Andy is a local student who was actually brought to Christ after a World Racer met with him. He had started learning English through an American who was teaching him about the bible. So he had an understanding about what the Bible was, but it wasn’t until a racer named Hannah had interacted with him and told him about what God meant to her that he started following Christ. Since then, he has started pursuing God fearlessly and has decided to become a pastor so that he could share with others about the God that he has come to know. Andy’s faith amazes me because his family doesn’t agree with the direction he has decided to go in his life and yet he is pursuing only the approval of God. I knew Andy and I were going to be good friends when he told me the first day in Harbin that he got his name from Andy Dufresne on Shawshank Redemption (my all time favorite movie). I asked Andy for a Chinese name and he presented me with “Ai (Love) Mei Li (Beautiful)” pronounced eye-may-lee. My favorite moment with Andy was when I thought I said “Wo ài ni” (I love you) to my friend Simona and I had in fact said “bù ài ni” (I don’t love you). He then proceeded to explain the different ways of saying I love you and got down on one knee to explain how to say I love you between a man and woman, but we all started laughing because it looked like a proposal! It was our running joke the whole time.
Leo was our translator that our ministry host connected us with. He is a year younger than me and is a university student here in Harbin. He was quiet the first time that we were around him, but by the end of our stay had opened up so much and was quick to joke and speak to our group with a more confidence. It was so incredible to pour into him during this time that we had in Harbin. My favorite memory with Leo was when we were walking on his campus and he said quietly, “There is one of my real professors” just after we had jokingly been calling me his professor. Right after he pointed out his professor in a hush hush voice, I called out “ni hao!” We then proceeded to speak to his professor and the professor’s wife for a few minutes. As we walked away, Leo let out a huge sigh of relief because we were done with the conversation and then said “I will never tell you when I see someone I know again!” At the end of our time, Leo gave me a necklace with my Chinese name on it!
Calvin, myself and Leo
Calvin joined us the night that we went to Harbin’s famous street called Central Street. He is friends with Leo and was quickly added to the group of people that would be difficult to leave. Like other English speaking Chinese people, Calvin wanted an English name to go by. I let him look through my phone and he picked the name Calvin out. Calvin quickly became one of our biggest helps in Harbin. Every morning he would text my team leader, “Can I help guide you anywhere today?” It was incredible to see his servant heart the entire time he was with us. He would go above and beyond in everything and even cooked us a meal one afternoon (which actually was an all day ordeal and he had to rent a room that had a big kitchen so he had space to prepare the meal)! Calvin also blessed me with a thoughtful gift. He gave me a bracelet with my Chinese name on it. We left on Calvin’s birthday and were able to say goodbye by singing Happy Birthday to him.
The first time I met Simona was at our church service in the courtyard outside of our apartment building. We had time to worship and pray as a squad. During this time Sarah pulled me and Jen aside and we prayed with two Chinese university students, Cici and Simona. After we prayed over them they prayed as well. Just before the prayer started, Sarah asked me what my prayer request was and my response was “To be able to see how big God is.” Just minutes later Simona was praying in Chinese and in that moment I could see that God is bigger than a language barrier. He hears the cries of all of his children no matter what language they are speaking. It was the most quickly answered prayer that I have ever experienced. I consider her my xi mai (sister). She has asked difficult questions regarding her faith, and I have gained so much respect for her because of it. It is through the times of doubt that we can grow in our faith. Simona would definitely fit in with my friend group back home in College Station. I miss her so much and hope so badly to see her again. I’ve always wanted a little sister and I feel like I truly gained one this past month!
After a few days in I quickly realized that ministry wasn’t going to look how I expected it to this past month. Although we were assigned to one of the universities in Harbin, I began to see how it would be our job to pour into these friends of ours. It could seem like we didn’t make an impact, but my time in China all felt worthwhile when Andy told me that because my squad had spent time with him this month he could truly see what it meant to be a follower of Christ. Thank you, Jesus, for the confirmation of us being here! What greater thing could I ask for than to help a friend who would one day become a pastor grow deeper in his faith before he goes to impact hundreds!
(Updates on our ministry in Thailand soon to follow!)
