Thursday, June 25, 2009
one more week!
A week from now, I'll be sitting on a plane, on my way home! I'm incredibly excited about coming home... but at the same time, I'm really sad about leaving China and the friends I've made here. My semester here had gone by really fast. Too fast, almost. But on the other hand, this next week can't go by fast enough. Such mixed emotions!! I have my final exams today and tomorrow, and then I'm flying to Beijing with a Korean friend Friday evening. I've traveled around a lot since coming to China, but somehow, none of my plans for going to Beijing ever worked out. I was starting to think I'd end up leaving China without ever having seen the Great Wall, and that just seemed somewhat unacceptable. I mean, WHO comes to China without going to the Great Wall? So I decided to squeeze in one last trip between finals and before going home. I'll be back in Wuhan Tuesday afternoon, and then I'm leaving for home bright n' early Thursday morning! I absolutely can't wait to eat some good home-cooked American food again! :)
Friday, June 5, 2009
update!
This time, I have an excuse for my lack of updates over the past month or so: "for some reason", it has been impossible to access blogspot for the past month or so. (hmmmm...?) I've been enjoying myself, doing some traveling (a weekend in Shanghai, followed by a spontaneous trip to Hangzhou, Suzhou, and BACK to Shanghai the following weekend), and now I'm focusing on my last 3 weeks of classes and finals! I went to Shanghai two weekends ago (May 21-24) with my Korean friend and classmate, Park Gyeong Eun. We met up with another Korean friend of hers (named Hanna) in Shanghai. Neither of these girls speaks much English, but we all study Chinese, so we relied on Chinese to communicate all weekend. It was kind of exciting to realize that my Chinese is now good enough to plan a trip, buy train tickets, and carry on (simple) conversations! Being forced to speak Chinese all weekend definitely helped my vocabulary a lot! (I carried around my little Chinese-English dictionary all weekend, and the Korean girls had little Korean-English dictionaries, so if we ever had trouble saying something, we'd break out the dictionaries... that earned us a few funny looks from passer-byes!) It was only my second time to Shanghai, but it was amazing how easy it was to find my way around the city this time! I honestly think I'm a lot better at finding my way around Shanghai than I am at finding my way around Wuhan! That's mostly thanks to the subway system in Shanghai. It's really fast and convenient, and all of the maps are both in English and Chinese (although by now, the English is a nice touch, but I think I could survive without it. :) ) On Sunday morning, we attended a service Shanghai Community Ch-rch. 
At first, I was impressed and encouraged that the Chri-tians in Shanghai are free to meet so openly for worship. But once the sermon started, it was clear that this ch-rch lacks g-dly guidance. The pastor preached in Chinese, and those of us who didn't understand the Chinese so well were given headphones, and we could listen to a translator, who translated (or at least, tried to) everything the preacher was saying. She (yeah, she) preached on baptism, because they were celebrating Pentecost that Sunday. I'd never heard of this practice before, but this ch-rch only allows people to be baptized on Pentecost Sunday. The whole premise of the sermon was that "they might allow you to be baptized as soon as you believe the Gosp-l in other countries, but that's not how we do it in China." I found myself taking a lot of notes during the sermon, but most of them were about things she said that I wanted to compare with what the Bi-le ACTUALLY says. Pr-y that G-d would send a g-dly man to lead that ch-rch! China has become more religiously free over the past decade or so, but the government still has control over a lot of the aspects of the ch-rch, including what is said from the pulpit. Our little international ch-rch on campus is also experiencing some difficulties. We were recently informed that we are no longer allowed to use the room in the basement to meet for Sunday services! Our pastor already had a meeting with the police and with some of the people in charge of our university, and they told him they would hold another meeting with him to make a final decision, but they haven't called him, and when he tries to contact them, they don't answer the phone. It seems more like a problem from within the university than from the police. Please pr-y that G-d would give us wisdom, and that this issue will be resolved quickly! This past weekend (May 28-30), we had Thursday and Friday off for the Dragon Boat festival, so some friends (Mei, a Thai girl who was adopted by Belgian parents and Celine, a Chinese girl who grew up in France) and I decided to travel. We made last-minute plans to go to Hangzhou and Suzhou for the weekend! They're both actually pretty big cities, but they have the feel of a small town. From Hangzhou, we visited Moganshan (Mogan Mountain) which is about an hour away from the city. In the early 1900's a lot of Americans and Europeans had built summer homes there, and now a lot of the foreigners who live in Shanghai (also very close to Moganshan) and the well-to-do Chinese like to go there for vacations. We spent an afternoon walking around there, and it was absolutely beautiful!
