From the very beginning of our work in the small town of LQ, we met Diana, who at that time we called Lucy. Lucy Diana was a daughter of a nurse in the hospital that we had befriended. The nurse brought Lucy Diana to lunch one day, and I had a chance to chat with her. I found her to be a really engaging and lively 12-year-old, who was not shy at all to speak to a foreigner. I took her on a walk around town, where I tried to teach her simple English for different objects, like car, house, etc. She also regaled me with little bits of gossip about the local dignitaries, how this person had several wives, and that other person had a car (unusual in those days), etc. The walk around the town lasted only about an hour, since we had to leave, but it began a deep friendship.

我们ー开始在禄劝这个小镇上工作时，就遇见戴安娜，那时候我们叫她露西。露西・戴安娜是我们在医院认识的一位护 士的女儿。某日，那位护士在午餐时把露西带来医院，因此我有机会与她聊天。我发现她是个逗人喜爱、活泼的12岁女孩， 和我这个“外国人”说话时一点也不害羞。我带她到镇上溜达，嘗试教她用简单的英语说出东西的名称，如汽车、房子等等。 她亦逗我开心，细数当地显赫人士的秘密，例如某某人如何娶得数个太太，某某人有一部汽车（在当时很不寻常）等等。因 为我们得离开那儿到别的地方去，所以在镇上散步的时间只有 ー个小时左右，然而我们之间深厚的友谊就此萌芽。

6 months later, we were back in the same town, and this time Lucy Diana came to lunch herself. Grabbing hold of my hand, she insisted that I should go and teach English at her school. I declined, and said that was not possible, since I was a member of a medical team and we were not officially here as English teachers. However, Lucy would not take “no” for an answer, and literally she held me by the hand, and dragged me along to the home of her teacher.

六个月后，我们又回到这个镇上，这一次，午餐时间露西 自己跑来了。她抓住我的手，坚持要我到她的学校教英语。我拒绝了，说那是不可能的，因为我是医疗队的成员，我们不是 官方批准来这里当英语老师的。然而，露西不接受 “不” 这个答案，她握著我的手，拖著我来到她老师的家。

The teachers in small towns usually live close to the school, and the kids know where the teachers live. Lucy knocked on the door of her teacher, and introduced me as a friend who came from America, and “who could teach English”. In her inimitable way she said to the teacher, “you want him to speak in our class, right?” The teacher sized me up and chatted with me for 2 or 3 minutes; when he recognized me as leading the medical team, he said, “Why not? Let’s go, it’s time for class anyway.”

在中国，小镇的老师通常住在学校附近，学生们也知道老师住在哪里。露西敲了敲老师的家门，然后介绍我是来自美国的朋友，是 “那个会教英语的人”。她用谁都模仿不了的独特神态对老师说 : “你要他来我们班上讲话，对不对?” 老师打量我一下，然后与我聊了两三分钟 ; 知道我就是医疗队的领导后，他说 : “有何不可呢? 走吧，反正该上课了。”

And so in short order, we were at his class, which was just beginning. He walked me into the room and introduced me to the class, announcing: “Today, we have a special event, we have a friend from America, and he’s going to teach English.” The classroom cheered, and the teacher sat down in the back of the room, but disappeared after a few minutes. I was left alone with the class, so I gamely introduced myself and started teaching. It was such great fun and the response was fantastic.

于是，我们很快就来到他的教室，那时候学生正好要上课。 他陪我进教室，把我介绍给班上同学，然后宣布 : “我们今天有特别的安排。有一位来自美国的朋友要教我们说英语。”学 生们ー阵欢呼，老师就在教室后面坐下，但几分钟之后他却消失了。班上只留下我和一班学生，我壮著胆子介绍自己，然后 开始教学。我教得很开心，学生的反应也出奇地好。

Half way through the class, the next classroom teacher came by and waved at me, and I said, “Ganma (what’s up)?” She whispered to me, “After you’re done with your class, come over and teach my class? I quickly agreed. So within the next 3 days, I taught 7 classes in English, and the rest is history.

课上了一半的时候，隔壁班的老师跑过来向我招手，我说 : “干吗?” 她压低声音问 : “你教完这ー班，就过来教我的班?” 我立刻就同意了。接下来那几天，我教了七班英语课。这次的教学经验，开启了往后我们在这个地区的英语教学服务工作。

From this day, I calculated that our teams were able to teach 10,000 student hours over the next few years. For example, one evening, a teacher delegation came to the hostel to meet us. The teachers requested that we bring our entire team to teach English that evening.

我计算过，我们医疗队在那几年一共教了不下ー万个教学 时数。比如说，有一个晚上，由教师组成的代表团来到我们下 榻的旅馆见我们。老师们邀请我们整个医疗队当晚去教英语。

We arrived at the school with 10 people. We figured that we would try to teach 5 classes, with 2 teachers in each class. However the principal huddled together with the teachers, came back, and exclaimed to us, “This is perfect! You have 10 teachers, and so we will combine the entire school into 10 classes; each classroom will have 130 kids, a combination of 2 classes into 1, and you can have the whole night to teach them, from 7:30 to 10:00 pm.”

