China has been a great first overseas experience. They are so hospitable here. Every time we went out with our Chinese friends, they would want to buy our food or give us little gifts like candy, etc. There was this one time some of my teammates went out for a girls’ day shopping at a local clothing market with four of our new Chinese friends and besides the fact that they totally looked out for us in the market, making sure we didn’t get pick-pocketed or ripped off, they each jumped for the opportunity to give us something. Lin always liked to buy us traditional Chinese snacks and street food and on the way to the market she bought us a bag of warm roasted chestnuts which were so good and I can now really know what it means to sing “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” at Christmas. Also, when we said that we wanted to look for nice chopsticks at the market, Summer decided she wanted to give us her bamboo chopsticks and when we walked by her dormitory on the way home from shopping, she decided that she not only wanted to give us each a pair of chopsticks but she gave us each four pair of bamboo chopsticks. . . Wow! After finding postcards in the market, my good friend, Libran, wanted to show us her special postcards from her home in south China and she wanted us each to pick some to keep. And Lingsu insisted on buying us some traditional Chinese popsicles on the way home. We were so spoiled by their friendship. Another friend, Calvin, wanted to cook us a traditional Chinese meal one night and he went all out.
It was a familiar sight in China to see two Chinese friends going out to lunch and actually fighting over who paid the check. . . like actually pushing each other out of the way to say “no, I am paying.” Leo and Calvin were our Chinese Christian guides while we were in Harbin and to say goodbye and thank you, we wanted to take them out for lunch and of course they were going to try to pay and gave us the angry face to insist that they get to do it but we really wanted to insist on treating them this time and fortunately, I was able to slip the money to the restaurant owner before they even realized what I was doing. They were so shocked and playfully gave us the angry face again but I believe it was a way to appreciate them and they secretly were honored by it. 😉 All of our guides gave so much of themselves into helping us navigate the city and ways to minister to the community.
In all of this and despite all of this, I just want them to know how much worth they have in a Father that created them out of love and sent His son to die for them because He loved them so much. In building relationships with many of our lovely friends in China, I learned how much they believe they have to work to be good on their own power when I know there is never enough that we could do on our own to be “good enough.” And just as we all do, they also worry about how good they are; even in practicing their English, they were always afraid they made too many mistakes. I could relate to this well because I have been there and believed that I had to do everything right or make up for my own mistakes but I wore myself out into depression and anxiety early in my life because I couldn’t accomplish it. Thankfully, we have a Savior that desperately wants to bestow His grace on us and has already accomplished all those ways we can’t be good enough on our own knowing the struggle we have with it and the need we have for a Lord that not only is perfect in every way but has sacrificed His perfection and took on our sin so that we did not have to struggle anymore. God values His children to death!
Leaving Harbin, China, is bittersweet knowing I am going on to another exciting mission the Lord has placed in my life in Thailand but leaving behind beloved friends in China that I wish I could spend more time with. I do know though that no matter what all I get to do in a country or how long I spend in a country the Lord is always there and His Spirit is always moving. His Spirit has moved in great ways before we arrived in China and it moved while we were here and His Spirit will continue to move when we have departed; it was evident this month in beautiful ways which I will share more about in my next blog. God loves China and values His beloved here! Please continue to pray for the relationships that were started this month in China. The Lord sweetly blessed us with planting seeds and now He will water them and pour life into them.
