Rabbit Legs and Donkey Dumplings

What an incredible few days it has been. We got off the plane and we were immersed in strangeness. Trust me. If you have never been here, you've never seen anything like it. Neither have I. This city is a teir 2 city, meaning it is like a mid-sized city in the US. Think Oklahoma City, Kansas City, you get the picture. However, here, a mid-sized city has 5-10 million people. This city has 6 million. High-rise apartment buildings are going up everywhere. They can't build them fast enough. The population boom can be attributed to foreign companies setting up shop here. Many expatriates (non Chinese citizens) are coming in. Commerce is exploding and so is the city.

Yesterday, we had our first chance to meet with our entire new family here. I got to speak and it was just amazing. I can't begin to tell you how nervous I was. My voice shook and cracked. My heart was racing and my hands were cold and sweaty. It was almost like when I asked my wife to marry me. Yep. I was that nervous! How kind and gracious they were. Every week, there are more people than the week before. Last week, there were 35 people or so. Yesterday, we had 67!! I wasn't expecting such a large crowd. That might have had something to do with the nerves. After our fellowship, we went to a beautiful park and had a picnic and Easter egg hunt. It was cold and rainy, but a wonderful time.

Last night, we were treated to a dinner on the town and we got to experience a few of the local favorites: rabbit legs and donkey dumplings. They are exactly what they sound like. The dumplings are like the dumplings you get at a Chinese restaurant except these are stuffed with donkey meat. Let me tell you-they are delicious! You cannot even imagine.

Today, we took a road trip to the mountains about 3 hours north of the city in hopes of hiking. But, it was raining and cold by the time we got there. We had to turn around. The mountains are incredible. We couldn't see them very well because it was so foggy and hazy, but they are majestic. The thing about China is, unlike what we are used to, you can't just call ahead and find out weather and other information at the places you plan to visit. It's hit and miss. You might get there and the park is closed for maintenance or something. It's totally different than what we are used to.

I mentioned that it was hazy. That's because today is Tomb Sweeping Day. It's sort of like our Memorial Day. The Chinese burn "money" as a way to send their dead relatives money in the afterlife. Now imagine millions of people burning stacks of paper and then shooting off fireworks and you can see where today's smoggy conditions come from.

I'm going to try to post some pictures with my next entry. We haven't downloaded any onto the computer yet. Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to lift us up as we have some huge decisions to make in the next few days.