A Trip For All Of Us

All of us have been asking ‘what’s next?’ In 2007, when we saw a similar thinning out of the expat workers, many of the displaced decided to go to other countries and work with other people groups. In the disillusionment and transition, it is easier to join an established team somewhere else than to fight to do the research and establish from scratch new ways to stay involved. This time, we long to see the bulk of workers continue to engage Uyghur people. The work is far from done.

Even before I had personally gotten news that my visa wasn’t happening, my mentor had challenged me to make a trip to several major cities in our country to look for where there are pockets of U who are not being reached. Some cities have thousands of people from our province there studying, working in factories or even as migrant workers. Starting this week, I will be travelling to 6 cities. Another couple is going to visit 6 other locations. We want to share the research with the wider body of workers who are deciding what to do next. The hope is that, with this information on hand, more people will see opportunities for them to stay engaged with the Uyghur people despite how hopeless it looks.