While making our coffee rounds one morning I asked my team to come with me to Starbucks so that I could splurge on a soy latte. A Chinese woman in front of me asked, “Are you in line?” Whenever we meet someone that can speak English well we get really excited! So I began to talk to her with a great deal of excitement and she offered to help me order my coffee with soy.
She explained to me that her name is Ping and that she just returned from living in California for one year. She is an English professor here in Harbin at the Medical University. She said that she had never heard much about God or really gone to church before going to the US. In California Ping attended church with her relatives and had Bible studies with them. She said that her 6 year-old son went to a Baptist Bible camp while in the states. Ping said that she could see a difference in him when he came back. After getting our coffees we exchanged numbers so that we could follow up with her.
Later I sent Ping a text message asking her if she would have some time to sit down and meet with us again. Instead she invited us to have a meeting with the Dean and other professors of her university because everyone in the department wanted to meet us foreigners. We had no idea what was going to happen in this meeting with the Dean, but we agreed. When we arrived to our surprise we entered a banquet room filled with an abundance of bananas, oranges, water bottles, and coffee. On our $5 a day missionary food budget to us this looked like a feast straight out of Eden!
At the meeting we spoke with numerous professors many of whom spoke English very well. We learned about cultural differences in not only the school, but the rest of China as well. Out of concern for her job, Ping previously asked us to not talk about our faith unless the reason for our visit was inquired. They took several pictures with us. Then they presented each of us with a REAL golden medal for being their special guest!… lol. But in all seriousness, we did receive medals! If our schedules would allow, the Dean wanted to set up a time for us to come back and speak to several classes about American culture. For whatever the reason this opportunity later did not present itself.
Before leaving the meeting we said our goodbyes to Ping. She mentioned God and the reason for our visit. I asked her about what she believes to be true about God and the Bible. Ping was raised in a Buddhist home because her mother is Buddhist. She said that she is confused, but she feels in her heart that God is real. Ping is someone who I will now give her contact information over to the church for them to follow up with her.
The very best blessing that came from that day was receiving a tour of the university campus by a student named Alan. Alan is in his fourth year in medical school. His goal is to become a neurosurgeon and wants to work with individuals with Autism and children suffering from HIV. Alan is not from the city of Harbin and his hometown is over 1,000 miles away. While on the tour Alan said that he doesn’t get out much, likes to keep to him self, and in the four years of attending school he had rarely left the campus. Alan was confused to be giving us a tour and said that it was really weird that they asked him to give the tour because he did not know any of the professors that we met with. While walking and talking on the tour I instantly knew that this guy and I met for a reason.
The Story of Alan – To be continued…