We took a bus back to Hangzhou from the mountain, and at the bus station, we found a bus leaving for Suzhou about 10 minutes later! Perfect timing! I absolutely LOVED Suzhou. It's called "The Venice of the East", because it has lots and lots of little canals throughout the city. It was so beautiful! 
We rented bikes and rode around the city for a few hours, exploring little alleyways, where all of the locals live, and taking pictures. (We even took a few pictures WHILE riding bikes... and somehow, none of us got hurt!):) 
(Pardon the blurriness... I was on my bike! ;)
It turned out that there wasn't a direct train from Suzhou back to Wuhan, so we had to take a train to Shanghai first (only 30 minutes on the fast train!), and then we took a train from Shanghai back to Wuhan. We only had 2 hours in Shanghai, and neither of the other two girls had been to Shanghai before, so we asked a taxi driver to drive us past the Bund and then to the famous Nanjing Road, where we stopped for a quick dinner at SUBWAY! (We don't have that in Wuhan... it was HEAVENLY!!!)
Then we had to run to the real Subway to catch a ride to the train station to catch our train back to Wuhan. We were in a sleeping car for the ride home, so we arrived in Wuhan Sunday morning with a lot more energy than you would expect after visiting 3 cities in 3 days! But it was a good thing we weren't tired--we had to go to class as soon as we got back to campus, because the university had us make up our Thursday classes on Sunday! (I guess they can't handle more than 3 days in a weekend!)
_________________________________________________________________________
RECENT PICTURES!
Shanghai with the Koreans (click here)
Hangzhou, Suzhou, and 2 hours in Shanghai! (click here)
At first, I was impressed and encouraged that the Chri-tians in Shanghai are free to meet so openly for worship. But once the sermon started, it was clear that this ch-rch lacks g-dly guidance. The pastor preached in Chinese, and those of us who didn't understand the Chinese so well were given headphones, and we could listen to a translator, who translated (or at least, tried to) everything the preacher was saying. She (yeah, she) preached on baptism, because they were celebrating Pentecost that Sunday. I'd never heard of this practice before, but this ch-rch only allows people to be baptized on Pentecost Sunday. The whole premise of the sermon was that "they might allow you to be baptized as soon as you believe the Gosp-l in other countries, but that's not how we do it in China." I found myself taking a lot of notes during the sermon, but most of them were about things she said that I wanted to compare with what the Bi-le ACTUALLY says. Pr-y that G-d would send a g-dly man to lead that ch-rch! China has become more religiously free over the past decade or so, but the government still has control over a lot of the aspects of the ch-rch, including what is said from the pulpit. Our little international ch-rch on campus is also experiencing some difficulties. We were recently informed that we are no longer allowed to use the room in the basement to meet for Sunday services! Our pastor already had a meeting with the police and with some of the people in charge of our university, and they told him they would hold another meeting with him to make a final decision, but they haven't called him, and when he tries to contact them, they don't answer the phone. It seems more like a problem from within the university than from the police. Please pr-y that G-d would give us wisdom, and that this issue will be resolved quickly! This past weekend (May 28-30), we had Thursday and Friday off for the Dragon Boat festival, so some friends (Mei, a Thai girl who was adopted by Belgian parents and Celine, a Chinese girl who grew up in France) and I decided to travel. We made last-minute plans to go to Hangzhou and Suzhou for the weekend! They're both actually pretty big cities, but they have the feel of a small town. From Hangzhou, we visited Moganshan (Mogan Mountain) which is about an hour away from the city. In the early 1900's a lot of Americans and Europeans had built summer homes there, and now a lot of the foreigners who live in Shanghai (also very close to Moganshan) and the well-to-do Chinese like to go there for vacations. We spent an afternoon walking around there, and it was absolutely beautiful!
