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Friday, April 22, 2016

Autism Dance

From Wednesday to Friday (April 20-22), a theater dance group from North Carolina joined us to empower 30 youth with autism through dance.  
 
~ Kevin

Day Camp for Adults with Disabilities

On April 16, we organized a day camp for 28 adults with disabilities. We met 27 of them for the first time. We taught English, exercised, and discussed You are Special by Max Lucado.

~ Kevin

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Hiking to the Water

We had quite an eventful week, serving in two cities and a countryside town. This blog post begins with our Saturday hike, at the countryside location where we conversed with a neighbor.
A few local friends joined our hiking group.
Here, my friend Hans and I are near the top of the small mountain. 
This is Wei Wei, who is one of our volunteers. She lives in our city, but she grew up here.
We reached our final destination at a natural spring of water, which is famous in the area. Many people walk for miles to collect this water. For us, this trickling water is very special and symbolic.
Although our legs and feet were tired, even the hike back was beautiful and refreshing.
We gathered in the home of Wei Wei's parents for lunch.
Here, I am with Wei Wei's family.
This is a glimpse of a traditional northeastern meal.
After our return to the countryside town, we visited with a family affected by autism.  
Here, we are visiting Wei Wei's grandmother in the hospital. 
Other local families joined us for dinner.
David, the younger man to my right, was our team's co-leader. It was quite an honor to serve with him. 
On Friday, a day before the hike, we had a formal dinner with Red Cross hospital leadership. Note that the vice-president of the hospital interlocked his fingers with mine. For the older generation, this is culturally appropriate, indicating a strong bond.

 In our home city on Thursday before the trip, we visited young adults with intellectual disabilities.
They are a fun group to hang out with. Even though I hadn't seen them since December, they called out my name and came to welcome me with hugs.
This is Mr. Zhao's father. Mr. Zhao leads this day center for adults with intellectual disabilities. It is quite the honor to serve, pray, and love the Chinese people.

~ Kevin