Mountaintop

     An invitation from Sis. Scarlett resulted in three of us accompanying her, her parents, her son Tony and his classmate, Apple, to the ski resort run by our company.   When we reached the mountaintop   we found it enveloped in fog which persisted all day.   Our whole group gathered in our room for worship, a first for two of them, I think.  Christian did the story.                                          First Apple was appointed to learn to ski, and after Christian had given her a few pointers, I was left with her while the others took a walk.  It was interesting teaching a little girl to ski, and I must say she had no trouble surpassing her teacher!  Then it was Tony's turn, and by this time there were so many children tumbling down (adults as well), that I made it my mission to go around lifting up the fallen.  The foggy slope was crawling with people!

     We were in bamboo country, so lunch was a roadside special of bamboo strips strung on a bamboo twig, and then there was rice cooked and served in a section of bamboo log.  

     After a night in the company hotel, I looked out to see the fog lifting, and  was reminded again of a special moment in my daughter's life when the fog lifted.  As the previous morning we had driven by the field where it happened, I recalled walking with my tiny tot there, when suddenly her face lit up and she exulted, "I can just write all the sounds together and make words!"   In my skeptical wisdom, I expected she would find roadblocks, but had the sense to keep quiet, while she took this exciting revelation and ran with it.  I was wrong: she didn't worry about spelling or the direction the letters headed, but proceeded to become a prolific writer on her own.  Within a year or so, she had written scores of letters, authored an autobiography,  a dictionary (with German words added by a friend), a devotional for me, several workbooks for her dolls or me, and a songbook full of her lyrics.    That moment when the fog lifted and it all came together was a gift from God, full of laughter and joy in retrospect.  But back to today.....

      We set out from our room, and then went back for camera and phone, only to find that the battery in the door was dead and it could not be opened.  So we went without, and hiked up to some wonderful sites for viewing the panorama of bamboo-and- mist clad mountains.  We got on bicycles built for two for a spin around the reservoir, and I had Apple riding with me.  That was fun and (predictable at my age) brought back favorite memories again---this time of sharing the saddle with a wee blond as I rode a high mountain trail from one Mexican settlement to another.  "I hope this horse doesn't stand on his back," she said as she looked straight down the mountain from the narrow trail's edge.  Now Apple was more nervous than that intrepid little MK had been, even though this bike ride was not near the edge nor was the drop down to the ski area that far.

     Our door was recharged when we got back to the hotel, and gathering up our belongings, we set out on slippery trails down the scenic mountain.  An hour later we arrived at the house of a sister ( a place where meetings are held.)   Crash! the marble table fell, dismembered, as one of us tried it for a perch,  (uh-oh!) when we sat on the veranda for snacks. Sis. Wu served us lunch of nien gao , a new year specialty, and then we sat outside again and sang from some songbooks she produced for the purpose.  Sis. Wu had been given up by doctors when the Lord healed her--quite a testimony to the community. We then descended into THP where it seems strange to no longer have a home.  The company bus brought us to Hangzhou, and so closed our little outing.