Dear friends,In the wee hours of the Chinese New Year (February 7), while many Chinese citizens were only climbing into bed after the long night of celebrations, Brad and I were up running our required 3 miles for the day. With Tony and Lily’s help, we walked to the subway station, rode the subway, took a taxi, and arrived at the Beijing train station just in time to grab breakfast and board our 7 hour fast train to Xinyang, Henan province.
Our journey to Xinyang actually began almost 90 years ago. As a child, Brad heard stories of his Great-Grandfather Dr. Oliver Distad. Dr. Distad sought the aid of the Father as he lay on his deathbed in Wisconsin, USA. He promised the Father that if he recovered, he would go to China to offer His Love and services to the people there. Miraculously, he recovered, and subsequently packed up his wife and two children and moved to Xinyang, China. Dr. Distad was very gifted, both in his medical practice and the Chinese language. He quickly became well-known to both the locals and the local government as he healed many. His creativity stretched into new directions as he designed a boat to navigate the river there, and a hospital for his many patients. At the end of three years time, the inexhaustible Dr. Distad contracted typhoid from his patients and died shortly thereafter. He was buried at the family summer home on Mount Ji Gong Shan, a popular summer resort in the mountains. His hospital in Xinyang was finished after his death. His widow and two sons stayed another eight years, returning to the United States when it was time for the boys to attend college.
Our trip to Xinyang was much smoother than any ride Dr. Distad would have had available to him. We took the “fast train” which travels at twice the speed of China’s “slow trains.” Our coach had all the comforts of a western airplane. As we sped along, we looked out the window and wondered about the paths taken by Brad’s ancestors. We saw Mt. Rushmore-esque faces carved in rock faces, pagodas on mountaintops, and hundreds of tiny villages spread throughout the farmlands. Red and yellow New Year’s banners decorated the doorways of the homes, and grave plots were covered with little white and yellow papers to honor the dead.
Our arrival in Xinyang was somewhat unremarkable. Xinyang resembles most Chinese cities. The buildings are a mixed batch of old and new, the shopping areas a contrast of Western-style malls and individuals hawking goods on the street. Small children begged for our money wherever we walked, and adults dug through the trash looking for recycling. The main difference we noticed immediately was the snow! We have had very little snow around Beijing, but here the snow was pushed into piles everywhere, and the ice coated the ground in thick sheets. We checked into our hotel, and explored for a little while. Although the hotel boasted a business room, a sauna, KTV, and many dinner options, all were closed or of low quality, so we retired to our room for the night.
