For Passport Holders Only
This blog is for passport holders ONLY. If you do not have your passport please exit out of this site. Thank you and have a nice day.
This happened to us in China – if you did not have your foreign passport you were not allow to enter into the conference hall where the ‘fellowship’ would take place at 10 am. We drove two hours away to attend a church that would only allow you in if you had a foreign passport. (You see foreigners are allowed to practice their faith, they simply are Not allowed to share it with any Chinese people.)
In China the word ‘worship’ was not allow, the word ‘church’ was prohibited, the word ‘missionary’ was forbidden. Along with many other words or phases. As America searches out for terrorist, China searches out Christians (at least in the area that we were in – my friends had a different experience in a different part of China)
Children’s songs from VBS were changed so that Jesus, God, or salvation were never mentioned. Taxi rides were cautious only speaking ‘appropriate’ topics. And skyping was challenging to say the least. There were no churches, temples, or mosques. Nothing to do with religion.
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And then we arrive in the Philippines and it is completely opposite. A nation considered to be Catholic. There are churches everywhere. There are signs that use the word Jesus and God. You can be of whatever religion you chose.
Yesterday we went to the local university and one of the girls introduced me as a missionary. I wanted to yell – No! I am not, I am just a tourist but than I remember it was ok to use the ‘m’ word. The same girl even suggested with pray with some students (in public!) and it caught me off guard because I had become so accustom to hiding my faith. Prayer in public – what is that… What if the police come? What if someone sees us praying or singing worship songs? Is it safe to do that?
Every country is so different – but it is interesting to see how fast you adopt to the ways of the people. The whole hiding your religion really stuck with me because it was a matter of safety. Sooo it is taking a little longer to adjust back to what it means to have religious freedom. Needless to say, China and the Philippines are very different.
More to come from the Philippines in a later blog!
PS Thanks for the prayers. I can feel them each and every day that I am here.
