“Don’t pray, you might leave.” I always remember this poignant comment! Adam (Wu Zixiang 武子祥) was a handicapped young man we often eagerly visited in his home in a small Yunnan town. At the end of the visit, I used to say a prayer of blessing for him. He often really enjoyed our conversations and did not want it to end so soon. So when I made the remark about “Let’s pray,” he liked to instantly respond, “You always leave after you pray, so don’t, yet!”

“不要祷告，要不然你就要离开了”。我一直记得这句辛酸的话！武子祥是一位年轻的残疾人，我们常常会到他住在一个云南小镇的家去探望他。探访要结束的时候，我习惯给他做一个祝福的祷告。他非常喜欢我们的交流，因此常常不想那么快就结束。所以，当我说起“我们来祷告吧”，他一般马上回答：“你总是祷告完就离开，先别祷告，不着急！”。

Have you seen a wheelchair on unpaved mountain trails? In 1999, one of our medical mission team members, Mary Leung, was mountain climbing with local kids of the town. She was surprised to meet Adam in a wheelchair on the difficult unpaved mountain trails, lovingly pushed by young teenagers. They had insisted on bringing him up the mountains to enjoy the lovely scenery. I would have been surprised also! That was the beginning of a long-term friendship with Adam.

你见过在山中土路上行走的轮椅吗？在1999年，我们医疗援助团队的成员之一梁玛丽陪着当地镇上的小孩子们一起去爬山。她在艰难的山路上遇到坐着轮椅的武子祥，被几个青少年用心地推着前行，令她很惊讶。他们坚持要带他上山去享受美丽的风景。如果是我的话，也会很吃惊！我们与武子祥之间长久的友谊就这样开始了。

A severe paralytic disease at one and a half years. The family story is that, when Adam was one and a half years old, a doctor gave him wrong medicines for an illness, resulting in paralysis. In our medical team’s view, it could have been polio, which was then still present in villages around the world. Whatever the reason, the wasting and paralysis in both legs and the right hand created an arduous childhood journey for Adam.

一岁半的时候因病而瘫痪。他的家人讲，武子祥一岁半的时候生病，而医生给他吃错药，导致他瘫痪了。在我们医疗团队的人看来，那可能是当时全球乡村还普遍存在的小儿麻痹症所造成的。不管是什么原因，武子祥的双腿和右手的萎缩与瘫痪使他的童年时光充满了艰辛。

A painful childhood. There were no modern devices to help Adam in childhood. He often had to crawl around on hands and knees, even when the rooms and floors were wet and cold. It was a difficult, exhausting and often painful period of life.

痛苦的童年。在武子祥小的时候没有现代化的设备能给他提供帮助。他经常需要用手和膝盖爬行，哪怕房间和地板寒冷又潮湿。那段日子艰辛而充满痛楚。

When Adam was around six years of age, his father built a home-made mobile chair, more like a pram or stroller, for him to be pushed around, especially when he was outdoors. His younger brother helped push him to school in this pram. There he sat on a low stool in the front of the classroom to see his teachers better as they taught.

武子祥六岁左右的时候，他的父亲给他亲手制造了一个更像是婴儿推车的移动椅子，可以用来推他走，尤其是在户外的时候。他的弟弟便用这个推车推着他去上学。为了在课堂上能更清楚地看到讲课的老师，他会坐在课堂最前面的小凳子上。

When Adam was 17, his grandfather finally saved up enough money to buy him a more conventional wheelchair, which allowed him more flexibility to move around. At home, however, he often still liked to sit on a stool which he scooted around whenever he needed to reach for things or change locations.

武子祥17岁的时候，他爷爷终于攒够钱给他买了一个常规一点的轮椅，帮助他活动得更加灵活。可是，他在家里依然喜欢坐在小凳子上，需要伸手拿东西或换地方的时候用它滑来滑去。

What amazing things can a kind teacher do? Adam had a kind teacher who encouraged him, lent him books from her own library, and sometimes even provided him food. Kindness was truly powerful in touching Adam’s life, inspiring him for his entire life journey!

一位善良的老师能做出什么神奇的事情？武子祥有一位很善良的老师，她鼓励他，把自己的书借给他，有时候甚至给他食物吃。武子祥的生命被老师的良善所感动，激发了他整个人生之旅！

We loved seeing enthusiastic kids surrounding him. For the medical mission team, it was heartwarming to see Adam often surrounded by children at his home, listening to his every word as he taught from his wheelchair. Obviously well respected and admired, he was often literally the center of attraction, including for our medical team. And it seemed he was always smiling and friendly, in spite of his clearly stressful living circumstances.

我们很高兴地看到热心的孩子们围绕着他。对医疗援助团队来说，看到武子祥经常在自己家里被孩子们围绕着，认真地倾听他坐在轮椅上的教导，是很温暖人心的。他们很明显地尊重和仰慕他，他常常是众人，也包括我们的医疗团队关注的重心。而且他好像总是脸上带着友好的笑容，尽管他的生活上有很大的压力。

A rare person at ease with English chats. In his small town, Adam seemed to be the only person we knew who was comfortable speaking English with foreigners. Villages and small towns at the time rarely saw a foreigner. While walking casually around town, we attracted quite a bit of attention ourselves, especially since we might have Whites, Blacks, Hispanics and other Asians on our teams.

少有的能用英语自在谈话的人。在武子祥住的小镇，他看起来是我们知道的唯一能自在地与外国人用英语说话的人。当时那些村庄和小镇里很少会看到外国人。我们在镇上散步的时候引起了不少关注，特别是因为我们队伍里一般有白人、黑人、西班牙裔人和其他亚洲人。

English teachers shy for a reason. Even the public school English teachers often were shy about chatting in English. At that time, many teachers often taught English to their school kids through memorization of phrases and sentences, but the teachers themselves had rarely met or spoken to foreigners face to face.

