China 2013

I know that this is my first post of 2013 since the end of the year summary, but God has granted us some good things to share apart from all my aches & pains. Some good stuff! Read on...

During the month of April, 2013, Terrie and I finally got to make our LST (Let's Start Talking) trip to Qingdao, China. We had been scheduled to go back in July of last year, but I was way too far from a sufficient recovery to go then. We postponed our flight plans until April 5 and God made that the perfect timing for us.

I want to begin by thanking our huge list of generous supporters who made this trip possible. The funds that were given far exceeded what we expected and even prayed for! We were incredibly humbled by the response of all of our dear family, friends & other loved ones. Thank you so much for making this life-changing experience possible for us!

Our trip lasted from April 5-23. We read with Chinese students and young professionals from the book of Luke in the Bible in specifically-designed lesson plans to teach English with the Jesus story.

While I am on The Story, I want to mention one of the strongest impressions that God made on me during this adventure. Our students told us that they are taught in school from an early age that there is no God. However, in our modern world and the easy availability of information from everywhere, most of our readers had heard something about Christianity. Even with that, they were an essentially clean slate on which to etch the story of Christ. We got to witness the significance of God's love becoming evident to these young Chinese people. One of my readers told me early in our second week of reading that she was thinking about becoming a Christian! As she said those words, she turned to the page in our booklet where the baptism of Jesus was presented. Laying her hand on that very page, she said, "What do I need to do if I become a Christian?" I talked to her about what belief in Christ means and then we discussed baptism for her. I hope to hear soon about her taking that step! But also, as she talked about becoming a Christian, she said that it was the story that called out to her. That was astounding! I think we who have been Christians for so many years and have sat through so many sermons & Bible studies often forget how the loving story of Jesus affects a life that has never heard that message. I needed to be reminded of that power that Paul wrote about in Romans 1:16. The reader's name is Jossie and I want to ask you to pray for her to take the steps that will move her into Christ.

Another of my students was packing up her things at the end of one of our reading sessions when I asked her what she was going to do after class. She said, "I think I need to buy a Bible and read it!" I had just been giving her some thumbnail versions of the Old Testament to complement what we were looking at in Luke and it motivated her to know more. Her name is Ellen, so we can pray for her to read and learn that Bible well!

One of Terrie's students, Chen, already a believer, was troubled by what she perceived to be a conflict between biblical history and Chinese history. Fortunately, David Stathopulo and his son both had a book that looked at the historical evidence of belief in God within the history of China. They are going to share more of the content of that book with her and it will surely fortify her faith in God.

Another of Terrie's students was struggling with dinosaurs and what she understood of the Creation and related things. I was able to go online and find some information from Ken Hamm that addressed those very issues. We printed the information and Terrie gave it to her student, Zoe.

We could tell so many things about our precious readers! We fell in love with all of them. Some of them came to class daily, so we naturally developed more relationship with them. Besides English & the Jesus story, we learned about each other's families and cultures. It was great fun and the peripheral discussions made it much easier for us to share our faith in God. We hosted a party for all of them at the end of the second week (a prescribed part of the LST experience) and it went very well. About 20 of our readers came. We ate pizza (they with chopsticks!), drank Coca-Cola and played games. Some of the church members were there to interface with the readers in case they are interested in checking out the church there.

And one of the other great joys on our trip was getting to know the Stathopulo family. We knew about David and Sandi and had been around them often at The Hills. However, we only discovered that their son, Michael, and his wife, Elisabeth (Liz), were there as well. In fact, Liz had given birth to their first child, Rhema, only 5 weeks before our arrival. Well, if you know me, you know I was excited to get to meet that baby! I did get to hold her a few times while we were there! In all, we feel like we got really close to all 5 of the Stathopulos in Qingdao. They were all so nice, kind & helpful to us. Their preparedness and availability made the trip extremely easy for us. I had my 62nd birthday during our trip and Sandi made me a very special birthday lunch on the very day. It was awesome!

As far as our travels, our flights were good. In spite of the internet scare I got when I researched China Eastern airlines, they were excellent and we felt well-served. In Qingdao, we essentially walked everywhere because almost everything we needed was within a 15-20 minute walk of our apartment. When we needed a taxi, they were plentiful and inexpensive.

I won't go on and on with all the details of our marvelous experience, but I do want say this. Terrie and I have gone on for days about all the blessings - large and small - that God rained down on us throughout this whole adventure. We went so many places, traveled so far, met so many people, totally out of our cultural element, etc. There were so many ways that things could have gone wrong that it's mind-boggling to think about - and God was there overseeing & blessing the whole way. If the worst thing that happened was the Beijing airport security confiscating Terrie's nail polish remover, then it was a pretty enchanted trip!

I don't think there is anything we regret about the trip and the total experience. We made some wonderful - and I hope lifetime - friends in China, both Chinese and American. Our hearts have been forever affected by our Qingdao adventure. God, You are so good! Thank you for this incomparable blessing!