“They stole our hearts” – the beauty of the land of China and its culture

By Shirley Sung Davis

At our first group meeting, one of the brethren said he came to China because his wife wanted him to come. Then something happened after he started teaching Chinese students…he began choking as he explained. “They stole my heart”, he said. They are the students who we have come to love. Yes, the land is beautiful. But, better yet, the purest form of love and respect expressed by our students is what makes this culture so special and make us want to stay, or come back year after year. Let me tell you what I saw…
We were invited to visit the Jinan Hongye Valley, 济南红叶谷，as part of the “English Corner” activities. This valley is located 30 KM south of Jinan. About 40 students showed up on Saturday morning to enjoy the beautiful valley and to have the opportunity to speak to American speakers.

The students hired a tour bus for the event. They also brought enough food for an army. It included 4 cases of Laushan Beer, a big case of barbeque beef, mutton, chicken wings, shrimp and fish on skewers. Everyone brought some kind of crackers, fruits and other snacks. They even brought a long trough, along with charcoal briquettes, to grill the food. The grilling started at around 11 and at 2 o'clock they were still grilling. Dana gently informed them that drinking beer was bad for them, that it kills brain cells. Only the guys drank, none of the girls touched the stuff.

It was so much fun talking to the students, helping them get appropriate American names. Names such as "super man", "flag", "number one" were quickly changed to John, Matt, Cindy, etc. We all had so much fun speaking English. That was what the field trip was about - providing students with opportunities to speak English to native English speakers. I'm not a native English speaker, but was good enough to be helpful like a native speaker would, I guess.

Visiting with the girls was a lot of fun. We talked about values and the girls were very surprised that Americans were not like the ones they saw on TV with lots of problems.

During the whole time that we were together, I saw something beautiful. All the students made sure we were comfortable, well fed and enjoying our experience there. When we wanted to sit down, they immediately found some papers for us to sit on. When we looked at the trough to see what they were grilling, they immediately brought us the skewers of foods. They were helping Dana get up and down the steps for fear that she was going to fall. Their tender loving care of their American teachers reminded me of what the brother I mentioned at the beginning of this article said, “They stole my heart”. I noticed whenever I called on a student to answer a question, (s)he almost always would stand at attention to answer the questions. They have such respect for the teachers, it’s hard not to love them. Yes, “they stole my heart too”. How grateful I’m to be here to feel the love of our Heavenly Father’s children in China.

tender loving care!

"Repent ye, repent ye..." Is that Samuel the Lamanite up there preaching?