中国 (China) picture post

November 01, 2013

中国 (China) picture post

Our view from our hotel in Xining Qinghai. Our hotel even had WiFi in the lobby. haha there is a story to go with that. There was another business on the lower levels of our hotel, on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor. So in order to get to our room which was on the 7th floor you had to swipe your room card on the elevator so it would bring you up past the 4th floor. Otherwise if you didn't have the key you'd have to take the elevator to the 4th floor and take the stair the rest of the way. So one evening Allyse, Jay and I were in the lobby using the wifi. Jay and Allyse went up a little before me, since the key was in their room with the other team members they just took the elevator to the 4th floor and intended to take the stair the rest of the way, only to find out when they got the the 7th floor the door to the stairwell was locked, so the security guard ended up letting them through after fussing at them in Chinese. The same thing happened to me when I went up a little later except there was no security guard to let me in, so I had to go all the way down to the lobby and ask the guy at the desk to swipe their card so I could get to the 7th floor. Thankfully the guy at the front desk spoke some English, he had asked me a few questions right before I went up, about America, where I was from and such in pretty good English so I was able to communicate what I needed:) Needless to say the next night we were more careful about keeping the room key with us or going up before they locked the doors:)

Girls slumber party before our first night of crumbing. We stayed up late chatting, sharing testimonies, singing and joking around:) We somehow managed to crammed 4 on one twin bed!:)

STAIRS!! AHHH! It was so difficult getting our heavy luggage down so many flights of stairs. But the girls were real troopers. I think escalators are some of the best invention ever!!!

Cal giving a gospel tracts to a Tibetan Buddhist Monk. He was so excited to receive it!!! We were able to give a few monks tracts, most were really excited to get it, although one wasn't, he just looked at it and threw it on the ground:(

Part of the team. Left to right, back row. Leana, Corrie, Cal and Katie, Front row, JAy, Me, Eva and Allyse. Poor Jay stuck on a team with 7 giggling girls:) lol Actually he was a huge blessing. We could not have done the crumbing at night without him.

TRAINS!!! I had some of the funnest time on them. But after a while signs of being cooped up start to show. Next time I''ll know better then to get on a bunk under Leana!:)

Ordering food! Always a fun/interesting/challenging experience. Corrie was a huge help with that, she is really good with her Chinese!

Beijing Central train station!! First time I've ever been to this station, although we stay in hotel right across the road, we usually leave from the west station so it was really nice to only have to walk across the road to get to the station!

Deanna. Some lady just handed her baby to Deanna to hold. Must have thought it was pretty neat for a foreigner to hold her baby:)

Baozi!! Pretty much the best street food ever!! Me and Corrie were crazy over this stuff:) lol Every city we went to we got some!!

LanZhou railway station. I have many fond memories from this place;)

One of the cooks in a restaurant we frequented. The first time we ate there, they were absolutely thrilled to have us and spend like 5 min taking pictures of us. Since they were taking so many pics of us Allyse decided to take some pictures of them in the kitchen. She peeked into the kitchen with her camera, asking, "Keyi, ma?" ("Can I?") "Keyi! Keyi!" the cook replied with a grin. ("You can! You can!") So she took some pictures.

A Tibetan shop where we bought some shawls. Shopping with Allyse was always fun! Also

Yup, thats 4 of us girls crammed into 3 plane seats:)

Allyse witnessing!

Our super awesome team!! Plus some random a Chinese guys.

On our last day in LanZhou Eugene asked us if we wanted to help him with his English class, having one on one conversations with the students.

Another pic from the above^ mentioned restaurant.

Scouting out our route the before crumbing. We found a way behind the LanZhou railway station!! And really hit it! We even climbed the mountain part way and could look out over the city! It was so cool!!

Oh I miss these train bunks!! Even the top bunks where you have hardly any space to move around.:) I always slept like a baby while on the train.

