we have been in the city that we are doing our ministry in for days now and it has been so amazing. first thing….our bus to the city wasn’t running so we had to get on a smaller van. and it was to close to a chicken bus for me. there were so many people on there already and when you added us with all of our stuff….we were packed in very nicely. i was sitting with two muslim men on each side of me. on the way i got out my journal and started writting….they were so funny, they both leaned over and watched me write every word. when i was done with writting i pulled out a book and started to read and one of the guys pulled it out of my hand and all of them started examining it. once we arrived we decided that two of us would go look for
a place to stay and everyone else would stay with the stuff. so laura and i went into the first hotel and the kid behind the counter told us (using our phase book) that we couldn’t stay there. so we went to the next hotel…we had a lot of trouble trying to explain what we needed, especially the part about a shower. but we finally got it all figured out, there was no shower in the hotel. but he took us to where we could take a shower. on the side of the hotel, down a shady ally (which seems to be the location of a lot of places in china) and in a beauty salon. there was an adorable little girl there who spoke a little english and she explained to us that we could take a shower there, but only girls….no boys. we weren’t sure how the rest of the group was going to think about all of this, so we went back and asked. when we got back we found out that paul had went into the first hotel and a different guy said we could stay there and he already had prices. so we went in and they have pretty much treated us like royalty ever since. the ladies who work on our floor are hilarious. they are always trying to be helpful, even though we have no idea what they are talking about. and when we don’t understand and they have to keep saying it and saying it they finally just write it down. except it’s in chinese characters and they think it is so funny that we don’t understand.
after we got settled in we had a guy come and bring us some water. he stayed in our room for a really long time going through the phrase book and teaching us how to say things and we would tell him how to say things in english. we found out that he is 18 and a muslim. as we were going through the book he finally came to the end….the part that tells the gospel and he goes through all of the verses. it was so cool to hear him say all of those….even though he was just reading them for us. but we are claiming the promise of God that His Word will not return void. after that he asked me to get out my guitar…so i did and started singing worship songs, which he totally sang along once he got the words. what a blessing it was. we invited him to hang out with us later and eat with the group, but he had to work. but we will definatly be seeing him more so please be praying.
today our plans were to go to breakfast and meet with the english teacher here and go to her school to speak english with her students. when she came this morning she said that we were not going to be able to come. last night when we met her she asked our religion and we told her our beliefs and we think that might have something with us not being able to come to her school. i hope though that we will be able to see her more and just be able to develop a relationship with her.
so after that fell through we didn’t really have plans. so we decided to try to get our laundry washed. that was quite the ordeal. the hotel manager told us that they did have a laundry service, but after they had our laundry for about 10 min. they brought it all back. we found out that they don’t wash unmetionables. no good for us. we would wash things in the sink….except for the freezing cold our stuff would never dry. so we went to find the cute little girl from the beauty salon to see if she could help. she took us to a laundry mat and got it all worked out for us. the price and when we could pck it up. so we went back to our room, got our clothes and went to the laundry mat. they no longer wanted our clothes. again the unmentionables. seriously…we were so frustrated. i decided i wasn’t going to leave….waited a really long time…no change…. so we started to leave. one of the girls sticks her head out the door and tells us to come back. shows us where to put our clothes and when to pick them up tomorrow. so confused, but very happy. clean clothes….tomorrow….i hope. we will see what happens.
during our laundry fiasco a guy who is a friend of our contact here came to our room. we didn’t know he was going to be here, so that was a nice suprise. he came to invite us to dinner at one of his friends house. he came back to pick us up and we all piled into a van. we went to a very remote village and found out that we were the first foreigners to visit that village. we knew immediatly by the looks on their faces when we got out of the car. he took us into the house and there was kind of a stage with a small table. he told us that is where the guests of honor sit. we took off our shoes and climbed on. they served us tea (of course), some fried bread, that was soooo good, montow (dough with veggies and meat inside) and lamb with noodles. it was such an amazing meal.
the best part though was the 20 people staring at us while we ate…..through the doorway and the window. mostly kids, but a lot of adults were also very interested in us. after we finished dinner they took us through the village and to visit a mosque. we arrived at a prayer time, but soon after we arrived they were finished and all the men came out. they all crowded around
looking at our camaras. we had a following of about 15 people through the village. the kids were so funny and so much fun. after getting over being terrified of us, of course.
this has been so amazing since we have arrived. when we got here we had no idea what we were going to do. but the Lord came before us and prepared the way. He is so faithful. please be in prayer as we make relationships here. that we will be full of the love of Christ and that He will shine through us.
here are some fun pictures of the things that we have been eating….enjoy!!!