We took a bus back to Hangzhou from the mountain, and at the bus station, we found a bus leaving for Suzhou about 10 minutes later! Perfect timing! I absolutely LOVED Suzhou. It's called "The Venice of the East", because it has lots and lots of little canals throughout the city. It was so beautiful! 
We rented bikes and rode around the city for a few hours, exploring little alleyways, where all of the locals live, and taking pictures. (We even took a few pictures WHILE riding bikes... and somehow, none of us got hurt!):) 
(Pardon the blurriness... I was on my bike! ;)
Then we had to run to the real Subway to catch a ride to the train station to catch our train back to Wuhan. We were in a sleeping car for the ride home, so we arrived in Wuhan Sunday morning with a lot more energy than you would expect after visiting 3 cities in 3 days! But it was a good thing we weren't tired--we had to go to class as soon as we got back to campus, because the university had us make up our Thursday classes on Sunday! (I guess they can't handle more than 3 days in a weekend!)_________________________________________________________________________
RECENT PICTURES!
Shanghai with the Koreans (click here)
Hangzhou, Suzhou, and 2 hours in Shanghai! (click here)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Guilin and Yangshuo-pictures!
What a trip! :) I got back almost a week ago, but since I got back, I've been busy catching up for those 3 days I missed... and I've just been too lazy to post pictures. ;)
Here's the group of girls I traveled with (from left to right):
Hadeel from Sudan, me, Areen from Palestine, Luiza from Algeria, and Rahma from Tanzania. (And I probably butchered the spellings of those names!)
The girls loved hearing me even TRY to pronounce their names throughout the trip... haha. I only knew Luiza before the trip... the other girls are all friends of hers, and they all go to a different university here in Wuhan. I met them at the train station before leaving for Guilin... I was afraid that we wouldn't have much in common, and that the trip would be awkward... but we got to know each other pretty quickly (15 hours on the train helped! ;), and we got along great! (I'm starting to realize that I have surprising amounts of things in common with people whose backgrounds are totally different from mine!)
At least this girl was nice enough to ASK for a picture. :)
Here's the filthy train we took from Wuhan to Guilin...
Here's what 15 hours on a train without sleeper seats will do to you!
Here's what 15 hours on a train without sleeper seats will do to you!
Here's the group of girls I traveled with (from left to right):
Hadeel from Sudan, me, Areen from Palestine, Luiza from Algeria, and Rahma from Tanzania. (And I probably butchered the spellings of those names!)
The girls loved hearing me even TRY to pronounce their names throughout the trip... haha. I only knew Luiza before the trip... the other girls are all friends of hers, and they all go to a different university here in Wuhan. I met them at the train station before leaving for Guilin... I was afraid that we wouldn't have much in common, and that the trip would be awkward... but we got to know each other pretty quickly (15 hours on the train helped! ;), and we got along great! (I'm starting to realize that I have surprising amounts of things in common with people whose backgrounds are totally different from mine!)Being a foreigner in China automatically makes you attractive and "popular"... and the fact that our group was so diverse only added to the attention we got. (We started joking that WE were the main attraction, not the caves and such.) Most people just took pictures of us without asking... anytime we were posing to take a picture, random Chinese people would get out their cameras and take a shot. But we didn't have to be posing... they took pictures of us just walking by, eating, etc, etc, etc. One couple even started walking with us while a friend took a picture of them! It was really annoying after a while... I don't mind attention, ;) but it never ends here!
