So for ministry this month our job has been to go out into an assigned community and minister to the community, try to connect with local day cares in the area and count how many house are in the area in order to help build house churches. Along with that, we are also working in assigned universities, meeting and connecting with students, forming relationships and evangelizing to them. All this week we have been meeting with students, having meals with them and building relationships to ultimately share the gospel.
On the first day we were here, Will went to a university and participated in an English corner which is a time for students to come and practice their English. While he was there he passed out his email and number to a bunch of students. He got a text from one of the students that he met, inviting us to hang out with them during the Autumn/Moon Festival which is the celebration of the fall season throughout China. So our team went off today to downtown to Harbin to meet up with Will's two friends Alex and Paris. It turned out that there were seven college students waiting to show us around Harbin and the Autumn festival. We ended up hopping on a bus and heading towards a Buddhist temple which is the largest Buddhist temple in Northeast China. But my team had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.
When we got off the bus we headed to the temple and the courtyard outside of the temple was full of beggars. It broke my heart to see people with one or no legs, people missing toes or arms asking me for money outside of a place which is suppose to fulfill and sustain people. After paying for an entrance ticket, we entered into the temple and were suddenly hit by a strong whiff of incense and witnessed many people burning incense sticks and bowing in all directions. My body automatically stiffened and I felt this intense heaviness and darkness surround me.
I learned a little about Buddhism while I was living in Amsterdam and it is a religion fully of emptiness and brokenness. It was just devastating to see these people paying money to worship their god, to see people giving food and money to empty statues in hopes of finding peace and good fortune. It was just so sad and frustrating to see these people participating in such an intense version of idolatry. The whole time I was walking through the temple, I felt a need to be in continual prayer for the people, against the devils hold on this place and just for the Lord to bring reconciliation. It was a hard place to enter to but it was a good experience because my team and I were able to encounter a religion we will be facing quite a bit in the next couple months.
I also saw how deeply engrained Buddhism is in Asian culture. While we were hanging out with our Chinese friends, we were asking them what they believed in. None of them were buddhists and my friend Polly, went so far to say that she did not believe in Buddha at all because she believed in science. When we reached the main area of the temple, about three or four of the people with us started to urge us to go in and bow to the Buddha. Though we refused they went in and did what was culturally acceptable. This event made me realize that buddhism has a very firm grasp on Asian culture. Though they did not grow up strictly Buddhist there is still pressure to act and do certain things in the culture.
Our experience today was quite eye opening and we are very lucky because Will knows a lot about Buddhism and he was able to help us debrief the experience and prepare our hearts for Thailand and Cambodia where Buddhism is very very popular. Luckily we are meeting with our friends this week to have a bible study. Please pray that the Lord opens their hearts and minds to the gospel and that we can make an impact! The Buddhist temple reminded me of the spiritual warfare I will be facing and hardships that we will see and experience. Yet while experiencing the hopelessness of the Buddhism I was reminded of the hope, grace and love our God offers. Our God is alive and active in every single persons life and he is ready to fill the emptiness whenever someone asks for it! Halleljuah!
