I have a fellow teacher from the Changchun University of Science and Technology who is presently serving as a Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins University. Consequently, we decided to arrive a day early to visit with Guan.
Guan is a very intelligent, capable teacher who was respected by her students. I sat in on her class on occasion and found her to be an excellent instructor. She has an amazing grasp of American culture and history. Her English is very good. I have seen her judge speech and debate competitions and always considered her to be very tough on the students. She was not timid about clearly expressing their weaknesses and errors! If anything, she was short on encouragement.
In time, we seemed to connect and forged a professional relationship based on mutual respect. On a number of occasions, she offered me a ride home to my apartment - saving me a half-mile walk in bitter cold weather! :-)
Her American apartment was on the fifteenth floor with a wonderful view of the campus and of Baltimore proper. Her furnishings were sparse - for the obvious reasons; she is only here for six months. [Remember that the currency exchange rate makes it extremely difficult for Chinese people to visit America. It takes 6.5 yuan to make one American dollar!]
She welcomed us with a wonderful home-cooked meal of dumplings, blue crab, salmon, and fruit. We recognized that she had splurged on our behalf!
After eating, we drove to The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen to walk the grounds and tour the cavernous sanctuary. We were fortunate that someone was playing the majestic pipe organ during our visit. It's glorious reverberations resonated in our souls as we took in the frescos, statues, candles, naves and other religious symbols!
Following this we drove to the Inner Harbor to the John Hopkins Peabody Music and Arts Building to attend a recital of a friend of Guan's. Chuanqi Shang is a young man who suddenly realized that he was drinking and smoking to the detriment of his voice. He knew he had a gift and decided that it was from God. He gave his life to Christ and began to study music.
We were mesmerized by the power of his rich tenor voice as he sang English Italian, French, German and Chinese songs for nearly an hour! His pianist was also Chinese, Chenchen Wang. For two songs he was joined by a third young lady, Jia Lin, whose soprano notes blessed us without measure.
The hall was filled with Chuanqi's family and friends from the Chinese Christian Fellowship! They were not timid about expressing their appreciation for the gifts of these three young people! We were so enriched as we heard these words so passionately expressed:
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.