At least this girl was nice enough to ASK for a picture. :)As I mentioned in my earlier post, we got up bright 'n' early on Monday to take some bamboo rafts down the Li River. It was beautiful! (More pictures are in my albums--see links below.)
I'm just so glad I have opportunities like this... :)
Here are links to my pictures:
Guilin and Yangshuo, part 1
Guilin and Yangshuo, part 2
I'm just so glad I have opportunities like this... :)
Here are links to my pictures:
Guilin and Yangshuo, part 1
Guilin and Yangshuo, part 2
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
lovely :)
Well, the long train ride was most definitely worth it. We spent Sunday and this morning (Monday) in Guilin, then grabbed a bus up to Yangshuo. Both cities are really beautiful, but I think Yangshuo is my favorite of the two. We're going on a boat ride down the Li river tomorrow morning (leaving bright n' early at 6 AM!!), and then heading back to Guilin in the evening, so we can see a few more things there and then catch a 7 AM train back to Wuhan on Wednesday morning. This train is supposed to take 16 hours, but at least we got beds this time around! I'll be posting some pictures and stories when I get back.
I'm skipping 3 days of classes for this trip, but I think I'm actually learning/practicing more Chinese than I would on a regular day in class. I'm getting to the point where I can carry on a conversation of some sort, so I've been chatting with the shopkeepers and such. :) It's definitely a much more enjoyable way to learn the language that sitting in class is!
I'm really loving Yanshuo... it's a smaller city, but it has a lot to offer... actually, I'm enjoying it so much that I'm starting to consider moving here and taking a teaching job at a language school we saw! (After I graduate, of course-no worries!) ;)
I'm skipping 3 days of classes for this trip, but I think I'm actually learning/practicing more Chinese than I would on a regular day in class. I'm getting to the point where I can carry on a conversation of some sort, so I've been chatting with the shopkeepers and such. :) It's definitely a much more enjoyable way to learn the language that sitting in class is!
I'm really loving Yanshuo... it's a smaller city, but it has a lot to offer... actually, I'm enjoying it so much that I'm starting to consider moving here and taking a teaching job at a language school we saw! (After I graduate, of course-no worries!) ;)
Sunday, May 3, 2009
on the road again...
I'm in Guilin! Yesterday afternoon at 3PM, I got on a train with my travel buddy Luiza and 3 of her friends. (I hadn't met them before, but they're nice girls! One's from Tanzania, another is from Sudan, and the other is.... I think from Algeria, like Luiza. I'll have to ask again... I'm still working on learning how to pronouce their names!) We were told the train would take about 12 hours... but we didn't arrive in Guilin until about 5:30 AM!!!! (That's about 14 and a half hours!!!!) And when we booked our tickets, the bed spots were all already taken... so we were in "regular" seats all night! It was definitely not the most pleasant trip. (I was even checking online for plane tickets this morning, because I would much rather spend some extra money than ride back the way we came... but there's only one, and it's over 700 RMB, so I guess I'll stick with the train... hopefully we'll get bed spots for the way back!)
I've been on trains in Europe plenty of times but Chinese trains are a different animal completely. They're incredibly dirty, the people are loud, and they have no qualms about ignoring the "no smoking" signs. And the train was really crowded for the first part of the trip. The seats were all filled, and there were people standing in the aisles for hours on end... here, you can buy a train ticket to stand in the train if you want to save money. There was an empty seat next to me, so some of the "standers" took turns sitting in that seat for a while.
