THE SKY WAS BLUE! It was the first day since I have been here that the skies were blue. Maybe because it was the day I was going home and I was ready for both. Today was also the Lord’s Day! We had been referred to the only legally recognized church of Christ in Beijing or maybe even China itself. There are a lot of churches of our Christians but they are mainly house churches and not allowed to openly evangelize, or even announce they exist. The Chinese government says they have freedom of religion but not enough to have a church organization, at least as we know it. The Chinese Christians are not supposed to meet with the foreign Christians. But, we can meet with them. Go figure that out. I have asked several times for a better explanation of exactly what this all means and I’ve yet to get the same answer twice. I’m not sure anybody here actually knows – Chinese or foreigners. Still, we had been referred to a church website that told of the small group of Christians that met in a meeting room of a hotel. After a 20-minute taxi ride we arrived at the meeting place. The preacher, David Langley, was a Freed Hardeman graduate and has an aunt that teaches in the nursing department at Harding. Elizabeth Lee is the one that first referred me to their website before I left Searcy. David is a former teacher through a teaching program that places American teachers in Chinese universities. He is married to a Chinese woman, Ya Ning, so she is allowed to meet with us. She was the only Chinese person at our meeting. Ya Ning speaks English and Mandarin. David has not been at this church very long, maybe as long as two years. The Chinese government originally allowed the church to exist just to appease the many foreign visitors that were coming for the Olympics in 2008. The church didn’t cause any trouble and has not been disruptive so the government has allowed it to remain. Together David and Ya Ning have a six-month old baby. David said he was tired of teaching English and wanted to be more aggressive in evangelizing, but readily admitted that the teaching of English is the door to most of the evangelism opportunities in China. Besides the four of us, there was only one other member in attendance. A young (black) South African named Kaiha. Kaiha was a 19-year old student studying at the University of Beijing majoring in linguistics of some sort. He said he could only speak English (his native tongue) and Chinese. I guess I expected him to know more than two languages with that kind of major. We are so glad that we decided to attend. Our presence almost doubled the attendance. We were two of the five total in attendance. It was good to be there. After we dismissed we had a group photo taken by one of the hotel attendants (who, by the way, kept coming in to refresh our hot Tea during worship). After worship Ya Ning helped us flag down a Taxi and she explained to the driver (in Chinese) where we were going and we headed back to the hotel to check out and head to the airport. When we got in the taxi I turned to Donna and said something that I had been waiting to say, “Donna, take me home!” I love to travel and I have had the experience of my life, but by the time I arrived back in Woodridge I had been gone two days short of seven weeks, with only four nights at home with Donna since May the 3rd. I. Was. Ready! The airport in Beijing was typically Chinese. I asked one attendant where to check in and was given some directions. When I got there I was told something else. It’s a wonder that anybody ever gets anything done correctly here. The line at the desk to check in was long with only one attendant, but before too long there were a couple of other attendants and desks opened to help out. Unfortunately, the clerk told us something that we didn’t like or that at least I thought was wrong. She said that we could not check our bags all the way through to Chicago from there. The attendant said we would have to claim our bags in Guangzhou and then recheck them in at the Guangzhou airport. That wasn’t right and that is not what we purchased. We were not able to communicate with each other very well and after a few minutes of me staring at her waiting for her to correct the situation and her waiting for me to accept that she couldn’t, I gave in and thought, at least we have a few hours between flights to do so. I told her that I was unhappy. That is something that customer service people do not like to hear in China, and I know it wasn’t her fault, but who else was I supposed to tell at that point? We landed in Guangzhou with no problems, picked up our bags and headed to check in again. When we finally ended up at the check in desk and I thought, “It was their mistake; maybe I can get some compensation for it now?” I explained to the check-in attendant what happened, that we had to get our bags again and recheck them, would they be willing to give us a free upgrade to business class to make up for their mistake? No such luck! Oh well, I tried. We snaked our way around and through Chinese exit procedures and boarded our plane for the 12-hour flight. Have you ever been the answer to a prayer? Not prayed for AN ANSWER, BUT YOU WERE the answer. It happened to us right there in Guangzhou and on the airplane. While in-line to board we engaged a young American looking woman that was traveling alone with her baby. He looked like he may have been Chinese and about 7 months old. About the time we started talking to her she was asked by an airlines attendant if she wanted the special boarding privilege of mothers traveling with babies. She looked at me apologetically but I told her to go on we would catch up with her later. Later came about two hours from then when we both had gotten up to stretch our legs and restarted our conversation. When I