This is month 10 of the World Race. I have spent the past nine months traveling
around the world and participating in a variety of ministry activities. This
month is a little different; China is a little different.
China is a closed country to missionaries and Christianity
in general. Most of the population
identifies themselves as agnostic or atheist when polled. The most prevalent religion is Buddhism with
a roughly 18% following. Muslims and
Christians account for only 1-2% of Chinese society.
The city where I’ve made home for the month of October is
near the middle of the country. It varies greatly from our arrival city in
Gaungzhou, the city of flowers.
Gaungzhou was sunny, beautiful and blooming. It was a tourist destination with
international chain restaurants like Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Subway and
Starbucks. Streets were lined with
street food vendors and retail stores.
Here, in middle China, the people might not ever have heard
of McDonalds. We live in a small
city. It is overcast, polluted, and
without color. Even the people and
language are different. Here people look
more robust and speak Mandarin. This
city is under construction: government subsidized apartments, municipal
buildings, new restaurants and stores.
Our contacts are moving in.
They had lived here previously, but moved away to run a cafe in order to
build and establish relationships with local people. Now, it’s time to move back and they need a
home. My job this month is to help: to
help fix up an apartment and make it
livable. So, I am sort of participating in House Hunters International. Here are my selling points: quick
construction and cheap rent (only $100 month).
There the list ends.
My team and I took a taxi to the apartment building. It has a nice entrance with red Chinese
lanterns and an ornate fountain composed of two rows of coy fish facing one
another and spotting water. We walked
the grounds past two pretty but fake trees to the high rise building. The elevator feels like it too is under
construction, especially with the ply-wood on all sides and plastic covering
the doors. However, it works and safely
brings us on the 10th floor.
There are two wooden doors, one on the left and one on the right; the
stairwell is straight ahead. Pulling
open the thick wooden door, you can’t help but notice the abundance of locks…10
total! You walk into the largest and
main room of the apartment. To the left
is a kitchen, fitted for a sink; culturally, ovens, stoves and microwaves are
nonexistent. Two identical rooms branch
off the living area and flank the single bathroom. All interior doors are flimsy metal with
frosted floral panes. There are floor to
ceiling windows in each of the rooms that let in ample natural light. The windows provide views of the city’s river
and local mountains.
The view is the best feature of the apartment. As a former home owner, I am astonished at
the poor construction: cracking dry wall, exposed pvc-pipes, and uneven, dull
corners. Each day I work in the
apartment I think about how privileged I was to have a nice home in San
Antonio. I also imagine my dad’s
reaction if he were to see the apartment.
But that is why we are here in this city at this time. We are here to help, to finish the apartment,
to make it a place for our contacts to live and work in peace.
We are scraping, painting, sealing, sweeping, flooring, and
even building in the empty 10th floor apartment here in middle
China. I wouldn’t put this place on
International House Hunters, but we are going to do our best to make it a
contender.