But I'm gonna quit whining now... my friend Becca is in Ghana right now, and she just spent 10 days traveling around Africa on busses and sleeping in bus stops... so she's probably laughing as she reads this. ;)
Being a foreigner here automatically draws attention... but when you're traveling in a group, you attrat even MORE attention. And in Chinese culture, it's not considered rude to stare at people, read over their shoulders, etc. So people on the train were kneeling on their seats, looking over the backs of their seats, etc, watching us play cards, eat ramen noodles (I've never enjoyed ramen noodles as much in my entire life!), read, talk, etc. I honestly can't wait to be home where it's not weird to be a white girl! (Actually, I spent about 75% of the ride wishing I was at home in my soft bed!)
But that's over with now... and I'll never have to do it again, until Wednesday, when we head back to Wuhan... after that, I'm avoiding Chinese trains at all costs!
We got to our hostel around 6 AM... as the rest of the city was waking up. So we checked in and tried to get some sleep. I slept off and on, waking up about ever hour (it was so loud outside our window!) until about 10, then I got up and took a shower, and read the Word had a nice Western breakfast in the lobby for a while. :) And now I'm taking advantage of the hostel's computers and internet while my traveling buddies are getting up and getting ready for the day. We're going to spend today in Guilin, and then head to nearby Yangshuo tomorrow morning... supposedly, this area is one of the most beautiful parts of China, so I can't wait to see it for myself! :)
let's hope the train ride was worth it... ;)
I've been on trains in Europe plenty of times but Chinese trains are a different animal completely. They're incredibly dirty, the people are loud, and they have no qualms about ignoring the "no smoking" signs. And the train was really crowded for the first part of the trip. The seats were all filled, and there were people standing in the aisles for hours on end... here, you can buy a train ticket to stand in the train if you want to save money. There was an empty seat next to me, so some of the "standers" took turns sitting in that seat for a while.
But I'm gonna quit whining now... my friend Becca is in Ghana right now, and she just spent 10 days traveling around Africa on busses and sleeping in bus stops... so she's probably laughing as she reads this. ;)
Being a foreigner here automatically draws attention... but when you're traveling in a group, you attrat even MORE attention. And in Chinese culture, it's not considered rude to stare at people, read over their shoulders, etc. So people on the train were kneeling on their seats, looking over the backs of their seats, etc, watching us play cards, eat ramen noodles (I've never enjoyed ramen noodles as much in my entire life!), read, talk, etc. I honestly can't wait to be home where it's not weird to be a white girl! (Actually, I spent about 75% of the ride wishing I was at home in my soft bed!)
But that's over with now... and I'll never have to do it again, until Wednesday, when we head back to Wuhan... after that, I'm avoiding Chinese trains at all costs!
We got to our hostel around 6 AM... as the rest of the city was waking up. So we checked in and tried to get some sleep. I slept off and on, waking up about ever hour (it was so loud outside our window!) until about 10, then I got up and took a shower, and read the Word had a nice Western breakfast in the lobby for a while. :) And now I'm taking advantage of the hostel's computers and internet while my traveling buddies are getting up and getting ready for the day. We're going to spend today in Guilin, and then head to nearby Yangshuo tomorrow morning... supposedly, this area is one of the most beautiful parts of China, so I can't wait to see it for myself! :)
let's hope the train ride was worth it... ;)
Friday, May 1, 2009
Wuhan School for the Blind
If you read my Happy Easter post, you might remember that I mentioned visiting the Wuhan School for the Blind. It was a couple of weeks ago, but I never really got around to putting up the pictures...
The kids were really excited to welcome us!
We told them the Easter story, and then some of the Chinese helpers translated for us...
We taught them "This Train" and had them dance around like a "train"... they loved it.
Click here if you want to see some more pictures...
The kids were really excited to welcome us!
We told them the Easter story, and then some of the Chinese helpers translated for us...
We taught them "This Train" and had them dance around like a "train"... they loved it.The kids were anywhere from about 8 to 18 years old. And most, if not all of the students live at the school. I was amazed at how much energy and confidence some of these kids have! I expected them all to be shy, quiet, and reserved, and to stay in one place. That was the case for a few of the kids, but a lot of them were running around (literally-running!) like any other kids. And they rarely ran into other people- they have incredible hearing. One of the little boys was even doing cartwheels all over the place! And when it was time to go into another building to start our program, they were the ones showing us how to get there!
