So, if you remember, the last thing we realized as soon as we got to Beijing was that various hostels, AirBnBs, and hotels were denying us stay with them.
Wall #3- Registration
I should mention that we truly traveled into China at some of the most inopportune times— with the economic conflict going on with States and China preparing to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Foreigners, particularly Americans, were being surveilled a little more intently during this time.
From the connections we were making and from contacts we had, we were being told that all foreigners have to register in China every time they move locations. If you go unregistered throughout China, you could be fined. Most hotels will do this for you. If you stay in any other location, you must go to the local police in order to register.
Because our budget didn’t allow us to afford any hotel that actually had the ability to register us and all other locations were telling us they didn’t have the right permit to register us, we were truly running out of options. We even tried separating our team into two groups to try and register some of the girls. After an hour drive, the Hostel we ended up at realized they actually couldn’t help register us. And that was pretty typical— places would accept your booking and then you would show up to find out they actually couldn’t register us.
Fortunately, we were taken in by some Jesus-loving people that we found our first night in. However, this puts people at a huge risk and we were asked to leave the highly-monitored area of Beijing as quickly as possible. So, four days after arriving in Beijing, we left toward a smaller village on the outskirts of Beijing.
The village we were in was close to a portion of The Great Wall. It wasn’t the most touristic spot and it was definitely less costly than all the other portions of The Great Wall people had researched to go into. So, yes, I got to live right next to The Great Wall for a few days. And our hostess was the sweetest woman! And we lived right by a Film Academy that we visited, almost daily, and made friends at. And we found one coffee shop owner who spoke English that we were so blessed by and we hope we were able to bless.
However, the current village we were at was just a little out of our budget and we knew we couldn’t stay long. Three of the girls on our team had previously felt led to head East toward Tianjin so we closed up our time in Beijing after being in the village after another 5 days and headed East.
After being in Tianjin for 13 days, we then had to head out to Lanzhou and prepare to leave China. We hit some similar walls once we got to Lanzhou regarding lodging. However, God is good and He provides— Jehovah Jireh— and we stayed in some some other Jesus-loving family’s apartment while they were on vacation.
However, our last two days in Lanzhou, we had to find new lodging because the Jesus-loving family came back from vacation. And as we were on the subway to our next location, I got two notifications saying that the AirBnB couldn’t actually host us…Face palm…
So, we had to emergency crash at a hostel that another team was staying at. We slept in spare couches and spaces the first night but were able to sleep in our own beds the second and last night.
Wall #4- Opportunities
Part of the reason that our team wanted so desperately to stay in Beijing was because of the Lunar Festival on Friday, the 13th. Also because we had met some people that had informed us of an English corner where we could share the Gospel. This was definitely not condoned by the government…it was just something we knew we could possibly get away with with little repercussions.
But, again, we were asked to leave the area. With Google being blocked, limited amount of people speaking English, strict limitations on things we were allowed to do or say, and minimal ways to get a hold of people through normal ways of communication, we were feeling pretty hopeless and discouraged.
Even once we got to Tianjin, the area where our AirBnB ended up being at seemed to be only residential. It wasn’t until a few days later that we actually were able to venture out and fine more than just apartment complexes surrounding us. However, we did have some kiddos take notice of the 7 foreign women living in an apartment and started stopping by our apartment to practice their English. Just when we thought we were making cool connections, the kids stopped coming a few days before we left. It was, personally, just discouraging.
When we arrived in Lanzhou, we realized that so many people were on vacation that it was hard to really connect with people. The connections that we did make felt like they were really last minute but they were pretty sweet.
Right as I was feeling even more discouraged by the fact that we hadn’t met these people earlier or that we should’ve gotten to Lanzhou earlier, I was reminded that is not what this is about.
I can get caught up in the results of my service or in the numbers of my work, but God asks for my heart. I’ll write on this a little more later 🙂
Wall #5 – Bronchitis
The minute we ended up in Tianjin, I started not feeling well. I took a whole day and a half to just lay on the couch and rest. A week and four days later, I found myself in a local hospital communicating through Google Translate and shelling out about $100 trying to figure out what was wrong— Upper Respiratory Infection, they said. And then I just got worse.
Leaving Tianjin and heading to Lanzhou on an 18 hour sitting train was the last thing I wanted to do when I felt this miserable. And once we got to Lanzhou, it felt like I just really couldn’t catch a break. I began waking up through the middle of the night unable to catch my breath from coughing and vomiting up phlegm. And after doing that for a few more nights, I started vomiting up food through the night. I was constantly coughing during the day and night, throwing up through the night, and getting little to no sleep. I kept hoping the meds would start to kick in or that God would answer the prayers of my friends and teammates but things continued. And it wasn’t until we left China and I went to an International clinic n Kazakhstan that I realized that my Upper Respiratory Infection has developed into Bronchitis.
SUMMARY
This month didn’t go the way I wanted it to. I spent way more money than I wanted to when a goal of mine this Race was to embrace minimalism. I spent more time laying on a couch and wallowing in my misery than I did intentionally loving people around me, including my team.
How the heck am I supposed to tell people supporting me that this is what I did this month? Especially as my last month as the designated team leader (Month 3 is now where we have designated or “raised up” a team leader from within the team. Sweet Michaela is this team’s raised up leader.)
It has taken me time to die to my pride and to realize that the success of ministry is not in the results that I produce, but rather on my obedience to the call God has asked me to be a part of. And I believe that call on my life is to love his people and live every day in a way that echos this statement: Life is ministry, ministry is life.
And as we ended our last two nights in China going to the homes of Jesus-loving families, this statement was confirmed. They’re limited to the things they can DO in this country in regards to sharing about God and living it out; but, yet they LIVE out their love for the Lord in everything they do through every day.
So, this month was a month where I had to re-learn the definition of “success” and of “enough” from God’s perspective and not from the world’s. If God simply asked me to go and love His people, all the while discarding the ideas of conversions, numbers of people reached, amounts of times the gospel was verbally shared, etc., would that be good enough for me? Would it be good enough for you?
