下面是我寫給教會的一個報告。但我刪除了個別敏感字句。
(1) Class reunion: Close to 50 of some 130 biology classmates came to Wuhan University (WuDa) for 20th anniversary celebration after graduation in 1984. Every classmate in attendance had more than one occasions to hear our Christian witness in poetry, around dinner table or in private conversations. Our class prides itself in having produced successful businessmen, famed professors and Christian ministers. Among businessmen are three multi-millionaires in China, one of them is a billionaire who has amassed a personal fortune worth 2 billion Chinese Yuan in 16 years from just 2,000 Yuan or about US$250. WuDa's College of Life Sciences is said to have produced the most professors in USA than any other top universities in China. Many professors are in top research institutions such as several National Institutes, Beijing Univ., Fudan Univ., Wuhan Univ., UCLA, Johns Hopkins Univ., Duke Univ., Yale Univ., Baylor College of Medicine. Among academicians are a world-renowned, HIV (AIDS virus) co-receptor's (and lately, SARS virus receptor's) discoverer now mentoring some 50 Ph.D students, and an award-winning molecular endocrinologist touted as a rising star. Last but not the least, our class has almost "tithed" (had 10% of) its members to become the first fruits in Christian faith, including a minister in Canada, and, guess who, an aspiring evangelist.
(2) Hometown visit: We went to my hometown for three days, glad to see my relatives (mother, brother, two sisters, nephews and nieces, etc), classmates and teachers. While most appeared to be minding their economic well being, a few did show interest in Christian faith by actively asking faith-related questions. I visited a local house church and joined in a special celebration on a Wednesday morning. An elderly sister who went back three years ago almost single-handedly set up the church adjoining to her house and had baptism of over 60 people (with ceremonial assistance from the local Three-Self church). Several people gave testimonies about miraculous healing of cancer and other grave sicknesses. I was invited to give a 40-min sermon on the Kingdom of Heaven, with an altar call at the end. Attendants responded by repeating after me a sinner's prayer, loud and clear. Praise be to our God.
(3) Sightseeing: We took seven relatives including my mother and brother to see the world-famous Zhang Jia Jie, the First National Park of China. We were overwhelmed by many of the breathtakingly arrayed mountain peaks numbered in three thousand. We also saw inside a mountain a huge cavern that has four floors with a river, a few water falls and many stelae and stalagmites. I found time during the two-day tour to bear witness to our tour guide, a Tujia girl. I encouraged her to go more often to a local church that she sporadically visited a few times in the past. Almost all Tujia people, especially the young, speak good Mandarin. The natural beauty of Zhang Jia Jie, unveiled to the world since early 1980's, has attracted millions of visitors and netted unprecedented material wealth for the Tujia people constituting 70% of the local population.
Beijing, our last stop of visit, has over 3 million motorized vehicles congesting all major roads including now six loops around the city. The sudden but brief storm three weeks ago paralyzed the capital's traffic to a standstill due to poor management of underground drainage system. China Daily, the premiere English newspaper in China, seized this incident and warned on the peril of unbalanced urbanization in all of China. Before we left Beijing, we climbed up the Great Wall at the Badaling section outside the city. The Great Wall, once rumored to be one of only two landmarks on earth visible to astronauts in space, is actually invisible, thanks to the candor of Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut who encircled the globe in space last October. The Great Wall, an elongated fortress once important for military defense in ancient China, sits helpless on the mountain ranges, while vying war games with modern weaponry are being conducted down the far south around the Taiwan strait by China and US with Taiwan.
The time has really changed.
