Rockstars and Light

So this week was October Holiday. We had 9 days off because October 1 was National Day, which is basically the Chinese version of 4th of July. This day is celebrated as the day Mao founded the People's Republic of China, so it's kind of a big deal here. 

During our 9 days off, Anna and Chesney hopped on a train for 26 hours to Sichuan province. Craziness. Hailey, Sarah, and I stayed in Taiyuan to try and become more familiar with the city. 

Our first day out, we went to a park in the middle of the city. It was so cool! There was a lake, a ton of amusement rides, flowers, it was beautiful. And it was crazy crowded. My favorite thing I saw there was the double decker carousel. 

Double Decker Carousel

Lake at the Park

And we felt like rockstars. As we walked into the park, this group of teenage girls-at least I think they were teenagers-it's so hard for me to judge the age of Chinese people because they all look so dang young. Anyway, back to the story. As we walk into the park, these girls say hello to us. We turn and say hello back and wave-they freak out. Laughing quietly to ourselves, we keep walking and they follow us. They say hello again and we turn around and say hello back. More freaking out ensues. Then one of them has the courage to come up to me and asks to get her picture taken with me. I say yes, which inspires more freaking out and giggling. You would've thought we were One Direction or Justin Beiber. So yeah, here's me getting my picture taken with the one brave soul. 

Me and the cute Chinese girl

They then all wanted pictures with all of us. And yeah this happened multiple times this week. Almost everywhere we went we got lots of stares, pointing fingers, pictures taken, etc. Just standing at a bus stop, another group of teenage girls wanted our pictures. Craziness. My favorite episode of picture taking was when we went to one of the Buddhist temples in the center of town-we were just standing outside the temple and this old man just walks up with his smart phone and snaps a picture of us. We were all in shock-normally Chinese people try to be sneaky about their picture-taking, and when you catch them, they look really ashamed. Not this guy. And when we went to the south side of the city, oh my word. Pretty sure no one down there had seen foreigners up close before. So many stares-I thought we were going to cause an accident because so many people in cars and on bikes were turning around to look at us and didn't watch where they were going. 

So yeah, I felt like a rockstar wandering through Taiyuan this week. 

We went a couple of really interesting places. Our first day we just hopped on a bus to see where it took us-the more I travel around Taiyuan, the more I realize it's not as big as it seems. We went to that park I talked about, and we visited Chongshan temple and the twin Pagoda temples. We got "lost" trying to visit Jingci park, meaning we got about halfway there to the point where we were supposed to transfer buses, but couldn't find the bus we were supposed to get on. And Chinese people don't exactly give the best direction. So we gave up and just rode back into the city and messed around. 

We went to the Chongshan temple in the middle of the city. It's a Buddhist temple dedicated to the Mother Buddha with 10 thousand arms. Not gonna lie, it was strange going into a temple. We walk into one of the buildings and there right in front of us is a huge statue of Mother Buddha with all her arms, and there was incense burning, and pads where you knew people had been bowing down before the statue. And there were flower offerings and other statues all around with places where people could kneel and worship. I'd never seen an idol up close and personal like that before, and it overwhelmed me, just thinking about the bondage people here live in. 

As we walked around the temple and its courtyards, it was quiet-the most quiet I've ever experienced in China. It felt peaceful, but it was not peaceful. Only Father can provide true peace, not the statues. As I wept inside for the people, I looked up and saw the rays of the sun peaking out from behind the clouds, shining down on us. And that's when I remembered why I am here. I am here to be a light to the nations of Father's true love and peace. Looking at this picture of His light before me, I am hopeful that this nation will soon find the way, the truth, and the life. His light is shining down on China, and I am so blessed that I get to be a small part of that.  

Light of the World

And we went to the twin Pagodas in the middle of the city. They are each 13 levels, and were built in the early 1600s. We got to climb the west tower and look out at the city-it was AMAZING! Except for the part where my knees were sore because the stairs in that thing were so steep. 

The Pagodas!

Me at the Pagodas

Pagoda Gardens

I conquered the Pagoda

I live in a crazy city, a dirty, crowded, beautiful, amazing city. Every day I am here I fall more in love with this place-it's nothing that I ever would've imagined and it constantly surprises me. I never thought I would love a place like this-so dirty, strange, crazy, crowded. But I do. It's home for this year ... and who knows? Maybe some day I'll get to come back. 

City view from the Pagoda