Pictured in our banner are the 2014 participants, Janice and Mark Harper, Shirley Carter and Linda Ashfield, all from Knox Presbyterian Church in Waterloo, Ontario.

The Amity Foundation provides a full and varied program to prepare us before we head out to our schools. We were honoured to hear the Rev. Bao Jiayuan speak passionately about the church in China and Professor Ting (Stephen) Yanren, on understanding China’s ultra leftism, which helped us to understand our context. We were also introduced to the ministry of Amity, when we visited the Amity Printing Company (photo shows women inspecting printed bibles) and the Home for the Elderly in Qixia District. The Amity Printing Company printed its first Bible in 1987 and since then, the number of Bibles printed has grown to more than 122 million. Of these, 65 million were in Chinese and the rest in various languages for export.

We have also had various workshops on the Chinese language and culture and various methods and approaches to teaching. Tonight (July 10) we have a visit to the Amity Office, our group photo and closing worship. Tomorrow morning the PCC team will take the train to Weifang in Shandong Province to meet the school officials and settle in where we will be teaching for the next three weeks.