This is China: Sea of Faces

You've seen the countryside and while that is cool, when it comes do to it, it's about the people. It's easy to take it for granted or just go through a day without thinking about it, but people are still amazing works of God. The complexity, the diversity, the similarity of people is still mind-boggling.

Above: A shot of a small village from our first day out. Piles of bricks and roofing tiles are very common in the villages; That's because many of the houses like the large on the right are still works in progress. Or sometimes they keep them for repairs. Below: Baby, mom, grandma and dad pose for a picture (granddad wasn't up for the photo shoot).

Above: Kids that followed us on day 3. We had a whole troop of students (about 30) walking down the highway with us for about a mile or 2. Notice the keys on 2 of the kids- I guess "latch-key kids" aren't just an American phenomenon.

Above: Day 4 brought Gary into this remote village tucked behind a dirt road that cut through sugarcane fields. The men of the town were collected under this big shade tree; opposite them at the tiny store, the women were huddle together (below). It was like a family reunion with all the generations together... that and the birds getting ready to be cooked (to the right).

On our last day out, we found another small village while searching for water and relief from the heat. The kids soon gathered around the "white folks". I am pretty sure that this was the first time most of these people had ever seen a white person in their lives. (Can you imagine? You finally see a white person and it's... Jason.) We were almost assuredly the first white people to visit the village. Nonetheless, we put on quite the show for the kids by just being ourselves.

Below: Locals hang out at the local store where you can buy water, taro flavored popsicles or make calls. Yeah, they didn't quite know what to make of us. Hopefully, they will soon hear or read about their Maker.

While different in many way, the people of China were usually willing to help us out and show us hospitality.

So that was my trip to China. Up next... I go from being a celebrity to hanging out with celebrities.