Well as I said in my last blog, China wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t hate it, but it was definitely tough. To ensure the safety of our contacts and their ministry, iSquad didn’t have Internet for the month of December. It was definitely rough to not be able to talk to our families on Christmas and during the holidays but sort of freeing at the same time. Here are some of the memories I made during my time in China:
-We spent a few days in Hong Kong waiting on our Chinese Visas to come through. I had so much fun exploring Hong Kong!
-Team Changes happened in Hong Kong the day before leaving for China. I’m the proud leader of Team Yebo! Yebo means yes in SiSwati. Our team wants to say ‘yes’ to everything God has for us. My new team includes Ashley Brandt, Ben Fulton, Beth Barron, Caitlyn Sickler, Meredith Cockman, and Ben Stahl.
-We had the most intense travel day thus far. 5 days that included tons of walking with all our stuff, 2 buses, and 3 trains. We were basically homeless for 3 nights (we slept in the train station and 2 nights on the train). Oh and all debit cards wouldn’t work once we crossed the China border.
-Ministry last month consisted of mainly college ministry. We got to know 4 groups of college students. They were so fun and loved showing us around China.
-It was SO cold and snowed! The snow was fun but the cold made it hard to be motivated to walk around the college campus trying to meet people.
-China doesn’t believe in heating their restaurants. Only in China can you see your breath inside the restaurant.
-We loved getting dinner from the potato lady! She was our favorite street vendor.
-We lived in a hotel last month. This resulted in lots of ramen and eating out.
-I watched far too many episodes of House.
-I battled so many lies. I found so much freedom from wounds from my past during debrief! Praise God!
-Everything in China is so cheap! Lunch was seriously 1 USD at the most. If we got potatoes from the Potato lady it equaled about 30 cents.
-We all got really sick. There was probably only 3 days that our entire team attended ministry.
-We celebrated Ben Fulton and Meredith’s birthdays with fun Chinese cakes!
-One of our friends taught us how to make dumplings and took us to see the Yellow River. We took her to Pizza Hut for Christmas Eve.
-We spent Christmas with 4 other teams and our squad leaders at a buffet. Following dinner a few of us went to KTV (Karaoke). It was quite interesting.
-I spent New Years Eve on the Great Wall of China!
-God continued to show me ways that I tend to be legalist.
-I learned to completely depend on God this month. Basically NO one spoke English. God showed up so much!
Looking back, a lot happened in China, some fun and some hard. It was all necessary though. I’ve been in the Philippines for over a week now and I’m in love! This place is incredible and God is doing big things! I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Thanks for following along on this crazy journey!
