Hey friends! You may have heard already from facebook but I am, in fact, here at my first destination of Harbin, China. Travelling here was quite the trip in itself. We flew almost 15 straight hours last Tuesday from Atlanta to Incheon, Korea. We had a short 2 hour layover and then flew to Beijing. After arriving in Beijing, we took a bus and then walked a little ways to our Hostel (this is the same hostel that we will be staying in the last 4 days of month #1 before traveling to Thailand). We woke early the next morning to find some breakfast and have ourselves ready for what would be a very long next 30 hours. We walked, took a subway, and then walked some more to get to the train station. We waited a couple hours and then boarded the train. Looking back now, the scene was quite comical. All of us were jam-packed (literally) onto our half of the train car. Our big hiking backpacks are like adding a second passenger so we fit as many packs as we could on the luggage racks and the rest were fit into any space we could find. We hung as many daypacks as we could onto the luggage racks with carabeeners (carabeeners are gold btw!) I had two packs under my legs in between a table and a window and there I sat almost the entire train ride. We played the “thankful game” a lot during that train ride. The “thankful game” is a little thing we racers like to do when accommodations and situations are a little less then desirable. We state out loud things we are grateful for and it really does help you get through things like being stuffed on a train for 20 hours. After getting into Harbin we took buses to our apartments for the month. We are staying in a 30 floor apartment building, 3-4 racers per room and it is very nice. We are so very blessed to be staying here for the month!
Being here is surreal. I've wanted to come to China for years now and I just can't believe I am here. God is so very faithful to do all that He did to get me here! I am soaking in and enjoying life here so much! The travel to get here was physically difficult and emotionally draining but it was so worth it! The year of preparation to get here was so worth it! Thank you all for praying and for your support! Stay tuned for another blog about our ministry for the month! Love you all!
Laura
