FBC Richmond

Friday evening, May 7, eight members of a group from FBC, Richmond, arrived in Shanghai. We stayed at the YMCA Hotel that night and toured the historical Citygod Temple complex, including the classical South China garden, Yu Yuan. Unfortunately, it rained on that Saturday, but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm. These hardy souls were ready to embark on their China adventure: Jerry, Berta, Sue, Ann, Pat, Marie, Joy, and Larry.

Saturday afternoon, we traveled to Nanjing and they were settled into the guest house on our campus. It isn't four-star, but it's very adequate. From that moment on, there was scarcely a free moment until the following Saturday morning.

Sunday brought church at St. Paul's Church, which is where I usually attend. After the service we had a chance to talk with the pastor. I learned the church building was built in 1921 and was an Anglican church.

After church, we walked down to the Confucius Temple area, which is similar to Shanghai's Citygod Temple area, that is, the architecture is the old Ming Dynasty style. These days, it's a large shopping area. We ate lunch at McDonald's or KFC and then took a city bus to the obligatory sightseeing place in Nanjing: Sun Yatsen's Mausoleum.

Sunday evening, Jerry and Berta and I took the train back to Shanghai for Monday's classes. First up was the class for staff members of the national YMCA.

After a light lunch with the 'Y' staff, we went up to Muen Church for the afternoon class for National and Shanghai Christian Council staff.

Monday, while we three were in Shanghai, the remaining team members were busy in Nanjing with the opening sessions of the Primary School Conference sponsored by my school. The sixty participants were primary school teachers from around the province, mostly from the northern area, but also from Nanjing and some of the other cities along the Yangzi River.

This was the first time I had had a chance to link volunteers to a school project. Previously, volunteers had only worked with students and related groups as arranged by me. I am very happy with this development and hope it will be the first of many such opportunities to expand involvement beyond this campus. The following photos show activities related to the primary school teachers conference.

Classroom activities with students generally involved one American being surrounded by a group of 6-10 students, engaged in lively conversation. In addition to these small group times, students took the Americans outside, to parks, shopping, restaurants, and in general, introduced them to life in Nanjing, at least in the general area of our school. In the process, Americans and Chinese learned more about each other, and Chinese students had many opportunities to use English in communication.

In addition to classroom activities, the Freshmen and sophomores put on programs demonstrating many aspects of Chinese culture. The sophomore program included: a fashion show of traditional ethnic and Chinese dress, demonstration of traditional Chinese painting and tea service and even a traditional Chinese game requiring a sense of rhythm and balance.

And, of course, no trip to Nanjing would be complete without a trip to the Amity Printing Company, where Bibles for China are printed. To date they have printed more than 32 million Bibles, including simplified and traditional characters, ethnic languages, study Bibles, bilingual Bibles and New Testaments, in both hard and soft covers, in various sizes, in addition to hymnals and other Christian literature. In addition, the team met with Amity Foundation staff for an orientation, visited the Nanjing seminary and the Amity Christian Arts Center.

When they left, on Saturday, May 15, for Beijing, they left deep impressions in the hearts and lives of countless students and primary school teachers throughout Jiangsu Province. And, I suspect, they carried away with them treasures to hide in their hearts that will last far longer than any souvenirs they bought.

To FBC Richmond, we say a heartfelt, "Thank you."