Due to personnel adjustments, I have the opportunity to participate once again in the visitation trip to Chongqing this year. I am excited and eagerly looking forward to it because, in addition to meeting 60 high school students along with 13 brothers and sisters, we will also reunite with 32 graduates over three evenings. Among these graduates, half of them were primary or junior high school students when we first met. The last time I led such a visit was in October 2013. Thank God for preparing brothers, sisters, and coworkers who have continued this ministry until now.

       As I look back through our records, the first time Sister C and I visited County F was in the summer of 2005. That was the only time we traveled by ferry via Yichang, Hubei. Subsequent trips have always been via Chongqing City. On that trip, our plane could not land due to air turbulence and had to be diverted to Changsha, Hunan. Our hosts had to wait several hours for us at the airport that night. During that visit, we went to a primary school where there was a child whose father had passed away, after which his mother remarried and later also passed away. The child’s stepfather remarried again. By the time we visited, the child was accompanied by his stepfather’s subsequent wife because the stepfather had also passed away. That was my only impression of that child. In another very small village, the school consisted of just a single building with a few classrooms. We sponsored a few children with only a modest amount of contribution. Yet, the students warmly welcomed us with energetic gong playing and lion dances. Among them was Jun Er, who was accompanied by her grandfather. Over these many years, Jun Er has maintained contact with us, and she will join us this time, now as a mother with a three-month-old baby.

       At Easter in 2007, we organized our first camp for two local secondary schools. The road conditions were challenging both ways of the journey. On our way there, the old road was undergoing repairs, and the temporary dirt road was congested with seemingly endless lines of cars crawling forward at a snail’s pace. On the return journey, a portion of half of the mountain road was blocked by a landslide, with bulldozers on the other half of the road slowly clearing the debris. Because we had to travel further into the mountainous areas of County F, the inland road trip alone, not counting delays due to unexpected road conditions, took more than seven hours one way. The itinerary that day required us to set off early in the morning and involved multiple transfers by car, ferry, car again, and flight. By the time we returned to Hong Kong from Shenzhen, it was already midnight. Despite these challenges, most team members continued to join the visitation trips and experienced unpredictable traffic and road conditions, accompanied inevitably by urgent prayers.

       Nowadays, with high-speed trains available, the journey that used to require over six hours by car and ferry now takes just over two hours. However, the journey of the human heart from having no knowledge of God, to knowing there is a God, and eventually to knowing the one true God is still not easy, or even slower than before. This time, we initially expected to be able to have weekend activities for both the mornings and afternoons with each high school student. Later, we learned that the graduating classes would only have one afternoon. Just about ten days before our departure, we were informed that we would only have an hour and a half on Friday evening. We earnestly hope that the Holy Spirit will guide us in meaningful exchanges so that these students will stay connected with us even after graduation. We also deeply hope to continue caring for them through collaboration with a local charity organization.