China China China……Month 5 was by far one of the craziest months ever. I really can’t tell you much about my month in China because I have to protect the people spreading the Lord’s love in the country. But I do plan to tell you about all the craziness that happen.
So when we landed in China we stayed at a YWAM base in one of the oldest villages in Hong Kong. After we found out that my team wouldn’t be able to leave and go into mainland China until the 18th, my team and I went and worked at this organization called Crossroads. Crossroads is absolutely amazing. “I wrote a blog about them…please read about what they do in Hong Kong and all over the world.” So on the 18th we packed up all our stuff and took a bus to the subway. Then we took an hour long train ride on the subway to the boarder. From the boarder we had to take an 8 hour train ride to connect to another train. We missed the train we were supposed to take and ended up having to stay the night in that town. So we exited the train station at midnight and had to walk the dark streets to find a hotel to stay in. We finally found one after several women tried to take us to other strange looking hotels. We lay down only to be back up at 6am to get tickets and board the next train ride. So some of you might have thought the other ride was long well this train ride was 27 hours. So when the train stops 27 hours later we then have to board a bus and take it another hour to where we stayed in mainland.
Crazy Right!!! For three days before debrief we were in the villages of China spreading the name of Jesus by strategically dropping packets in the far out villages. We were invited into several homes and these people show top-notch hospitality. Families would bring out all the chairs in their homes and pick us fresh oranges. One mama made us all corn noodles and ate with us. Even though we couldn’t understand these people we tried to love on them in the time we had at their house. If you want to know more about all we did in Hong Kong and mainland China, I would love to share when I get home about all the divine appointments.
However, I will say China smelled horrible. One morning I was trying to run away from a smell that I ended up throwing up. It was by far the worst thing I’ve smelled in my life. No one, I mean no one spoke English so most of the time we had to play charades to communicate. Everywhere we went we ate noodles or rice or didn’t eat. Mainland China wasn’t as enjoyable as Hong Kong, honestly it was really rough for me, but in Beijing I was able to see a lot of the history of China and it kind of made things better besides the fact that it was freezing cold the whole time we were there. At one point I know I had on a coat, my rain jacket, two sweaters, three shirts, a pair of sweat pants, jeans, three pair of socks and I still was cold. Not only that but the Chinese people don’t believe in heaters so most nights I went to bed with most of those clothes on I just mention. Through it all though God provided in some really big ways, allowing us to be blessed and providing ways for us to bless others. We even babysat for this couple from Texas that stayed next door to us at Crossroads. They are a story of their own. They spoke so much life into us and looked after us just like we were their family. We also meet Ms. Lovelace on the bus to Crossroads and she invited us over for a Christmas party she was having for some teachers at her school. Ms. Lovelace is also from Texas; she saw us struggling on the bus with all our stuff and just had to find out what we were doing. I wish I could name all the people sent our way to bless us, but I would be writing all night. I just wanted to give everyone an idea of how our month was in China.
Places we visited in Beijing:
The Great Wall
The Forbidden City
Tiananmen Square
The Pearl Market
Temple of Heaven
The 2008 Olympic Stadium
