Gifts of Hope

We're coming up on Christmas fast and if you're anything like me you're already starting to sweat about buying that special person the right gift. You know that "socks and jocks" are just not going to cut it again! Don't panic, (don't sweat it), I have the solution for you...

"Gifts of Hope" (link to brochure) is a new initiative of The Salvation Army in New Zealand that gives you the opportunity to choose a gift that keeps on giving to the people of Fiji and Tonga. I've had the privilege of travelling to both these Islands this year, meeting the Army personnel that work there and visiting some of the people who will benefit from your generosity. I can guarantee you that this is a a gift that will make an amazing difference in the lives of truly deserving people who through no fault of their own are in desparate need.

Please give gifts that really matter this year!

Church Camp

Last weekend The Meeting House relocated to a private Island (Rotoroa) in the Gulf. For two and half days 57 people from all walks of life lived together in community - enjoying one anther's company and learning together. It was quite an amazing experience.

It was the first camp for our young corps - but I doubt it will be the last. Amongst the highlights were the bonfire on the beach during which marshmallows were roasted and songs of worship were sung. For the keen campers and early risers morning devotions on the beach also served to centre our minds on the things that matter most. The opportunity for every person to receive notes of affirmation and encouragement changed the experience of most campers.

The weekend theme was "Encourage One Another" and through a number of interactive sessions and meals together I am in no doubt that people were encouraged. Half our group were members of our community ministries - people who are amongst the marginalised and the lonely - people on the fringes of society - and together with the 'regular' members they learnt and ate and played together.

The Camp was proof again that it is in community and through relationship that lives are transformed - not just impacted - but radically and irreversibly transformed.

The Great Wall and the Passionate Remnant

After numerous meetings, and a few disagreements I’m almost at the end of this amazing journey, just one more meeting to go with the ‘brass’ and then I’m on my way home. But I couldn’t be in Beijing and not see that icon of China – the Great Wall.

On my way back into Beijing today we stopped off at the Bandaling Great Wall precinct. It’s here that there is a fortress from which the wall extends for miles north and south. The fortress has now become one of the bases of the Wall Climb, the ticket office and tourist precinct (with the obligatory tourist stalls and Starbucks).

What an awesome sight. I only had 1.5 hours (the unfortunate obligation of work) so went for a walk down the southern leg of the wall. It took us about 30 minutes to climb to the second ‘turret’ thingy which was only the third highest point of the wall that I could see, but that was strenuous enough. The stone steps have been worn down over the centuries and at places are quite narrow, but the climb is worth it – from our vantage point we could see the wall disappear into the mist miles away in both directions.

Tonight I had the amazing privilege of meeting with a number of Chinese Salvation Army Officer’s children. Most of them are in their 70s now: amongst the group was John Yin (the son of Major Yin Hun Shun about whom the book Yin: The Mountain the Wind Blew Here was written), most had seen their parents interned for their Salvation Army allegiance, one saw his mother thrown out on the street to clean and beg. This is ‘the remnant’ of TSA in China and they are so thrilled to see the Army presence in their land again. When we sat around the table and sang together and told some of the stories they were so very passionate and thankful. This was just an amazing end to my journey in China.

Tomorrow I’m in the air back to Aotearoa and family.

There have been many lessons learnt and a few recommendations and decisions to make – but overall The Salvation Army is doing a great thing in Xinghe. There are families that today have more potential for a bright future because of the Army’s engagement. There are women that are receiving medical intervention and hygiene training for themselves and their children, there are men and women who are being helped to develop new skills in agriculture and animal husbandry (raising rabbits and cows). There are people whose lives have been transformed and with engagement with local government officials we are continuing to challenge the structures and concepts of normality that perpetuate poverty and marginalization.

For those that are Salvationists you can be proud of what the Army does in these kinds of places, and you can be certain that your money is well used (all of it).

Xinghe

Spicy fish heads, with fried rice and some other vegetable dishes was on the lunch menu today. The fish actually tasted very nice, although I couldn’t eat too much of it.

Today I had the privilege of bearing gifts made possible by The Salvation Army Missionary Fellowship (Auckland) and a family in Australia. With their US$300 I was able to buy sports equipment and pens for the Beiguan Primary School in Xinghe. The school caters for children of the immigrants and locals; there are about 635 students in what most of us would consider pretty awful circumstances. But today, after they had participated in their morning exercises they received soccer and basket balls, badminton equipment, skipping ropes, Chinese chess sets, hacky sacks and hoola hoops – and a new biro each. Needless to say they were very excited, and the chaos was wonderful for me, not so much for the teachers.

The school visit was the highlight of an otherwise exhausting day of visiting local government departments and stakeholders. Drinking copious amounts of Chinese tea, and working through two translators gets tiring after a while.

