My previous thought process about my upcoming time in silence in China was dread and despair. Foremost because of having no communication with my outside world…family and friends, and second of all scared to think of what I would spend my time on. No internet to …SKYPE, write and check emails, blogging (at least for me who will only write it once on the computer J ) and no movie cds’ to watch. Knowing that this time would be precious indeed and rare; the Lord put it on my heart to ask friends and prayer supporters to send me their prayer requests. The response was amazing. My attitude and vision for the three weeks of silence brought excitement and expectation because I had this task ahead of me. During my weeks in China I had the privilege to dive into praying for more than 20 of my brothers and sisters in Christ. It was cool because I not only found myself praying in a routine morning time but throughout the day names would come to my mind and I would lift them up to our Father. I listened, He spoke.
Time was also spent in our small mountainous village prayer walking and asking the Lord for guidance on where to go and who to speak to, being aware of the spiritual realm and the battle between God’s light being shown and the enemies lies of false religions, and establishing a cherished relationship with our Tibetan friend Josephine (her American name given by us).I also had the time to read amazing books which I highly recommend. All of them challenged, entertained and uplifted me. They are all worthy of time and money spent : The Life of the Beloved by Henry Nouwen, Sex God by Rob Bell , and Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. I found that my time was filled with serving, listening, and pouring into my teammates and hosts. It was truly needed and not as scary as I thought. In fact, silence was productive and surprisingly craved by me.
I also in turn knew that others were battling the spiritual realm with fasting and interceding of prayers to God for me and my team. It would not have been amazing and fulfilling if His people weren’t lifting me and my team up in prayer! Through this covering it truly pathed ways that other wise would have been chaotic and unbearable. I felt protected in so many ways. First of all my health was excellent, besides having to take Zrytec to combat all of the smoking that constantly surrounded us (even in cabs and buses), I unlike my other teammates escaped the big D, upset stomach and throwing up which seemed to almost cycle through the entire group. At least I was healthy enough to lift them up in pray. So praises be! The transition between our group Ignite and the all girls team The Beloved One went so smoothly. This was a rare occasion and a first for us to spend week’s time with another team. Through intentional daily morning prayer s; our attitudes, unity, love, and community living were lifted up. There were only a few bumps along the road and this it a huge testament to prayers especially with 11 girls and two guys under the same roof! Our focus was one of serving and listening to God.
The rest of my time in China was filled with fun stories of friendships, trains rides, The Great Wall, shopping excursions, and other China cultural experiences. We went into China with huge fears, cautiousness, and certain expectations. But we came out being blown away by the people, the experiences and the obedience of people and God’s power that reigns there. We are truly believing and claiming China to turn solely to God’s heart and testament.
It took longer than usual to get back into Hong Kong. Our dates to get into Africa were extended and getting out of Beijing was crazy due to the upcoming Chinese New Year. So we got to spend a few more days exploring Beijing and enjoying the culture of the Chinese people. This meant that our silence would be extended and we were all anxious to get back to the communication of our blogging and to all of our posse’s and supporters back home. But I was quickly reminded of the amazing things that happened during this intentional silence time which held prayer, fasting, spirit led friendships and time with the Lord. This helped me to wait, be patient and to enjoy the process of being in silence. I found when I did, amazing things happened and in the end I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t bad at all.