After our "program" was over, we fed the kids some cake and juice (they loved it!) and sat around talking to them for a while... I got a chance to practice my Chinese! It was a lot of fun, and it's near to our university, so I'm hoping to get a chance to go back! There's also a school for deaf kids down the road from there... Who knows, maybe I'll get to go there too! :)
After our "program" was over, we fed the kids some cake and juice (they loved it!) and sat around talking to them for a while... I got a chance to practice my Chinese! It was a lot of fun, and it's near to our university, so I'm hoping to get a chance to go back! There's also a school for deaf kids down the road from there... Who knows, maybe I'll get to go there too! :)
Click here if you want to see some more pictures...
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
new pictures!
I've posted some new pictures on facebook! If you don't use facebook, you can just click on the link below to get to the pictures. :) Most of them are from an afternoon I spent walking around at an Agricultural university in Wuhan...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010131&id=1121670006&l=a97adb7fe3
enjoy!
Monday, April 27, 2009
family in need
Yesterday, a woman from my ch--ch here had a baby boy. The baby is healthy, and the mother is recovering nicely, but there were a few complications during the delivery, and they were forced to do a C-section, and the baby is in an incubator. The problem is, the couple had set aside money for the hospital expenses related to the delivery, but the money they set aside was for a natural birth... and the C-section and incubator are costing a lot more than they had bargained for. Also, the mother is going to have to stay in the hospital for about a week to recover from her C-section, and that wasn't in the budget either. So we (the ch--ch) have been getting money together to help them pay the bills, and a group of us went to visit them in the hospital today. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the baby--not even the mother has had a chance to see him! Also, she told us today that she's still in a lot of pain from the operation, and can't even move enough to get into the wheelchair. Please keep them in your pr-yers, that the Father would provide the money they need, and that the mother would have a speedy recovery!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Halfway done? Already?!
I just realized that my semester in China is exactly halfway over. I've been here for 70 days, and I'm going home in 70 more. When I first got here, I wanted nothing more than to fast-forward to this point, so that I'd be closer to going home. Now, I'm really sad that my time here is going by so quickly! Not that I don't miss home... I'll be sad to leave China, but I AM looking forward to seeing everyone back home again! And occasionally, there are days where I would like nothing more than to be back at home with my family, playing board games or running around in the backyard with my little sisters and the camera. But there's still SO much I want to do/see/experience while I'm here... I'm hoping that the next 70 days go by MUCH more slowly than the first 70 did! But they say time flies when you're having fun... and I'm definitely having fun. :)
Sunday, April 19, 2009
There's a party in Heaven today!!!!
