Three Cities, Three Countries, Seven Days

Tian Jin, Seoul, and Singapore

Part 1: Tian Jin, China
Last Tuesday & Wednesday I traveled with my friend and fellow TIP teammate Karen to Tian Jin. One of her students from last summer, Linda, invited her to visit. Tian Jin is a city of 10million people and a two hour drive from Beijing.
We took the express train though and arrived in under 30 minutes. On Tuesday we walked all over the city with Linda and her husband and on Wednesday Linda, Karen and I visited Linda's parents.
We pretty much ate our way through the city! Linda and her husband were the epitome of hospitality, treating us to many delicious traditional foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Highlights: hotpot dinner with meat (sliced pork, ox stomach, bone marrow,meatballs), vegetables and noodles; breakfast dish that was like a thin omelet, wrapped in a thin pancake with delicious sauce, so that it looked like a burrito of sorts (super yummy); flavored ice, a mountain of ice with some milk in it, and topped with red bean sauce and corn (yep, it's a dessert); pears and peaches picked straight from the trees at Linda's folks' house in the countryside; homemade dumplings and "jar-bing" which is like a bouza but with a thin breadwrapping and fried, all with vegetables, and soooo good!

Among other culinary adventures, Karen & I fixed an 'American breakfast' for Linda and her husband. A trip to the grocery store was very interesting and it was no small miracle that we found baking powder for the pancake recipe.

"Baking powder?" Asked Linda,
"Yes, baking powder... It is... hmm, white, like flour, you put it in when you are baking, and...". Yea...

I think Karen and I were both praying when she was staring at the shelves and said "Baking powder!". And there it was, in English no less, Baking Powder. We got up early to cook so that we could eat with Mr Sung before he went to work. Perhaps most challenging was when we went to toast the bread... No toaster. No problem! We'll use the oven. No oven. Turns out, you *can* use a wok to toast bread. Carefully, though... I burned the first piece or two. Karen was a rock star making the pancakes, adding milk and flour and sugar to counteract the super salty butter (was it salted butter? We may never know...).
All in all the pancakes with peaches, scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast made for a good breakfast. Perhaps my favorite moment of all in Tian Jin was when Linda showed us her mother's prayer room. There was a table acting as an altar, framed pictures of many different gods, incense, and music that sounded like chanting. Her mother found us there and showed us the ritual way she prays, standing, kneeling, prostrated on a cushion before the altar. We said, "May we show you how we pray?" and told yes. We stood, all four, in a circle, held hands, bowed our heads and Karen prayed to Jesus, asking His blessing on China, its people, and Linda and her family, that they may have joy as they know the greatness of His love. Linda translated to Chinese for her mother, and we all said Amen together.