My journey from Vietnam to China was amazing in so many different ways: amazingly beautiful, amazingly pioneering, amazingly different than I expected, amazingly difficult, amazingly awakening, amazingly fruitful, and so much more.
I value this opportunity we had to blaze the trail from Vietnam to China for Adventures in Missions. We were the first team to cross this border. And for someone who’s never been to China before, it was a bit nerve wracking. Upon arriving at the border, we were abruptly met with an opportunity to feel these nerves. The border police. With cold expressions and harsh commands, they filed us off our sleeper train at 2am. As I was still trying to wipe the crusties from the corners of my eyes, I did my best to obey what I thought the police were saying. Barking orders, in Mandarin, of course, they successfully corralled us into the most Chinese-looking room I’ve been in.
This dimly lit room had completely white walls with nothing on them except for a large, one-way mirror. The only thing in the center of the room was an x-ray machine for our bags. One staunch guard with no expression on his face stood next to the machine. Not an ideal situation to be ushered into at two in the morning. It would have been quite intimidating, but I knew who went before us. So I wasn’t worried in the least. We made it through without a hiccup, of course, and back onto under sleeper train. It almost seemed too easy!
With just enough time to get back to sleep, it seemed, we were abruptly woken up. And once again had to get all our stuff off the train and into another building. This time we waited in line for about 1.5 hours before we even moved. As we waited, these moth-like creatures flooded the room. No joke, I’ve never seen so many insects like this. I didn’t think much of it and made a game out of it: “How many insects could Rob swat out of the air.” It’s a fun game that makes the time go by faster. I highly recommend trying it at some point in your life! But what I didn’t realize, at the time, was this was the beginning of a really tough month!
However, once we got past the border, things changed a lot. The citizens of China are very different than the government. This might seem quite obvious. But in my mind, I saw them as the same. The people, for the most part, were welcoming and definitely not skeptical of why we were there. If anything, it seemed like most people had never seen a Westerner before. And they had definitely never seen a Westerner with a beard like mine! Although this change was a pleasant surprise, the amount of English speakers were few and far between. And Mandarin isn’t one of those languages that you can easily pick up some words and communicate. It’s a tonal language so most of the words I said I’m sure I said incorrectly! This made ministry difficult.
On top of that, I was meet with some new community challenges. I had to learn to draw boundaries that I had never drawn before. One of those boundaries was with my time with the Lord. I learned to say, “No” a lot more and pull away into his presence. But that was difficult for me as a people pleaser.
All these things made for a tough month but so much fruit came out of it. For example, one night some of my teammates and I were walking around the night market and we ran into a man named Robert! Well, that’s the name he said we could call him by because we butchered his real name. He was selling paintings and he told us about a man who came by many years ago and told him about Christianity. After that, he proceeded to pull out his Bible to show us. This was one of the most refreshing moments in China. An English speaking, Chinese Christian! He was a breath of fresh air to say the least. And my team and I went back many times to visit him. We bought some of his art and he gave us each a souvenir when we said goodbye.
Although one of the toughest months yet, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I loved meeting Robert, doing life, seeing the beauty, and helping AIM pioneer this border crossing!
