I woke up early to watch the news channel of CCTV. I saw the magician playing magic in the hospital for the children from Sichuan. They smiled after the magic show. The navigator said that the children finally smiled. I wept. I would perform a magic show at the farewell party tonight.

When we were planning our program in Singapore, I mentioned three times that I could perform magic show. But I did not receive any response. I then did not bring any instruments with me. The second day after we arrived in China, our pastor told me that I would perform magic show at the farewell party! I later found that I could buy a set of playing cards in hostel. I could not find any rubber bands from any shops. I only had a rope for playing one item. We learned how to play magic from the YAH! Community College, but we did not learn how to grow out instruments of nothing!

Restaurant of the hotel

Banner outside the hotel

We visited the farm village. We saw stretches of land growing with wheat. Some farmers dried the wheat at the road side.

We visited a primary school. It was the break time when we arrived. The school children were happy to talk to us. When I visited China more than twenty years ago, we also visited a kindergarten in a village. But the children sat and sang song to welcome us. Some of them looked at us with smiling faces. But there was no opportunity for them to talk to us. I did not see that visit meaningful.

The children had the pinky cheeks. They should have lived in the village with fresh air and took more fruits and vegetables. When the break time was over, they went back to their classes. I saw their books with Chinese characters and phonetic alphabet. The teacher told me that the phonetic alphabet for lower primary only. I thought that we could learn from their system.

We took our lunch at a restaurant. The foods I took these few days were much different from those of my usual meals. But I would be happy if there were some vegetables for me at each meal.

We attended the farewell party after dinner. The students were busy in decorating the hall. Some of them were getting ready for performance. The others were sitting down and waiting for the party to start.

It was the farewell party and also the harvesting celebration. Tomorrow they would go home and went to their farm for gathering the wheat.

I was sitting on the first row of the students' seat. Xue Wen invited me to sit at the VIP seat. I told him that I had to perform a magic show and it would be more convenient for me to sit on the first row. The then asked me to sit at the side of the VIP seat. Then the master of ceremony asked me whether she should address me as "teacher". I told her that I preferred that she addressed me as "brother".

When I attended a meeting in Hong Kong in 2002, my god-father address me as "computer expert" before I gave a talk. I told him that I did not like to be addressed as "expert". When I getting older, I preferred others to know me as a Christian. I am a Christian who tries to follow God closely. I am not for power or name.

The performances of the students made me recall my good old days. I was Chinese educated. The good old days of my primary school and my primary school alumni were gone with the wind.

Before the farewell ended, we joined hands and sang the farewell song. After that, I shook hands with the students. Although we were together for three days, they grasped my hand and gave me blessing. Will we meet again after this evening?

May God's love be with you wherever you are

Let us celebrate the good harvest days

Allegros performed by a student

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
down upon the collar of his robes.
It is as if the dew of hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.
                                                A song of ascents of David
                                    Psalms 133