I'm on a roll! Usually I go a few weeks between updates, but this is my second update in the past 12 hours! This is just some news that can't wait:
One of my Chinese friends came to faith today! :)
About a week and a half ago, she told me that she was interested in the Bi-le and that a mutual friend of ours had taught her some truths from it, but that she still had a lot of questions. I invited her to join us for our Easter service last week, and her English is good, but she had a hard time understanding the speakers' accents and some of the old-fashioned words in the hymns. Still, she enjoyed it and came back for more this week! After the service and our weekly lunch, a group of us went to a cafe nearby to talk some more. (The cafe was a nice surprise! I'd walked past it a few times, but I had never stopped to check it out. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but after you walk in the door and go up a flight of stairs, you're suddenly in a cozy little cafe that doubles as a Chri--ian book store. I'll definitely be back.) It was a group of six of us: a Korean girl, a Hungarian guy, a Chinese girl who believes, me, my friend, and a Chinese guy who was also looking for some answers. Everyone else in the group spoke Chinese pretty well, so most of the conversation was in Chinese. I didn't always understand all of the conversation, but I could pick out some key words, and they stopped every once in a while to translate and ask my opinion. For some reason, the Chinese guy was under the impression that I had the best understanding of the Word because I'm American (what?! ok...), so there were a few times where he would open it up to a verse, show it to me, and ask me what it meant. I don't usually like to be put on the spot like that, and there were a few times where I looked at the verse and just couldn't think of anything good to say, or the verse just didn't seem relevant, but we have a faithful Father, and He gave me the words. (There were times when I was a little surprised impressed at what was coming out of my mouth... they were 100% His words, not mine!) Some of the questions he asked were pretty hard. At one point, he opened it to Matt. 5:31-32, where Je-us forbids divorce except for in cases of unfaithfulness and declares that marrying a divorced woman is adultery. He said, "There are many Chri--ians in America, and they are supposed to follow G-d's law. So why are there so many divorced Chri--ians in America?" (hmmm... what do you even say to that?) I explained to him that we have a problem with nominal "Chri--iannity" in America, and that adultery is a sin, just like any other sin, and that although Chri--ians try to obey G-d's law, we still struggle with sin, and we won't be perfect until the Father returns to make all things right. (Again, I can't take credit for that. That would be plagiarism... or something like that.) After about 2 hours of talking, reading verses, and translating everything back and forth, the four others left, but my friend (we'll call her Jill) still had some questions, so we stayed to talk some more. Her English isn't perfect, but we were able to communicate pretty well. (Plus, she had a handy-dandy little translator that came in handy when we came across a word that I couldn't say in Chinese and she couldn't understand in English.) She had a lot of questions about sin, Judas, the Trinity, eternity, etc. The H. Spirit was definitely with me, showing me were to take her in the Bi-le to show her the answers to her questions. (The other Chinese girl had left her Chinese-English Bi-le there for us, and that came in really handy--I could look up a verse and have "Jill" read it in Chinese.) A lot of the verses I took her to were verses that I'd learned in song-form as a kid. Just goes to show that those "silly" little songs we learn in Sunday School are really important!
She eventually told me that she really admired Je-us and wanted to be like him, but so far, she had been trying to do it in her own strength. And she had pr-yed to G-d before to tell him she was happy, to ask him to protect her family, or to ask for his help with something, but now she was ready to face her sin and to ask for His forgiveness and His help to become more like Chr-st. So I told her to tell Je-us exactly what she had just told me, and we pr-yed together right there! Then I hugged her and told her that the Bible says that they have a party in Heaven every time there's a new "sheep". :) It was so exciting to see er genuinely understand the Go-pel for the first time! We sat and talked for a little while after that, about how Chri--ians aren't perfect, but that the H. Spirit comes to live in us and to help us become more Chri-tlike, and how the Go-pel and our inability to be perfect in our own strength frees us from the pressure of having to be perfectionists, not only morally, but also in our school work, etc. (Chinese students tend to put themselves under a tremendous amount of pressure.) NOT that we shouldn't strive for perfection, but that we should do our best to the glory of G-d, and that He loves us and forgives us even when we fail. From the things that she said, I'm confident that she really does understand the Go-pel. It's such a blessing to be the one G-d used for His will in her life! I feel unworthy. And the conversation was a blessing to me as well. Not only did I get to see the Kingdom get a little bit bigger, but I also was reminded again of G-d's incredible love for us, and the endless grace He as for us.
As we always said in Philly...
