Before we begin, we should mention that Casey is not with us for this week of ministry. She felt a strong burden for one of the other cities, and she is being obedient to that by travelling with the Blue Team to minister there. We pray that God uses her mightily there, and we look forward to reuniting with her next week. Rock on, Casey!
The other four of us have arrived safely in our new home for the next week. We won’t mention the name of the city we are in for security reasons, but it is in Northwest China, in a region that is very heavily Muslim. There are more mosques here than there are anywhere else outside of Saudi Arabia.
Brother Eugene told us that he led a Muslim man to Jesus in the city we’re in. To Eugene’s knowledge, this man is the only Christian in town. We hope to meet him this week while we are here, and in his honor, we have decided to refer to the city as Won Gai. That way we can say, in China, we traveled hundreds of miles to visit Won Gai.
We think it’s funny.
Anyway, upon our arrival in Won Gai, Ashley and I began searching for a hotel. This is not easy when you can’t read any signs or talk to anyone on the street, but we were armed with a phrase book and a fierce determinationl, so we weren’t going to be stopped. And indeed, we found hotels. But the ones we found were either too expensive or too sketchy, so we returned empty-handed.
Fortunately for us, Katherine and Sarah had been approached by a Chinese man who speaks English (we’ll call him David). Turns out, he teaches English here in Won Gai. David was more than happy to help us find a hotel that fit both our price range and our sketchiness tolerance level. We’re paying about $7.50 USD per night for a double room. That’s cheap!
However, we didn’t realize until after we checked in that it was a government-owned hotel. You know, the same government that doesn’t want people sharing the Gospel in China? We should be just fine, but pray for us nonetheless that we wouldn’t run into problems with the authorities.
We also found a good noodle shop where the four of us ate lunch for less than $2.50 USD. So we won’t starve. There is a woman there who speaks English as well. Her name is Maria.
David has asked us to come visit his classroom as “guest foriegn teachers,” and we plan on going back to the noodle shop, so pray that we can cultivate relationships with David and Maria. They may be the only people we get to share the Gospel with while we are here.
As we begin to contemplate what ministry here over the next few days will look like, we realize how very important the power of prayer is. There are no other Christians to work with here, no church plants to nurture. There are only people who are lost, most of whom have never heard the Gospel before. Pray for us, certainly, that God would lead our steps and teach us how to minister here, but more than that, pray for the people of Won Gai. Pray that the Holy Spirit would move here in power, and that the roadblocks that are keeping the Gospel from being preached here would be removed. Pray for workers to come here on a long term basis to continue to let Christ’s light shine. And pray for that single brother who lives here, that he might be built up in his faith, and that he might share God’s love fearlessly with others.
More to come tomorrow, with pictures I hope
-Gary, on behalf of Team Doulos (Winners of the China Race Leg, if you hadn’t heard)
