This past summer, we hosted a Summer Team from our home town of Olympia. This group consisted of 8 high school students along with 3 adult leaders. One of the young guys on the team, David, graduated from high school last year and is spending his first year out of high school studying Chinese in eastern China. He plans to return to the US later this summer to attend university there. Starting in mid-January, school lets out across China for the winter holiday. David recently came out to visit us for 9 days during his break from school. Our family got to know David during his time with us this past summer so we were very happy that he decided to come and visit us again over the winter break.
Our friend David in the mountains
The glaciers on Mt. Amnye Machen, the highest mountain in northeast Tibet at 20,610 feet
David spent a few days with us in the city while staying at out house. After being in the city, Jamin took David out for a 5 day trip through the isolated nomadic region of Golok, located 300 miles south of the city. This region is quite rough and mountainous with an average elevation of nearly 14,000 feet with mountains rising above 20,000 feet. This region relies on yak herding for most of their income. Many of the Tibetans in this region live in traditional yak wool tents year round. Jamin wanted to take David, along with 2 other friends who are visiting short-term, to this region to show him some of the areas that our family has established relationships in. The Golok region of the Tibetan Plateau is almost completely untouched by the Gspel. There are no chrches in this sparsely populated region and only a few who have heard anything about J.sus.
Over the 5 days David was with Jamin, they spent time in the regional capital town. This town sees very few foreigners so the local Tibetans were always wanting to take pictures with us. The local Tibetans were very kind and treated us to free hotel rooms, lots of yak milk tea and free meals. On the fourth day of the journey, Jamin led the group to the mountain of Amnye Machen, the highest mountain in northeast Tibet at 20,610 feet. The mountain is well know across Tibet and is considered one of the 4 main holy mountains in Tibetan Buddhism. Each year, many hundreds of Tibetans walk around the mountain on pilgrimage while prostrating to the ground every few steps. We spent time interceding for the Golok region in several key areas, including at the mountain.
Tibetan prayer flags along the glaciers at the base of Amnye Machen. The base of the mountain sits at 15,000 feet.
Many nomads in the Golok region live in their yak wool tents year round. This tent was several hours from the nearest town and was sitting at over 13,500 feet above sea level.
It was a very encouraging time with our young friend David. We love spending time with young people who love J.sus and are interested in cross-cultural m.nistry. We always enjoy sharing with them the importance of doing m.nistry in areas where the Ch.rch doesn’t exist. In fact, it is one of our favorite things to do! A special “thank you” to David and his parents for being a blessing to our family!