China- Month 6 of the my World Race- June 2014
What a crazy month! It started in Hong Kong, which is separate from Mainland China and has many different laws and a totally different feeling. We were in Hong Kong for about a week for squad leadership development training and while we got our visas into Mainland China. Hong Kong is not ‘closed’ like Mainland China so we were able to use all Internet and talk about Christianity. But when we headed into Mainland China there was a huge dynamic change that is hard to explain. It is a ‘closed’ country so we did not use any Internet and we had to be very careful when we talked about God, our faith and why we were in China.
It was a hard month because I was really looking forward to China. I had always wanted to go there and although I did love it overall, it was not at all what I expected.
My team went to a city that was in the foothills of the Tibetan Mountains, so there were many different people groups: Chinese, Tibetans, Buddhists and Muslims. Throughout the month we did a lot to help our contact like help him and his family move apartments. Also, Heather and I made a spreadsheet of all his books so he could have a make-shift library and loan out his Christian books to people and be able to keep track of them. We also did a lot of relational ministry where we went to many coffee shops, stores and restaurants to get to know people and help some practice their English!
It was a great month for our team! We were able to have a lot of team time together and we didn’t have Internet to distract us. We had a lot of fun team times, prayer nights, meals together, great conversations, played games and watched movies (including Mulan)!
One of the worst parts of the month was one of our teammates left the Race and went back to the States. She was an amazing woman of God but felt called to be back at home and not on the Race. It was so sad to see her go but I am so happy for her that she is home safely and where she needs to be! Her leaving was also hard because it made me think a lot about home, family and things I was missing this month like my nephew’s 2nd birthday and one of best friends wedding. However, it also made me realize that I am exactly where I want and need to be right now and reminded me not to take my time on the World Race for granted.
Then at the end of the month we had Squad Debrief in Beijing so we were only able to be in our ministry site for 18 days. It felt like such a short month.
One really fun part of the month was the crazy train rides around the country. We took a 36-hour train ride where we got on at 8 pm Friday night and did not arrive until 8 am on Sunday morning. So we spent 2 nights and 1 full day on a train! It was so fun especially because we had sleeper tickets and had beds on the train! They had 3 story bunk beds so my team lined the 3rd story in one car! It was great!
