February 2005

Our trip to Guizhou Province for the 2005 Amity teachers winter conference was another wonderful China experience. We took the train to Nanjing where we met up with some of the other Amity teachers. As our group flew to Guiyang, Guizhou, we had the opportunity to visit and to catch up on the latest news with each other. It was refreshing to see familiar English-speaking faces.

The first night of the conference was a delight for eyes and ears. We were entertained with the sights and sounds of representatives from various ethnic minority groups that live in Guizhou Province. Several people from ethnic minority groups performed some of their traditional songs and dances for us.

On a drizzly gray Thursday, we checked out of our hotel in Guiyang and traveled by bus to visit Amity projects in Puding County. The county has a population of about 393,000. Minority nationalities are 80,500 accounting for about 20 percent of the population. Puding County has 19 ethnic minority groups, such as Miao, Buyi, Gelao, Bai, and Yi. Our first stop was a community center in Shazipo village. This village in the mountains has an altitude of 4,590 feet. The grassland and arable land are created by terracing the mountain slopes. One of Amity’s projects to raise the income level of the local farmers. We saw evidence of this work when we arrived—some of the farmers were viewing a film on raising pigs.

The Amity group continued up the mountains to a Miao ethnic minority village. The road snaked through the mountains without guardrails or a shoulder. As our bus wound around the mountain, the tops of the other buses were visible on the road below us. Villagers walking with goods to the market shared the muddy road with trucks, buses, cars, and motorcycles. These people live in rather poor and harsh conditions. We continued further into the mountains, stopping finally at the foot of a mountain where we were to visit Xianma Village, a Miao village at 4,790 feet, and their church, with its history of 101 years.

The Amity group crowded into the mountainside church where the church choir sang several beautiful songs. The most moving song was when these remote poverty-stricken people started into Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” accompanied by a single accordion. It was unbelievable. The singing was as good or better than any choir we have heard in America.

After the choir’s performance, the foreigners stood and sung for them. We sang “Amazing Grace,” each in his or her own native language: English, German, Swedish, Danish, and Japanese. One Miao young lady wiped her eyes of tears as she listened to us singing.

When the visit came to an end, the Amity group started the trip down the muddy mountain path. As we started our slick descent, the singers were again at the mountain’s edge singing and waving farewell. As the last person left and the Amity group had lost sight of the village singers, echoing off the hills could be heard a familiar tune: “God be with you till we meet again.” Even though the words were in the Miao language, the meaning was clear and warmly received as we departed from our Chinese Christian brothers and sisters. It was the blessing of the trip.

From Fuyang,

Vickie and Billy See

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 245