During our time in China, I became friends with a homeless beggar who sat on the corner of the street of the hostel we stayed at. As soon as I saw him, I adored this man! He reminded me a lot of my grandfather. He spoke with his hands and had many of the same hand gestures that my own grandfather has.
Every day I tried to make sure he felt loved. Unfortunately, I didn’t know Chinese and he didn’t English. But a smile, a touch of the hand, a high five and true excitement to see each other even spanned the language barrier. I could say “Hello” in his language and I learned to say “Jesus loves you.” Other than that I would speak to him in English, knowing he had no idea what I was saying to him but I wanted him to know that someone cared about him.
At night, I would go to bed hating that I couldn’t speak properly to this man. (This is the first time on the Race that a language barrier has bothered me to this extent.) However one day as I handed him his lunch he looked at me and said “Thank you.” I couldn’t believe he had spoken English! My heart melted. He had learned to say “Thank you” in English!
On our last night in the city, a teammate of mine found a Chinese phrase book. My heart sank and my stomach turned, all this time I could have spoken to him in his own language or at least pointed to the phrases but I didn’t even know this book existed!
I rose early the following morning so that I could tell him that I was leaving and tell him about Jesus, but I never found my friend. This was the first time that he wasn’t at his corner. I could have cried. I never saw him again. Thankfully God doesn’t really need me to bring this man to know Him. If God had wanted me to communicate more with this man, then I’m sure I would have learned of this book’s existence before our final night in the city.
I never found out this man’s name but God knows who he is. So please pray for this man’s salvation, safety, health and a place for him to have constant shelter. This man changed everything that I ever thought about homeless people. I don’t know if I could walk by a homeless person now and not think of my friend. It’s one thing when beggars want money for alcohol or drugs, it’s totally different when they want food to survive or a few cents to sleep in a bus for the night so they can get out of the bitter cold. God brought this man in my life to teach me about compassion and humanity and because of that I’m thankful!
