07/19/20 MISSION TRIP TO CHINA #9 — Our team had several meetings before we left the states to prepare us for what lay ahead. Our leader was a Marine who had lived there for years and spoke the Mandarin dialect fluently. He warned us that Chinese people were not affectionate, and mainly unemotional. We shouldn’t even expect them to shake hands because of personal hygiene concerns.

I don’t know where he got his information; but nearly everything he had told us was 100% wrong! All over China, people shook my hands, and happily whacked me on the back and shoulders. They hugged and kissed me, the shortest of them crowding against me right under my armpits (not the best idea—sometimes we went days without a shower). On trains and busses, I played with their kids—great fun even though neither of us knew anything about the other’s language. They sat in my lap and laughed at my photos and antics. The ladies told me I was handsome (OK, some of them were slightly off kilter), and suggested I come back someday with my beautiful wife. And during our worship services, they loved to sing loud and fast and to read Scripture aloud in unison. They opened their homes to us and sometimes fed us their last/only chicken, joyfully, totally ignoring us when we begged them not to!

All in all, those were definitely some of the most amazing days of my life (so far)! Praise the Lord!