This weekend Brian and I went crazy watching movies. We hadn't been to a movie in about 6 months. As this is one of my favorite things to do, I had been greatly anticipating what we would see next. We took Brian's 16-year old friend to see the new Indiana Jones film. Overall, it was entertaining, but it was a little disappointing. Some of the story just got too far-fetched.
Saturday morning Brian showed me an ad in the paper for a new film called The Children of Huang Shi. I had really been wanting to see it! So, we hopped in my car (lovingly named Beeper) and headed off to the matinee. We are both so thrifty that we saw no other choice than the 1:00 showing. The film is based on a true story of George Hogg, an English journalist who found himself in Japanese occupied China in 1937. Through a course of events he ends up at an orphanage. When the Chinese nationalist soldiers show up asking to recruit the boys Hogg makes a tough decision. He gathers the boys and all the equipment they could carry and takes off on a 700-mile journey up the Silk Road in winter. I was so touched by the story. And, Brian and I got excited every time they said something in Chinese that we understood. I highly recommend this one!
Sunday evening we'd planned to go salsa dancing with the couple that live downstairs in our building. There's a great place with free lessons at the Universal Citywalk. And, what happened at Universal Studios on Sunday? It caught on fire!!! There was a major fire in the backlot that burned through some storage areas that housed old films and video tapes. As if we didn't have enough pollution already, all this gunk was floating in the air. Universal Studios was told by the fire department not to open the theme park or the Citywalk area. The really sad part of this story is that we've been trying to get together with these friends to go dancing for about two months now.
But, we had an alternate plan. At the church they were having another movie night with a panel discussion afterwards. The movie of the night was Freedom Writers, another movie based on a true story. Again, I was greatly moved. The stories of these children who lived in a racial warzone was almost unbelievable. After the film, Erin Gruwell, the teacher, was on the panel discussion. It was almost strange to see her in real life. She really made a difference in these kid's lives. And, I guess she inspired me to write more.
As I look at the themes of these movies, I notice that they were about one person taking interest in the lives of a group of children that had been abandoned in many ways. Too often this still happens. It makes me even more excited to go to China so that Brian and I can hopefully make a difference in the lives of our students-to-be. We hope that Father will guide our paths to those He is already preparing for us to befriend.
I guess you don't have to survive a war or the streets of Long Beach to have something to write about.
