So for my interim trip, i went to work in an orphanage in Xi'an. We spent 5 hours in a plane on our way to Xi'an; 3 of them at the gate. Before we went to work in the orphanage, we went to see the TerraCotta Warriors. The warriors are stone soldiers that are 2000 years old and buried 5-7 meters underground. The next day we climbed to the top of Mt.Hua, which is one of the steepest mountains in the world. On the third day, we celebrated the harvest festival with some of the children from the orphanage. We were each given a child to take care of for the day and we went to visit a park with the children. On the bus, my little girl would not stop talking, so one of the ayis (caretakers) started singing to her in Chinese. I recognized that the the song she was singing was, "Jesus Loves Me." For me, it was really touching to see a little girl that has so little, singing about how much Jesus loves her. After we got to the park, I saw a little boy sleeping by himself in a stroller, so I went over and picked him up. After he woke up, he wouldn't let anyone else hold him. by the end of the day, he was calling me, "mama." It was so hard when we had to leave and work at a different orphanage the next day. We spent the next two days painting and playing with children at a different orphanage. On our last day, we went to see the Great Mosque in Xi'an and we went shopping.
At night, we had the whole night for group bonding. Also, many of us took rickshaws around the city and we got to see the parts of the city that tourists wouldn't normally see.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
It seems to me you should have been able to stay with the one orphanage for the whole time. On the other hand, it might have been even harder to leave in the end.
What a great trip.
Elise - thank you for sharing your trip with us. What touching stories and what an experience for you. I'm afraid I would have been afraid to pick up the little guy in the park by himself, not knowing what may happen to me, or him. They probably knew what they were doing when they moved you around to another orphanage - it's like Tonia said - it may have been harder in the end to leave.
Glad and excited for you in all of your experiences.
Love you Sweetie,
Grandma R
What a great experience, Elise! There you are, traveling all over China and I'm having a hard time letting Beka (8th Grade now) go to the Midland/Dow football game with a parent!
Good to read from your blog. Still miss you in Flutes.
Ma Welser
Wow, Elise! You know my weakness is little kids!!! I felt myself getting all teary eyed!!!! I wanted to adopt that little guy even at age 65. Your write-up tells me that you , too, have a weakness for little kids. It also tells me you have a sweet heart. Thanks for letting Jesus shine through you. God bless!!
Aunt Carol
Elsie!
I loved hearing aobut your trip. What a wonderful week you must have had. I agree with all the other posts about how difficult it must have been to leave those orphanages. I think I would have wanted to take each one with me.
Next you can post some pictures.
Love you,
Aunt Deb
Can somebody say "missionary"? My sweet niece Elise (isn't that cool to say?) - you definitely have a soft heart. It is a delight to see God working through you. Whatever you do don't let your mom go there or you'll be coming home with a 4th sibling and according to "Ma Welser" the 5th kid is always Chinese.
I really enjoyed hearing about your trip - it makes me sad that there are children without parents. I can joke about the 5th child and all, but I'm afraid I would have a very difficult time leaving without one or six. Hey, if Aunt Carol can take on a new child at 65 surely a young whipper snapper like me at only 45 could adopt a few more. What do you say Aunt Carol? Want to go?
Lise - love you and I'm very proud of you too.
Have a fabulous Friday -
Aunt Beth
Post a Comment