Where in the World is Catie Collins?
It is already month 11 of this crazy journey. Time has flown by. Right now I am soaking up my last few days of the Race in our last country, Indonesia. My team and I have made great connections here in Jakarta and had the opportunity to go serve on two different islands encouraging and helping the community. We will head to Bali in a few days to debrief with our entire squad before returning back to USA soil. In the mean time, I would like to share with you my experience I had last month.
A few months ago, our leadership approached us with the opportunity to go to China. 6 people on our squad including me felt the call to go. So we went to Vietnam and got our Chinese visas (man that was a process); then hopped on 2 different sleeper trains to arrive in China.
(My team when we got approved to go to China)
As my teamate Rob said it, “I value the opportunity we had to blaze the trail from Vietnam to China for our organization; 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 the opportunity to feel those nerves. The border police. At 2am they filed everyone off of the train with all of our stuff, I did my best to obey what I thought the police were saying.”
Once we past the border, things changed a lot. The citizens of China are very different than the government. The people, for the most part were very welcoming and it seemed that most people had never seen a Westerner before. The amount of English speakers were very far and few in between. We journeyed through the Southern part of China, where different provinces have their own dialect. And overall, Mandarin is not an easy language to pick up. So this made ministry very difficult!
For the majority of our time we were in a city called Guilin. So there is a huge long lake in the middle of the city where most everything is centered around. See pictures below. So one of my teammates has a portable printer, so we walked around and tried to speak to a few locals. We took their picture and then printed it out for them right on the spot. I wish you could have seen their smiles and all the joy on their faces. Then when we told them they could keep it they were so happy.
I enjoyed going for runs around this lake. Something about it was just so peaceful. Every time I was going around that lake I just really felt the presence of the Lord with me. I found myself frustrated at many times because I was like Lord I feel like you have called me to China, but the language barrier is so hard and I don’t feel like I am being effective. During my time in China, the Lord continued to show me that He had things He wanted to teach me and continue to walk me through. He created a space where I could be still with no rush, a time to sit a process. I had set a goal for this month to wake up at 5:30am and spend time with the Lord. Time and time again I found myself snoozing my alarm or setting it for PM instead of AM. Through that the Lord showed me so much grace and that it is okay to mess up, He just longs to be with me throughout the day. He reminded me to put on His armor everyday and be expectant for Him to show up.
All of these things made for a tough month but so much fruit came from it. I feel like every little smile I gave, every time I looked someone in the eye, and every broken conversation I had planted seeds there. For example, one night some of my teammates and I were walking around the night market and we ran into a man named Robert! He was selling paintings and 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 teammates and I built a sweet relationship with him and went back to visit him a few times. We bought a few pieces of art from him and he gave us each a souvenir when we said goodbye. My prayer is that we were a breath of fresh air for our friend Robert. I pray we were an encouragement to him to keep continuing growing in his faith. To stand strong even when the battle is tough.
Although, this was one of the toughest months yet, my eyes have been opened to so much more.
So over all my journey from Vietnam to China was:
amazing in so many different ways;
amazingly eye opening;
amazingly difficult ;
amazingly fruitful;
amazing in seeing the Lord’s faithfulness.
Blessings,
Catie Collins
