It's almost only 2 months until my arrival in Kansas City, Missouri. Typing that brings a smile to my face, followed by my stare out a window, an (all to familar too my teammates) "mmm", and a slight shake of the head. It's surreal, as it should be because it's still two months away. The thougt of coming home excites me and quickly brings dreams of the future to mind, but it also shocks me in a way… it always shocks me how fast "time flies" in restrospect.
Lately I find myself thinking, "I can't wait to catch up with [insert your name here if you are not currently on my team]. I look forward to the days when I just get to sit and catch up with everyone from home, and even for the days that I get to catch up with others on my squad that I don't get to see all the time. But as I was thinking about that today I realized I had some catching up to do with everyone, on here, right now.
So here's a piece of the recap:
That one time I spent two weeks in China:
During our time there my team worked along side Erin Miller's team and had our squad leader Kevin join us. The 14 of us headed all the way to Harbin, China which is located just under Russia and above North Korea on the map. The place is known for it's ice sculptures. I pretty much thought I would turn into a popscile while there, but luckily that proved false as it was admittedly warmer than antcipated. We knew it was "warm" because it actually snowed while we were there, which most of the time it is too cold to do.
We worked with what most people would call "the underground" or "secret" church while there. Though in all reality it felt like neither of those things while I was there. It was neither underground nor being kept a secret. It was however a very much a live church, an extension of the body of Christ, making His love known among all it's neighbors (literally and figuratively). We worked with an american couple, Jake and Steph, who had moved there just about 5 years ago, which at the time was only 3 months into their marriage! Crazy, that's what that is… crazy to get the gospel known that is.
They take a bold approach in their outeach methods and are not playing any games, well actually.. sometimes we did play games with the students we we're working with… but I mean they aren't playing around about getting the Word out there. We spent our time teaching english, to the neighbors who lived in our apartment complexes (which is where church was held in our apartments) and then also went to english corners (events where Chinese college students could come practice their english with us Americans). When we would do these things, like going to the english corners, we were told to do quite the opposite of what I expected to be told to do going into China. We were encouraged to be honest and let people know we were there volunteering with the church, teaching english and hosting bible studies, and to hand them a card with the church address and service times on it. Everything I heard about sharing our faith in China was that it was going to have to be very covert… and this was not at all covert. This was very out in the open, almost more out in the open than I think we typically are in America.
Jake and Steph believe that the Lord has told them to take this approach, to be bold and intentional about their purpose for being in China, and that with that He has promised to protect them… and He has. The church they have helped Him start there has grown and is growing because of their intentionality. All that's not to say that they haven't had some tough stuff happen or had a few run in's with the police… they have. Just last summer they had begun holding church services in a public building because the number of people attending had grown so much, but some time after that the police got word of it, showed up, shut things down and took the Chinese Pastors there to jail. They all got out and things are okay, their still holding church services; now they are just split into 3 house churches. What was really incredible to me in hearing about that story though was how the Lord can turn such moments of persecution and attack from the enemy into a display of His glory and love. After that incident happened with the police, one of the other American missionaries that is working with Jake and Steph, told us that the police man that shut them down kept calling him and naturally he was afraid to pick up the phone. He eventually did however and to his surprise the police man wasn't calling to say anything about the church, but was actually calling to ask if he would be willing to teach his son english. I think the natural response in that moment is to think "what the audacity of that guy" but as he was telling us the story I couldn't help but see what an incredibly sweet opportunity the Lord had just created in that moment to so literally "love your enemy" and display His glory no matter what.
There's more to tell about China for sure and there's definitely some stuff I need to fill you all in about this beautful place Ukraine… but that's all for now folks. Tomorrow we pack up and head our Kiev to meet up with another team who are down in Crimea, from there we'll travel with them to meet up with another team who are in Odessa, and then finally from there we will make our way to our 10th country Romania!! Some where in there I plan on writing some more and putting up here for your reading pleasures 🙂 ha but we will also be doing a lot of travelling, so I make no promises.
…I can't wait to catch up with you all some more though. I love you!
