Yeah, yeah...THE GREAT WALL!!!

It's been about a hundred years since I've updated, which signifies two things...1) China has had me EXTREMELY busy over the last couple weeks and 2) I haven't been up to much other than the typical studying, eating, sleeping, etc. However, this weekend I did something atypical. I went on an 11K hike across the Great Wall. FINALLY!!! I've been in China for almost 2 months and hadn't yet actually climbed Beijing's part of the Great Wall. Seeing as we would be hiking (=climbing a million trillion stairs), my Alliance adviser wanted to wait until the weather got a little cooler to make the climbing easier. About half way thru last week, the weather in Beijing got dramatically colder. The mid-70s temperatures that we had been enjoying turned to low-mid-50s temperature. So our adviser decided that we should go climb the Wall. We climbed onto a bus at 10:00 Saturday morning and headed off to our destination. We were going to climb an older, more authentic, and less touristic portion of the wall...from Jinshanling to Simatai...a little over 11 kilometers total...so we traveled 2 and a half hours away from the city to do so. A little after noon, we excitedly arrived at Jinshinlang and were welcomed by several shirpas. (Note: Shirpas are peasants/farmers who live near the Great Wall and "help" tourists climb portions of the Wall in hopes that at the end of the climb the tourists will be willing to buy a book, shirt, or some other small trinket in return for the help. Although this notion originally greatly annoyed me, my adviser, Bing, explained that this is part of these people's livelihoods. If the weather is bad, they have bad harvests and rely upon selling things to tourist for income. After hearing such, I was much more inclined to help.) We climbed up a couple of sets of stairs and saw the grandiose of the Great Wall. It was breathtaking...SOOO huge and beautiful!!!!! Jinshanling and Simatai were both unrefurbished (I can't think of the correct English word...too long in China) parts of the Great Wall; so climbing was hard with a lot of loose gravel/rock and unlevel stairs and such. It was hard work, and several times I quietly wondered to myself what exactly I was doing. Nevertheless, I continued to climb. And after almost 4 hours of excruciatingly painful and difficult climbing, I saw the end of our 11K hike. And I smiled on the outside and on the inside at the feat I had just accomplished. And there was a perfect ending to our incredible day...a zipline across a gorgeous lake to the bottom of the mountain range!!!

My legs are still aching, and I can't take the stairs without being reminded of my hard 11K hike. But it was satisfying and beautifully natural and well worth it. It's funny how every time I began to get a little down, I open my eyes and find God in a new place in China...in the faces of laughing children, in the warm breeze on my cheek as I walk to class, and most recently in the natural scenic beauty surrounding the Great Wall. I smile as I think back on the abundance of God's fingerprints I've seen. It amazes me that people are still able to doubt Him with the Divine Maker's evidence all around. May we constantly, every minute of every single day, be reminded of the greatness and love of our Father, of His eternal promises, and His CONSTANT presence in our lives. We serve a GREAT GOD indeed!!!

Love you and miss you all WAY more than I'd really like to admit!!! ; )

Dancing in the eternal beauty of the One True God,

Kendall