Mission Trip...China...

All I can say is WOW!!! It was such an awesome trip.

For those of you that follow mine or Karen's posts on Facebook will know that we have been to China or will be adopting a little girl from there. If you feel like reading a lot...then check out of a few of my posts here on this blog or the website Karen and I have created for our adoption journey.

The links are here on my blog site. Anyhow, getting back to the reason for today's blog...

We were offered an opportunity to go to China as part of a mission trip to spend time with some of the orphans at one of China's Social Welfare Institutes (SWI). While in China we had an awesome time, with the other members of our group, and our guide...well I cannot say enough about the ability, knowledge, and energy of Lily.

She made the trip so enjoyable in the way she cared for us and taught us so much of the Chinese people and their history. If only we in the United States knew as much about our own history as she did of hers.

Funny thing is our country's history is a little over 230 years, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Unlike China, which has been in existence for thousands (rough estimate...lol) of years to say the least.

But, any way I'll save that for another topic, enough said there. The main thing is the trip was awesome...oh, did I say that already? Oh well, get used to it, you may read that again before you finish this blog.

We toured Beijing for two days before heading to the province of Gansu for the purpose of our trip. We ended up going to the Great Wall, the Olympic Village and the Birds Nest, Tiananmen Square, and an older part of Beijing called Hutong Alley. The people in Beijing and Qingyang were very gracious and they also seemed very happy and just genuinely friendly.

Of course the province we went to (Gansu) had never seen Americans before, so we got lots of stares as the group of us walked down the streets of Qingyang. Gansu just isn't a tourist area and does not have the commercial infrastructure for business travelers. At least not until a fairly recent discovery of a large natural gas deposit there.

The building construction is at a peak there now. You cannot look anywhere and not see a building being erected somewhere. Anyway, we stayed in a very posh looking hotel, at least that is what it seems before you take a shower. A large amount of water will puddle up on the floor outside the shower because there is a drain in the floor as part of the plumbing.

That really did not take away from the amenities though. As a side note, I believe the hotel arrangements were taken care of by our guide prior to our trip. It really seemed to all of us that it was too much, especially considering why we were there.

The Qingyang SWI was very simple and the directors and staff (nannies) were very friendly and cared so much for the children. Every day when we pulled up in the vans, we would be greeted by the children standing in the doorway with huge smiles on their faces. We had fun spending time with each of them. It was so a joy to be there, even as we left at lunch and the end of the day they would stand in the doorway again and wave good bye to us as pulled out of the driveway. Of course the smiles were still there too. There is a new SWI being built about a mile up the road from the current SWI. The director showed us the architectural drawings and we also passed the construction every day on our way in the the current SWI. It seems that it is going to be a very nice complex with all the proper equipment for these children and the homeless elderly live there. Anyway, Karen and I did end up meeting a little girl that we hope to be able to adopt. We have requested more information on her and at the moment I am unable to elaborate more about it. There are so many policies and rules on the adoption process since the Hague Convention on International Adoption that I unfortunately cannot say any more about that topic. What I can say is that we hope to be going back to Qingyang to get our daughter, Robin, before the end of the year. Of course, this is only a secondary reason for the trip. The main reason for the trip was as a mission to all the orphans at the SWI. I went there thinking that I was providing a service and ended up finding my heart being opened in a way that I could ever imagine possible. I held a few of the babies and also watched an amazing little boy with arm deformities put on his shoes with ease. It made me realize that there is so much in this world that we are so unaware of. We go about our lives without any concern about some of the simplest things and end up feeling sorry for ourselves over really stupid reasons. These children press on with many real difficulties facing them every day. But, they remain happy and enjoy life regardless. And so many of here, who by the way, are more fortunate, perceive that life is so miserable. The children's issues are real, ours are imagined to be major road blocks for us, but are really minor in comparison. I commend them for the way they live their lives, they have no families to take care of them. The nannies are the only family they know, at least until they are adopted. Speaking of the nannies, they are awesome in the way they care for the children. In many cases the children in China with special needs are abandoned. There may be many reasons for this, but one is the parents wish for a child to care for them as they get older and a special needs child may not be able to. One other is that the Chinese people are superstitious and feel that children with deformities are a sign of evil and abandon them for that reason also. Many abandoned babies are also girls, for the reason of needing to have a boy to take care of them. If they have a boy the Chinese culture dictates that he will take care of them as they age. If they have a girl, she will more than likely marry and take care of her husband's parents. This will leave her parents to fend for themselves as they age. I learned this as Karen and I started this process as we have read many books on the topic. One in particular is " Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son" by Kay Ann Johnson. It gave a whole lot of background on China's one-child policy and I was able to see first-hand a fraction of the result of this policy. I do not criticize China on its policies, they were attempting to control their rapidly growing population, but they just go about it in a way that is detrimental to human life. Of course China has a history of lacking in human rights...


