Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest heights, let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring….
Christy and I always seem to have the craziest adventures together. According to AIM policy we must not go anywhere by ourselves, therefore the buddy system becomes our best friend. And I always seem to get stuck with Christy. 😛
On this particular day, Christy and I volunteered to go with our friend Aaron Brachovich, who used to live in Atlantis 5 years ago, to visit a couple that he used to know really well. Little did we know what an adventure would be in store for us. After a knock on the correct door, it opened to reveal an older muslim man, whose face lit up when he saw Aaron. Welcoming him very excitedly, he shouted for his wife, whose greeting was much quieter, though no less warm.
“Now you will see an example of true Chinese hospitality,” Aaron told us with a smile. Immediately we were sat down on the couch in their beautiful living room, hot tea was poured for us and snacks of apples and walnuts were placed before us. While Aaron caught up with his friends, Christy and I enjoyed our snacks and talked quietly to each other as the Mandarin conversation continued around us. Little bits of the conversation were translated for us as the usual questions were answered: “How have you been? Are you still single? Where are your friends from? Are they single? Is one of them your girlfriend?” We had to assure them that neither of us was his girlfriend.
In typical Chinese fashion, we were invited to stay for dinner… Though we had JUST ate lunch. To fill the time until then, would we like to fly a kite? Of course, our answer was yes, so we piled in their car to head to a good location. Now when I envision flying kites, I thought of the little $5 plastic kites that you attempt to fly in your backyard when you are 8 years old but somehow they end up in a twisted wreck on the ground and you give up flying kites forever…. At least that’s how I envision it. But in China, flying kites is a precise sport. Our new Aunt and Uncle (That’s what Aaron called them) brought their favorite kite and soon had it soaring high in the gray sky, the frigid wind sending it nearer and nearer to the clouds above. The kite was just a colorful speck when the string came to an end on the spool we held in our hands. We thought that kite was just gonna chill at that height…. But they don’t mess around with their kites. Just when I least expected it, they wrapped the string around their arm, untied it from the spool, wrapped up an entirely NEW spool of string and then tied the two together. Uncle would not be content until the kite was practically an invisable dot in the cloudy gray sky.
Meanwhile, our amazing friends decided we needed something to do, since Uncle was having way too much fun with his kite to share it with us for very long. So despite our protests, they had Aaron, Christy and myself pick out kites for ourselves and set us up with our kites in the sky. My kite was a butterfly, its colorful tails fluttering in the wind as my numb fingers (Did I mention it was below freezing, with a frigid wind blowing in our faces and I only had a zip-up hoodie to keep me warm? Yeah, I was a little chilly.) struggled with the spool in my hands. Aaron’s falcon and Christy’s colorful little man were soon soaring near mine, and we laughed at our freezing digits, crazy Chinese hobbies and our poor kite-flying skills. I was rather distracted by my fumbling fingers and the kite above me when suddenly Aunt was grabbing at my line. I was confused for a second as she held the string in her hand, until I realized that it had come to its end on the spool and was NOT tied in any way. We had just secured my string to the spool when we heard Christy’s cry. Christy’s string had not been tied either…. But she didn’t have Aunt to save her.
“I was just laughing and watching the little man’s legs run,” Christy moaned in shock, staring at her poor kite flying off into the sky. “One minute I was letting the string off the spool, and the next minute he was… Gone.” She looked down in despair at her empty hands, and I couldn’t help but laugh. We then laughed together when we saw Aaron’s kite also flying across the grassy field and Aaron, his neck strained to the sky, chasing after his runaway bird.
Just when we thought our fingers were permanently frozen, our friends told us to head to the warm car. And just when we thought the day couldn’t get any crazier, it was time for DINNER.
Our friends took us to one of the fanciest restaurants in town. I knew we were in for a treat when we walked into our own private room that was beautifully decorated and wonderfully heated. Green tea was served, and we warmed our hands on the glasses. Then suddenly, the dishes started coming. I don’t even know what all of them were (some of them I don’t know that I want to know) but we tried everything. Our hosts would not allow us to refuse.
“What? You must eat more? Do you not like it?” They asked with furrowed brow. Even when we started to get full, they would not take no for an answer. “You cannot be full! You must eat more!” The meaning of their words was understood very well, even without Aaron having to translate it. Our hosts were so sweet, ordering the best of all the dishes, letting us try all of the local delicacies and the favorite treats, and in general treating us as their honored guests. And throughout the meal their was much laughter and conversation, even with the two different languages. They curiously examined Christy’s passport and USD that she had in her wallet and loved it when she took pictures of each dish as it was placed on the table in all of its glory. They even made us sing when they found out we loved to sing, and so we sang a hymn over our meal.
When the meal was over, they wouldn’t even let us try to help pay, and after they gave us a ride home, Christy and I just looked at each in shock and laughed. How on earth do we always end up in these adventures? I don’t know how it happens except for the Holy Spirit, but He does some crazy work and I love it. Now I have fallen in love with a sweet couple from Atlantis, and my prayers go out for them and their son, that someday their family may come to know the Lord. Right now they are muslim, but God is at work in their lives and I fervantly pray for them, that I may have the joy of seeing my amazing aunt and uncle in heaven someday.
Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest heights……..
