One week later

So, here I am, one week after being here in Chengdu, amazed at how many things have happened in just a week's time.

Shortly after I finished that last post a week ago, I was put on assigment with a few guys doing a massive flashlight project. The goal of the project was to disperse some 10,000 flashlights into various "displacement camps" and villages who were yet without power. The first phase of the project began more than a week before I arrived and consisted of just planning this whole thing out. By the time I arrived, they were finally ready to start building the recharging stations for these flashlights. You see, the plan was to hand out a whole lot of flashlights each day, and then return to the same place a couple of days later to pick up used flashlights and replace them with new ones. It was a good idea at first, but there have been quite a few problems along the way. The guy who was heading up the project had put labels on each flashlight describing it's battery life and the plan for recharging them as a way a practical way to help people. However, he also put on every one some part about the True Light of the World, as a means of "sewing seeds"....
So anyway, the project was moving along slowly as we tried to build these power stations that would charge 800 flashlights each. There were issues and problems every step of the way as so many amps and electrical details need to be handled with just a little bit of care. We finally finished our first power station, which holds 4 racks, on Friday, but this ended up proving to be less of a great accomplishment than we had hoped for. That's because on Wednesday, when our team leader went out for a distribution/pick up of the lights, he ran into some problems with the authorities, which ended in him being essentially banned from an entire county. There are a lot of details that I don't have time to go into, but that's the important note. So, when friday roled around, our leader was unsure if we should even continue the whole project, or what we should do. My job of building the racks was technically done on Friday, but we got back together on Sunday to do a little bit more work and to put a few thousand labels on a new shipment of lights. Crazy crazy.
So, that's been the bulk of my time spent working so far...Things got changed up a little Monday, but I won't go into that just yet...
Saturday I had the day off, so a few of us hopped on bikes and toured around the city. The weather was perfect for it as rain had cooled everything down and it felt almost as cool as a day in late fall. For someone who has been living on a tropical island with summer drawing near, I can't explain how wonderful it felt to almost be cold! So we were able to see some history parks and all kinds of city places, and after that we went to the heart of the city where a giant statue of Mao is. There we walked around for a while and went in and out of all kinds of shops and malls galore. It's so interesting to me being in a city this big and this nice. This city is far nicer than some American cities I've seen, and probably has far less crime. It's a nice place. It is, however, much different than Haikou in the way that things are run. We could never dream of doing some of the things we were accustomed to doing in Haikou. It's nice though, I really like the city and have a feeling I'll be here for a while...
So that was last week...
Now, this week...
Sunday morning we split up and went to our respective places. We foreigners went to a group on the other side of town that was actually a registered foreign group. At the door, we were supposed to present a copy of our passport in order to gain entry. We had no idea we would need to do that, so we were caught a little off guard. Luckily, none of us look even remotely Chinese, so they managed to let us in. The group was at least a good 200 people, which was incredibly foreign to me (ironic, foreigners being foreign), having come from a city where there were probably only 200 foreigners in the whole city. The service was just like an American group, which was also strange to be a part of again. We met a few people from various places around the world, and then had an amazing mexican food lunch at a restaurant not to far from the place. Good stuff! But anyway, moving on to important things. Sunday night we had a meeting to talk about a change in direction that is soon going to take place. We basically found out that this organization will soon be closing its doors in the area and "disbanding" into something without a name...There were some serious problems, I guess, with some people who came in and, under this organizations banner, began to do some "bad things". Now, the organization as a whole is obligated to shut down in order to perhaps save some face with the authorities. After this week there will no longer be a "Heart to Heart" operating in the region. So, where does that put us after we just joined with them? Well, the plan is to basically form an alliance of small teams working together under a new banner to do similiar things. Right now our group is planning on working with schools in the disaster areas to help out these kids and their teachers, as well as to build good relationships with the authorities in these areas for long term work. We're not very sure how it's all going to work out, but yesterday we got a small taste...
Yesterday we went out to some towns and displacement camps to help out at a few different schools. We had a group of 30 something that split into four different teams. We spent the morning teaching english classes, and the afternoon just spending time with the kids and the people. We were able to bring in school supplies and a few other things for these schools, and even more important, able to build relationships with these people. There's little telling now what will be the long-term fruit of these endeavors, but I have little doubt, after seeing yesterday some of the results of relationship building, that our King will be able to do great things through this.
It was hard to say goodbye to these kids. We spent the day just playing with them and talking to them. I can't imagine what being taken from your home to live in a tent camp in the middle of fields would be like. One boy who pretty much spent the whole afternoon with me, kept asking me if I'd be back tomorrow and why I didn't just want to stay in a tent near the school...
So that was the beginning of what we'll be focused on doing in the near future. It was a good beginning, but certainly brief. In the next couple days some of us may be going out again, this time to a different place, to stay for perhaps a couple of days. I'll be sure to update more as things continue to move along. Eventually, when I get my computer back, I'll be able to post up pictures that other people have been snapping like crazy. Lots of good pics!
In the mean time, we're just moving day by day through this adventure. It's all a battle, and we could use every bit of lifting up. Thank you everyone for your support. He truly is our faithful sustainer...

: )