I’m still stuck on China even though we are currently in Swaziland Africa. Like most people I know, Africa seems to have always been on my heart for whatever reason. In fact, there have been a few season of my life that I felt like God was calling me here. It never panned out though. Now I am here. It’s crazy to me. I don’t think God lays something on our hearts without a purpose. There is always a reason if our desires our sincere and in line with him. Coming to this leg of the race there is a strong sense that God has been preparing me for something here. Something he started preparing when he initially laid Africa on my heart. Once again… now I am here.
Before I dive into my journal and some of my thoughts about China I would like to go through a conversation we had with one of our contacts before we left. We were briefed by a guy who had been 
doing mission work in China for some time now. The two things that he told us during our briefing which I wrote more about in my journal were 1. If you ever need help or you get lost, pray to God and ask for help… wait a few minutes… and he will send an angel or someone else who will come up to you and say “may I help you.” 2. The other thing that he told us was that we would see people come to Christ in the short time we spent in China. So here is what I wrote in my journal after the first day we crossed into China.
It was one of those days that putting my thoughts down on paper will not do the day any justice. We are now in the southern part of China. Just this morning we were in Hong Kong under the impression that we wouldn’t be leaving for China for at least another day. Around 10:00 am we were told that we would be leaving in two hours and hour of which would be taken by a quick briefing on mainland China. As I was speaking with the guy that was briefing us about how we would get to our destination he told me if I ever got lost I would just need to stop and pray for Jesus to send and angel. Seeing that the way we were supposed to get into China was pretty complicated I simply smiled and kept trying to convince myself that everything would go without a hitch and all the loose ends would come together. He then said that after waiting for a few minutes once we asked God for an angel someone would come up to us and say “may I help you.”
So we left. I didn’t really think much into it. Part of me just thought it was typical Christianise talk I suppose. To be honest I thought it would be a miracle if we made it to the place we were supposed to get to… God loves miracles. What is crazy to me as I write this is that this is my life. I have met people who don’t even need to think twice when asked if the believe God loves coming through in their life. I have always thought of those events that you hear happen to people as a special phenomenon in some ways. Its not that I doubted that God had done some pretty awesome things in their lives… but I never really believed it would happen much in my life. God wrecked that belief of mine. I am learning He loves coming through for us in the moments when we genuinely need him most.
As we continued to go deeper into China we somehow were hurried into a tiny bus. This was not in the plans. Six Americans with two other Chinese people and all our stuff were not something I was told I should be expecting. I started to worry. I asked Sarah who was in the front to try and communicate that we need to somehow get to the train station. He of course didn’t speak a lick of English. Out of the blue the Chinese girl who was being squashed by all our luggage turned to me saying “may I help you.” As watched stunned as she began communicating with our driver. We then got out of the van and she offered to help us find the train station. After that she helped us find a hostel for about half the price we were expecting to pay right outside the train station. I then needed to get a taxi and pick up the tickets at a random hotel. She offered to walk us there. As we were talking with her she told us to stop thanking her so much. Kyle looked down and saw she was wearing a cross on her belt. As we were hurried into a taxi we continued to thank her. “It’s not me” I remember her saying. There are 1 billion people in China. Some estimate that around 80 million people are Christians. I was told that one out of every thirty speak conversational English. We found Carol… who spoke English. I am blown away today. I feel like God sent us and angel. He protected us all day. He guided us all day. God is so thick here in China. He is moving is such powerful ways. Though I’ve only been here one day I can just feel it. He is calling me… beckoning me. He is moving in ways I’ve never be accustomed to seeing him move. I can’t wait.
China was full of these kinds of stories. I hope to put up at least one more journal entry.
