China Mission Trip 2009:
Visiting the AIDS Orphans and Teaching English
June 25 - August 3, 2009

Nancy and I landed in Nanjing on June 25. Because of Chinese concerns about the swine flu, public health workers boarded the plane and checked everyone's temperature before we were allowed to deplane. Someone must have been ill, since the passengers in six rows had to remain in their seats while the rest of us got off and went into the terminal. About the same time, Linda, Bob, and Sandy Neundorfer (a friend that Linda had recruited to teach with us in the Summer English Program) landed in Shanghai and went through the same process. They took the train to Nanjing and met up with us the next day. The five of us had passed swine flu test #1.

The next swine flu test was that we had to stay in Nanjing for seven days before we could go to visit the AIDS orphans. If we developed the swine flu during that time, then visits to the AIDS orphans and our participation in the Amity Summer English Program would have to be canceled. Fortunately, all of us passed test #2 and we headed off with Judy Sutterlin and three staff members from Amity to visit the AIDS orphans and then came back to Nanjing for the Summer English Program.

Visiting the AIDS orphans
Visiting Nanjing Seminary with Judy

The English language plays an important role in the Chinese educational system. Children start learning English in third grade and continue with it through middle school and high school. Students must pass an exam, which has an English language section, to be admitted to high school. Admission to a university requires passing another, more competitive, exam; this exam also has an English component. We have been told that a student's score on the English section of the university admission exam often makes the difference between being admitted to a university or not. In this system students in rural school are at a disadvantage because of the lack of good English teachers. The Amity Foundation started the Summer English Program as a way to help teachers, especially at rural schools, improve their English language skills, and therefore their ability to teach English. The Amity Foundation recruits native English-speaking people to come to China for one month to give the Chinese teachers of English an opportunity to practice their English skills, especially speaking and listening. This is Linda and Bob's third time for participating in the Summer English Program, and our second time.

Summer English Program Orientation
Working with Chinese Teachers of English in Yingtan, China
Miscellaneous Tidbits

We are now home; this is the final installment of our mission team report. I would like to end with a couple of quotes. First, the Amity brochure states,

Something remarkable happens when people from different cultures start talking to one another. Language becomes an exchange of ideas rather than a text to be memorized.  Culture becomes something to be touched, tasted and explored rather than simply imagined.  Even 20 short days of this kind of person-to-person communication can be enough to change a life in away that no text or course ever could.

Every summer, Amity promotes this kind of cross-cultural dialogue as English-speaking volunteers work with rural Chinese teachers of English to develop their listening and speaking skills.  Chinese participants see foreign friends engaged in service that directly benefits their communities, while volunteers gain a deeper understanding of an important and growing nation that is often misunderstood and misrepresented in their own countries.  Seemingly small seeds of faith and friendship are sown in these summer conversations, but taken together they point the way to a greater harvest of development and peace.

At the end of the program, I asked the Chinese teachers to fill out an evaluation form. One teacher wrote,

Thank you, Bob, Gil, Linda, Sandy, and Nancy. I'll remember you forever! When I retire I will be a volunteer like you. I will do what I can -- to help poor people. I will try my best to make China and America be a family. One world, one dream. I hope the world is peaceful. Thank you so much!!

That sums up our experience and expresses our reason for participating in this program. The experience has enriched us as much or more than our participation has helped the Chinese teachers.

Grace and Peace,
Gil Emmert
China mission trip webmaster