Ni Hao! (I Have Returned...)

Wow! What can I say? Visiting China was an amazing experience!
After leaving the airport when I first arrived in Kunming, our taxi was in a fender bender and we had to drag my luggage across the interstate. What a way to kick off the trip!

(The Yangtze River and Jade Dragon Mountain)

A few nights later, there was an earthquake that killed nineteen people. Thankfully, the family I was staying with and I were unhurt, and there was little damage in our area.

Every day involved stepping outside of my comfort zone (not an easy thing for me to do) but God was faithful, as always.(On the right is my friend, Nicole, and on the left is me.)

Perhaps the most touching part of the trip was the visit to a leprosy colony. I traveled with a doctor and his family to a village inhabited only by lepers. Outcasts of society, these people have been cured from leprosy for many years, but because of the general public's extreme fear of the disease, have been unable to return to normal living. Children and grandchildren of the former-lepers are also confined to the village, where they live off the land and have very limited contact with the outside world. Visitors to the village are few and far between, so when we arrived, the whole town congregated to see us.

As I watched the lepers interact with the doctor and his family, I was reminded of Christ. These people--some missing a nose or legs or unable to close their eyes--are beloved of Him. The reminder that He came from heaven in order heal lepers and even more so--those with the spiritual disease of sin--was a piercing thought. (A Tibetan woman in a valley)

Thank you so much for praying for me! I'm glad to be back!