英语老师的害羞是有理由的。连公立学校的英语老师用英语谈话时也常常觉得害羞。那时候，很多老师一般是通过背诵短语和句子来教孩子英语，但老师们自己都很少见过外国人或者跟他们面对面说过话。

In small towns lacking specialized teachers, the athletics or even Chinese language teacher might be co-opted to do double duty to teach English. So there was quite a variety of English language skills and backgrounds.

在没有专业老师的小镇里，可能是体育或甚至中文老师担当起了英语教学的双重任务。所以，人们的英语能力和背景各式各样。

To me, it’s like learning Arabic on language tape, versus meeting a real Arabic-speaking person face to face. It can be quite intimidating. But Adam handled this language challenge well, to our pleasant surprise!

对我来说，这就像用录音带学习了阿拉伯语与跟真实的阿拉伯人面对面交流的区别。这真是令人生畏。可是，武子祥成功地克服了语言的挑战，这令我们喜出望外！

Talking to yourself might sound strange, but hey, it was a great strategy. Since there were no others around him to practice English, Adam would talk to himself, and even make up English stories to tell to himself.

自言自语可能听起来奇怪，但它是一个不错的方法。既然武子祥身边没有其他人可以帮他练英语口语，他会自言自语练习，甚至编出一些英语故事讲给自己听。

He listened to language tapes and watched rare English television programs. Essentially, he was self-taught and self-practiced, even though it might be peculiar to others! Curiosity and love of learning were the passionate motivations that kept him going.

他听录音带，看稀有的英语电视节目。基本上，他是自学成才的，也是自己练熟了的，虽然可能对别人来说这很奇特！好奇心和对学习的热心是推动他继续下去的一股力量。

Don’t let lack of academic credentials block the way! Adam had no university credentials, but he had enthusiasm, experience and growing numbers of students. From teaching a few children in his home, his program grew quickly to two classes of 70 children each during summer breaks.

不要让学历的不足阻挡你！武子祥没有大学学历，但他有热情和经验，还有一群人数不断增长的学生。他的教学很快从在家里教几个孩子，发展到在暑期教两个班，每班70个孩子。

His teaching program became steadily more and more like a school. He applied for an official school license, but it was not approved because of his lack of credentials.

他的教学项目逐渐发展得越来越像一个学校。他申请了正式学校的认证，但因为他缺乏学历而没有得到批准。

However, when officials came to review the program, they were extremely impressed, and later granted him a special license to operate a school under his name. An honor and achievement from hard work and perseverance!

然而，当官员们去考察他的教学项目时，他们都被深深地震撼了，给他特批可以在自己名下办学校。这是通过努力奋斗和坚持不懈而来的荣誉和成果！

Lovely, charming small town of Luquan. Our medical team considered Adam’s hometown truly charming. Located in the mountains near Kunming, Yunnan, Luquan town is officially a Yi-Miao tribal minority county, and we were privileged to serve there for years. The people were warm and welcoming in a rather idyllic setting. We had many friends, especially among the children, and we often went mountain climbing with them.

美丽的小镇禄劝。我们医疗团队的人都觉得武子祥的家乡具有特别的魅力。禄劝镇位于靠近云南昆明的山区，它的正式称谓为禄劝彝族苗族自治县。我们非常感恩，能有机会在那里服侍很多年。那里的人们热情友好，生活在田园诗般的环境中。我们交了很多朋友，尤其小孩子，我们也经常跟他们一起去爬山。

Unpaved farm roads as a metaphor for Adam’s life journey. Particularly in our beginning years, most of the town was farmland, which made for pretty, very scenic views. Many of its smaller roads, however, were unpaved and difficult to navigate, especially when using a wheelchair!

田地的土路作为武子祥人生的比喻。尤其在我们刚去那里的头几年，镇里大部分都是农田，构成了非常美丽的风景。可是，那里的很多小道是未铺砌的，很不好走，特别是用轮椅的话！

The neat little foot paths among the farm plots were often narrower than one’s foot! It was a marvel to see farmers easily walk and even run along these paths, amazingly not even getting their feet dirty or wet. When we tried that, we often fell into the farm plots, ending up amusingly with our feet covered in mud! Definitely not wheelchair- or handicap-friendly roads.

整齐的田间小径往往比一只脚还窄！看到农夫们沿着小径轻松地走行甚至跑步，还不把自己的脚弄脏或弄湿，很令人惊叹。我们尝试的时候，一般会跌进田地，把自己的脚弄得全是泥巴！这些小道绝对不适合有障碍或坐轮椅的人走。

Forgetting painful memories. Many people have childhood memories they would rather not remember. For Adam, there were very painful experiences growing up. Many times he was laughed at because of his condition.

忘记痛苦的回忆。很多人都有宁愿忘记的童年回忆。武子祥在成长的过程中经历了一些非常痛苦的事情。因为身体状况，他多次被人嘲笑。

But Adam preferred to remember tender moments of love, such as when his mother spent a lot of money buying a precious Chinese-English dictionary for him, which he has kept as a prized possession to this day.

可是，武子祥更愿意记住那些充满关爱的温柔时刻，例如有一次他的母亲花不少钱给他买了一本宝贵的中英文词典。他把它当成宝贝，一直保存到今天。

Wait, how did Adam transcend his paralysis?…To be continued in Part 2….

等一等，武子祥如何超越了他的瘫痪呢？第二部待续……