My month in China!!

Phew..so I have to wrap up an entire month in one blog.  This will be exciting.  Let’s get started!

This past month (and our last month of the Race) was both a challange and a blessing all wrapped up into one little chinese package.  It was challenging becuase for the first time we were entering a closed country.  Internet was cut off, phone calls were cut off and we were and still are unable to report which city we were in, names of missionaries or students we met, etc.  We want to protect them from the government finding out why they are there and what they are doing.  Therefore, I apologize for continuing to be vague in the details.  But I will try to give you a good picture of what our month was like!

We arrived in our first city as “cultural exchange students”  wink wink.  Therefore, every morning we were in class.  This ranged from subjects including Chinese philosophy and history, Mandarin, calligraphy, tea art, music, etc.  We got a full scope of what Chinese culture was like and it was very intriguing.  I especially enjoyed the classes because I am fascinated by culture.  In exchange for them helping us understand the culture, we helped the students at the University with their English.  So every day we went for two hours and had English Corners where we sat and chatted with students.  This opened doors of opportunity to later have dinner with them and share with them our testimonies.  It was a good two weeks!!  For me, it was a little more difficult.  I am finding more and more that my heart is a shepards heart.  I am not built an evangelist but rather enjoy and thrive when I am working with believers.  I love discipleship and the growth process and encouraging the body.  So I struggled a little more during that time being in an evangelism situation.  But I learned a lot about myself during that time and got to meet some great students along the way.  We got to go to some school events, learn how to eat cafeteria food with chopsticks and learn how to say, “Please don’t make my food spicy!”  haha.  Well, that’s what I learned how to say at least!

Tea art

Calligraphy..I wasn’t very good. smiles!

A student who did calligraphy for me..he IS very good!  It says, “Happy Birthday”  on “October 25, 2007”

After our two weeks doing the cultural exchange program, all our teams broke down again into our smaller teams and spread out among China.  Our team traveled by train to a larger city where we partnered with a group of missionaries who are working with a Musilm group of people.  This was much different than anything we experienced all year and I loved it.  We got to do a variety of things including hanging out with students from the Athletic training school, paint the apartment of one of the missionaries, hear testimonies of Musilm people who came to know the Lord, go to another English corner, and meet with lots of students of a University nearby.  Also we ate ALOT!  I’ve probably gained all kinds of pounds eating all those yummy carbs.  And many of our meetings were over dinner.  But we didn’t mind.  We love Chinese food!  It is also every mothers nightmare because all you do is stick your germy little chopsticks in every dish.  No serving spoons!

Athletes

Eating off the street..my favorite!

English corner

Yummy Chinese food..eating family style!  Ok, so we ate a lot in China.  I can’t help it!!

Possibly my favorite memory of China was in the second city where we got to meet with some of the local believers.  We met in a small apartment with about 6 of them.  There, we each went around and shared our testimonies, prayed together and read Scripture together.  I would have to say that one of my favorite things all year has been hearing the Word of God read in another language.  It is so beautiful to me that God would give his Word to every tribe and every nation and every tongue.  We read Isaiah 61 together in Chinese and in English (the chapter by which our team is named after).  Tears came to my eyes as I heard it read, knowing that THAT exact word is changing lives in China.  Wow. 

After that, we all took communion together and it was such a sweet time.  I was in awe as we broke bread and filled our dixie cups with green tea, reading the account of the last supper together and realizing that we are brothers and sisters.  I wish I could explain in words how precious a moment it was for me to be with believers in that tiny apartment knowing that their decision to follow Christ was not a decision that was flippant.  Often, them coming to know the Lord will ostracize them from their families.  And the Bibles they held in their hands were illegal for them to be holding.  Who knows what it took for those exact Bibles to cross the border.  It just made me realize how freedom of religion is both a blessing and a curse.  On one hand, we can worship God whenever and wherever we want.  But I think in that, we have lost the awe and the seriousness of our committment to our faith.  It challenged me to remember why I came to know Christ in the first place and to live like I mean it.

Thanks for all your prayers, emails and love from all over the world this past month.  Know I am slow at responding because this is our last week of the Race and I am trying to wrap things up which has been consuming.  I will try to respond as much as I can in the next few weeks after we have finished.  But continue to pray that we will end well and that God will reveal himself in awesome and unique ways to each one of us.

Love from the East. 

Stacy