Yunnan, China

We were about let another 2 months lapse absentmindedly until a church friend quipped, "eh, when you gonna blog about your China trip?!?" Just one week shy of our customary 2 month interval, we are bringing you our China report. Rejoice!

We flew into Kunming feeling a little apprehensive about major culture shock, considering that we were going into rural China after being pampered for 2 years in a land of automated toilets, good service and low crimes rates. We flew into China desperately clinging onto our wallets, but after a while we grew accustomed to things around us, realizing our fears were unfounded... plus we looked silly clutching onto leather pouches.

Prior to going, we weren't sure how best to get to FF's place which was in a remote village near the Burmese border. LY heartily recommended the 16 hour sleeper bus option, which involves an overnight ride across several narrow mountain routes. The good thing is you won't know how close to the cliff edge you get to in the night. The bad thing is you get cooped up in a tiny bunk bed with a blanket that reeks of smoke and sweat. You ride along with 20 other culturally adept Chinese: smoking nonchalantly in your face and spitting whatever their throats could muster to the tune of a dysfunctional coffee maker. The concoction of ash and spit remains on the carriage floor after a few hours into the journey. We weren't complaining much however, we knew that was all part of the Chinese culture.

That 16 hour bus ride turned out to be a 22 hour one because a landslide blocked the road ahead of us for six hours. We boarded the sleeper bus at 6pm in the evening and arrived at our destination 10pm the following day. That was however, probably the highlight of the trip: a road trip into real China with real Chinese, and seeing beyond the skyscrapers of Shanghai or Beijing.

FF lives in a nice place by the river and works among a minority people group in the mountains. It was nice to catch up with her and exchange stories about Japan and China. For 2 days, we hiked for a hour up the mountains with FF to see her work in the villages. It was an encouragement to see how FF cared for them, spoke in their local dialect, and gave medical advice. In response, the villagers cooked us lunch which may only have consisted of eggs and pork fats (which incidentally tasted really good), but that was the best meal they could offer in their poverty.



We broke our journey in two parts on the way back to Kunming and stayed in Dali for a while. The old castle town is a tourist trap mainly because it sits along the highway to the famed Shangri-la (which itself will be commercialized pretty soon). We had a good time nevertheless, visiting the tourist attractions and eating Western & Tibetan food...

We had a wonderful time visiting FF, LY & family, and seeing the work that is being done in China.

September Update

We seem to always apologize for every 2 months of cyberspace silence. We suppose this is no exception. We have been rather busy lately, and each time we feel it is finally about time we do an update, lethargy creeps in. So there, "Gomen ne", and wait another 2 months for another update... :)

August was our home church's missions month. and volunteered to help out in several areas. We think BFEC has a pretty good missions focus and wanted to contribute to that. That month, the church came up with a mission booklet with a writeup on our existing missionaries and focus fields (e.g. China, Japan & other local ministries). We also had the privilege to share with the church our experiences and lessons learnt during our short but eventful two-year stint. That month was rather overwhelming for us to juggle church work, secular work, bible classes & Japanese language classes. It was tiring, but worth it.

Daniel found a job in a German civil engineering company dealing with machines that constructs tunnels. It requires some interaction with Japanese clients, which allows him to speak in Japanese. Business Japanese is a whole new ball game for Daniel, and he now wonders whether this is a classic case of biting more than one can chew. Joy is in no hurry to find a job this year and is still very happy at home, praying & reading through the bible, washing & cleaning, and cooking up a storm.

We are writing this on the eve of our China trip. Will spend 12 days in the Yunnan area to visit some friends. Will blog about it when we get back.

Here is a missions challenge from a page from our mission booklet for you...
From top:
A guy contemplating in front of Mount Fuji
Police at a 'work conference' in Siem Reap
Peak hour at a suburban train station in Tokyo

SJCF

A month ago, we decided a pay a visit to the Singapore Japanese Christian Fellowship (SJCF) in St. George's church along Minden Road. We've known about this church all along because this is the church that most OMF missionaries to Japan would go to at least once during their time in Singapore for Orientation Course (OC). We were the exception during our OC in 2007 because we were still too busy packing and saying our goodbyes. The other missionaries coming in from various countries have already done that before coming into OMF IHQ. Anyway, last month was our long overdue visit to this Japanese fellowship.

St. George's church is only a 15 minute walk from Botanic Gardens. We walked up the hill to find a rather quaint looking red brick church building. This Anglican church was originally built for the British forces in 1911 and still retains most of its colonial charm. What surprised us pampered Singaporeans after trudging uphill in the hot sun, was that this church had no air-conditioning!

SJCF has about 50 members, mostly families of Japanese expatriates and a few Singaporeans who either worked or studied in Japan. The worship style is typical of most traditional Japanese churches: hymn singing, scripture reading, sermon preached in polite language etc. We even had to stand and introduce ourselves to the congregation, albeit in our rusty Japanese. However, because everyone seems to know each other, we can sense the warmness of the fellowship there. We adjourned to the adjacent shed for refreshments, and got to meet many people.

It was nice to be in a Japanese setting once more after a long break. We hope to visit other Japanese ministries in Singapore and blog about it.