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…

The Journey to Inner Mongolia

For those who are interested: I'm taking off this afternoon, (Monday 01OCT) to fly to Hong Kong for the first leg of my journey. Whilst there I'll be meeting with Salvation Army Command leadership and having a look at what the Army is doing.

Hong Kong administers the work of The Salvation Army in mainland China, so I'll be talking to them about the administration of the Xinghe Community Development Project.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep you posted with the news and views of my journey, so if you're interested check back with me later, and maybe leave me a note, I like notes!

Spirit of Jesus

And now may the Spirit of Jesus:
The One who hugged the demoniac,
Touched the leper,
Accepted the worship of a prostitute
And honoured Samaritans -
Infect our thoughts and attitudes
So that the God who is not far from any one of us,
Will touch the lives of others we meet this day,
For the honour of God's name.
Amen.

Xinghe, Inner Mongolia

On Monday, I'm off to China to conduct a project assessment visit. The Salvation Army NZ have been working in Inner Mongolia for a few years now, and the project we are involved in now is outlined here.

Xinghe County, situated in Inner Mongolia is home to a population of about 296,000 people. Persistent droughts, overgrazing and deforestation have resulted in serious soil erosion, this has lead to a sharp decline in productivity from the land resulting in poverty for the traditional mountain farmers. (Approximately 28% of the rural population lives in extreme poverty, with less than NZD120.00 annual net income per capita ($0.33 per day).

The mountainous nature of the county and the scattered population makes it difficult for the government to provide basic health, education, electricity, water, information distribution and administration to much of the county.

The Xinghe Integrated Immigration Scheme is part of the China National Northwest Development Programme to restore exhausted mountain and hill country by relocating the people and replanting the hillsides in forests and allowing these areas to return to their natural state. The Scheme has resettled about 900 families from thirteen inaccessible mountainous villages to the town of Xinghe.

Under the scheme, the government offers each of the families to be resettled an 18m2 brick house with water and electricity connected on a 800m2 yard together with a small shed to house animals. Some families have managed to purchase sufficient bricks to build a high perimeter wall around their yard so they can keep their property safe and keep a few animals such as chickens, goats or sheep, or a cow.

The Salvation Army’s part in this scheme is to provide the social infrastructure for the new immigrants to assist them in building a community in an urban environment. The Government has leased to The Salvation Army, long term, 35 acres of land adjacent to the new settlement. On this land The Salvation Army have built a multifunctional community centre, a training centre, accommodation for staff and officers, and a demonstration training farm. Regular farm training is being provided to teach basic animal husbandry and horticulture technology. At the local primary school, less than 500 metres from the village, TSA has also funded the building of two new blocks of four classrooms to accommodate the children at the school.

The resettlement has broken up extended family households with the older generation being resettled in different cities. The immigrants come from two major ethnic groups, (13% Mongolian, 87% Han) and unrelated villages so few know other members of the village. Life in the rural communities is harsh, with no work for the women. Many of the young women do not want to marry the mountain men as they have to live in the home with the husband’s parents. The new wife becomes the worker for the husband’s mother. Many men have “bought” wives from the illegal human trafficking agents. Life is so hard for the purchased wife that, in many cases, she has deserted leaving the children in the care of the husband and his parents. A number of the immigrant women in the new village were purchased as brides and they have very few skills, vocational training or literacy. Their options in life are very limited.

While the living conditions in the new village are better than the mountain villages, there is no drainage system, rubbish collection, no private or public washrooms and only one toilet block per 50 households. These toilet blocks are semi enclosed structures with a concrete slab floor. Human waste is just left on the floor. At some stage someone shovels the human waste into an open pit behind the toilet block.

The new village has no social or community amenities and very little sense of community. This project will be part of The Salvation Army’s work to provide health, hygiene, literacy, vocational, family relationships and community development training options for women and to provide these women with the capacity to build a new and better community in this village.

Wesley on Why

Have you ever questioned why you do some of the stuff you do? Ever wondered if ministry is worth the cost?

A question I am asked regularly is why I, (or the Army) is engaged in Emergency Services, or development, and given that we are - how do we introduce faith issues and Jesus? Essentially I guess what they're asking is where does evangelism come into community services?

I read a great quote from the father of Methodism and the influencer of the Booths the other day that I thought made great sense:

whether they will finally be lost or saved, you are expressly commanded to feed the hungry and clothe the naked... It is your part to do as you are commanded; the event is in the hand of God. You are not accountable for this: leave it to him who orders all things well. (The Works of John Wesley, 2002:38)

I'm not sugessting that I never speak of Jesus or faith, (there's always a time and place for that) but caring and meeting needs is ministry in and of itself!

Church in All It's Wonderful Chaos

Last night we celebrated the engagement of our Assistant Officer. It was a "Family Event", so members of all the Church ministries were invited, and they showed up!

The building was filled by an amazing eclectic group of people, but chief amongst them were the members of our community ministries. It was an awesome sight and sound - here were the people that society generally ignores: those that are lonely, misfits, mentally challenged, antisocial and (some) smelly!

But last night they sat around the tables and ate desert with the rest of the church family and friends. The misfits joined the 'respectables' around the tables. And they enjoyed each others company. It added a great dynamic to the night when during the proceedings they interjected, (you could say heckled) voicing their opinions and comments.

But you know what was so special - everyone laughed together, everyone enjoyed themselves and maybe - just maybe - some more barriers (on both sides) began to crumble, and some new bridge work and foundations were laid.

Church happened here last night (and wasn't even Sunday morning!)

Relationships

I've been thinking about the necessary relationships for development - whether that is church development (growth), individual development or community development. I am convinced that sustainable community (and individual) transformation occurs only as a result of a relationship built on mutual respect and trust – and a relationship can only be built by an invitation to walk together.

The reality is that we are usually the ‘outsider’ expert. We come from outside the culture and community, we usually have no local 'language' skills, and little understanding of the cultural framework. And yet by virtue of position, appointment (or our superior training) we presume to know what the 'answers' are.

The fact is that the only way to effect substantial and sustained change is from the inside, and this change must be based upon a valuing of local knowledge, local culture, local resources, local skills and local processes. Building relationship, and credibility, as a change agent is an essential first step in the process of guiding change.

The ultimate goal is to become an ‘insider’ – but this is not a reality for the relatively short-term church leader, (or development worker). To become an insider requires a committment we cannot give and time that we do not have.

In my opinion the best we can hope for is to become an ‘alongsider’ – one who is accepted by the church (or host community) and has the privilege of walking alongside – learning from and sharing with the hosts. The ‘alongsider’ can operate as a mediator, seeking to bring change by empowering the community to identify and release capacities that will produce transformation.

Stewardship: It's about $

Here at Mt Albert (The Meeting House) we are working up to a Planned Giving Program. That means that at some time we have to preach/teach about giving and MONEY! It doesn't matter where you are in the world, or what the culture, when you speak about money there are people in the Church that would seem to prefer that the world come to an end, rather than give up some control on their wallet.

I know that Planned Giving is about stewardship and stewardship is everything you do with everything you have and are. I know that it's about giving of time and talents as much as it is about money. And I believe it, and preach it loud. I know it's about being a good steward of all that God has generously given me, all that I am and all of God's creation. But let's not kid ourselves - we want to see more people giving more money.

And I don't think we should apologise for saying so. Jesus didn't! The Church, (MT Albert) needs the money to sustain it's ministries.

So by all means give God your time, make your talents available to the Church - but then do the harder thing and give your money too.