told her I was a visiting professor in Hengyang but that my real job was teaching for Harding University she nearly fell over in delight. She was a Harding graduate from the year 2000! Come to find out she was another teacher, like me that was placed in Wuhan and now going home to visit her Mom in New Mexico and talking the grandchild with her. Her Chinese husband was going to stay behind in Wuhan. She asked me if I would hold her baby while she used the facilities. Of course I would! I told her to come back to my seat on her way to hers and pick up this bouncing baby boy when she was ready. I whisked myself back to my seat to show Donna what I had picked up along my stretch time. His name was Levi. He had another Chinese name but I thought Levi was easier. When Angela Berend Lu returned, she was almost in tears of delight. She told us that two days before she left Wuhan, she and her female prayer partners said a prayer and asked that God help her by providing a grandparent type friendly couple that could help her while on the airplane. When we all realized that we were Christians in the same family, “You,” she announced, “are the answer to my prayers!” We then took turns holding that bouncing baby boy and helping her facilitate a 12-hour flight with a 7-month old. And, we got to hold baby Levi enough to get our grandparent fix for another few days. Upon arrival at the Los Angeles International Airport, (LAX) we walked off the plane with our new friend Angela, escorted her and Levi to get their bags, go through immigration and customs, and meet up with her ride into LA. It reminded us all that we are one big family in Christ and that we can’t go anywhere in this world without being affected by our relationship with one another through Jesus. Angela headed out the door and we found our way to our next appointed place of waiting. We began wondering, “Where’s the umbrella and Chinese Kite that we had purchased?” The best we could figure it was still on the plane. We had the time, (about five hours): let’s see what happens if we try to backtrack and retrieve it. As I mentioned Customer Service in China is a major part of their pride. But we were now in LA! Is there a more uncaring customer service place in this country than where we were standing? We asked an attendant or two and we were directed back to the China Southern desk. When we explained to the young Chinese woman what we wanted, she got on her Walkie-Talkie, asked a few questions, and then said, “Yes, we have it. If you can wait here for about thirty minutes or so I‘ll have it brought up to you!” Wow! Customer Service was alive and well once more. When we finally made it through to our American Airlines gate to await our final flight to Chicago I went to get something to eat. As I was waiting for my food to be ready I overheard a young American looking man telling a Chinese student that he had been teaching English in a small area of the Hubei Province for the least year. I looked over toward them and it was another program placed teacher and he was Donna’s cousin Drew Swayne! He didn’t recognize me at first as it had been several years since he and his family had been to one of our family reunions, but it was Drew. When I introduced myself, he knew me right away. We got our food, walked back to where Donna had settled in and we talked about our experience in China and showed pictures for the next two hours! Yep! Small world isn’t it? Finally… after forty days and forty nights, almost that many days of rain, hundreds of new people, meeting my students that I love so much, reconnecting with my wife, I was now only beginning to realize what God had been doing through me for the last few weeks - but now I was home! “Sweet Home Chicago,” – “There’s no place like home,” Real milk. My recliner! My own bed! I. WAS. HOME! I may be home, but I will never, ever, forget the faces and lives of the hundreds (yea thousands) of students searching for God, the souls of so many new friends asking me to tell them of my faith, the cultural difference I had experienced, and the absolute amazement of such a journey! God is good! All the time! But when I ponder all of these events, and I think about what I have seen and what I have heard for almost six weeks, the words that linger in my mind the most include something that Edwin Myers had said to me at the back of the bus on the trip to Fenghua: – “Steve, look around you. Tell me, how will the millions and millions and millions and millions of people here in China ever hear the gospel if the church doesn’t send somebody with the message?” The End!
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AuthorSteve Shaner, also known as Xie Yeye, is a professional story teller that delights in traveling to meet new and old friends. He can be contacted at shaner.steve@gmail.com. Blog ContentsMay 12-14, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010 Sunday, May 16, 2010 Monday, May 17, 2010 Tuesday, May 18, 2010 Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Thursday, May 20, 2010 Friday, May 21, 2010 Saturday, May 22, 2010 Sunday, May 23, 2010 Monday, May 24, 2010 Tuesday, May 25, 2010 Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Thursday, May 27, 2010 Friday, May 28, 2010 Saturday, May 29, 2010 Sunday, May 30, 2010 Monday, May 31, 2010 Tuesday, June 1, 2010 Wednesday, June 2, 2010 Thursday, June 3, 2010 Friday, June 4, 2010 Saturday, June 5, 2010 Sunday, June 6, 2010 Monday, June 7, 2010 Tuesday, June 8, 2010 Wednesday, June 9, 2010 Thursday, June 10, 2010 Friday, June 11, 2010 Saturday, June 12, 2010 Sunday, June 13, 2010 Monday, June 14, 2010 Tuesday, June 15, 2010 Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Thursday, June 17, 2010 Friday, June 18, 2010 Saturday, June 19, 2010 Sunday, June 20, 2010 |