Day 7 - Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

First of all, you can see the still pictures of today's experiences here:

China Trip - Day 7

Once you click it, hit slide show and you will see the pictures full screen with some captions. Some of it may be repetitive to here, but I find it easier to mark the pictures individually and then try to tell the story here.

Headed back to the ranch for the second day of work, we needed old clothes. I only brought one set of old clothes, so I actually had my dirty work clothes washed so I could go back out to the ranch again. Laundry is 8 Yuan for each shirt or pants washed (about $1.15). They deliver it back to your room all nicely folded and in a bag within 24 hours. It's pretty handy.

So I wore my freshly cleaned clothes to get quite dirty again. By the time we are picking up dirty rocks, working with concrete, and taking care of the animals, we are filthy all over the place.

On the bus ride out to the ranch, we had a couple of extra Chinese guys riding with us. I wondered what they were going to do and found out when we got there. These guys had been hired yesterday by CRAM to help with the building of the rock wall. Basically, none of us know how to build a rock wall, but we are good at mixing concrete and carrying rock. These guys knew how to put it together and turn it into something beautiful. I asked Jim about how the work went yesterday when the other groups were there. He said, "You can judge for yourself when you see it." What we saw was unbelievable. These guys had not only gotten way more done than we had, but it looked far better, also. Here are the workers during their lunch break:

From China Trip - Day 7

These guys seemed very nice and they really knew what they were doing with the rock. They knew just how to hammer the rock to make it break apart and they were strong as could be. Every once in awhile they took a break to smoke (a regular practice of many men in China), but they seemed like they had a great time working with us. The Chinese people from CRAM were talking with them regularly and making them feel special. The guy in the red sleeves offered me some of his food at lunch, even though we had our own. It was a dry tortilla like thing that almost looked like a paper towel. I took a piece and ate it. It was pretty bland, but apparently they like it because it's easy to carry, keeps for ever, and works well with whatever they want to eat it with. I preferred PB&J, which I had for the third consecutive lunch.

I found out that CRAM paid these guys 150 Yuan, which is about 3 times minimum wage for a day's work, making their effective wage about $160 for the day. As a point of comparison, we can stay at our hotel for $15 per person, including one meal, which is about 105 Yuan, so they made a pretty decent wage. They earned it and were well worth the money. In China, guys like this come to a place where it is known that you can rent a worker for the day. They bring whatever tool they think they need to do the jobs that they are good at. You drive to the place, tell them what job you need done, and they connect you with however many people you are willing to hire. It's cheaper to hire them by the month, but not bad to hire them by the day if you only need them for three or four days worth of work. Without them, we never would have got the retaining wall done, and we would have wasted our time doing things we weren't good at instead of the stuff we could do the best.

Speaking of what we could do the best, moving rock from different piles to the place where the work was being done was top on the list of what I did today. I also helped by wheelbarrowing cement that these guys used to put together the wall. But the highlight of my day was jump starting the tractor after it was dead and then figuring out how to use the hydraulic lift on the tractor. If you want to see me handle this frightening task of dumping a load of rock, watch this video. (By the way, the tractor and trailer was purchased by Central Christian Church of Wichita, Kansas. Many rooms, items, and buildings have been named after American people and churches who have generously donated to CRAM to make these resources available.)


The other highlight of my day at the ranch was talking to Zai Ben. We stopped working for a bit because he was sharing with me a bit of the story of his life.

From China Trip Day 5

As I can piece the story together, Zai Ben became a believer almost 4 years ago as a direct result of working for CRAM. He later took English classes and started reading his Bible more and more. After reading it, he discovered that he shouldn't be living with the lady that had been his girlfriend. So he broke up with her. She turned him into the police for being a Christian. They came to his house and ransacked it, finding his Bible. When he got there, they asked him if he was a Christian. He said that he was, and they left. But he knows he could get in trouble at any time. He still goes to the "meetings" at CRAM and is a devout follower.

Zai Ben is a lonely person, because he now lives alone. He is 48 years old. However, he gets great joy from the visitors from America. His English is getting better all the time and he is just a treasure to talk to. He said that he loves American Christians because they are relaxed and joyful. I told him not all were like that, maybe just the ones who are willing to come on a mission trip to China (I hate to burst his bubble, but if he ever comes to America, he will find out the truth.) He is just so amazed at all the workers who come from different churches and organizations and give a week, a month, or even 6 months to help them out. He loves all the interns who come and he misses them horribly when they leave.

One of the ways he tries to remember all the people who come is that he takes pictures with his digital camera and has a TV in his room he can hook it up to to see their faces. He also has us put our handprints on the wall of the horse corral.

From China Trip Day 5

It is full of such prints from dozens of people who have come to help him.

He prays for the American Christians and is thankful for all they have taught him about the Bible. He was such an encouragement to me today. He said, "You drive tractor very good." But even more than that, it was so encouraging to see that he recognizes the joy of the Lord and wants it in his own life. That is what led him to a deeper walk with Christ. I wish I had time just to sit down and answer his questions about the Bible. He is truly seeking to grow in his relationship with God. But I trust that the workers at CRAM are capable of helping him in this way as he continues to grow.

By the time we were done working on the rock wall, much progress had been made.
Here's what it looked like when we started on Monday:

From China Trip Day 5

Here's what it looks like after we quit on Wednesday:

From China Trip - Day 7

We expect that the other two groups will be able to finish it off tomorrow.

