shelley it is just in the cracks of time that I am able to do this. But I am getting to it. In the meantime I am posting my first memories. Shelley and I have been reeling since the trip, and are writing our thoughts down as much as we can as they pour out of our minds.

So, the following are some of our - Memoirs: Thank you all for your prayers and support for us on our trip to China. It was rewarding, challenging, and intense. Having never been to China, it was certainly and eye opening experience to see how millions of people live their lives. I have so much respect for how hard they have to work to squeak out the meager living they are able to have. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of the wonderful people we saw riding bikes, working hard, dealing with the smog and traffic just to get through their day.

During our time we performed at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship for 6 different services, at International Academy of Beijing (2nd grade to 8th grade), at the University of Beijing, and at the Shepherd’s Field Orphanage. We also performed a concert at BICF.

We did 11 performances in 12 days. The entire time, we were harrowed by driving conditions that seemed to have absolutely no rules or courtesy, a language that we had little grasp of, and food we were not accustomed to. (No, having Panda Express a few times does not help). All of these things make coming home a little sweeter, our family and friends a bit dearer, and appreciation for life deeper.

We pray for the amazing people running the orphanage, being able to have a hospital, taking care of kids discarded by their own government. We hope those kids are adopted by people who find their way to Shepherd’s Field.

We are thankful for the safety, and freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness here in America, and we will never take it for granted. It will be a long time before I complain about my quality of life here. I have it so good to not feel watched at every turn, or listened to in case I say anything critical about th government. I don’t fear for my safety going to church. It is legal for me, but very dangerous for a Chinese national living in China. It took a bit to wrap our heads around the fact that all of the people attending the churches and Christian oriented schools are not Chinese. It is legal for foreign people to worship freely. It was very odd to be at a church service, and look out the windows seeing the guards in place because the government meetings were in the same building as the church offices.

We felt like we were living Orwell’s 1984, smushed against 3 other science fictions movies all at once. We were fascinated by the fact that 500,000 foreign people live in Beijing. We met multitudes of Koreans, Americans, Canadians, Australians and Africans. The city was one very, very large building cluster of a mix of new and old, skyscrapers, and messy condo apartments, smokestacks, and luxury hotels.

One thing that travel always reminds us of: People are loving and beautiful no matter where you go.

Reflection: Reflecting on this trip, I am left with so many emotions –

The images of the bikes weaving through the traffic is forever burned in my memory. The lives of so many hanging on the balance of cars that seem to have no regard for the bikes. Rules that don’t exist on the streets, it is a go or be gone in front of mentality. So often the bike was holding a child on the back. The precarious balance of life zooming by in a mind-numbing blur of human activity and determination to live another day. Never did I see a helmet, or a wreck miraculously. So often, I saw close calls. I noticed the drivers kept their speeds at just a cautious pace, because they were constantly having to slow down when their darting out was timed just a bit late. Shelley described it as a study in constant near misses.

Desperation – When you go to the market place, the passion to sell you their goods is overwhelming. It is such that many people would not enjoy the experience. We quickly turned it into a fun game with the gals, and they enjoyed playing it with us. It turned tension into laughter. One time, the fun ended when one really nice young man kept pulling me back into his booth when I needed to leave. I was going to return later that day, but he just couldn’t believe me. He was begging me to buy the shirt and tie, and kept dropping the price. He even pulled out the bag and the wrap even as I was telling him I was going to return to get another color. I finally convinced him that I was going to return. What upset me was the desperation. What is going on behind the scenes that develops that? Our prayers go out to China. As Shelley says "There's a lot of love in China". We saw the dedicated people who have given their comfortable lives up in other countries to go there to serve. It is an awesome calling.

Faith - There is a lot of faith and the love of God pouring into China. The Lord knows they need it just like all people need to know God's love. One does not feel love, or even a "like" vibe from the Chinese government. That type of rule is anti-individual creative spirit. and anti God. We saw the despair in so many eyes while they were doing their dirty job. The determinaation to make it through another day. The returned "ni-hao" when you bow and say "hello" to someone in Chinese. Humanity is the same wherever you go. People want to live a good life, and to be accepted. The folks called there to take care of orphans, or to help a church thrive in the midst of a country where the government is hostile to the idea that their own people would chose to follow the "prince of peace" change our lives. We want to be more passionate to share the love of God wherever we go. We are not ashamed of the Gospel, because the alternative to being a gentle servant is to crush millions of your own people, and we just can't be having that.

Faith is a good thing, even if it gets sticky in the political arena. Debate is the worst it gets here folks. At least we have the choice to walk into a church or not on any given day. At least we can chose to reject God. At least we can argue different issues that some would say are true and others say are not, and debate the laws of them with a government that allows us to have the issue to debate!

Please folks, lets pray for each other. Let's keep making this country one we are proud to say is America, is the land of the free. Let's not mock this reality, and downplay it by not realizing how good we have it. Let's try to be better citizens, and let people go in front of us. Let's try to be the best customer someone encountered in their workday. Let's love more, give our friends and families an extra hug, kiss and appreciative word. We live amazing lives here in this land called the United States. And let's pray for those trying to make this world a better place. Let's do our job to use what we have to help others as well.