"Rich is a highly skilled actor, with creative juices dripping all over the floor!"
--Julie Winslow
Hands of Hope, China
(Saw a performance in Hong Kong)

From Beijing '08

I'm now in Hong Kong, and Joyce and Ava are safely back in New York. We had an AMAZING time.

We had our tickets ripped up just before we stepped onto the plane. Before we totally freaked out they printed new boarding passes, which put us in first class! Hurrah! That came in seriously handy as we waited on the tarmac in Guangzhou, where I'd run a race when I was in high school. There was a typhoon ripping through Hong Kong, so what could we do but enjoy the extra services. We did pray that I could make my performance and screening of Olympic Hero in China: The Eric Liddell Story, and that prayer was answered. I told the audience that night that the Lord clearly had something for them to hear since he calmed the storm just in time.

Here's my China album: Beijing '08

These are shots Joyce took on her camera:

The The Ming Tombs, factories, Great Wall, Olympic Pavillion
The Forbidden City, Old Beijing
Old Beijing, Tiananmen Square, Tientsin
Tientsin, Shanghai, Guatemala

I was able to perform Beyond the Chariots twice in Shanghai, and during one performance there were 100 more people than we expected. As you can see from the photo, they ran out of chairs and kids sat in front of the first row. It greatly encouraged me in terms of possibilities for the Beijing Olympics.

Two articles came out in Shanghai newspapers about the play: The Shanghai Daily ( The Flying Scotsman's China days) and The Shanghai Star ( Olympic champion inspires one-man play).

To see more photos from China scroll through the January 07 archives.

This was a part of a workshop I did in Shanghai, teaching participants sociodrama and enacted prayer.

I'm posting from the fastest train on earth. In actual fact we're not touching the ground. Shanghai's Maglev, as its name suggests, levetates on powerful magnets.

On January 5 there was an article on Eric Liddell in China Daily. It
recaps his decision not to run on a Sunday and goes on to say, "What
fewer people know about Liddell is his connection with China." It
tells how he was born in Tianjin, was schooled in the UK, and then
returned to China in 1925. "He would spend the rest of his days in
China, in Tianjin and then Shaochang near Shanghai, before dying of
illness in a Japanese prison camp in Weifang, Shandong, in 1945.
There is a memorial for him in Weifang, and he is interred at the
Mausoleum for Martyrs in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province."

That's what they say in China to get people smiling for a photo. It means eggplant, which makes me smile even in the US. These are students of a home school consortium from USA, Malaysia, Singapore, and England. They are the Shanghai Scholars.

They're celebrating Jessica's 15th birthday. This afternoon I'm giving them an acting lesson.
Oh, by the way, it's crazy hair day.