我们共十个人来到学校。我们算过，我们可以教五班，每班有两个老师。但是校长把老师们叫到一边，然后回来，大声 说 : “这太完美了 !你们有十位老师，因此我们可以把全校分成十班 ; 也就是每两班合成一班，每班13 0名学生。从七点半 到十点，你们有一整晚的时间教他们。”

I turned to my team, some of whom had turned pale. One of them exclaimed: “I never taught a class!” and so I gave the the encouragement: “Don’t worry, God will be with you.” So each one of us was now sent into each “lions den”. I personally escorted each teacher to each room, and gently shoved him/her in, bidding “Godspeed”. That night, indeed we had all 1,300 students, and it was just “heaven” to all of us, to be able to teach so many young kids.

我回头看我的团队，有的人脸色发青。其中一人说 : “我从来没教过书啊!” 因此我鼓励他们说 : “不要担心，神与你 们同在!’’ 我们每个人就这样ー个ー个被送进 “虎穴”。我亲 自把老师们送到各自的教室，轻轻的推他们进教室，并鼓励他 们 : “神的恩典与你同在”。那天晚上我们有1,300名学生， 对我们来说，能够教那么多小朋友，感觉简直就像是在 “天堂” ー样。

After that experience, the team was on cloud 9, and could barely escape from the attention and throngs that now came around us, whenever we met “the kids” on the streets of the town.

那次经验以后，我们这ー队经常感觉飘飘欲仙，走在街上 很难不引起群众的注意，每每在街上遇见那些 “学童”，他们总会围著我们转。

It turned out that some teachers in XD, another town in the province, soon heard about what was happening at LQ, only a few hours away. They got all excited, and started inviting our medical team at XD to teach also. So Lucy Diana is credibly the origin of the English teaching at both of these towns. We joked that Lucy Diana would be the future “party secretary” of the town, because of her obvious leadership skills. Actually, as demonstration of leadership, it was quite common that she would come up to us, followed by a group of 8 or 9, mostly boys, and would give us specific requests. It was usually like, “we would like you to teach at a certain time, and at a certain class”，or “let’s go mountain climbing this Saturday”.

结果寻甸镇的ー些老师不久就听到在禄劝镇发生的事情， 寻甸与禄劝位于同一个省里，两镇相距有数小时车程，镇上的 老师十分兴奋，开始邀请医疗队到寻甸镇去教英文。无可质疑的是，露西・戴安娜是这两个城镇英语教学的始祖。我们开玩笑说，由于露西・戴安娜的领导能力有目共睹，我们估计她将 是这个城镇未来的党书记。事实上，从ー些事就可看出她的领导カ: 她时常自动找上我们，而背后总尾随了八九名通常是男孩子的一群人，然后提出很明确的请求，通常是: “我们邀请您于某日某时到某教室教学”，或 “我们本周六去爬山吧”。

The way that the school classes were organized, it seemed that the kids had quite a bit of freedom and leadership “authority”. They would often literally accost us on the streets and invite us to the school, giving us exact specifications about what time, and what class. We would remonstrate and say, “no, no, we can’t do that.” But they would say, “It’s ok, we’ve already checked with the teacher, and she said fine, as long as we could convince the ‘laowai’ (foreigners), they can come.” And when we arrived in the school, sure enough, the kids had already arranged the classes that we would teach. It was such a great experience!

从上课的安排看，这些小学生好像享有不少自由，而且有 领导 “权威”。他们通常会在路上拦住我们，邀请我们到学校去，给我们时间、地点等详细的资料。有时候，我们会婉拒他们说 : “不行，不行，我们没办法做到。” 但是他们会说 : “没关系的，我们已经跟老师确认过了，她说只要我们有办法说服你们老外，你们就可以来。’’ 当我们来到学校，的确，学生们已经组织好班级让我们教。那是一次非常棒的体验。

Lucy Diana would often take us on mountain hikes, and you could see her leadership skills clearly. At a fork in the road, she would often turn and poll the kids following her about which way to go; however, even though a number of kids might say we should go to the left, she would size it up, and then she would turn around to us and say confidently, “We are going to the right side.” Clearly a demonstration of her ability to inspire a following, including us, and make decisions!

露西・戴安娜常常带我们去爬山，在这时候 就可以清楚看出她的领导 能力。到了分叉路口时， 她会转身问同伴该走哪个 方向 ; 不过，即使有不少 同伴都说该走左边，经过仔细估量以后，她会转向我们，然后自信地说 : “我们走右边。’’ 她真的具有激发群众的能力，包括我们，然后作 出决定!

It is not really a surprise, I suppose, that we now find that she graduated from medical school in 2009 and is now an anesthesia doctor in a small Yunnan town! We trust that God will continue to guide her in her steps ahead. A seed sown, and a fruit which we hope will lead to many other fruits!

因此，当我们发现她已经于2009年自医学院毕业，现在在云南某ー个小镇当麻醉科医师时，真的一点都不惊讶。我们坚信神会继续引领她前面的脚步。种子已经播了，我们希望结出的果子能带头结出更多果子来!

Author’s comments: It is a real joy and pleasure to work with young people, to observe the talents that Providence has given them, and to see them grow up to serve others, whether they are party secretaries or not!

一点感想 : 我喜欢与年轻人工作，因为有机会观察神赋予他们的才能，看见他们长大以后服务人群。不管他们是不是党 书记，都让我心中充满喜乐!