Anyway, the time we spent was productive, even if Karen and I were only there a few days. We made friends with the people in our group, and the directors and nannies. All this even with a language barrier. We were able to communicate well with them. A smile has the same meaning in any language. That and two individuals there made it easier too. Lily of course and another young lady, Hope. Hope was considered our host and she was a college professor at a local college there in Gansu province and is in the process of attempting to teach the nannies English. That is also what she teaches at the local college. She made talking to the directors and nannies much easier if Lily was in another room. In one instance, she even had to ask me to slow down so that she could catch everything I was saying to translate it for the deputy director. We had a good time there and were even able to take pictures as long as we stayed in the room we were working from. The first day there we were unable to that. It isn't something you can easily do in some circumstances in China.

Overall, we had a very productive trip as far as the mission purposes and as a secondary note in our personal adoption journey as well. The course of the next few months or so will be very difficult for Karen and I. We will be working through the remainder of our wait trying to keep ourselves busy. We know there is a daughter there for us and it is difficult thinking about the fact that other people will be taking care of our "Robin" and that we are unable to hold and take care of her while we wait for the referral and final stages of this adoption process.

I ask that you pray first and foremost for all the children there. That the China Center for Adoption Affairs works diligently to process all the paperwork to get all the children ready for speedy adoptions. Then second that you keep Karen and I in your prayers as well, that our wait does not seem so long and we travel by the end of the year to go back to get her to make her a part of our family.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it...

God Bless Us All,
Bob

What is wrong with this picture?

Who else is bothered by this? I don't understand why a pastor of a church would do this...Is it not bad enough that some individuals in society would do this?



Hmm, this gives me a chance to give my take on it. Before I start, I do not mean to offend, but remember...this IS my blog. So, here I go...



I am bothered by this. Christmas is what it is, you cannot take Christ out of Christmas. It is His birth that we are remembering and celebrating. I for one am very happy that He is my Lord and Savior. He was born so that He could die for our sins, so that we all can have eternal life in heaven. That is the one and only reason for the season!! We would not have Christmas at all if it was not for His birth.



There are many out there in society that use the "X" in place of "Christ". Is it a shorter version or just a way of "Xing" Him out of the picture? In some cases it is just used as a shorter version, but the problem with that is that it literally takes the word "Christ" from the word all together. In others it is purposely used to remove Him from the word. Those that use it that way have an agenda of their own. I will not get into that. The only thing I want to say is for heaven's sake, if you are going to use "Merry Christmas" do not take Christ out of Christmas. Use the more politically correct version of "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings". I personally do not like them either and will not use them, but can tolerate it more than Merry Christmas with an "X"in it.


Oh and one more thing...why did a church of all things have to do it, others in the world are bad enough. But a pastor of a church should know better...what a shame.

Oh well, I am done now...not much more I can say about this, it just saddens me to see it.

Merry Christmas and may God Bless Us All in the New Year,
Bob

Freedom of Speech...at least my thoughts on it...

