KUNMING, CHINA
"He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;  I will be with him in
trouble, I will deliver him and honor him." Ps  91;15

      The next stop on our journey would be Kunming, a city in the mountains near Tibet.  I had never been there and was looking forward to visiting a more primitive area of China.  When our leader, Wayne, went to the office of the CAAC, which is China's domestic airlines, to confirm our reservations for our flight to Kunming, the agent stated that our reservations had been cancelled.  This really posed a problem because our hotel reservations expired in a few days.  What were we going to do?

      First we went to the CAAC office and stood in lines each day, hoping to secure reservations.  Talking to other tourists, we found that a great many tourists were stranded in Beijing, some for more than a week.

      The night before our reservations were up at noon the following day, Wayne said, "We had better have a meeting to decide what course of action we should take."  Unanimously, we concluded that our only hope of getting out of Beijing would be to go to the airport and pray for God to get us on a flight to Kunming.

      At the airport some of us stayed with the luggage and prayed while Wayne and some others went to the ticket window to plead for boarding passes for our team.  Two hours later we received boarding passes for a flight to Kunming.  Our persevering prayers were answered and we thanked God.  Gathering our luggage, we proceeded to the departure area to await our flight.

      Quite some time later, as evening approached, we had not been called to board our flight.  Just then it was announced that weather conditions would not permit the plane to proceed to Kunming until tomorrow.  We were loaded onto four buses and driven back to a rather seedy hotel on the outskirts of Beijing.

      By this time, it didn't matter what class this hotel was 4-Star or 2-Star, or no Star, just so it had beds in which to crash for the night.   Before assigning us rooms, we were herded into a small dining area where a rather large round table took up most of the room.

      We were seated with other tourists from Germany, Holland, and Sweden.   I enjoyed listening to the conversations about their travels while we ate a long overdo, but very good, meal.  I was surprised that everyone spoke remarkably good English.

      After having dinner in one building, we were ushered to another building and assigned rooms for the night.  I looked at the bed, which appeared to have been slept in already.  I was so tired, I didn't even care.   I prayed, "Oh Lord, don't let me hear anything, see anything, or feel anything.  Just let me have a good night's sleep.  Thank You."

      With that prayer on my lips I slept soundly until I heard someone say, "Come on, everyone, we have to board the buses pretty soon."  Before noon, after another trip to the airport, we boarded the plane for Kunming.  God had performed a miracle for us!  He made a way where there seemed to be no way.  I said a prayer of thanksgiving.  Our mission in Kunming had been cancelled at the last minute.  But our tour went forward.

      Wayne had arranged an 80 mile trip up in the mountains to see the Stone Forest.  It consists of unusual formations of stones standing like trees, resembling a forest.  Personally, I thought the scenery on the way to the mountains was far more beautiful, with velvety green hills and red clay formations dotted here and there.

      We would have enjoyed the trip a lot more except that the driver of the van we hired drove like a maniac!  I think he thought he was driving in a demolition derby!  Only God brought us back alive!  Other drivers along the way shook their fists at him.  I prayed all the way!  Much of the road was under construction and our driver never slowed down a bit.  We were a bruised bunch by the time we arrived back at the hotel.

      Another problem we had while in Kunming concerned some food we had eaten from a street vendor which made most of the team sick.  We were located on different floors of the hotel and I kept getting calls to come and pray for the sick.  So I took the elevator to the other floors and prayed for them.  Jesus was faithful to heal all of them.  The last call I received was from Wayne.  He sounded terrible and moaned into the phone, "Lenore, I'm so sick, I can't get out of bed."

      "Wayne, let me pray for you over the phone."  I don't remember my exact words, I just asked Jesus to heal Wayne, and Jesus did heal him right over the phone!

      Our visit to Kunming was about over.  We had taken lots of pictures of the local folks who dressed in colorful clothing, decorated with lots of embroidery.

      Another thing that fascinated me was watching people carrying birds in cages down to an area resembling a town square.  They would sit watching their bird while resting on benches and socializing in the cool of the evening.

      The next day we left the beautiful, cool mountains and boarded a plane for Canton and the last leg of our journey.  Looking out the window, watching the mountains disappear, I wondered what God had planned for the next stop.