It's truly difficult to put into words the hospitality we were shown in this city by the body. We experienced some much needed fellowship with both expats and national followers. We had a unique opportunity to share about the needs of the fatherless on Father's Day. Only our Abba father could have scripted such a plan as this. It made my heart swell to hear my sweet husband share about the deep love of our Father, how we were once far off but have been brought near, adopted by our Heavenly Father into His eternal family. And to hear him explain about the Father's immense love for the Orphan.
"See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are." I John 3:1
Much to our surprise, there was a Mexican restaurant in this city. To say we thoroughly enjoyed our quesadillas, fajitas, and chips would be an understatement. Lets just say that Herbie was very satisfied with his Father's Day lunch.
I also had the opportunity of a lifetime - I was able to teach some of the principles I have learned from a great friend and teacher, Kay Arthur, to some local followers. My heart was literally about to burst as I facilitated these ladies through a passage from His love letter to us. For security reasons, that's about all the details we can share here but we would love to share more about both of these opportunities with you in person- So feel free to ask us when we return.
We also visited the national panda reserve which is about 45 minutes outside Chengdu - click here. Interestingly enough, 85% of the world's population of pandas live here in the Sichuan province of china. At first we were disappointed because it was a very rainy day and we were worried the pandas wouldn't be out. However, it actually worked in our favor because there were fewer people there. We took a quick look at the map and thought we had a nice route mapped out. After walking and walking, all we saw was what looked like a typical wooded area you would see in Alabama - no other visitors, no employees, and certainly no pandas. Now keep in mind that this reserve is upwards of 250 acres. We finally saw some other people who just so happened to be Caucasian. I asked them if they spoke English and they smiled and said "yes!" We told them we had yet to see a panda bear and they said we could follow them and their tour guide. Finally - some pandas! We saw about 6 toddler pandas. One of these pandas had actually been at the Atlanta zoo and we actually had had the opportunity to see it about 2 years ago.
Did I mention how expansive the panda reserve is? We walked and walked and walked. It was neat to see the pandas in more of their natural habitat versus the way we are used to seeing animals at a zoo. Periodically we saw supped up golf carts and thought - hey, that sure would beat our current mode of transportation - our legs! We got on and were immediately asked for our tickets and then realized we were supposed to buy those at the front gate. Who knew! That sure would have been nice to know. No turning back now - we were quite some distance from the front gate - probably a mile and a half. I promise I'm not exaggerating! So, forward ho, on the only god given method of transportation available to us. So thankful we had the stroller for sweet emme. They make you work to see these bears! And bears we saw!
At one point, I wondered if there were more photos taken of the pandas or of us. We were walking toward the back of a fairly large group of people when lots of them started turning around. It appeared as if they were looking at something very cool behind us so we kept turning around looking for this very cool thing worthy of being stared at, only to realize that WE were the cool thing they were all staring at. Although we have now been here a month, I'm still not used to all the stares.
Besides the giant panda bears, the reserve is also home to some red pandas. We have red pandas at the Birmingham zoo so we tried to skip this exhibit; however the kids wanted to see them so we obliged. Now we have seen some interesting signs around china but the signs in the red panda exhibit took the cake.
The picture is a little blurry but this sign says - "Red panda is somewhat fierce, so please do not teach or feed him! And please keep at least three meters away from him." Okay so notice the big hole in the fence to the left of the sign. The pandas are fierce so stay back - I wonder if they think the pandas can't escape through these holes?
Just a warning in case you decided to jump in the cage and had the urge to chase the pandas.
We quickly left this exhibit after reading another sign that said not to feed the pandas and looked down to notice Emily eating some granola. The fence around the pandas left plenty of room for the red panda to escape and we didn't want to tempt the panda with Emily's granola!
In short, we had a day full of enjoyment and exhaustion visiting the panda reserve.
So thankful for our time in this city, with full hearts we headed to the train station. A bullet ride train was a first for all of us except herbie, of course, our world traveling daddy and husband. We had been warned that the train station would be extremely busy and crazy hard to navigate with all our bags and 3 children. Thankfully they had a way to "check" bags. Basically you pay about $3.50 per bag and they lead you down first and someone carries your bags.
Worth. Every. Penny.
We were quite the spectacle being led down before everyone else - most people don't check their bags, most people are not white, and most people don't have three children. As soon as we went down the escalator it was like the floodgates opened and everyone else headed down after us. Our seats were at the very rear of the train so we had to walk a ways once we reached the plank. We finally reached our seats. It was a very pleasant train ride - we enjoyed the few extra inches of room as compared to airplane travel. I think this is my new, preferred method of travel :)
Hurry, the people are coming!
Emme caught a great nap on herbie and looks like he enjoyed getting a little "shut-eye" as well.
We are now in Chongqing and will update you more as we can.
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