Feng Cheng

Supermarket

Hospital in Feng Cheng


2/27/05

Every time I had thought about visiting China, I had imagined myself traveling through the countryside, watching rice farmers tend their crops, seeing an old cow being led alongside the road by an elderly Chinaman, and perhaps watching the fog rise over the distant mountains on a cold morning. Today was that day. Finally, we escaped the noise and crowds of this capital city of Jiangxi province in China and drove almost two hours to Feng Cheng, the city of our daughter, Feng Shu Juan (aka Katie Lin Hodge).

It was rainy, cold and windy as we weaved in and out among buses, vans, cars, bicycles, pedestrians, and animals on the way to Feng Cheng. It was sad to see how so many people (probably most of the population) live in this country. The conditions of the small towns and villages we saw would be considered third world by our standards. I wondered how happy these people were. Could it be that they are content with their simple, quiet lives? Do they experience the same struggles we do trying to be successful in business and keeping up with social agendas? And most importantly, have they ever heard the name, Jesus Christ? If not, who will tell them? Seeing this part of China gives me a whole new appreciation of the tremendous challenge of missions.

As we drove into Feng Cheng, I was surprised by the size of the city (population over one million). We picked up Mr. Wang, assistant to Mr. Wu, the orphanage director, and he showed us around the area, including where our little girls were abandoned. I would love to share more of the details with you, but we have decided to keep this matter somewhat private and share it only with some close family members and our daughter when she is older.

Mr. Wang drove us past several landmarks in Feng Cheng, including the hospital and town square, but unfortunately we were not allowed to visit the orphanage. I’m so glad we were able to visit the Nanchang SWI earlier this week to get an idea of what the Feng Cheng orphanage must be like. As it turns it though, we learned that Katie Lin and Emma did not spend much time there, except for monthly medical exams. They were well taken care of by their foster families. We were able to learn a lot about these precious caretakers from Mr. Wang, including their names, but again, I must use discretion about this information until Katie Lin is old enough to hear about her foster family from us first.

I am so glad we took the time to travel to Feng Cheng. I think we would have regretted it deeply if we had not been so assertive about our desire to go there. This trip was not part of our original agenda with our guide, Grace, but she was gracious enough (I guess that’s where she gets her name) to take us there anyway. We captured much of our trip on video. Thanks God for modern electronics. Please pray for a safe journey home for all our video tapes and other electronic media. What a priceless treasure!

Now for the fun part…On the way home we stopped by, you guessed it, McDonald’s! Anyone who has ever traveled to Taiwan with me can tell you that I love rice. I eat it all the time, but 2-3 times a day for two weeks gets old fast. I promise I will never speak curses against McD’s again! You can hold me accountable to that.

Later this afternoon, after returning to the hotel, we had an artist paint banners with each of the children’s names (see pic’s). It really was fascinating. Hopefully Drew and Ben will appreciate all the Chinese culture they are soaking in for years to come. We have committed to teaching Katie Lin about her Chinese heritage as she grows up. Something tells me that she might notice at some point that she looks different than us.

By the way, we took her with us on our trip today. She slept most of the time on the way there and learned how to eat Cheerios proficiently by herself on the way back. She has pretty impressive fine motor skills, if I may say so myself. She’s also really enjoying her bath. She’s learned to splash like her brothers did when they were her age.

Tomorrow we will get her official passport. Then the next day we will FINALLY fly to Guangzhou for the last leg of our journey. We’ve valued our time in China tremendously, but there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…oh, I’m still here.

Until we see you all again on March 5, 2005…wan an (good evening) and we love you all.

Jeff, Sonya, Drew, Ben, Katie Lin and Grandmother