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One
full floor of the new Admin building is dedicated
to a permanent Exhibition tracing the history of the
Hospital right back to Dr Dugald Christie! One of
the photos on display is that of Dr Arthur Jackson
and the hospital staff were thrilled to learn that
just weeks before the visit I had met with his niece,
Miss Margaret Jackson.
As
many of you will know the Hospital celebrated its
120th Anniversary in December 2003. The SCCG decided
to put together a pictorial history of the link between
Scotland and Shenyang (formerly Moukden) as our gift
to mark the occasion.
We are very grateful to our Convenor, Ann Bagnall,
who has put in many hours of work on this Project
and, as anyone who saw the finished book at the June
1st Event will agree, it is a wonderful record of
this very important partnership. During this Visit
the gift was presented to President Zhao and President
Guo. They were delighted with it and commented on
how important an addition it was to their exhibition.
Many thanks Ann (and Jeff and Philip!).
 The
main purpose of the Visit was to follow up on Shenyang's
request for help in developing their Hospice. It is
a small unit run by retired senior staff, namely Prof.
Sun, the former President of the Hospital and Prof.
Wang. There are also three nurses and a driver. As
the Hospice has no beds patients registered with it
are seen at home in addition to receiving telephone
support. In China all medical services are paid for
which often puts treatment and/or medication out of
the reach of many people. The Hospice, however, offers
free pain and symptom relief medication.
While
in Shenyang we accompanied Prof. Sun and Prof. Wang
on three home visits. Each one told a different story.
The first patient was a young man of 41. He had only
just registered with the Hospice and this was an initial
visit. The patient was first diagnosed in 1998 and
had only been able to afford a short course of chemotherapy
and radiotherapy. There was virtually no income coming
into the household as the patient had not been able
to work for some years and his parents were very elderly.
 Although
now in the final stages of his illness and in extreme
discomfort he could not afford pain relief. Fortunately
someone had told him about the Hospice and they were
able to alleviate his suffering - a fact confirmed
by his family when they phoned the following day to
say that, for the first time in months, he had, had
a good night's sleep.
The importance of pain relief cannot be underestimated,
as confirmed by the second patient we saw. She was
very open about her illness and said that she knew
she would die from it and she wasn't afraid of that.
What she feared was the pain - but now that she was
registered with the Hospice that anxiety had been
lifted.
The
third patient we saw was a woman in her early 60's
who had been battling cancer for over 30 years. She
was a retired primary teacher and, now that her illness
was in its final stages, her one wish was to lead
one more class with her first ever graduates. Prof.
Sun placed adverts in various papers and they did
manage to organise the much hoped for reunion.
 Following
this visit the SCCG will work in conjunction with
Prof. Nora Kearney, Professor of Cancer Nursing at
Stirling University, Dr Adam and Ms Kerr in developing
Training Programmes for the Hospice staff in Shenyang.
This
Visit was undertaken by Patricia Johnston, SCCG China
Field Officer, Dr James Adam, Palliative Care Consultant,
Hunters Hill Hospice and Ms Linda Kerr, Specialist
Palliative Care Nurse and Training Officer.
Dr
Mary Findlay
It
was with great sadness that we all learned of the
death in April of Mary Findlay. There can be few of
us who have not been touched by her commitment to
China and the work of the SCCG. She will be sadly
missed both here and in Shenyang. A number of people
asked about an Obituary being placed in Life and Work.
I wrote to the Editor for guidance and below is her
response:
At
the moment our policy is only to use the obituaries
of eminent ministers (usually former Moderators
or very well-known figures in the Kirk), so the
answer for now is that I would not use the obituary.
However, I am in the process of drawing up guidelines
for future obituaries as it is something which I
am considering reintroducing in a small way and
will keep you informed of any changes.
Best wishes
Lynne McNeil, Editor, Life & Work
If
this is something you feel strongly about you may
want to write directly to the Editor yourself.