To bring life into perspective a little we had the opportunity of visiting a few families in their ‘homes’ and again being treated generously to tea and their stories. Most of the people were forcibly removed from the ancestral lands in the mountains and relocated here for their benefit. Now, in a region they don’t know, unable to participate in the lifestyle they have known all their lives, unable to be self sufficient they do life tough. Stripped of their self-respect and their self worth the immigrants now battle to make sense of their lives – and yet strive hard to establish normality for their children and their elders.

Having the opportunity to walk with these people for this short time is both a privilege and a burden. There has to be more we can do for the millions who exist in poverty – but what little we can do – let’s do with excellence.

Tonight we’ve been invited out to dinner with one of the Government officials, so the white guy is on show again – watch him struggle with his chopsticks, and force the local delicacies on him. I have a feeling that I’m in for an interesting night.

Freezing...

I made it to Xinghe. It is now 0 degrees, and it's only 9pm. They tell me it'll get down to about -3 tonight. And the heating has not been, and can not be, turned on in the accomodation yet. Had my first really disgusting meal, but I'm going to spare you the details.

Time to get some rest though. 5 Meetings to attend tomorrow, a group discussion to fascilitate, and some house visits to make.

The Train to Zhangjiakou

The morning started early with a 30 minute taxi ride to the North Railway station. A humungous structure in the Northern suburbs that is the hub for trains traveling to the North – we braved the dodgem track which is the Beijing traffic, only to discover our train was delayed.

We waited in a hall the size of Eden Park with what seemed like the whole of China’s population, (must have been at least 1,000 people) for over an hour: but when the announcement was made and the gates opened the dance began as people of all shapes, sizes, smells and sensitivities; carrying bags and containers of all sizes and fragilities, waltzed to the train. We were being spoilt today – the team had booked a sleeper for each of us. So with the other 120 people we squeezed into cabins with two sets of triple-decker sleeping berths, and thanked God that I was not one of the ‘who knows how many’ that squeezed into the ‘no number limit standing only’ carriages.

So I am now sitting on my berth watching China go by. Other than the extremely loud Chinese ‘elevator’ music being piped through the carriage it is very pleasant, although stuffy and I am starting to absorb some strange smells. The landscape is comprised of huge mountain ranges, numerous long dark tunnels, and every now and then a little village or and industrial complex of some sort. The trip will be about 4 hours – give or take.

After our arrival in Zhangjiakou we will do some shopping for the project before heading in the project car for another 1.5 hours to Xinghe which will be home for a few days.

Church Passport

There are a number of churches, amongst them are the ‘Three Self Church’ which is the state sanctioned Christian community that caters for the Chinese Christians, and operates only in Mandarin or other local dialects. But if you are an expat and want to attend church you have to go to the International Church, where you are required to produce your passport to get in, or a number of other 'smaller' fellowships.

Chinese national are not allowed to attend this church due to government policy that Chinese people can not be taught (in churches) by non Chinese people. This apparently is a much freer church, along the AOG model, as opposed to the Three Self Church which I ma told is quite formal, predictable and controllable.

Beijing

On arrival in Beijing the Project Staff whisked me off to allow me to do some project management research at perhaps the greatest community development project of all time – the Forbidden City (or Imperial Palace Museum). What an amazing place (photos below) – covering a huge area (over 180 acres) the numerous palaces, gardens, squares and statues all tell the story of an amazingly complex stratified society that continues to influence, and attract the people of China.

The city itself is huge. There are images of the forthcoming Olympics everywhere and all kinds of structures are being built or renovated for the purpose. Everything is big – huge buildings, wide roads, (doesn’t make the driving better, just more space to be completely unpredictable).

Following this research I attended dinner meetings and project development consultancies in a traditional South Chinese restaurant – nothing too weird here, (they did want me to try deep fried and spiced chicken cartilage) it was all very nice and washed down with copious amounts of the ever present Chinese tea, (in this case Chrysanthemum tea). I’m getting so good with chopsticks too!

Whilst we ate, outside in the public square groups of people played ‘hacky sack’, little dogs danced, a couple of older men serenaded the passers with Chinese opera, a man fished in the lake, a couple of ‘fortune tellers’ solicited business and an older man told young children stories. It was an amazing picture of community and acceptance (the singers were not good!).

Tomorrow I leave the city to travel about 300km North to Inner Mongolia and my ultimate destination of Xinghe.

Macau, Vegas of the Orient

Yesterday started early with a Jet boat ride across to Macau. Captains Tony and Carol Zhao who were made Senior Soldiers in Tonga and went from there to College in Hong Kong have just been appointed to the Macau Corps as assistant officers. It was a privilege to catch up with them for a Pastoral visit on behalf of Commissioner McKenzie. They are a great couple, passionate about meeting the needs of the 500,000 people in their ‘community’.

