Sister Good Goes to Swatow

Last week, Monday through Wednesday, I had the wonderful opportunity to join my church in a trip to Shantou (traditionally known as Swatow), China, which is a city/region in the southeastern portion of mainland China. This trip is significant because the name of our church in Hong Kong is “Swatow Baptist Church,” and the worship services are delivered in both Cantonese and the Swatow language; many of the members of our church are either originally from the Swatow area or their parents are from that region. Quite a few of the people who went on the Swatow trip have actually migrated to the US or Canada at some point over the past 10 or 20 years, but they came back to celebrate our church’s 70th anniversary, and this trip was a part of the celebration. It was fun to be a part of the reunion as those who came from overseas were reunited with friends who stayed in Hong Kong and all of us explored this region of their heritage together. My favorite part of the trip was being able to watch the other group members interact with each other and enjoy the gift of friendship. Here are some of the other highlights:

· We visited a few “site-seeing” locations, such as a museum displaying traditional Chinese writing, the old city wall in Shantou, a traditional Swatow home built in the 1800s (sort of like the Biltmore estate in the US), and a Hakka (minority people group) dwelling that actually still has some people living in it.

· I ate some things I have never eaten before and may never eat again (hopefully). The cuisine in Swatow is much saltier and oilier than the food in Hong Kong, so it all seemed different from that which I am accustomed to eating here. Included in my new culinary experiences: jellyfish, goose liver, pig intestine, pig stomach, fish skin, oyster omelet, a strange type of “shrimp,” and loads of salty fish and salty vegetables. (These are just the foods I ate in a three day time period and are therefore only a portion of the “unique” foods I have eaten since coming to Hong Kong. Send me an email if you want the complete list.)

· We visited the three Swatow churches that our church in Hong Kong supports and visits in regular mission trips. At each church, the church members had prepared fruit and snacks for us to eat as a welcome and thank you for coming. The third church was actually located in a village on a hill, and our bus was too big to navigate the roads so we rented vans to take us up the rough terrain. The conditions of the village by American standards were squalid—chickens walking in and out of the houses, lots of dirt, open sewage, some wild dogs—but the church building was a very nice building and very well taken care of. One of the main problems that this church faces is that after they teach the children in primary school, the children have to go out of town for secondary school (middle school and high school), because the village does not have one. Usually the children do not move back after secondary school, because the village offers no way for them to earn money and support their families. The church is in a bit of a leadership crisis, because all of the young people leave the village, which makes it very difficult to train up new leaders. I am sure that it was a sacrifice for the people in this church to provide so many snacks and fruit for us because of the poverty of the village; I can’t help but wonder if perhaps dirt, sacrifice, and love don’t go hand in hand sometimes. The people at all three churches were very gracious and loving, and it was a very special opportunity to see firsthand some of the ministries our church in Hong Kong supports.

The other major happening this week was our church’s 70th anniversary celebration—this was a party like none other. We had church in the morning as usual, but with a guest preacher. In the afternoon we had another church service, which lasted for about 2 hours and was filled with songs from the choirs, a brief presentation on the history of the church, and another guest preacher. After the service we all loaded onto buses and headed to a hotel for the banquet, filled with food, friends, and photos. There was a video presentation, games, and table prizes (Margaret won a coupon to a sweets shop!). The banquet was a standard Chinese-style banquet, which is, of course, amazing. It was very lavish and filled with lots of courses, including, but not limited to, bamboo pith, shark fin soup, squid tentacles, oyster meat, fried rice, fish, and almond soup. When people in Hong Kong celebrate, they really celebrate. The banquet reminded me of the wedding banquet I attended in September, but with more people and no bride and groom. It was an exciting day to be a part of in the history of the church, and I felt honored to be able to join in the festivities.