Day: April 5, 2013

Tai Mountain Trek, From Guest Blogger Dale

Today is our last day in Jinan and it truly feels as if the time has flown by. Tomorrow we fly back to HK and by mid-afternoon the Missions Trip will be over and you will all have your wonderful U'th back home. Today was scheduled as a "Fun Day" – a trek outside the city to the mountains with a nice hike and beautiful views. Instead it was wet and cloudy and very cold, very very cold – we even experienced some freezing rain and at the top of the mountain we even had some very light flurries of snow. For most of the day it was just above 0C although with the wind chill most students thought if felt much much colder. We shared coats and passed out extra clothes (neither Tre nor Ian were able to come due to medical issues – so their coats and extra layers were passed onto others) and the Union U'th made the best of it. After lunch the view cleared and we got some gorgeous pictures and the walk down was much easier than the walk up – although the line for the cable car was long (an hour wait) the U'th huddled together to keep warm and several were singing (to the amusement of the Mainland crowd in line with us – with one older gentlemen behind me commenting that we must all enjoy K-TV :-). Below are a few pics from today –

(1) This morning – starting out in the rain
(2) On the trail – notice how cloudy it is. The mountain peak is around 1,500 Meters or almost 5,000 Feet – so we were essentially in the clouds.
(3) At the Peak! It was cold/light flurries.
(4) Walking back down
(5) U'th in line for Cable Car

Views of Tai Mountain

Union U’th Ground Rule Violation!

Guest blogger Dale has been caught napping on the bus wearing earbuds. Napping is okay but earbuds are a ground rule violation. Okay to be fair (1) Dale asked Ryan for permission and (2) of anyone who deserves a nap it is Dale who has been shepherding and working above and beyond the call of duty this week.

We are on our way to a famous Chinese mountain called Tai Mountain. There are five highest mountains in China, located north, south, east (Jinan), west and in the centre. The Chinese believe that power and nature comes from the east, thus making Jinan the most important of the five peaks. Allegedly, many past Chinese emperors have come to Tai Mountain in search of longevity and success for their reign.

The trek will be a bit of a challenge not only because it is a steep hike (part of the way will be by cable car) but because outside it is cold and raining… some of us praying for snow, hopefully!

Union U’th: Anointing the Centre

Some more pictures from Wednesday, our last day at the centre while the farm team was off working in the field. First, after the Centre Completion Team was dropped off (in other words us!) everyone left, including all the staff and centre youth. The autistic kids were ecstatic to have a bus ride. A few boarded with some trepidation but with the encouragement of the loving staff their concerns were quickly alleviated.

We soon discovered that we were completely on our own… and that the rooms where we were supposed to be working were locked. Fortunately after a search we located the keys and were back at work.

Artwork was completed on the roof, in the Music Therapy Room, staircase walls and painting on the main floor. The centre had no vacuum. Terry headed out in search of a high-powered wet/dry vacuum cleaner. Several hours later a small team had cleaned the stairs from the main floor to the fourth floor. The staircase looked completely transformed.

As described in the video below, the afternoon consisted of a visit from parents. The picture below was taken of the same lady who sang in the video while sharing her testimony. Charlotte stands next to them translating.

After praying for the parents and their youth, we were treated to fresh home-made dumplings for dinner, that would have put Hong Kong’s best dim sum to shame.

Below: completed music room artwork; Terry vacuuming; afternoon sharing; praying and anointing; dim sum dinner.