Supposedly, I’m engaged.
Not to one person in particular, but to a beautiful Tibetan family. (Mmmm well, if you ask my teammates they would tell you otherwise. They are convinced that I will marry Simeon. But that’s a story for another day.) AND I’ve got a ring to prove it!
See what had happened was…
My teammates and I were given an assignment—to travel from town to town praying for divine appointments and opportunities to share the gospel. With no information on how to get from place to place, where to stay upon arrival and what to do when there, we had to rely purely on the Holy Spirit to provide for all our needs.
The First Meeting:
At the end of October we found ourselves in a small Tibetan village in northern China. We prayed for cheap lodging and after an hour or so of charades, we snagged an awesome deal at a hotel with clean rooms and LEGIT toilets. (Not squatty potties! Woop woop!) God hooked us up! But not even an hour later, the Po-po spotted us and escorted us back to our hotel. They took down our information for “security purposes” and had a little chit chat with the manager of our hotel.
We had been praying against getting kicked out of the city, like other teams we knew, and thankfully we were permitted to stay. But the manager was hesitant to keep us around so we were only allowed to stay the night. Heck, if I was in their shoes I would probably do the same thing too!
The Serenade:
As we, the Fuego ladies, were packing our belongings to leave the hotel and transfer to another, the manager and her niece came into our room, perhaps to speed up the process of our departure. We were compelled to sing a worship song for them before we left. So Michelle busted out her guitar and we started praising and worshipping! After that, we took some pictures and by the end of it, we could sense that they had a change of heart. The manger came up to me, pointed to the bed and signaled for us to sleep there. They didn’t want us to leave. Thus began the courting stage of our relationship.
The First Date:
Our team ended up spending that evening at another hotel because we had made reservations before they had invited us back. The next day we found ourselves back where we started! My mission for that day: to wash clothes! We had been wearing the same clothes for the past week. On top of that we had not taken a shower in a minute… and that just ain’t cute, nor is it pleasing to the nostrils.
So Bea and I decided to do laundry for the team. Again, using our handy dandy charade skills, we got the manager to understand that we were interested in using their sole laundry machine. What we didn’t know was that it was a long, tedious process. You had to monitor the machine while the clothes were washing, then you had to hand wash it to make sure all the gunk was out (you know what I mean?!), and then you had to rinse it out one more time and then hang it to dry. The manager and her niece blessed us so much by helping us do our laundry.
In return for helping us wash our clothes, Bea and I helped them with their chores around the hostel—mopping, sweeping, dusting, hanging sheets, etc. The whole time we were singing worship music and chatting with them as best we could. Our desire was to serve them well and to love on them because that was our way of sharing the gospel with them—not through words but through our actions.
Later that day we got to go to the Yellow River with the manager’s son and his monk friend. And we just got to be. We laughed and played hacky sack and wrote in the sand and basked in the thickness of God’s presence. That night our team bought their family dinner and they prepared dumplings for us! I’m talking a massive amount of dumplings! By the end of the night we couldn’t even stand up because we were filled up to our necks with dumplings.
The Second Date and then some:
The last night we were there we got to have dinner with the family yet again. They prepared noodles, a cabbage dish, and dumplings for us! By this time, we called the manager “Mama” and her niece was “Atche,” which means Auntie. They served us hand and foot and always made sure that we were happy and full =) At one point, Atche took me aside and started dressing me with her clothes. She lent me her jewelry and robes and belt and soon enough we got all the Fuego ladies looking like Tibetan natives! I was just blown away by Papa’s loving grace! One moment we were just strangers and the next thing I knew we had become a part of their family, dressed in their warmth and their love.
The Ring:
I had mentioned to Atche many times before that I loved rings and that I adored her rings so much. One evening, I showed her my ring collection and without hesitation, she slipped the ring off of her pinky finger and gave it to me. It will forever be a symbol of the unity between my World Race family and their family… a bond bound by the love of God.
The “I Do”:
This is the part of the story where you cue the sappy, heartwarming ballad and leave your audience in a state of ecstasy where they can believe in a happy ending. The reality, though, is that I may never see these people again and it’s very possible that we don’t cross their mind anymore. However, I can rest assured that Papa only has the best in store for us! And I would rather it be Papa that orchestrates our lives and I’d rather it be Him that directs our steps.
“I Do” believe that Papa brought us specifically to that town and to that hotel because He wanted us to sew into that family because they will become a catalyst for change in their community.
“I Do” desire for them to come to know Christ someday and become baptized in the Spirit. And I pray that they bring a revival to the Tibetan people in the Gansu province at large.
“I Do” love each and every one of them with all my heart. It’s a love that goes beyond words…one that has touched me beyond measure. And while it was painful to leave that beautiful love behind, knowing that they still had not accepted God into their heart, my heart rejoices in the fact that Papa will continue to woo them and that His love story with each of them continues.
