Women's Fellowship Events at
St Peter's Church Farnborough, Hampshire
Church of England, Diocese of Guildford

Helen, with her infectious enthusiasm and great sense of humour, gave us a very interesting talk and  power-point presentation of photographs of this challenging walk that she undertook in 2008.  Despite CMS’s hopes of encouraging youngsters to take part, the age of the group was between 40 and 70 years old. They all had to raise £3000 each in sponsorship before they took part. Helen sent emails to all her friends and was pledged £2500, the other £500.00 she got from her talks at ladies’ groups on her return.

Helen had to buy all the right kit, boots, lightweight trousers, waterproof tops, which she  kindly brought to show us. She had to get her visa from the Chinese Embassy and she prepared by doing some training up flights of steps and hill-walking at Farnham castle and on the Purbeck Hills.

There were ten in the group that met at Heathrow Airport and started the adventure together. Their itinerary took the team, led by their Chinese guide, along sections of the 15th century wall by day, and into rural villages in the Hebei province by night. Traversing steep and ruined sections of the wall through a range of weather conditions was a challenge indeed, and the team felt a great sense of achievement at the end of the trek. Other parts of the wall had been reconstructed to resemble as closely as possible the original structure. Nights were spent under canvas on the land of local Chinese farming families, whose hospitality and friendship were a blessing to the team.

The last day they spent as tourists and attending a meeting of the Beijing Christian Fellowship where there were 2000 people present. They had to show their passports to get into the hall and had to be foreigners as Chinese people were not allowed in!

The team also spent time in Beijing learning more about CMS's work in Asia. Christian mission work is restricted and persecuted in many parts of the world. The trek raised £22,000 for CMS's work in these areas.

Photos:

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