Mission Trip: Our Visit with Rui Rui

This was written by Beth Kam, an Agape Fish high school intern. View the original post. 

​It was 5:00am and as dark as night. The sun wasn’t even up, so why was I awake?

We were going to visit Rui Rui in the countryside of Gansu. Rui Rui has congenital heart disease, but she is unable to receive surgery because of her pulmonary hypertension. So for the last two years, I have raised the money for her heart medicine by teaching a summer craft camp. I was so excited to finally meet her in person!

Rui Rui lived far away from the campsite, which is why we were up at 5 in the morning. A private car had been hired to take us first to Lanzhou, and then we would take the bullet train out to Dongwei. Before reaching the train station, we stopped for breakfast at a small beef noodle shop where we had fresh, hand-pulled noodles.

Time for breakfast!

Lanzhou's famous beef noodles at 6am!

​After the relatively short ride form Lanzhou to Dongwei, we had to hire two taxis to take us out to Rui Rui’s house, since there were so many of us (and we were dragging our luggage). The drive took a long time, but the scenery was beautiful. I loved looking at the ancient tiered mountains with different crops growing. At one point, we stopped at a potato field, full of flowering stalks, and snapped a few photos.

The terraced farmlands.

​Finally, we found the entrance to Rui Rui’s home. We had to walk up a small, dusty hill and then go up another path to reach her house.

Rui Rui met us in the entrance to her house with a bright smile. She looked exactly like her pictures.

Rui Rui and me!

​We looked around their home too. There was a room with a noodle cranker, a water cellar for rain water, fruit trees with delicious pears, and the “regular” living areas (living room, kitchen, bedrooms). Her family also gave us potatoes, corn, cucumbers, and pears to eat. When we had finished eating, I gave her a bracelet I had made with the word “Hope” on it, a floppy eared stuffed dog, and a sheet of sparkly butterfly stickers. My sister Emily had brought her ukulele with her, and we sang “Flowers of the Field” for Rui Rui and her family. Then, to my surprise, Rui Rui stood up and offered to sing a song for us as well.

Rui Rui's house.

Their water storage.

Josiah noodling with the noodle cranker.

The pears were very sweet.

They gave us so much food! So generous!

​I noticed that Rui Rui looked quite healthy. Yun Yun, the Little Red Scarf director, told us how she previously had had blue lips (from lack of oxygen), and how her lips were nice and pink now since taking heart medicine.

Meeting Rui Rui was an unforgettable experience. I wasn’t expecting to meet Rui Rui during my trip to Gansu because I knew that most of the Little Red Scarf patients lived very far from Lanzhou (about 6 hrs away or more). I was ecstatic when Yun Yun told us we would be able to visit her. Seeing how happy and healthy she looked brought me sheer delight and tremendous joy.

Left to Right: Beth, Grandma, Rui Rui’s brother, Rui Rui, and Yun Yun, LRS director.