"Glory!" :)
One of my Chinese friends came to faith today! :)
About a week and a half ago, she told me that she was interested in the Bi-le and that a mutual friend of ours had taught her some truths from it, but that she still had a lot of questions. I invited her to join us for our Easter service last week, and her English is good, but she had a hard time understanding the speakers' accents and some of the old-fashioned words in the hymns. Still, she enjoyed it and came back for more this week! After the service and our weekly lunch, a group of us went to a cafe nearby to talk some more. (The cafe was a nice surprise! I'd walked past it a few times, but I had never stopped to check it out. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but after you walk in the door and go up a flight of stairs, you're suddenly in a cozy little cafe that doubles as a Chri--ian book store. I'll definitely be back.) It was a group of six of us: a Korean girl, a Hungarian guy, a Chinese girl who believes, me, my friend, and a Chinese guy who was also looking for some answers. Everyone else in the group spoke Chinese pretty well, so most of the conversation was in Chinese. I didn't always understand all of the conversation, but I could pick out some key words, and they stopped every once in a while to translate and ask my opinion. For some reason, the Chinese guy was under the impression that I had the best understanding of the Word because I'm American (what?! ok...), so there were a few times where he would open it up to a verse, show it to me, and ask me what it meant. I don't usually like to be put on the spot like that, and there were a few times where I looked at the verse and just couldn't think of anything good to say, or the verse just didn't seem relevant, but we have a faithful Father, and He gave me the words. (There were times when I was a little surprised impressed at what was coming out of my mouth... they were 100% His words, not mine!) Some of the questions he asked were pretty hard. At one point, he opened it to Matt. 5:31-32, where Je-us forbids divorce except for in cases of unfaithfulness and declares that marrying a divorced woman is adultery. He said, "There are many Chri--ians in America, and they are supposed to follow G-d's law. So why are there so many divorced Chri--ians in America?" (hmmm... what do you even say to that?) I explained to him that we have a problem with nominal "Chri--iannity" in America, and that adultery is a sin, just like any other sin, and that although Chri--ians try to obey G-d's law, we still struggle with sin, and we won't be perfect until the Father returns to make all things right. (Again, I can't take credit for that. That would be plagiarism... or something like that.) After about 2 hours of talking, reading verses, and translating everything back and forth, the four others left, but my friend (we'll call her Jill) still had some questions, so we stayed to talk some more. Her English isn't perfect, but we were able to communicate pretty well. (Plus, she had a handy-dandy little translator that came in handy when we came across a word that I couldn't say in Chinese and she couldn't understand in English.) She had a lot of questions about sin, Judas, the Trinity, eternity, etc. The H. Spirit was definitely with me, showing me were to take her in the Bi-le to show her the answers to her questions. (The other Chinese girl had left her Chinese-English Bi-le there for us, and that came in really handy--I could look up a verse and have "Jill" read it in Chinese.) A lot of the verses I took her to were verses that I'd learned in song-form as a kid. Just goes to show that those "silly" little songs we learn in Sunday School are really important!
She eventually told me that she really admired Je-us and wanted to be like him, but so far, she had been trying to do it in her own strength. And she had pr-yed to G-d before to tell him she was happy, to ask him to protect her family, or to ask for his help with something, but now she was ready to face her sin and to ask for His forgiveness and His help to become more like Chr-st. So I told her to tell Je-us exactly what she had just told me, and we pr-yed together right there! Then I hugged her and told her that the Bible says that they have a party in Heaven every time there's a new "sheep". :) It was so exciting to see er genuinely understand the Go-pel for the first time! We sat and talked for a little while after that, about how Chri--ians aren't perfect, but that the H. Spirit comes to live in us and to help us become more Chri-tlike, and how the Go-pel and our inability to be perfect in our own strength frees us from the pressure of having to be perfectionists, not only morally, but also in our school work, etc. (Chinese students tend to put themselves under a tremendous amount of pressure.) NOT that we shouldn't strive for perfection, but that we should do our best to the glory of G-d, and that He loves us and forgives us even when we fail. From the things that she said, I'm confident that she really does understand the Go-pel. It's such a blessing to be the one G-d used for His will in her life! I feel unworthy. And the conversation was a blessing to me as well. Not only did I get to see the Kingdom get a little bit bigger, but I also was reminded again of G-d's incredible love for us, and the endless grace He as for us.
As we always said in Philly...
"Glory!" :)
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