Macau is a fascinating island group (3 islands): it has an amazing Portuguese and Chinese heritage that results in a blend of Catholic Cathedrals and Chinese Ancestor worship. Today with over 70 casino/hotels and more to come, it is a busy, multicultural, multi-layered society.

The officers often ‘pop over’ to China for lunch and cheaper food etc, the border is about 500m from the Macau Corps. Everyday hundreds of people hand carry loads of goods across the border from China to stock the Macau shops: by doing this the shop keepers avoid paying taxes and cartage costs, some people will do 10-15 trips a day through the gates and across the river boundary.

I had the privilege of having lunch in the revolving Restaurant 360 on the 58th floor of the Macau Tower (for those from Auckland it’s the same building as the Skytower, but 10m taller, designed by the same architect team and has the same skyjump company throwing people off the building).

Although it doesn’t sound much like it, it was actually work you know! The day finished (very late) at The Peak taking in the nightscape of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula.

Ladies Market - Kowloon

Yesterday was spent meeting with project managers and Salvation Army leadership to discuss the issues and future, negotiating the best way forward and making recommendations about best practice methods and processes. A day of thinking!

Lunch was cream of crab soup followed by grilled Ostrich in pepper sauce with stir fry vegetables. But I finished the day at Lucky Restaurant for a dinner with the Hong Kong Command leaders and the project team – another Chinese meal, with copious amounts of different Chinese teas. There is Young Man’s tea and Old Man’s Tea. The Officer Commanding likes Old Man’s tea, a black musky smelling, damp fungus tasting tea – so they started me on that: I decided I'm obviously not old enough yet – I prefer Lilly tea, a lighter (in colour) but stronger, fresher smelling tea –we finished off the meal, cleansing our palettes with a beautiful clean tasting traditional Chinese tea. Sounds like I’m becoming a connoisseur of Chinese tea but don't be fooled! I’m also becoming much more proficient with the chopsticks.

The night closed out for me with a visit to Ladies Market and Broadway on Kowloon Peninsula. Apparently a famous shopping precinct of the area, by 8pm it was well and truly alive with young people and tourists. A real shopping Mecca it caters for all your needs, and at great prices. I lost count of the times I was offered Rolex watches and designer handbags. Some of them were even honest enough to be sprucing for “copy watches”. So from latest electronic gadgets and Billabong surf wear to silk pj’s and Chinese jade dragons this is the place to be apparently.

So it was back to Booth Lodge late into the night after wandering the streets absorbing the sights, smells and sounds of this amazingly chaotic, diverse almost schizophrenic, but exciting city.

Transforming Lives

A day of administration, orientation and information. I had the opportunity to visit three community ministries centres on Hong Kong Island this afternoon. The journey started with a Community Day Centre for the mentally challenged. In this complex about 20 young people attend sessions in drama, craft, dancing and other creative therapies. It is a happy place.

From there to a Youth and Children’s Intervention program that provides a multitude of centre, community and school based activities to help develop the capacity, hope and potential of the young in the densely populated welfare housing sector. This is quite an amazing program that proves the worth of community based intervention and activity. The young people’s lives are being transformed permanently and it is an exciting place to visit.

Close by, in the same community is a Boys’ Home that caters for 40 boys, (11-18 years) providing a home and a future for at risk boys. Again another example of positive role models and hope.

If the rest of the Community work in Hong Kong, Macau Command is similar then I know that here lives are being transformed and as a result society can be reformed.

Kowloon Central

The journey got off to a great start – just when we were ready to push back from the terminal the pilot realised he had 2 flat tires – it took two hours for them to replace the wheels. It doesn’t help when you have an off duty Cathay Pacific Pilot (I was flying Cathay Pacific) beside you who makes the comment, “that should have been picked up ages ago, I hope they did the rest of the flight check properly”.

Arrived into Hong Kong, after twelve hours of regular “severe” turbulence, but only one hour late, and was whisked away by my counterpart in Hong Kong, Major Yoo Mi-Hae, to my accommodation, Booth Lodge (an Army owned Hotel). The building consists of Command Headquarters, Kowloon Central Corps, Officer accommodation and the Hotel.

First impressions of central Kowloon: very busy, advertising hoarding everywhere the eye can see, very tall shabby residential buildings, narrow ‘dodgy looking’ alleyways. A plethora of smells emanate from a smorgasbord of pleasantly filled restaurants. As you walk down the street the sweet and spicy smells mix with the diesel from hundreds of vehicles and the refuse of the restaurants.

Right in the middle of this wonderful chaos is a little oasis ‘a rest garden’ which surrounds the beautifully adorned Tin Hau Temple. The garden is home to some of the city’s homeless, and as I walk past they are tidying up there claim as the city cleaners wash the paved courtyard.

More to come…