While in China we met a wonderful family that ran the hotel that we stayed in. Our first night in the town we went to their hotel and rented a room. After renting the room some of us went and explored the city some. The four of us that were exploring the city had met a woman who was an English teacher at one of the local schools. We talked to her for a time until we were approached by the police. The police asked for our passports. We didn’t all have our passports on us so the police escorted us to our hotel where the preceded to talk to the hotel owners.
The next morning the hotel told us that we would no longer be able to stay at their hotel and that we would need to find a new hotel. So we left in search of a new hotel. Once we had found one we returned to our first hotel so we can get our bas and move it to our new hotel. While we were leaving the son of the owner ran out and asked if we wanted to stay the night at their hotel. We told him that we had already booked a place for the night but would return the night after for a room.
After spending the night in the second hotel we went back to our first hotel and booked rooms for the remaining time we were going to stay in the town. A few of our girls started to befriend the ladies that were working at the hotel. They helped them do some of the daily work such as cleaning and mopping. After the girls had finished helping the ladies we went with the owner’s son and a few of his friends. They took us to the yellow river. We played in the water for a while and then played catch with a ball on the shore.
Later that night the family of the hotel invited us to join them for dinner. We went and bought some noodles for us and the family and then went into their house. That night we ate the noodles that we brought and also an immense amount of dumplings that were cooked for us. We were then taken to a karaoke bar and enjoyed many Tibetan songs as well as being able to sing worship songs.
We spent the next couple of days in the same town spending some of our time with our new Tibetan family and also eating with them every night. We eventually had to move on to our next town we had planned to stop at, so we ended up having to leave our new family. It was a sad moment but also a happy one knowing that we were able to meet them and pour out to them. I just pray that God will continue to move in their lives and that they will be able to say that they are receiving his grace.
