Sheila Sims Iding
I like bucket lists. I think they keep people dreaming…and hoping. I have a bucket list. A list of dreams…and hopes. Some are personal (a published book…a published anything.). Some are for family (a cottage on Lake Michigan, or Grand Traverse Bay…or anywhere in Michigan). Some are career related (perfected lesson plans and perfected year long goals) Some are whims with little hopes and big dreams (I want a sheep farm.) (Really.)
And some things on my bucket list involve travel. I am not a world traveler like Joey and Tim. But I have travels on my bucket list. I want to go on an Alaskan Cruise. I want to take a two-week family vacation/tour of Europe. All of us. All together. I want to buy a time-share in New York City. And I want to go on an exploration trip to Iceland or Greenland. But as many travels as I may have on my bucket list…there is no trip to China on that list. Traveling to China has never been on my bucket list. Never.
The Great Wall is impressive…and great. The history of that powerful country doesn’t interest me. I never heard of the Terra Cotta Warriors until Tim couldn’t stop talking about them. Hong Kong looks like a big, crowded NYC. Joey has beautiful pictures of the coastline there…but that was enough for me. Tim has amazing pictures of the mountains, lakes and parks in Northern China where he lives. But the pictures on his iPad are all I need. China never made my bucket list for travel but still a week from today that is where I will be. China.
It never made my bucket list for many reasons.
It’s communist country and that scares me. (We take our freedom for granted.)
There is no facebook, no blog, no service on my iPhone.
No ESPN, no Sportscenter, no Road to the Final Four (be still my heart). There is no television I can watch at all.
No movie theater I can go to or opening day baseball game to watch.
They don’t have my diet orange pop and I am guessing they don’t have my Moscato wine.
They don’t have toast or butter or cheese or much food that I will eat because Tim has ended up sick and in the hospital more than once over the food there. No worry…I can miss a meal or two.
And…they have toilets in the ground!!! Holes in the ground for toilets. In public facilities. The restaurants, the parks, the shopping malls, the university…everywhere (except our hotel and Tim’s apartment). Holes in the ground for toilets. So those are a few reasons China never made my bucket list for travel.
So next Friday when Pat and I land in Beijing, I won’t have to cross China off that bucket list. But here is what I will do:
I will enjoy the 15-hour flight with Pat. Yes…enjoy! He works so hard so many days a week I am excited just to sit and visit with him and sleep (uncomfortably) with my head on his shoulder.
I will desperately look for Tim’s face as he meets us at baggage claim. I will eagerly accept that hug of his for the first time in his new “home”land.
I will impressively listen to Tim as he uses his Chinese to guide us around Beijing.
I will stand on the Great Wall in the very same place he stood while holding the letter I sent him to read when he got first there almost 10 years ago.
I will spend Easter with Tim for the first time in years. I won’t understand a single word of mass but the Alleluia will transcend any language barrier.
And holding hands with Tim during the “Our Father” doesn’t need a language.
I will ride a train for 7 hours to Northern China to Tim’s home in Jilin. That is 7 hours of being with Tim and Pat and talking and visiting and seeing more of this country Tim loves.
I will see Tim’s apartment. SEE it. I am such a visual person that the skype tour Tim gave me was never enough. I want to SEE where his cherished books are stacked and his saints are on display and his soccer jerseys are kept. I want to SEE where he put that picture of Brooklyn and where he has his morning tea and where he sits when we skype him for saint lessons.
I will SEE Tim’s life…the classroom he teaches in, the little store across the street, the seminary where he used to teach and the church where he goes on Sunday.
I will SEE where he waits for the bus, where he goes running and that beautiful river lit up at night.
I will meet his friends from Russia, Japan, Korea, China and from countries I can’t pronounce…let alone spell. I will meet his American Maryknoll friends and Fr. Jim, the Maryknoll priest that says mass for Tim almost daily so he can hear it in English.
I will take Tim birthday gifts for May 14. I will take American gifts for his foreign friends. I will take 20 books, bookmarks and pencils for his Chinese friend, LiuBo, whom he met on his first trip there years ago. She’s a teacher so I am taking things for her students.
And I will take in all the life and breath of China I can in the 9 days we are there. I will take pictures and memories that I will keep forever.
When Tim first moved to China, I cried when we clicked “one way” for his ticket there. When he prayed and discerned that it was God’s will for him to stay there, I prayed even harder to understand God’s will. And when he knew he was going to stay there “for several years” I knew we had to go there. When you are missionary in a communist country there is no way to explain your work. To help people learn about Jesus you can’t have a prayer service or a Bible study group or initiate a conversation about God. You can only live your life as a Christian and let them see Jesus through your life in China. So…we go to see his work…to see his mission…to see his life in China. We go to China and it’s never been my bucket list. Never. Until now.