Continued from Trials in a Closed Country, Part 1
Over dinner with our friends that night, I told them that we found two women reading a Bible across from the monastery while we were prayer walking. A look of fear suddenly came over his face. Confused, I asked why this was a bad thing. After all, there is only one known local Christian believer in this town. The more the merrier, right? He went on to explain his concerns. Several months ago, a group of well-intending but misguided foreigners came to this town and set up speakers in the streets and told everyone within earshot that they needed to repent for their mass amounts of sin. They also passed out Bibles and tracts to many people around the monastery. They then hit the road immediately before the police were able to track them down.
Several days later, when our contact returned from a weekend trip to a neighboring town, one of the locals told him that the had missed his “friends” visit to town. Not having any relationship with this group that came for several hours, our contact was contused and asked for an explanation. So the local man proceeded to tell him everything that had happened while our contact was out of town. That group was mistaken for being friends of our contact because they looked similar. That is a very bad situation for our friend who works there because the visitors’ actions were highly illegal. In addition, missionaries there must retain anonymity with the community at large in order to be able to build key relationships without the State running them out of town, or worse.
Things have settled down since that incident several months ago. Our friend remained safe and everyone seemed to have forgotten about their so-called “friends” who made the controversial, much disliked visit.
But now he is worried once again. Katey was correct in her discernment. It was the perfect decision to not stop and keep walking past the two grandmothers with the Bible. Most likely they are not Christians. Rather, someone probably gave them the Bible and told them to open it if they see foreigners to test our intentions Although we passed the “test” and didn’t do anything to put our contacts in danger, our friend has asked us to not leave the apartment today so as not to arouse any further suspicion. So here we are, all together in the living room as I write this. It has been harder on others than it has on me. Katey is so active that being cooped up all day is slowly driving her crazy. I asked her when was the last time she just relaxed inside for the whole day? She answered that once, about 3 years ago, she was really sick and couldn’t leave. I let her know that didn’t count. Her answer then changed to never. The rest of us, however, have been able to enjoy this day inside, hanging out around the festive Christmas tree in the corner.
I never realized all of the freedoms that one must give up to serve the Lord here. Even movement in the town is restricted at times. However, our loss of freedoms this month is absolutely nothing compared to the freedoms given up by the long term missionaries who call China home. They devote their lives to the people in their communities. Please keep our contacts and all of the other missionaries here in your prayers. Their work is not successful without prayer. Pray that the police’s eyes would be blinded to any mistakes or blunders that short term teams make. Pray that short term teams would have the wisdom to know how to assist the long term workers. Pray that the long term workers would find rest and security in the Lord, knowing that he is always in control.