I have been a member of the Air Force for the last 26 years (7 years active and the rest as a reservist). I joined because I truly believe in this great nation and the freedoms we have living here. What allows us to have those freedoms, besides God's grace? This is a no-brainer - the U.S Constitution. As part of the oath of enlistment a statement to the effect of "promise to support and defend" is repeated by me every time I re-enlist. It pertains to the United States Constitution among other things. One of those freedoms just happens to be freedom of speech.

So, you may ask, what exactly is freedom of speech? (If not, let's pretend...lol). Why is it important to us? Why do some in this country want to limit or take it away? Should we use it responsibly? I may not be from academia, but I have a few answers of my own in my view. Anyway, you aren't getting anything scholarly from me, just my thoughts about this from my heart. So here goes...

My view of freedom of speech is essentially the ability to speak your mind without the risk of being imprisoned for doing so. It is important because without it we would not be able to speak our opinions, like I am doing here. We would not be able to voice our disagreement with elected officials, if we chose to do so. We would even be limited in our everday lives - living in fear of being turned in to the thought police for anything we say to even a friend or family member. I am only naming a few here because there are too many to list. Many do not realize the importance of just this one freedom. Some even choose to try to stop us from speaking freely. Why? One reason may be they are afraid of the power of the written or spoken word. They are afraid that free speech will hamper their ability to control others. Again, these are just a couple of reasons. With our freedom to speak our mind comes with it some responsibility. What is that responsibility? And, what may be the repercussions of not being responsible? Those two questions are the main reason I am writing this today.

There are some inherent responsibilities with freedom of speech. Yes, we can speak our mind freely, and yes some may be offended by what we may say. When speaking your mind it is a good idea to know your audience. Ask yourself, "will I be offending anyone with what I am about to say?" If the answer is Yes - you can still do so, but be prepared for whatever criticism may come your way. Is what you are saying wrong? Probably not, but it did offend. Okay, if you can live with that, fine. Go about your life and forget about it. If you cannot live with the criticism or knowing you offended someone, there is but one thing to do about it...just simply apologize to the person you offended. By this, I mean, just do the mature thing and a simple, "I didn't realize you heard (or read) what I said, sorry if I offended you." Wow, how simple was that? Hmmm, makes you wonder why it cannot be done by some people. Well, after doing that, just go about your business like nothing happened. That usually ends the incident or the misunderstanding. Here is an example of an incident with me: A few months ago I misspoke in a meeting at work. I work in one department and we were discussing some production issues. Well, in the process, a question was raised about another department, my response was, "we aren't worried about them!" Well one of my co-workers has sisters in the other department and she responded with "I am!" My statement obviously upset her. What I said offended her, so after the meeting I went to her and apologized for it. I simply clarified my response about the other department. She understood and told me that I would not intentionally be uncaring and admitted that it was a misunderstanding on her part.

So, most times that there are offenses, it is just a mere misunderstanding as in my case. And things are usually forgotten after that. There is one other thing to do, after the apology. Be careful who is around or just be wary of how or what you say or write. Think again of who your audience is. Many times if things get out of hand it is because of the misunderstanding of the things said in response to your offensive statement. Oh, it also may be that you are reading into what is being said as a response to your comment. Whatever you do, don't get upset just because there are opposing views to yours.

I have been around many different people and the one thing I can be sure of is be careful of what you say in public. If I make a contradictory statement, there is a 100% guarantee that I will get some sort of response to that. Do I get bothered by that? No, I accept it and learn from it - then get on with life. But, then I be careful to try not to do it again. I do not want to take my freedoms for granted so I try to use them responsibly and respectfully of others. It isn't because I am that worried about what others may think of me. It is just that I know that the day will come that I have to face the Lord and He will be judging me on my actions as a Christian. Do I want to be held accountable for all the things I have done? I know with Jesus as my Lord and Savior I will be in heaven and it is by His grace that my sins are also forgiven. But that doesn't mean I want to face Him with all my faults and failings. So with my freedom of speech - I try to be respectful.

By the way, I hope that I haven't offended anyone with my statements here - I am just speaking my mind. If I have, at least give me the opportunity to clarify myself with you. Let me know and we can have a discussion on this as mature adults.

God Bless Us All,
Bob