Amazing Trip

This is a LONG post with LOTS of pictures! I hope you enjoy!

We just got back from Xiao Li's house and we had a GREAT time! I have so much to tell you about and I thought I'd let the pictures do most of the talking....

We arrived at Xiao Li's village after about 6 hours of travel-the last 20 minutes was on foot. Her village is tucked in a valley surrounded by gorgeous mountains. It's cloudy in this picture so it's hard to appreciate the breath taking views!

Her village contains about 30 houses and is totally surrounded by farm land. They don't buy food really-they just eat what they grow. It's corn season now and it was everywhere! Corn grows great on these terraced hills. They also had lots of green beans and potatoes.

Here we are walking. We brought rain boots with us because the roads are extremely muddy. It's rainy season, as you know, and the animals walk on the same road as the people-that makes for quite a mess!
Most of villages have 20-30 houses and are a mile or two from each other.

Here we are at the entrance to Xiao Li's grandmother's home. She has been a believer for 30 years! She goes up into the mountains to fast and pray every Friday and has not missed a Friday in all those 30 years! WOW!!!!! Lord, make us faithful lovers and followers of you like this precious woman! Many people in their minority group are Christians and the small church is located just beside her home.
All the homes are built like this: There is a courtyard in the middle and one side houses the animals and the other the people!
When we arrived, Emma Grace was sooo happy to see her A Yi (aunt in Chinese!) We also really enjoyed spending time with her parents. Her mom is my hero. She makes all her own clothes, down to weaving the material that she makes them with. She made a great pair of shoes for Emma Grace. She wears this everyday. These clothes are traditional Ei people clothes. Xiao Li told me that Ei people can tell how old someone is by the style and "fadedness" of their hat. One thing we enjoyed was seeing all the animals. They have cows, pigs, dogs, chickens, and a cat. Each day Xiao Li's dad takes the cows out (they live at their house) to eat. This takes about 2 hours and he does it twice a day. Andy and I accompanied him our first morning there. Man, people in the country have patience! He spends four hours everyday just watching his cows-come rain or shine-and has been for the past 50 years! Their pig is sooo close to having her little piglets.
Andy is an animal lover. Here he is holding the cat.Emma Grace loved the cows. She says "booo" when you ask her what a cow says.We did ALOT of eating while we were there. We had some amazing green beans, corn, several meats, mushrooms and lots of rice. Here is their kitchen. They cook over a fire for the most part but the government recently installed gas in their home in an effort to conserve firewood. Times are a changing-but around here, it's slowly changing! They still do most of their cooking over the fire. They killed a chicken for us. A Xin has just finished boiling it and is taking it out of the pot to chop.Xiao Li cooking the most amazing corn I've ever tasted.Here we are preparing the corn.

There are no cars in these parts...

One of the fun things we did while there was go on a hunt for mushrooms. They are in season right now. The rain provides the moisture they need and the sun the warmth. These two combined make for the perfect environment for mushrooms to grow. Here we are heading out....

On the way we saw a woman harvesting potatoes....We are heading towards those mountains-the perfect spot for mushrooms!
Along they way we saw some really beautiful animals. Emma Grace saw more animals on this trip than she has in her entire one year of life!

Ok, so mushrooms are pretty amazing. Did you know that they grow really rapidly and decay really fast. During mushroom season you can go to the same spot everyday and there will be new mushrooms every morning! This is a great way to earn a little extra money. Xiao Li's mom goes out most mornings and walks for about an hour to reach the mountains. Once there she spends her time down on her knees looking under brush for these little guys. She sells them at a nearby market. Andy managed to find the most expensive mushroom of all-but it was a little small so we figure he would get about 5 cents for this one! But still, way to go Andy! It was kinda like hunting for Easter eggs. Pretty fun. I managed to find a few and got really excited. Then Xiao Li told me that all but one of the ones I found were not edible. Oh well! I am still an apprentice at this whole mushroom hunting thing. In total, Andy and I managed to find about 4 mushrooms that were edible. Xiao Li on the other hand loaded up. Here she is cutting some mushrooms her mom gathered to be dried and used later...

Emma Grace and a farm bath...We went to visit the neighbors and it was like Halloween. They just kept loading her pockets and my hands with candy. She didn't eat lunch that day because she filled up on cookies at their house. Check out her stash...

She's lookig at me like "mom, don't even think about taking my cookie from me!" I just love this picture of Xiao Li, A Xin and Emma Grace. They love her so much and are such a blessing to our family. While we were there, we spent lots of time talking about life-we come from two totally different worlds but it is so neat how God has allowed our paths to cross. They are such a tremendous blessing to our family and their friendship and help are some of the most obvious ways God uses the Chinese to bless our socks off! We love these guys.
One of the things we talked about was how people from "two different worlds" can be great friends and learn from each other. This bond is made so much stronger by the common faith we have in Christ. Knowing that God is working in people's lives in this village "worlds" away from my home in America makes me love God all the more. He is amazing-He's the God of all nations and I look forward to the day when we see people from each tongue, tribe, and nation worshiping him in their own unique way!

What a great trip! On a final note: I did survive the week without a shower but not Pepsi. (BUT IT'S NOT MY FAULT!) Xiao Li lugged 6 bottles of Pepsi and Coke to her house and kept pulling them out for us every time we turned around! The Chinese people are so giving. We were sitting down for a rest after our mushroom excursion and out she comes with snacks and Pepsi! I have to admit I was pretty thrilled but I am telling you-I could've survived without it. Well, that has not been proven but I really think I could!


On our way back to our city, we stopped overnight in a nearby city for the torch festival. All these people are minority people and are doing a traditional dance. This festival was way more commercial and Chinese (versus minority) than we thought it would be. We were expecting a bonfire and a bunch of old people dancing around it. This festival had lots of minority flavor to it, but also added in were loud music, flashing lights and 20 of the 2008 Olympics mascots running around. What are those things anyway? China really is a collision of the old and the new.




All in all, a wonderful trip with wonderful friends! We were so blessed to spend this time in "another world" with people who serve the same God as we do!

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Rev 7:9-12)