China Day 8

October 20

Heavenly Father could not be more present with me during this trip if I begged for it. He is everywhere. Today was hard. I don’t think you really understand how difficult eating this food has become for me. I know it’s a weird thing to complain about, but it’s so hard. These people are just trying to honor me and they do so by feeding me. Breakfast we the hardest meal of the day. I wasn’t a bit hungry, and yet a table full of dishes spun round the room, and they brought out 5 soups to me in addition to everything else. Corn soup, rice soup, noodle soup, and others, yes for breakfast. I wanted to cry. The part after breakfast made it all better. We visited 8 wheelchair recipients who had received their wheelchairs 1 – 2 years ago. They are the reason I am here. They showed so much gratitude and love for the gift of the wheelchair they received. Mother’s, fathers, sons, they were all so kind and happy, it felt good to love them back.

Then came lunch. I was dreading this. I knew it would be big. I wanted to cry on our drive up the foggy mountain side to a lakeside restaurant. I didn’t want to eat anymore. Because it was a lakeside restaurant it was all fish. Now I am ok with fish, but I don’t love it. Well today somehow Heavenly Father helped me like fish. Either that or the Chinese just cook way better fish than we do in the states. Either way, I made it through lunch, again having to explain that I don’t drink alcohol so I would toast with my tea. (Yeah, I’m not supposed to drink Green tea either, but it was one or the other) Heavenly Father knows this.



Lunch - After the meal was over.  Many dishes had already been cleared



So after the lunch we bid farewell to some friends we made in Zhumadian and headed back to Zhengzhou. A 3 hour drive. I prayed again my stomach would be ok, and it was. I had no idea where I’d be staying or what I’d be eating in Zhengzhou, so you can imagine my delight when we pulled up to the Holiday Inn Express. Ahhhh, something recognizable. Something comfortable and with English translations on some literature. I think my hosts knew I was getting tired of such traditional Chinese food, so we went to a restaurant where they let me order steak. It was delicious. I am happy and comfortable now.
Tomorrow we will do a distribution in a city about an hour away, which means it is really 2 hours. I have done A LOT of driving here, but that’s how mission trips are. I am excited to hand out some wheelchairs.