Well, I’ve been home in Des Moines for 11 days, back in the
states for 15 days, and out of China proper for 22 days, and have yet to post a
blog about my month within China. My
sincerest apologies! Needless to say,
the past 2 weeks have been busy with recovering from jet lag, and preparing for
my younger brother’s wedding on December 1st, though I’m still not
sure that justifies having not yet posted an update!
So, all that to get around to answering, “How was China?”
Great, really good, an excellent end to the journey! From October 15th through the 27th,
the majority of the Racers, including ZEO, lived in a city (left unnamed for
now) where we simply established relationships with students desiring to learn
English, while in turn we took classes on Chinese culture and history. I loved the exchange that happened, that we
were able to learn about their culture, which is something I wish we could have
done to a greater degree in every country.
Each afternoon we met for ‘English Corners’ – we showed up
and the students would come running, asking if we would speak English with them
and be their friends. I often chatted
with a new girl each day, though I became closer with one particular young
woman. We would eat supper in the
cafeteria, with the students often choosing my meal and laughing at my slightly
incompetent chopstick skills.
We were not allowed to share the gospel or talk about our
‘religion’ while on school grounds, but instead, if a student showed interest,
we could go out for coffee to chat more.
I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the ‘ministry’ there. It was about being Jesus, loving these
people without preaching, bringing His presence with us wherever we went without
words.
That was exactly what had to happen for the last bit of our
time in China as well. On the 28th,
all the teams went different directions for the remaining 10 days of
ministry. ZEO was brimming with
excitement for our ‘deployment’ – a backpacking trip through some remote
mountain villages of a minority people group.
We got ourselves all psyched up for this hard core trip and unloaded
some of our belongings onto other people (thanks Spano), in order to carry
lighter packs, all to discover the day we began that we wouldn’t actually be
hiking much. We took buses to and between
the villages, and the hiking involved was simple hiking through farmland to
make home visits. At first we were all
pretty disappointed, but it didn’t take too long to again realize that God has
the bigger picture in mind and new what we needed at the time.
Our first stop was a large community of about 6,000 people,
technically a county. We spent 3 days
at the local schools, primary through middle school (4years to 16years old),
performing songs or dances (that’s always an interesting endeavor) and teaching
them a little bit about America. They
understood very little English, as did the teachers, so most of our
communication was sign language-y, or pictures on the chalkboard. We had a lot of fun with them.
The next two villages were quite remote and we stayed in the
homes of the village chiefs, where the hospitality was generous. They provided beds and we ate our meals with
them around the fire. We visited homes
of local folks where we were welcomed around their indoor fire to enjoy
peanuts, cookies, or chestnuts (that we roasted over the open fire). The ministry was strictly bringing the
presence of God into the homes of these people, as the language barrier was
great. Our guide spoke very little
English, and the local people spoke their own local language, not Chinese,
which is what our guide spoke. We sat
around the fire smiling at one another and discussing among ourselves the past
year, recalling all that God has done.
We had many hours of ‘down’ time at the chief’s home, which
perhaps in the early days of the Race would have been difficult, but through
the year, God has taught us to enjoy being still, enjoying Him and each
other.
This whole leg of China facilitated what I believe to be the
best bit of debrief I experienced in the year.
Debriefing came about in conversations very organically, and we
processed out aspects of nearly every bygone month of the year. Our team throughout these 10 days consisted
of 3 original ZEO members – Amy, Leah, and myself (Lynette detoured to Tokyo to
visit her sister), 3 new ZEO members – Scott and Linnea Molgard (previously
NESSA), and Rusty Jackson, and also a young man from California who came out
(with a separate organization) to take this 10 day trip. We had many good conversations and had time
to simply enjoy one another’s company in our last weeks together.
A short flight on November 8th brought us to
Beijing, where we met up with the rest of the 45 January Racers for a couple
days to shop and visit the Great Wall of China. It was only a day and half visit really, but certainly worth it –
for both the shopping and the Wall! We
took a bus to a part of the Wall not often visited by tourists, where it hasn’t
been restored. We had to do a bit of
hiking up to it, and then walk the Wall for a good distance. It was amazing to stand in a place with such history behind it. It definitely is an experience I won’t
forget!
So, there’s China! I loved it, and felt I finished the year on a upswing, which had been my greatest prayer in the previous 2 months. I feel like I was ‘there’ for the whole time – that I hadn’t checked out mentally and returned home early. This too was an answer to prayer, as I knew how easy that would have been, and then I would have regretted it in the end.
I thank the Lord for an amazing finish of this amazing trip, and am excited for whatever comes next in this journey of Life with Jesus!
Stay posted…more to come….
