A little about what we do in Beijing

A little information about what we do in Beijing.
After a prayer/worship session in Jared's room we move out onto the canary (our mini bus) and start the drive to the “university” which is a word that so far means a coffee shop. We arrive as always to an eager group of college age people. The basic facts about this process are always the same, awkward limp handshakes, an exchanging of names in accents to thick to understand the first couple of times, looking around the place for a bathroom, for me finding a safe place to park the camera gear assessing the light and making sure to convince myself I know what I'm doing, with the camera that is.

The people, that's a different story. Its clear siting down and talking to strangers is a process that's both complicated and addictive. There are a never ending array of questions, what’s your major, where are you from, what kind of music do you listen to? Sometimes the language barrier keeps things to one or two word phrases. Sometimes its as though your talking to a friend from the states.

What we come to discover in one another I think isn't how separate we are but how commonly we are made. how similar we really are. Listening to a Chinese girl tell you about her mother pressuring her to look her best, or a father that just isn’t interested in her beliefs. They are kids, in many cases far from where and what they used to call home, in the big city of Beijing. They are searching and struggling with the same questions and the same problems we all are, but they’re doing it in a land where hope is absent, and faith means as much as luck in a lotto drawing. That leaves people looking for something.

It is great to see that the people here are hungry for answers. It is great to see that their spirits cannot be oppressed. I cannot believe the boldness I have felt in talking with these students. I find myself sharing with them more freely than I do with my own friends. Telling them what I have hope in, and what I believe. They are so grateful that we have come so far. They clearly know that we have come for a great reason.

As we where leaving a coffee shop the other day a student I had been talking with handed me a small figurine of a dog holding a sign in its mouth that said welcome. He said it had been his 17th birthday gift and he wanted us to have it. As he handed it to me he looked me in the eye and said you are all very welcome here. Thank you so much for coming. We need you here.
He was a friend of my fathers and he was very grateful that we spent the day with his friends telling them stories about what that means.

So behind the facade and the language is a real person with the same hopes and fears as me. This is what we have chosen to do about it. Its hard to think about things as loosely as I did before my arrival here. Its tough to think that we have a great number of advantages others do not know and likely never will. I guess its times like these when a person decides what it is they are willing to do for the people around them. How far they are willing to go to offer the help they once needed just as badly.

From here in Beijing looking at those who have benefited from this trip, I can only hope with great hope that our answer is always, as far as he needs me to go.

I will keep you in my heart along with the other things I have stashed away in there. I hope you will do the same.

Good night from Beijing,
Jordan Green