.: Today. Present Time. Now… :.
“Can we pray for you A?” I asked.
“What?!?!?!” he replied
“As a thank you for being such a gracious host, we would love to express our gratitude by praying for…,” Marie started to explain.
“No. No. That’s enough. That’s enough,” he interrupted us
“Ok. Well, nice meeting you!” Nathan said
“You know your way back from here right?”
“Yes we do.”
“Ok. Goodbye.”
He could not have walked from us any faster…
.: Yesterday :.
Marie, Nathan and I had decided to go to this restaurant we were told was owned by American believers. Unfortunately, we didn’t meet them.
Nathan taking a quick nap before as we were waiting on our meal.
However, we met Mr. A. A was a frequent customer of the place. He approached us and started to talk to us. We found out that he is a lawyer who studied international law in Japan. He is currently separated from his wife. His dad who passed away 4 years ago was a politician. His brother is a doctor. He is a brand-new uncle: his nephew was 3 months old. We also found out he was a Uighur *insert praise break: we have been talking about wanting to meet and befriend one. *
He expressed his disappointment for not having met us sooner (we were leaving Urumqi in 2 days) because he would have showed us around town. He also would have loved to be able to practice his English with us more. He insisted to meet with us again tomorrow and we agreed to do so at 10:00AM.
.: Today. 10:10AM :.
It is now tomorrow. “He did say 10:00AM right?” Marie asked. “Yes,” Nathan and I replied.
We have been sitting on the sidewalk for the past hour waiting for him and the restaurant to open.The latter finally did 50 minutes later. We walked in and ordered lunch. As we are wrapping up our meal, A walked through the door with this anxious “I-hope-I-didn’t-miss-them” look on his face. He sincerely apologized: he had an unexpected client meeting he could not cancel. Since we didn’t exchange contact info the day before, he was not able to message us to let us know that he would be late. “I still would love to take you guys out to eat though,” he expressed. We said yes even though our belly was full from the lunch we just ate.
We followed him to his car and he drove to this beautiful restaurant.
Inside the restaurant
He ordered us a traditional Uighur meal. It was delicious.
A traditional Uighur dish
We kept on talking and getting to know each other. We learned more about his life, his view/opinion on our President, his job, his desire to travel more, his dream to own a villa in 5 years. He currently lives in an apartment. “It is not furnished yet. I just moved in. But next year, if you do come back to Urumqi, it will be and know that you have a free place to stay.
As we are wrapping up our meal, I told Marie and Nathan: “We should ask him if we could pray for him.”
.: Today. Now…:.
“Ouch!” my heart screamed as I watched him walk away from us. “He did not want us to pray for him.” Right away, millions of other negative thoughts started flooding my mind.
“I just messed it up big time.”
“Man! I should not have asked.”
“Shoot! There goes our man of peace…”
“So much for free lodging if I was to come back to Urumqi next year.”
“I don’t get it. He said he was open and his family was not discriminatory when it comes to religion.”
I finally opened my mouth and apologized to Nathan and Marie:“You guys! I am so sorry! I totally blew it! I…” Nathan interrupted me and said, “Oh it’s ok! Nothing to feel guilty about. Because we are going to pray for him anyway.” And Nathan proceeded to lift Anthony’s life, family, job and himself in prayer to Papa.
.: Pray :.
Can I also ask that you please join me in praying for A as well? Pray for his life, family, his dreams and a special encounter with Christ. Pray for more godly encounters like this one. Not only for us while we are out on the Race, but for you in your own life as well. Pray for everyone else who might be resistant to the Good News (which is a great amount of the world population). Pray for the courage to not feel discouraged when you do step out in faith and things don’t turn out the way you expected. Pray that you always say yes to Papa and to following His word.
You’re awesome for reading: thanxies so much! đ
One more thing:
Two of my squadmates are still fundraising for this trip. Please prayerfully consider supporting them and head over to their blog and click on the “Donate!” button located on the top right corner of the page. ANY ANY ANY amount does count!
1. Whitney – $1,837 http://whitneycragun.theworldrace.org/
2. Tandi – $2,592 http://tandipatton.theworldrace.org/