Amity
Staff Visit
On
Friday 27th August Qiu Zhonghui, General Secretary
of The Amity Foundation and Zhang Liwei, Associate
General Secretary will arrive in Edinburgh to take
part in a Meeting of the European Network of Amity
Partners. This Meeting, which will end on August 30th,
will be held at St Colm's and is being hosted by the
SCCG.
It is not often that we have the opportunity to have
two senior Amity staff in Scotland and so we are planning
a public Meeting and Reception when people will have
the opportunity to hear first hand of Amity's current
and planned work. The date for this will be Monday
6th September. Time and venue have yet to be set but
details will be sent out shortly.
Amity
Home of Blessings
In
September Tan Li Ying, Director of the Amity Home
of Blessings and Gu Qing, a Special Education Teacher
at the Home will be making a 10 day Visit to Scotland,
at the invitation of the SCCG. The Home, consisting
of two units, is a fairly new Project based in Nanjing,
offering day care and residential facilities to young
adults with learning disabilities.
This kind of facility is extremely new to China and
the SCCG is supporting the staff and clients as they
develop training programmes. The purpose of the visit
is to enable Tan Li Ying and Gu Qing to see a range
of day care and residential facilities here in Scotland
which could be adapted/ modified for use in Nanjing.
Plenary
Speakers
The
Plenary Meeting will be held on Thursday 7th October.
As usual the Afternoon Session will be an open one
beginning with lunch at 1.00pm, here at 121 George
Street. Our Speakers for the afternoon will be Tan
Li Ying, Director of The Amity Home of Blessings and
Dr Jim Adam and Ms Linda Kerr, speaking about their
Visit to Shenyang, and the Programmes that we hope
to develop
Exposure
Visit
It
is hoped to organise an Exposure Visit to places in
China that the SCCG works in partnership with. Proposed
dates are 2nd-16th April 2005. It is envisaged that
there will be about 10 places on the group. At the
moment we do not have a precise itinerary but obviously
Shenyang, Nanjing and Shanghai will be included. Estimated
cost will be around £2,000. If you would like
to register an interest in the Visit, without any
commitment, please contact me at the address below.
Ian
Groves
It
was good to see so many people present at the Next
Generation Club on June 1st, to hear Ian speak about
The Amity Foundation. It was wonderful to hear how
Amity has developed over the years and to share in
its future vision. On July 5th Ian spoke at a Church
of Scotland Local Involvement Conference in Kemnay,
which proved very successful. Our thanks to George
and Rewa Banks for hosting Ian while he was in Scotland.
It was very much appreciated - everyone's cooking
is now being compared to Rewa's!!
Ian
returns to Hong Kong around July 21st. He will only
be home for a week or so before heading north to Yangzhou
to work with Amity colleagues on the Summer Orientation
Programme for the new teachers. The BIATG is only
sending one teacher this year, Kate Keir from Edinburgh.
Kate will depart for China at the end of July so please
keep her in your prayers as she makes her final preparations
for leaving.
Department
of World Mission Restructuring
As
many of you will know this year's General Assembly
decided on major budget cuts which will reduce World
Mission's annual budget by over £400,000. This
obviously means that there will need to be a restructuring
within the Department and all areas of work are now
being looked at. The SCCG will not escape the effects
of this restructuring and so I would ask you to hold
us all in your prayers during a difficult and uncertain
time. We will keep you informed of developments as
they are made known.
Notelets
We
have in stock many sets of SCCG Notelets. These are
potentially a significant fundraiser for the SCCG.
If your Church, or an organisation you are involved
in, is holding a Coffee Morning, Sale of Work etc
please think about having Notelets for sale. All you
need to do is to contact me and I'll send a batch
out to you. Monies raised from their sale can then
be returned to the office.
Please
donate online to support our ongoing work - thank
you.
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Visit
to No 2 Affiliated Hospital, 