In November we spent 19 days in a rural Chinese town. To describe this town would be difficult besides the fact that EVERYTHING is under construction. Workers are building large 5 story buildings where 2 story buildings once stood and large murals were posted all around town showing what the town would look like when complete. The main street going through town was barely wide enough for traffic going both ways and then you add pedestrians. The sides of the street are layered with brick, sand, rocks, and cement bags. If out at night you appear to be in some post apocalyptic movie scene or some horror movie with Vampires who march up and down the streets as there is a perpetual haze from all the dust that is generated.
Every morning my teammate Charlene and I would go out and get food for team breakfast… this included buying fresh flavorless bread, bananas, and eggs to hard boil. One morning we happened to come across a group of 4 Chinese people who appeared to have just gotten off the bus. It was evident by their dress that they weren’t wearing the traditional head coverings for the area and they were lighter skinned than the Chinese of the area we were in. One of the women walked up to Charlene and said in English, “Why are you here?” Charlene responded, “We are here to tell others about God.” And then Ann as we came to know her responded with, “Then we are brothers and sisters.”
The next day we had the opportunity to meet with Ann and the other missionaries in a secret meeting in our hotel room. Mary would translate for us and we were able to learn a great deal about the national church in China, cultural norms in the area we were in, and the vision that God gave this group to preach the gospel. Essentially, in China there is national church that is allowable but they are not allowed to send out missionaries. So you can believe but one cannot embrace the great commission… in terms of preaching the gospel and making new disciples or Christ followers. The last thing we were able to do before they left was to all pray together as brothers and sisters and connect Ann with our conact.
Blessings
Kevin
