I absolutely LOVED China! I never thought I those words would actually leave my mouth.
The trip over to China and then to our ministry site was horrible!!! We left Hong Kong on Wednesday, December 5th, at around 1:15 pm and walked about two miles with our 50 lbs packs plus our backpacks to a bus station. We then boarded a bus and traveled to another town to a subway. When we got off the bus we walked another mile and a half with our packs to take the actual subway. After we got off the subway we had to quickly transfer onto another subway that took us to the border of China. We literally walked to the boarder of China and then stood in a very very long line to get through immigration. This was the scary part because we had to split up into groups of two and pretend we didn’t know anyone else because we didn’t want to look suspicious. After crossing the border we ended sitting outside in the freezing cold for about two hours waiting for the other teams because we split up so that we didn’t draw too much attention to ourselves. We then walked a mile and found the train we were supposed to get on. We were on the train for about an hour and then walked another hour to the next train and then took one more train. Once we got to the train station we learned that our train was not leaving til the 6am so we slept outside at the train station. Once we got to our train station in the morning, again, the train that was to take us to our final destination was not leaving until the evening so we spent the day outside of the station. We finally boarded our train only to learn that it was going to be a 40 hour train ride.
After about 4 or 5 days of travel (I lost track of time) we made it to our home for the month or a couple of weeks . We lived in an apartment with no heat but no complaints because we had hot showers!!!! To get around the town we had to take the public bus and walk everywhere. This wouldn’t have been a problem if it wasn’t so cold all the time. Our contacts this month were amazing and a true blessing to my team. I thought December was going to be my hardest month but our contacts made it bearable, they became family. The hardest aspect of China besides it being communist and not allowing use to talk about Jesus, was the language barrier. I honestly thought people would speak more English but I was wrong. NO ONE spoke English yet God always made a way for us when it came to communication. My favorite part of this month in China has to be my ministry opportunity. My teammate Ceena and I had the opportunity to teach English to two beautiful children at a coffee shop. Not only did we get the opportunity to serve these beautiful children but we were also blessed by getting free coffee and tea on a daily basis. Ceena and I got up early every morning, took a short bus ride into town, and spent a couple of hours teaching the kids basic phrases and important words in English. The best part of all is that we were able to share the true meaning of Christmas with the children.
Ceena and I quickly bond with the children and their mothers and we soon found ourselves with our own little Asian family. The kids mothers’ were amazing and took care of us very well. They treated us to two wonderful, authentic Chinese meals, they fixed our eyebrows (very important for girls especially on the race), but most of all they opened their doors and allowed us to come in and teach their children English and still manage to bless the two of us in return.
This month taught me that when we are faithful to God and trust us with the big things, he is faithful in the little things.
