Story of Ten Chickens

After the Spring Festival, I had a chance to accompany teachers from my hometown to visit the village (leprosy rehabilitation village) in the mountain and to visit two friends who are raising chickens there. One of them has 33 hens and chickens. One hen is hatching eggs, so, if the first 13 chicks hatched are not eaten by his cat, there should be more than 40 chickens in total. Fortunately, my friend made a wise decision to send away his hungry cat. The other friend has 9 chicks and 3 hens. I heard he sold the rooster and bought a hen.

I remember it was at the end of March last year, when the morning in the mountain was still cool, that my three coworkers and I first visited the village. We drove across streams and on a rugged mountain path. The mountain path was extremely difficult to drive on.

From time to time, we had to get down to push the car forward. At the end of the road, we parked the car in front of a house and then began to climb the mountain. We climbed for three hours and finally arrived at our destination – a leprosy rehabilitation village. Upon our arrival, a village doctor came to greet us and kindly guided us into the village. On the way there, a tractor blocked the narrow mountain path and made it impossible for us to pass. The doctor made multiple calls to find the owner of the tractor and got the tractor moved out of the way. When we finally reached the village, it was already past noon. After a short rest and simple meals, we gained some understanding of the situation in the village, and we then spent two hours visiting the village and rehabilitation patients.

When we visited the village again in June, a new road had been built to allow direct access to the village. After five days of visit, we established files and archives for individual patients, and recorded in detail each patient’s degree of disability of eyes and limbs, the existing size and location of ulcers, nervous system responses, and so on. During our work we communicated further with the village doctor and learned that earlier he had planned to go out and work at coal mines with young villagers in the summer, but because of his appreciation and affirmation of our medical service, he dispelled the thought of making a living outside the village and volunteered to take over the medical service after our departure from the village. In order to improve his living standard, he became the first beneficiary of a five- chicken gift.

Another villager is a single parent with a one-year-old son. He was an alcoholic in the past and would beat his wife when drunk, so his wife ran away from home and never came back. When we saw his son on our way to the village, the child was on his father's back, wearing only a shirt, and his face and body were all very dirty. Then we went to his home to have a look. It was utterly destitute beyond description. Although some villagers thought that the young man’s circumstances were a punishment of his wickedness and thus did not deserve any help, we thought of the scripture ". . .when the Lord saw people ... his heart went out for them ...” and made him the second beneficiary of the gift of five chickens.

That year a fowl plague killed many chickens in the village, so we bought from other villagers ten healthy chickens that survived the plague and gave them to the two men, each with one rooster and four hens so that they can breed. After six months, all the new- born chickens would belong to them, and the ten roosters and hens would be returned to us after assessment and passed on to other needy families to breed. Now, because the second beneficiary will leave the village and work outside, we changed our original plan. In line with the government’s new policy of "create[ing] a new countryside and environmental friendly cities," we recommended that they each return ten chicks so that we can invite more villagers to participate in raising chickens with scientific, ecological, and economy-of-scale farming methods and thus create new business opportunities.

Why Wouldn’t He Speak - Heartfelt Voice of a Teenager

Last October, through a friend’s referral, we came to know a boy who was in 8th grade. When we saw him at the friend's office, he was hiding behind his mother although he was much taller than she was. When we asked for his name, his voice was barely audible. He appeared very shy and uncomfortable. His mother told us that ever since he went to middle school, he didn’t speak much and never talked about anything relating to school at home. For more than a year at the middle school, he didn’t make any new friends, and his scores dropped considerably. All these changes made his parents very worried.

We made several follow-up visits and learned that, in his new middle school, some problem students in a higher grade were bullying new students, a fact which made going to school a tremendously frightening and anxious experience for him. Because he was bullied, his classmates dared not socialize with him. As a result, he suffered a great deal of psychological trauma. Later, in the consultation process, in addition to listening to him and creating opportunities for him to express himself, we encouraged him to first observe whether there were some classmates with characters or characteristics that he admired, and then try to communicate and interact with them. We also encouraged him to be more open in both academic study and interpersonal relationships, and to have more interaction with the head teacher and teachers in other disciplines. We re-built his self-confidence through his passion for and knowledge in science and military equipment. In the second semester, he became more cheerful, was willing to have more conversation and interaction with his parents and teachers, and made some friends in his class.

After the Spring Festival holiday when classes resumes, the boy expressed his wish to continue to meet us. Considering that he still has some difficulty in terms of expression and learning, we recommended and helped him set up a learning goal to reinforce good habits that will further build up his self-confidence and self-discipline. We hope that after six meetings this semester, the young man can start a healthy life with a healthy learning attitude, healthy interpersonal relationships, and a healthy parent-child relationship with his parents. We also hope that he can understand the meaning and goal of life and that he will rely on the One who loves us to help him bravely face the road in front of him and future challenges.

Conclusion

These two experiences have taught us that community development ministry can reach into communities through many different channels. Because every family and every person have different levels of needs, we must think how to observe, explore, plan, and conduct to first meet their needs and then introduce to them the truth that will bring spiritual peace and fulfillment. Of course, this is a cross-cultural work. In many ways we need to understand and learn more in-depth, to build with patience and love, and to listen carefully every day to that tiny voice saying, "This is whom I love! What you do unto them, you do unto me. "