Team Hong Kong Newsletter # 7
Crossroads
January 21, 2008
by Joshua Blank

The guard eyed me suspiciously as he looked once more at my identification card. "What is your name?," he asked as if daring me to lie to him. "Akram," I said again, keeping my head bowed in submission and fear . Finally, after taking what money I had, he let me into the refugee camp. I was in a total daze after being forced to flee my village at gun-point, walk through the treacherous mine fields, and fill out a near-incomprehensible refugee camp form. Of my family of nine, only I and one of my daughters had made it safely. But the camp turned out to be anything short of safe -- soldiers taking what food we were given and terrorizing us day and night, the stench of death and dirt filling the air, sleeping with three or four others in a tent made for one very small person, "relief agents" taking any valuables we might still have in return for the most basic supplies and services, and people promising hope but delivering only more sorrow. One would think that a refugee camp would be a place of refuge, but it is almost worse than the devastated war zone not far from the camp's borders.

This is what we were able to experience for a short time this past Thursday during a simulation at a place called Crossroads International. Crossroads is a distribution agency that collects surplus goods such as clothing, furniture, medical supplies, electrical equipment, and pretty much anything else that could be useful at their 14 acre site on the western side of Hong Kong. Then, the 50+ staff and the other volunteers sort, clean, repair, and test everything in preparation for delivery to other charitable organizations around the world. It's an amazing ministry, and one of the many things that they offer in addition to the distribution of goods, is the opportunity to take part in intense simulations demonstrating in a very real way how people are suffering around the world, providing a fresh perspective on the many blessings we have here and reminding those involved in the ministries of Crossroads why they do what they do.

We will be working at Crossroads one or two days a week, quite possibly for the rest of our time here in Hong Kong. There are many amazing opportunities to help out there -- anything from stacking furniture to building a scale model of the facilities, from sorting clothes to testing appliances, from office work to acting in the simulations. I think that I can say with some confidence that we are all looking forward to what we will being do there.


Praises:
- The second English session this past Saturday at the Tuen Mun center went very well
- Our schedule is becoming more regular

Prayer Requests:
- Continued patience for learning Cantonese
- That we would be a blessing to Crossroads as they are to many others