Dinner With Greatful

In December GPiH hosted a group of about 20 doctors, pastors, fortune 500 executives and various business owners in Beijing for two weeks.

The team went throughout the city teaching, training leaders, and exploring all the various opportunities in Beijing.

On a chilly night towards the end of the trip we decided that the team should go out and see the part of Beijiing that isn't in school, or doing business.

Every year about 13 million farmers or other workers put out of their jobs by machinery or modern techniques move from the countryside to the cities every year. Once in the city they usually less then one American dollar for every 12 to 14 hour day.

So what did we do? we split our team into groups of three foreigners and 1 Chinese local to translate and also be involved. The teams were given the task of finding one of these many workers and just talking with them and buying them a hot meal of their choice.

Since i live in Beijing a knew exactly where i wanted to go. I spend a lot of time in Wu Dao Kou, which means i see a lot the same people there asking for money or working. My group quickly found one of these people familiar to me and asked him to join us. he eagerly accepted. we asked he had any friends that would want to join us and our group quickly grew by two.

We took them to a small restaurant that serves pretty basic rice porridges and meat dishes. The eagerly ate what was put in front of them, and while they ate i tried to keep up as our translator spoke to them about their pasts and families.

It was a pretty powerful experience for me. I see people begging for money and just see it as a slight annoyance. something to be dealt with and brushed aside. what i dont think about is that these people are just that... PEOPLE. they have families, worries, they experience joy and they experience sadness. that had never struck me before.

I'll be posting more about the individuals we shared the meal with later on.