After crossing the border between Hong Kong and China, three of our teams took a 36 hour train ride, two nights, to our destination. We met briefly with our contacts and each team received a map (in Chinese) and the names of four cities. The next morning, my team packed and loaded into a van/taxi for a cramped ride to the bus station.
Transportation was primarily by bus, taxis, and walking. We would arrive in a city, throw our backpacks on, and walk to the nearest hotel. This search would usually involve the gracious help of people walking by. Whenever we would stop to talk to someone, it wouldn’t take long before a crowd had formed around us, staring quite openly at, us, the strange white people. The Chinese people, for the most part, knew very little English and we, of course, did not know Chinese so were able to communicate only through hand motions and a translation book.
The hotel rooms quickly became our “sanctuary.” In each place, we would have a “party room” and we’d congregate in the mornings for prayer/worship and breakfast and later for feedback and just hanging out. Breakfast consisted mostly of bread, bananas, and jam. For lunch, we would find a local noodle shop or eat beef-flavored noodles in the room. In a couple of the cities, we would find street venders, which helped give a little variety, maybe sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, breads, dumplings with carrots or potatoes or meat. Otherwise, we would again enjoy local noodles!
Ministry in the first location mostly involved prayer walks. We were also able to become friends with the lady who led us to our hotel. She took us out our first night to a luxury meal with way too much food, noodles, chicken, veggies, fish, etc. Our second hotel was located near a University. Alex, Helen, and I hung out with the girls and were able to share a little about Jesus. We also became friends with a local girl, who could speak some English. She took us out to eat at her family’s restaurant and seemed to always be at our door. At our third location, there was a large open concrete area. We would begin games of hacky sack and soon be surrounded by kids. Encouraging them to join us, the hacky sack became a game of throwing the ball and tackling to get it. Then all the kids wanted our autographs, so we began signing all their papers with “Jesus loves you.” God truly blessed us with a really nice, expensive hotel at our last location. The manager, whom we soon became friends with, was able to get us a really cheap price for our rooms. The hotel had only been open a few months and we were the first Americans to stay there. We were able to build a close relationship with this lady manager. She spoke great English and took us around the city as well as took us to visit her family in the next city. We shared worship songs with her and also left her a Bible to help practice her English with.
After meeting back with the other teams at our central location, we were able to spend a day with our contacts. The missionary couple invited us to their home for a meal, and to watch a movie. The next day we loaded back onto a train for the overnight ride to Beijing. Beijing is the China I had expected. We stayed at an international hostel with tourist venders near the Forbidden City. The local hangout ended up being in a Western restaurant across from the hostel, where we could find cheeseburgers!, pizza, etc and familiar, relaxing music. We spent a day hiking on a secluded part of the Great Wall of China, took lots of pictures, and had a chance to call home, the first time in several weeks, while on the Wall.
Overall, China was a unique experience. It was a tiny window into the life that a Chinese Christian may face. As Americans, we were told that the common “punishment” for being a missionary was getting kicked out of China, but for the Chinese physical, life-threatening persecution is reality. Even faced with such persecution, the Chinese are hungry for the Gospel and the hope that is found in Jesus
