A few of my favorite things about the Western Sierra foothills include: Huge horizons, dark green oak trees against yellow grass, and endless rolling foothills.

Blinded by love.

Aside from a weeklong detour to see our good friends Justin and Erin McDonald in The Philippines (see my next post for previously unseen pictures from that island nation), we spent all our time with Bring Me Hope in China. There were four major destinations for me in China: Nanchang, Zhengzhou, Chengdu, and Beijing. I have split this first post up into Nanchang and Chengdu.

Our first afternoon in Nanchang.

Nate was our fearless, fast-talking, funny, all-knowing, all-seeing and sarcastic leader. One day, I saw him perched on the roof of the hotel, two-liter of orange juice within reach, probably listening to John Piper. Am I right, Nate?

There was an upstairs conference room where we held our goodbye sessions. Executive chairs crammed between narrow rows of desks made it difficult for the, ahem, husky kids to walk, but the orphans seemed to like playing boss.

We spent a portion of every weekday at a public pool in downtown Nanchang. Shoes were removed before entering the pool periphery, and when it was time to leave, there was inevitably at least one orphan looking down at his feet, only one sporting a sandal, wondering where in the world the other one went.

The pool was walled in with apartment buildings like this one:

On the way into the dense inner city — where Wal-Mart and McDonald’s were situated — was this ferris wheel, once the largest in the world at 525 feet tall. It’s called the Star of Nanchang, and you can read more about it here.

On to Chengdu. This was one of my last stops in China during 2008 — the capital of Sichuan province, where the massive May 2008 earthquake killed nearly 100,000 people and caused untold billions of dollars’ worth of destruction. One of Bring Me Hope’s translators was from a village in Sichuan that was wiped out, so my good friend (and personal bodyguard for the weekend) Adam and I flew to Chengdu.

Riding through beautiful, lush countryside laced with rivers, destruction still hung in the air. It was the most beautiful place I’ve seen in China, tragically ripped apart and nowhere near being put back together. Aftershocks were happening on a daily basis, although we didn’t feel any big ones during our brief visit. Authorities were warning that another big one could be on the way.

At the refugee shelter we visited, we saw only a handful of children. Schools had been hardest hit when the quake struck at mid-day. One particular little girl followed us around for a good part of the afternoon. She was beautiful and tragic. Just where had she been when the dying started? What had she seen?

We spent most of that first day walking around the camp and exploring the nearby river valley.

Lush rice paddies and bamboo forests covered the hillsides.

Once we reached the river, Adam went for a swim. More like a wade. Now you see why I called him my personal bodyguard. (Sorry, Adam, if you didn’t want the world to see what a stud you are.)

Last up on our agenda for the day was a ride up the mountain to visit a tobacco farmer somehow related to our host. Six of us jumped in a rickshaw powered by what looked like a small dirtbike. Miraculously, it carried us all the way up and back.

The small hamlet where our friendly, aged tobacco farmer resided was filled with fields and trees and this baby (yes, he’s gnawing on a raw squash):

One thing that intrigued me was how the tobacco was processed and smoked. First, fresh leaves were hung to dry.

Next, dried leaves were bundled with rope to cure.

Then a pinch of cured leaf was rolled into a crude cigar. Like so:

Said cigar was then jammed into the business end of a small pipe and lit. Not so different from a good smoke here in the States.

There’s a riveting story about how we got from the tobacco fields back to camp, then kicked out to a hotel where no white folks had ever stayed, then high-tailed it back to Chengdu, but this post is already running way too long. Ask me about it some time.

Our last stop before returning to the rest of the Bring Me Hope contingent was a hostel in Chengdu. If you’re ever stuck in that particular city, look it up. It’s called The Loft.

If you’re still with me at this point… Wow… Thanks for reading. I hope the pictures have been worth your time. I have another thirty or so images from our Asia adventure last summer that I will be uploading over the next few weeks.

Until next time…

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