Wow, China has been such a sweet time of challenges yet joyful moments.
First off, we got new teams in Nepal (the last country we were in) and we were told that we had the most diverse group of individuals. This excited me because not only do I get along so easily with each individual, but each person brings something new to the table that challenges the rest of the team in a way that’s needed to grow our unification.
With that being said, coming into China we were encouraged to creatively engage in the community which was sweet because again, we all are so diverse and have different gifts. However, when we arrived to our first city, we quickly realized how difficult it was to engage in any topic that had to do with the Lord; there is a lack of freedom to discuss one’s faith. In fact we experienced multiple times where the internet would cut off on us because we said the word “faith” or “Lord” in a message or email. Everything media wise is very monitored even for locals.
This brings me to my next point; we are NOT locals and therefore we were HEAVILY monitored and even followed…. It started as soon as we got off the train to the city we decided to spend majority of our time in; we were asked why we were there and what we were planning on doing. Truthfully we would say we are a group of friends traveling the world and wanting to experience new cultures. Even on the train ride we would ask the locals about the city we were headed to and not one person on the train left us with positive vibes…
Once we arrived, we were trying to figure out if we were to take a taxi or bus and before we could even decide, we became surrounded by a group of eighteen military and police officers. They ended up escorting us to their headquarters and meticulously checked over all our passports and visas. At first it was frustrating considering we just came off of an 18 hour train ride and were hungry, restless, and lugging around our big packs. Not to mention being stared at constantly (although from day 1 that’s been a thing). But honestly, this team of women kicked butt and we were able to laugh and just be joyful even though we felt like freedom was already being stripped from us and it hadn’t even been an hour after getting off the train.
This kind of living only became more intense as we finally found a hotel (in budget) that wasn’t afraid of taking in nine foreign women.
As we started to try to engage in the community, we noticed we started to see the same people wherever we went, monitoring who we were talking to and what about. If we would have a conversation with somebody, that person would get talked to by whoever was following us that day. Eventually, we realized even some of the people we were ‘meeting’ in different places were actually undercover cops. Overall there were about twenty different undercover cops who were trailing us. Not only that, but even the hotel staff were asked to help monitor us….the HOTEL STAFF AKA the ladies who would clean our rooms EVERY day and only while we were all in the same room… coincidence? I think not.
Once our team was piecing this whole thing together, there was fear and frustration. We figured our rooms could even be bugged for all we knew. Experiencing this lack of freedom really got to us and made me think about what it’s like for people who have grown up here, not realizing how much freedom they are missing out on. With that being said, we found that our creative engagement this month would be living our everyday with these undercover police officers and letting them walk with us, not behind us. Actually, we ended up getting really close to these people. Well, as close as we could given the circumstances as well as reminding ourselves that it’s their JOB to follow us. However, I feel that, after the time we spent with them and actually got to know them, that a few of them would actually choose to hangout with us outside of their job.
What started as frustration and a lack of freedom turned into joy and opportunities. The Lord was SO faithful in such a creative way. He encouraged us to use this situation (that most people would have walked away from) to glorify him by simply demonstrating who Jesus is by the way that our team loved each other and including the police in our daily activities. In the end, we actually missed some of these people when we left. I look back and I feel honored to have been an instrument in the Lord’s plan in China.
