After Africa we transitioned to our Asian leg of the race. Month four was freezing, Internet-less, and the hardest month of the race for me. We spent December in China. It was also our first month as Team Yebo.
Country: China
Ministry: This month our ministry was getting to know area college students and hopefully talking to them about Jesus. This proved a little difficult as not many people spoke English or wanted to talk about Jesus. We were able to make a handful of friends though and just loved them the best we could.
Contact: Due to safety, I can’t share our contacts name from this month.
Living Arrangements: We lived in a cheap hotel in China.
Teams We Served With: We served on our own this month.
Money & Exchange Rate: Yuan (6 Yuan=1 US Dollar)
Language: Mandarin
Off Day Fun: Off days during the month were spent resting in our hotel room. We started the month in Hong Kong and ended it with debrief in Beijing so we did get to explore Hong Kong and Beijing as well as go to the Great Wall of China.
Sayings From the Month: “Ni hao” (Hello), “Xièxiè” (pronounced ‘Shay Shay’ and means Thank You)
Great Things From the Month:
-I loved getting to see Hong Kong and spend time there. It was such a cool city.
-We celebrated Ben Fulton and Meredith’s birthdays this month with crazy cakes and a delicious meal.
-I loved the food from our nice restaurant to beef noodles to potato lady. It was delicious.
-One of our friends taught us to make dumplings! So good! She also took us to see the Yellow River and we took her to have pizza for the first time on Christmas Eve at Pizza Hut.
-It was fun spending Christmas with our squad mates. We ate at a not so great buffet and did Karaoke afterwards.
-We went to see the Great Wall of China on New Year’s Eve. That evening I went out to eat with Jillian, Jamie, and Lynette. Not a bad way to end 2012.
Hard Parts of the Month:
-It was bitter cold this month. This made it difficult to want to leave my bed at all. On top of that, a nasty cold worked its way through the whole team over the course of the month.
-We were completely on our own this month. Our contact put us on a bus and told us to go find a place to live, a place to eat, and the university to meet students. We didn’t see him again until the end of the month. Basically no one spoke English in the little town we were in either.
-China is SO dark spiritually. We experienced a lot of spiritual warfare this month.
-Travel in China is insane.
-Not having Internet for the month was especially hard with the holidays.
Memories:
-I will never forget how tired and overwhelmed I felt on the 5 days it took us to get from Hong Kong to our final ministry site.
-I swear God provided an angel for us when we got to our final site. After sitting on the side of the road for about 15 minutes asking anyone who walked by if they spoke English, 3 people came up and asked in perfect English “do you need help?” They proceeded to show us a cheap hotel and we never saw them again.
-We spent the first week thinking we lived above a brothel. Thank God it turned out to just be a restaurant.
-I felt like a zoo animal in China. Nothing like having people stop, mouth opened, staring at you as you walk down the road or having pictures taken as you eat beef noodles.
-The HUT! We ate at Pizza Hut on Christmas Eve. Pizza Hut internationally is like a 5 star restaurant. They have escargot on their appetizer menu!
-China doesn’t have the best heating. Ashley and I’s hotel room barely got lukewarm and most restaurants didn’t have any heating. You felt like you were eating in the freezer.
Lessons Learned:
-Complete dependence on God.
-Calling out the lies I hear about myself.
-God broke off some major junk this month especially with rejection.
-I learned to see God has my provider this month. There were so many times that He showed up when we truly needed him from travel days to finding a place to live and the university to meeting new friends.
-I learned this month that my story can bring healing to others.
-I learned to recognize ways that I am legalist and break away from that.
-This was one of the first times I learned that ministry wouldn’t always look like ministry.
Random Thought of the Month:
–China was a rough month but God did some serious work in me. It took leaving it to see that but I can look back now and see just how much He taught me.
I honestly think I would have liked China a lot better if it had been a different time of year but I know God had us there in December for many reasons. Tomorrow I get to tell you about one of my funniest months on the race. Check back to read about the Philippines!
