Beside a lake in Kashgar, China, I recently shared my testimony with my team of nine women. I became a Christian beside a lake almost exactly nine years ago, so for me it was a special and meaningful celebration of my “birthday.” I was grateful for the chance to share, and for the time to reflect on what God has done in my life.
Nine years ago, however, there weren’t two policemen at that lake, staring at me from a few yards away, and then moving gradually closer. Nine years ago I could never have imagined all the places He would bring me, let alone the crazy happenings the past month would bring.
Our time in China was interesting, to say the least. We started off with a tour of Tibet. We got to see beautiful mountains and lakes. We were at an altitude higher than Everest Base Camp! Against my own expectations, I didn’t puke! Yay! We got to see Potala Palace, where the Dalai Lama used to live. It was beautiful. We spent a lot of time in prayer for the region.
From Tibet we went to Jiayuguan and saw the Great Wall. I went to the Great Wall in Beijing a few years ago, but this time we saw the westernmost point. I appreciated getting to see both sides!
Then
Now
Contrary to what I thought during Training Camp, my fitness level did not actually improve, and the stairs got the best of me once again. This may be what the Camino is gonna look like for me… Sorry Vielka 😉
After Jiayuguan, we went to the city where we would spend the most of our time. We prayed a lot about which city we should go to, but didn’t feel like God was telling us any place in particular. We had wanted to go to Urumqi, but accommodations were too expensive and there was already another team there. We knew we wanted to be along the Silk Road. Finally, one of our squad leaders, Shelby, said she felt like we were supposed to go to a particular city called “Ketchup.”* So we said, “why not,” and prepared to go.
The train ride took 21 hours, and we took it less than a week after another 20+ hour train journey from Tibet to Jiayuguan. We didn’t have a place to stay, so once we got off the train, we wandered around looking for a taxi. Before long, we were surrounded by a hoard of police men. They took us to the station (and drove our heavy packs in their van 🙂 ), gave us bread and water, and helped us find taxis in the general direction of where we needed to go. So, while it was unusual and kind of overwhelming, it was actually oddly helpful.
Once we got to our hotel though, we found that police were still following us, first covertly, and then openly. Although we were never explicitly told so, it became clear we were not allowed to leave our hotel without a police officer with us. We ended up staying on one side of the 7th floor of a hotel, and all of our new police “friends” were staying on the other side. They knew when we met in the morning. They knew when we went out to eat. They even knew (I kid you not) when we were on our periods. For real. I had a (male!!) police officer ask me about my health, and when I had no idea what he was referring to, he typed in “menstrual cycle” into his translator. And yes, he was right.
Well, a number of things happened after all this came to light. For one thing, we started praying every morning. And not lukewarm prayers like we maybe had in the past. But intentional prayers asking God to give us patience and discernment for the day. We also changed our perspective. We came into this month having been given the vision of “creative engagement” by our leadership. We thought this would look like teaching English, or maybe doing artwork in the park. It quickly became clear that that wasn’t going to be possible under the current circumstances. So we decided to treat our police officer friends like the people we were ministering to. We decided to put aside our frustration every morning (with the help of God, through prayer), and genuinely came to like and bond with the officers that were assigned to follow us (Some of our teammates have recognized this as Stockholm’s Syndrome. Maybe accurate, but beside the point…:P).
One day we did a Chinese calligraphy class and the professor said he would write a word for each of us. There are nine of us, and we asked him to do the fruits of the Spirit (well, the fruits of the Spirit and “ocean root,” 🙂 but again, beside the point). Another day while I was praying, I pretty much just prayed the Gospel, unsure if our rooms were bugged or not, but hoping, if they were, to make the most of it. Side note, since being in and leaving Ketchup, I’ve had at least three different dreams about rooms being bugged. In one, the bug was a miniscule speck; In another it was a crawling centipede which I had to cut in half with scissors to expose the wires underneath showing it was not a real insect.
Anyway, I think our time in Ketchup gave everyone a new heart for the underground church, and an appreciation for the freedom we have at home. For me, the restriction of NOT being able to share only gave me the desire to share more (since, you know, who doesn’t like to do what they’re told not to do?). That is something I hope to carry with me on into Kyrgyzstan and the next several countries. I think we all felt a little freer as soon as we crossed the border, but we loved our time in China in spite of the difficulties. Please pray for the underground church and for all our new friends, who I cannot name. Please pray for the city of Ketchup, that it would become more open to visitors in the future, and that those visitors could openly share the love of Christ. And dear entire Ketchup police force, if you are reading this, we love you, and thanks for making our time in your city so memorable.
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*The actual city name sounds nothing like Ketchup, but for some reason, early on, this is what our teammate Vielka started calling it and several of us followed suit. Now, for safety/privacy’s sake, I’ll resort to calling it this.
**Also, go read the other SheBrews blogs! Our stories are similar and they share some details I may not have shared!
***Hi Mrs. Fasl!
