It had been slightly over a year since we last left china to return Singapore for our baby. On 6 July, we as a family, returned to the land of China, planning to stay for a month this time.

Guess someone out there just not too happy that we are coming back to this land….On day one we arrived, we met with some challenges. A friend kindly let us stay at her apartment as she is away. When we reached the estate, we just cannot wait to get into the apartment as we were all tired from the long travelling on the plane. Just when Richard tried to unlock the door, ,’click’ the key broke!!!!!And we had to spend the next few hours, waiting for the lock smith to drill, hammered etc to open the door for us!!!:(Thank God the door was finally opened!!!!What a first day to start in China right???

Then our next challenge was to travel by bus to two other cities before we finally reached our destination, shangrila. We did that as we wanted our girl to slowly adjusted and adapted to the high altitude at shangrila. So first, we took a five hours bus ride to Dali, stayed a night there;then a four hours bus ride to lijiang, stay a night there; and finally a five hours bus ride to shangrila. At Dali, we were told to pay a higher cost for a better bus to lijiang, but on actual day, we realised we were kind of cheated, they put us on a old and lousy bus. Then the bus journey to shangrila, the day we travelled, they happened to have some road blocks, and our bus had to remain stationary for over an hour in a remote place. So as you can see, never a day passes by without any surprises or challenges.

Finally we arrived at our house in shangrila!!!!!Eventhough I had engaged a helper to come before we arrived to help clean up the place a little, when we arrived, the house was still in quite a mess. Not the helper’s fault as if not for the helper, the house looked even worst. This was because, last winter, while we away, there was some major leak in the house, the house was filled with mold. So a friend helped to get people to come to fix the problem, and it resulted in some major construction works….So still not able to rest as much cleaning needed to be done, and also needed to settle a tired baby from all the travellings…

After few days of cleaning and rearranging some stuff so as to set space for sierra, finally we can settle in well…thought from now on, things should be smooth going, but guess what?New surprises again. As sierra and I came into china with the 15 days free visa, so we need to extend our visa since we staying for a month. So we went to the visa office here to extend. When we stepped into the office, there was only one young officer there, playing computer games. We told him we came to extend our visa as we came in with 15days free visa. He continued playing his game and said there is no such thing as visa free, he don’t know anything about that,and he cannot do it for me, then continued with his game!!!!i was taken aback by what he said. How can you in a office dealing with visa but know about it etc. So I asked him if he don’t know, then who will know since he is working in the visa office. He tried to make some excuses, and finally he said come back on Monday, he would check and let me know. Oh mine, sure need lots of grace and strength to be in this land.

So Monday we went down again, this time it was a older officer that attended to us. She knew about the visa free thing, and very soon, she took our passports and started the extension process!!!!Thank God for such smooth process…

It has only been less than 2 weeks that we are here, almost everyday we are confronted with challenges. As I mentioned right from the start, someone seemed to be very unhappy that we are back here. Despite his opposition, we are on the victory end because the greatest one is with us!!!His opposition will not deter us from coming back!!!God is good. My main concern this time is if sierra will adapt well to this place. She seems cope very well….thank God for that. And on the street, she would wave at anyone that walked passed us, her wave and smile at them, just brightened many people life here. The people here as you looked at them, they looked very empty and hopeless. But is a joy to see how their faces cheer up as they see our girl wave and smile at them. God is so good, despite all obstacles, He never fail to be with us, guide and sustain us.

Next few weeks we will be setting aside time to meet with some of our local friends, please pray that we can have positive and strong impact in their lives…

Share more next time…..:)Thanks to all who pray and invest into our work here…..