On the way home, we wanted to stop at the broken bridge. Ryan Eidson, who is coming this summer with his wife Lori, has made this fabulous map that helps you see where our travels are taking us.


View Hunchun in a larger map

The broken bridge takes us within a stone's throw of North Korea. Yesterday, the group was asked to leave by the Chinese authorities. We wondered how they knew so quickly we were on it and whether we would be asked to leave again. (The first day, they let us go with no problems.) Today, we found out the answer to both. It turns out that they have cameras on this bridge with wireless connection to some military station somewhere. I saw them as soon as we got on the bridge and knew there was a chance that they would come back. Sure enough, we hadn't made it to the end of the bridge when they came.

In the above picture, you see a Chinese version of a Humvee. Our tour bus is in the background. In the pole above the Humvee is a camera, pointing at us. Two unarmed soldiers came out of the vehicle (we later saw a third in the vehicle). They politely asked us to leave and told us we could come back another day. We certainly complied.

Now, some have asked why this has happened two consecutive days. We don't believe that the Chinese are as concerned about us being on the bridge as they might be concerned that the North Koreans don't want us on the bridge. Having Americans that close to North Korea is probably not a good idea right now. In fact, we found out that two years ago, a Central student was sitting on the edge of the bridge, looking at North Korea, writing in her journal. All of a sudden, a North Korean soldier came up to her with a gun on his side of the bridge (about 40 feet away) and yelled at her and pointed at her to leave. Now, do they have a right to do that? Technically, neither we nor she were trespassing on NK land. But it's close enough (a stone's throw away, literally) that it makes them uncomfortable, and that probably makes the Chinese very uncomfortable as well. The Chinese want Americans to be tourists, but more than that, they want the North Koreans not to bomb them. As we got off the bus, I jokingly said "Let's not create an international incident." Turns out the Chinese feel the same way and encouraged us to keep that from happening. Tomorrow's group isn't even going to stop.

After a quick cleanup at the hotel, the faculty on the trip were taken by bus to meet with the Kims. They wanted to show us an underground church, the site of their proposed orphanage, and treat us to a meal at the special school.

We drove out into the country, into a small village where CRAM has purchased 2.5 acres to be used for an orphanage and old folks home. Jim and Andra are here for the purpose of helping to start that orphanage. Right now, the ministry needs $200,000 to make that orphanage become a reality. In China, many orphans are never taken care of or loved. More and more children are abandoned, especially ones who are handicapped and whose parents divorce. Under the one child policy in China, parents are entitled to put one child in school, but if they don't go to school, they aren't officially registered with the state. China uses the school system as their enforcement mechanism for many things in their country. As a result, handicapped children may not be put in school or continued to be cared for so that families can attempt to have another child that will be acceptable to them. These are the children that CRAM has a heart to serve through Jim and Andra's leadership. So we went to this land to pray over it and ask God to bless their plans. I was asked to pray by Dr. Kim and had the honor of leading the group in prayer in the presence of this great man of faith and prayer. I almost felt my prayer life kicked up a notch just because I was with these people of faith.

Here we are on a land with beautiful potential to provide a peaceful, secure, and productive environment for the children under their care:

From China Trip - Day 7

On the way, we stopped at an underground church. We were told how the pastor lives in the church, so that it looks like a normal home. But there are a couple of large meeting rooms where they do worship together. Here we are in front of the building:


Traveling back to Hunchun, we went to the special school, where the Kims live when they are in town. They also live in North Korea, as they have dual residency. On the third floor of the special school is a kitchen and dining area, and they treated all the faculty to a meal of spaghetti with homemade sauce, garlic bread, salad, apple crisp, ice cream, deviled eggs, Coca-Cola, and coffee! It was nice to have a change from our normal oriental food. Everything was extremely delicious.

From China Trip - Day 7

As a special treat for our meal, they had asked Natasha, one of their Russian language teachers, to play the violin. Her playing must be heard to be believed (it is at the end of this video):


She had created her own tracks on CD, which she played along with on her violin. The story of her violin was amazing. As a little girl, she wanted to learn to play the violin, because she thought it was such a wonderful instrument. But her family had no money to get one. So she started praying that God would provide one for her. She imagined exactly what kind of violin she would want, the style, the shoulder rest, the kind of bow, and prayed that if God would provide a violin for her, she would practice it faithfully and use her talent for him. A little while later, a person from the Netherlands had this violin that they transported it to the place where she was living. The person asked Natasha if she would like to learn to play the violin, and she said yes, she had been praying that God would provide one for her, because her family did not have the money to afford one. So the person gave her the violin. It turns out it was exactly the kind she had pictured in her mind and had been praying for for a long time, although she had told no one the details. The instrument is beautiful and is so valuable, that it must have its own passport, one for the violin and a separate one for the bow. Apparently, when transporting a valuable instrument across international borders in Europe and Asia, this is a necessity. She even showed us the passport.

Here I am with Natasha and her beautiful, valuable violin:


About 6 times during the evening, Mrs. Kim specifically mentioned that Natasha needed a good Christian husband and asked if we had anyone at Central to suggest. A few names popped into my mind, but if you have someone you would like to suggest, please let me know. They just have to have a heart for missions, as she travels throughout Russia and China playing her violin for people and teaching them Russian and to follow Christ.

There's so much more I could be writing about. The experiences of my teammates aren't even being included here, so I urge you if you know someone on the trip to contact them and ask them for their own description. They will love to tell you all about it.

Tomorrow: I'm learning Korean and helping to teach English.