Beijing subway. We took these alot while in Beijing. I like traveling the metro, its fun as long as you don't have "too" much luggage:)

Cream Puff Galore!! lol These cream puffs were so good.

Another train pic with my team. Katies, Deanna, Eva, Me then Corrie and Leana

Allyse and Glory. On our second day in Beijing we went to the school where Corrie taught. Oh it was so good seeing the kids again!! We had a blast playing withthem

Somewhere in LanZhou, I think

We were having a slumber party in Corrie, Eva, And Allyse's room when we heard a knock on the door. This girl and her mom who were staying across the hall were at the door. We were the first foreigners they had met. They were able to practice their English with us.

We were so glad to eat!!:) lol I don't remember what was so funny here. But we always had a great time at this restaurant!!

Many people live in apartments like this!
After the train ride, we checked into our hotel, and met together for instructions, which eventually turned into a prayer meeting.
It heart breaking, all these people lost!! The darkness and idolatry is overwhelming!!
So many Muslims living in idolatry with no one to tell them of Christ and millions of Tibetans living in the demonic clutches of Tibetan Buddhism! These people are so open to people sharing the gospel with them but there few to do it!!

Girls slumber party

Skyping family back home.

Me and Hannah. Such a sweet little girl. We had a great time at dinner with her and her dad.

One of the girls on the team handed these girls a tract, a little later as we were walking up the street we saw them reading it!

Oh we had such a splendid time meeting some Christians on the train and worshiping and praising our Lord with them. There were 4 or 5 of them on this train!!

We met this guy in the train station, he spoke English very fluently! He was very friendly and helpful. He came down several train cars to our car to hang out with us. Deanna was able to witness to him. One of the largest revivals today in China is going on among the Chinese young people. The children, high-schoolers and collage students!! Let us pray for a revival among all the Chinese people!!

Chinese classes with Corrie were always so much fun!!:)

Several of our bunking neighbors joined in with Corrie Chinese classes, laughing at us, correcting our Chinese andteaching us a little. lol:) We were quite the entertainment. It's so much fun learning Chinese from people rather then a phrasebook!

These guys didn't seem to interested in the gospel, one did for a little and also I don't think they could fully understand us, their English was not the best. They listened politely as all Chinese do.
Who's gonna pray for them?!

Miss these girls so so so much! Some of the bestest team members ever!!

Perfect buildings for crumbing!!

Telling Jake and Caleb good-bye. They were only able to stay the first two weeks, in which they went out on a sub-team to work in more remote, harder to reach Tibetan areas that the team that went last Feb was not able to crumb!! They had it pretty tough but they got it done!! It was so much fun meeting up with them right before they left and hearing all their stories!!

Ordering food again:)

LanZhou had some of the best street markets and fruit stands!!

Allyse handing a tract to a little girl.

Handing out tract to school kids

Corrie, Me and Allyse

A christian we met on the train

This little girl was so much fun!:) So adorable

The street our hotel was on in Xining was know as the food street. Right beside our hotel was this little shop that sold kabobs and some sort of pastry thingy. Both of which were delicious!! We stopped and bought stuff there almost everyday:)

Together!!! On a bus to LanZhou

It was great to see the whole West family again in!! It's been so long!
We were able to attend Abby's birthday party on our last night in LanZhou before heading south to Hong Kong. We were also able to meet a Peruvian missionary family while there!!!:)

Yum!! Actually the dish they were in was very good just not the chicken feet or head!

Our street!!

On the bus somewhere between Xining and LanZhou.

Taking a walk during the break between English class.

Me and Vivien after Eugene's class. I had such a grande time especially in the second class!! The first class me and Leana talked to a guy named Roc and than the later part of the class another 17 year old guy named Freeman. On the second class I talked to this 16 year old girl named Vivien. The students in the second class had a lot better English then the ones on the first one, so we could talk and communicate a lot better!! We really hit it off!! She was such a sweet girl. She even invited me, next time I come to LanZhou to come and meet her family!!:)