* June 23 – July 2, 2007 *
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
– James 5:16
What a hoot if you guys in America could have seen me when I was traveling from Shenzhen to Guangzhou. I was already tired physically, and the journey was not easy. I left SZ later than I really wanted which also meant having lunch later too. Oh, I think I’d be complaining if I told you about the journey down the street to lunch, so I’ll just say it was exhausting and painful and that was hours before I was to catch a bus with Harriet to GZ. At one point sort of near the bus station I asked Harriet to take my picture. I told her that I felt like an old turtle. I looked like one too. :) My brother-in-law (Craig) gave me this super nice hiking backpack before I left the US, but it was loaded down with mostly gifts for folks here, and I had been carrying it on my back for several hours by the time we reached this bus station. I felt like I was just about to die and could only barely trudge along to make it to the station and sing a silly song to try and make things not so miserable for me. I’ll gladly show you my “old turtle” picture if you care to see it.
Well, this old turtle continued on the journey with Harriet and a nearly dead cell phone. The bus ride was wonderful!!!! I so needed to just sit and rest in A/C and could do so on such a bus ride. Papa worked out all of the details (as I knew he would) for things once I got here, and well, it’s been much slower than SZ but very amazing being here in GZ. I thought that I’d be in Meizhou by now, but Papa has his own timing for things. So … how do I, the wordy writer, recap more than a week into a short blog??? I will try. :)
First, there’s time with Tedsy. Tedsy is my dear friend that I met in 2001 when I first came to China on a summer language and culture exchange team. He was my closest Chinese friend then, and now he’s married and has a three-year old daughter. He is such the business man!!! I got to have a long talk with him over dinner the first night here, and this past Saturday I again had dinner with him and his wife Coco, daughter Rachel, her nanny, Jess (Tedsy’s cousin), and another dear friend. It was very nice to eat with them and then visit his wonderful apartment.
Then, there are the girls … Jess, Gina, Anna, and Sanobar. I have been staying in their apartment since the second day in GZ. I know that I am short in America, but here I am like Gulliver in Lilliput. I am really not built for their apartment, and the other day I broke by accident one of their stools from sitting on it while washing a week’s worth of clothes. All but Sanobar are my sisters. It has been super to be with them and sing with them and go out with Jess a bunch. She and I have talked the most. The seeds I plant in her I know will be planted in the other girls (in their young twenties). I never would have picked living here, but I’m so thankful that Papa has his own way of doing things and that it is always perfect! It has been a joy to be here despite the extremely loud noises from just outside.
Third, there is the amazing story of how my Papa let a precious (to put it lightly) brother of mine be found after years of no contact with him. No one could find him though they tried! He never stopped being a part of my heart, and I missed him terribly! I will have to keep him nameless in my blog, but man, how good it is to find him!!!! It is only Papa that can do things like that!!!! We found each other with the help of others on Thursday morning and spent the next three days together. What joyful and delightful days for both of us!!! Honestly, I thought my brother was dead because he lives for the King so strongly in a country where that pretty much only gets you killed … and so for about two years now that is what I thought happened. I am so thankful and glad to be proved wrong!!! We will both miss each other so terribly when I depart from here, but we plan on staying in contact via email and chat programs. I know already that we both miss each other and have been deeply saddened that we cannot spend more time together with one another because of his new job.
Lastly, there’s Estella. What joy I saw in her when I met her too in 2001. That joy has been stolen or abandoned because of Islam. She has been married to a Muslim for year now, and though not a Muslim yet, she is all but there. She still claims to be in the family … but I can tell you honestly that her heart is turning more and more away from Papa and is extremely cold and hard now. I spent two nights and two full days with her in her apartment while her husband was away on business. It was so rough for me living there and so disheartening. I wanted to share so much with her, but she was not open at all to pretty much anything I had to say. I told her at one point that I did not want to argue with her or hurt her with my words and that I knew that the things she was telling me she believed were true, but that simply put, they were not true. And so, I tuned her guitar and used her computer to worship my King, the only King, and that was pretty much the only joy I had being with her. After those two days, I had to return back to Jess’ apartment or else I would have argued with her and not shown her Papa’s love. Others confirm what I am seeing in Estella as well. Please pray for her … that her King will be her desire again and that she will see growth from him. There are so many Muslims in China and so many of them live here in GZ. I knew that before, but I had never seen it until this week. It is very sad to see, but hey, Papa can change things right? :) Please keep the Muslims here lifted up.
Today things actually changed between Estella and I. I went across the street to her apartment to ask for help, and her husband was home. We had lunch together and tonight are planning to go to an Indian restaurant. Her husband is from Bombay, India. It was really joyful for me to meet him and talk with him and spend time with Estella again. I had love for her and him … and that is VERY good! Well, it’s almost dinner time with them, so I’ll stop here. On to Meizhou (pronounced “May-Joe”) soon, perhaps I’ll go on Wednesday or Thursday and possibly even with an old American friend who’s returning to China for most of the month of July. It’s very rad, but details need to be worked out still as plans to head there greatly changed earlier in the week!
Comments
By Sonjia Lou Johnson on Tue, 03 Jul 2007 07:25:57 GMT
Mama here. Glad that you are well. Be safe and know that you are loved. You are right, Papa is in the business of change. Love you.
No comments:
Post a Comment