Xi'an

Finally, getting to the end of the trip that ended almost a month ago... Our last big stop was Xian, the ancient capital of China. Here, our main experience was Sunshine International Camp. This camp was definately not what we expected, and ended up being completely exhausting, but in the end totally worth it. For 10 days, we were with Chinese college students, as we all learned what it meant to "transform, fly high, and fill the world with love!" This slogan, although cheesy, allowed us great freedom to talk about our lives and our thoughts freely in the group, which is what the camp focused on. The speeches were all aimed at purpose, what love really was, and how do you really love others, giving us brothers and sisters perfect platforms to speak. It was an incredible time, the best of which was having honest and deep conversations with these disciplined, but at heart really immature and naive, fellow students.

Here are some pictures that illustrate our time here (sorry, this dumb computer is not cooperating... after an hour of waiting, I've got 3 pictures for you... In a couple of days, I'm getting some pictures of my group and I, so I will post those soon (In case you don't know, I don't actually possess a camera, so all the pictures I post on here must come from other people!)

During the camp, we made a carnival with different booths... One of the booths was a newspaper dress up station, and somehow this of course turned into a braveheart dressup station for us Americans.

Our team's only opportunity of a truly all-you-can eat buffet... We took full advantage

Xi'an is known for being the ancient capital of China. One of our favorite excapades while visiting the city was getting to bike around on the city wall. We got around a quarter of it until I broke my chain and had to ride back on a cart.

Xining

Hello all,
So internet here is not as good as I thought... finally I found a place where I can get on to my blog, though I have to buy a drink to do it (I shouldn't be complaining about 8yuan/$1, but I am). I thought I would post some pictures of our time in Xining. I am trying my best to catch you up to where I am now, which is Chengdu, but I still have at least two more posts until I can do that!
Xining was as a team on of our favorite places. We spent over two weeks in the city over all, visiting workers there, and getting involved in college life, street life, and every other life we could.

A view of part of Xining from our penthouse hostel!

This is what happens when you are the first one to wear a seatbelt of a certain taxi since it was sold

We just loved this picture of Matthew

Another view of Xining, this time from a temple just outside the city on the side of the mountain

Muslims lining up to pray... During Ramadan, they claim over 200,000 come on Friday to pray. They stop up the street for a mile or so!

After visiting the extremely dark Temple outside Xining, we recieved an amazing surprise, by finding a Church tucked away down a small street a mile from the temple. Although not necessarily a light in the community, it was a wonderful reminder to us of how secretly God sometimes works.

The second largest Mosque in Asia... Hardly known of, since many don't know about Xining, China.

Part of our team with one of the many great beards of Xining

Tibetan Pictures

 Finally, this computer will let me upload pictures. Here are some pictures from our 6-day trip into Tibet... Read below to hear more about it... Also stay tuned for pictures from Xining, Xian, and more!


Tibetan Sunrise. We had to be up at 5:00 to see this!





A girls' home we visited, 6 hours from Yushu





Haley and Cassie with some Tibetan girls





The Old Rug Factory... Still standing, but now only homes for some Tibetans. We stayed on the other side of this building.




One of our dorms in Yushu.



An awesome looking Tibetan dude... I told him he looked cool and asked to take a picture with him.



Tibetan Prayer wheel. They spin these to store up good karma for themselves. Tibetan Buddhism is a religion of fear, and many Tibetans go to great lengths (especially the older crowd) to assure their protection in the afterlife.




A regular Tibetan tent on the plains, equipped with yak herd.



This was once a monastary in Yushu. Although the earthquake brought much sorrow, it is also clear the judgement that came from it. Every monastary in this Tibetan Buddhist hub-city was destroyed from the earthquake.




Now a city of tents and wooden fences, this is a regular alley-way seen in Yushu. We spent several hours attempting to drive medical cars through these streets to visit some of the masses of injured and sick, most with injuries from the earthquake.




Yushu is now a hub of construction sites, with the Chinese government trying to restore it as a tourist city. But even with all the dirt and fumes, this city is still surrounded by beauty, and I believe there are many beautiful things that are yet to happen within this city.





Update #2- Tibet

Hello Everyone. Once again, I have taken far too long with updating this thing. It has been difficult finding time on a computer with a team around... But finally, the team has returned home, and Sam and I are alone at his parent's hourse. Over the next days, as I'm at Sam's house, and once I go to Chengdu in 5 days, I am going to try to put in a few updates marking the major sections of the second half of the summer in China.
This first part, I want to tell you about Tibet! We were in Xining, a city in Western China, very close to Tibet, for a few weeks. During this time, we traveled up into Tibet for 6 days. It was an amazing experience, and although we never stayed at one spot very long, we had a great time being exposed to Tibetan culture first-hand.
One of the greatest blessings was the opportunity to go to Yushu. For those of you from Fayetteville, you have probably heard this name before. For the rest of you, Yushu is (or was) a city in Western China of about 30,000 people, primarily known for being the hub of trade for Kham Tibetans (a sub-ethnicity of Tibetans). It has been focused on for ministry through a rug factory for the last 12+years, but over a year ago, an earthquake hit the town, causing complete destruction of the entire town, and killing thousands. But as well as destructive, this earthquake caused an amazing response in believing circles, both Chinese and foreigners, and helped bring about the establishment of the first group of brothers and sisters ever known of among Kham Tibetans! Our group had the opportunity of visiting the place where these people meet and got to work for a day moving around the city with some Chinese brothers and sisters that were also there for short term. Although our stay in Yushu was small, it was an absolutely incredible blessing to see a glimpse of what amazing things were going on in the midst of this destruction. Although the Chinese government wants complete control in rebuilding Yushu, there is still an amazing amount of friends (mostly Chinese) getting involved with the building process, and trying to give people hope.

I will try to post pictures, as soon as this dumb computer will let me!

More updates to come in the next days! Keep checking in!