Hello friend!
Greetings from China!
I probably will not have much internet access this month, so I’d love to give you a quick update!
I am now on month 3. We left Taiwan the last day of February and flew to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, we spent 2 days in the city, starting the process of applying for a visa to mainland China. While we waited for the visas to process, we went to a remote island and camped for 6 days.
These were the longest days in a row I had ever camped, and wow, what a wild experience!
We took a ferry to get to the island, and when we arrived there, we saw several cows roaming the campgrounds. (We called them cows, but later found out they are water buffalo, and they are an endangered species, so they are allowed to roam free.) The first night, we set up camp along with lots of other campers. And wow, do the Chinese ever know how to camp! Almost everyone had strings of lights on their tents and gas burners for cooking their food. Us World Racers were the only ones who actually started camp fires! (Which was nice because it meant more wood for us!
While we were setting up our tents, one of the water buffalo walked right into my squad mate’s tent, while she was in it, and ate her groceries!! She took it well, and was laughing and telling the story to us. While we were laughing about it, we turned around to find another water buffalo (we named her Daisy) eating my teammate’s ramen packet, plastic and all! Little did we know, this was only the beginning!
Later that night, 2 huge wild boars (I kid you not, they were almost as big as the water buffalo!) came into the edge of camp and started dragging an unoccupied tent. Everyone was stunned and didn’t know what to do, but some of us finally ran after it and wrestled the tent away from them. They wouldn’t give it up without a fight!
Throughout our time there, we had a lot of food stolen (oatmeal, coffee, a bag of sugar). Daisy even tried to eat our pack of wet wipes, but my friend pulled it away from her! Two of my squad mate’s tents were torn into by wild boar. We learned quickly to put produce up in trees and hide everything else in the middle of our tents!
With that said, I found this week of camping was actually very relaxing. The island had a walking path that had beautiful views of the ocean. We spent our days spending time with God, hanging out with our teammates, working out, and cooking food over the camp fire. We found it incredibly ironic that we were in one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, and we were without electricity, cooking over campfires, and chasing off wild animals!
We also got to know a man who has permanent tents set up (we called it the blue fortress because they were made from blue tarps!). He has been camping at the island for 5 years, spending several days there every week. Over the years, has acquired many things from people passing through and leaving their camping supplies behind. He was so generous to us, inviting us over to meals with him and his friends and letting us use some supplies. Our last few days there were very rainy. The last night, we couldn’t get a fire started, so he let us heat our food on his stove.
Over the last few weeks, I have learned more about spiritual warfare. Two of my leaders led me through something called deliverance, calling out things in me that are not from God and taking authority over those things. That my sin does not have to define me. “It is for freedom that you have been set free.” Galatians 5:1 It has been incredible since then, when I notice thoughts come up that are not from God, and to be able to call them out and not let them define my thought and emotions.
“But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:17-18
After 6 days camping, our visas were approved, so we went back into town to pick them up. Three of our leaders were getting extra questioning for their visas, due to the numerous countries they had been to. They were told it would take longer for their visas to be approved. So it looked like we would have to go into China without them, and they would meet us in a few days. But the day my squad mates went in to pick up our visas, the 3 leaders also went in, and to their shock, were handed their visas as well! Praise God, because that was absolutely unexpected!
So 2 days ago, we rode a train from Hong Kong into China. Then, we took a 30 hour sleeper train to south central China (above Vietnam). Today, we will head to the place we will stay for the next 3 weeks.
Our sleeper train had 3 layers of bunks! This was our really nice train conductor.
I probably will not have much internet, and am also very limited in what I can post, since I’m in China.
Blessings to you! I’m excited to tell you stories from China soon!
