A Renewed Spirit!!!!

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Ask, Seek and Knock, Teaching with Christ and Putting Christ in Christmas has given me A Renewed Spirit.

Ask and God will give to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open for you. Matthew 7:7. What an awesome message today at COTR.

Many people ask--What's China like? Do you like it? I've learned that I can't tell anyone really. Eating with chopsticks everyday food you've never seen before and feeling like an alien on most days because your vocabulary is less than 100 words and that's what you have to use to communicate your needs--It's difficult to put into words. But what has made this trip so awesome has been the unexpected encounters with people seeking to understand the word of God.

I thought my trip to China was going to be somewhat void of opportunities to worship. Since China is a communist country and I had been warned to keep my thoughts on God to myself, I thought it would be a private journey that I was about to embark upon, a time to call on God alone while in a strange land. So I asked my church to send me tapes of sermons and to keep in touch.

Well, my first saving grace was BSF, which is located in the center of Beijing. As with others all over the world, this semester we are embarking upon a weekly indept look at the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans.

So I thought I had all I could have with BSF in China. But there was much more to come.

Then one day while at the school where I teach English, in conversating with a Chinese person, we began to talk about the word of God. Later that day, a few people addressed me as sister and for a moment I was confused but then I realized the word had gotten around that a Christian was among them. Wow! I thought. Everyone was so excited. So as time went on, the most amazing things happened. We began to establish weekly worship times togeter, both Chinese and Foreign teachers. How beautiful to usher in Christ on the other side of the world.

I quickly learned that the Chinese government allow foreigners to go to church but Chinese citizens aren't allowed to attend our churches without passports. This situation raises special challenges for Chinese, many whom are new Christians without bible knowledge. So our times of worship together are important and our knowledge of the bible is critical. So now I must reach inside and use the knowledge gained from my past years of studies (COTR). A renewed spirit to seek after the knowledge of God's word is upon me.

So ASK, SEEK and KNOCK because we will not receive until we ask, find until we seek and see doors open until we knock. For so often we don't know that which God has in store for us. We're like sheep out in the wilderness trying to find our way. But if we stay in the word and use the tools that God has for us, we will find our way. For he will help us.

So my answer to How's China? It's awesome because God's all in it.

I so often refer to Jeremiah 29:11 because it says: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.

Teaching with Christ!

On the surface, you are not to mention God in China. But some of the curriculums that I'm given to teach are based on the bible. Is this a coincident? I think not.

One recent lesson was based on the story of David and Goliath. Oh how my student faces lit up when I told them the story of David and Goliath and how David defeated Goliath with his confidence and sling shot:1 Samuel 17. And how the battle is the Lord's and not ours. Amazing!


Putting Christ in Christmas

Christmas was strange for me this year in China. Yes, we went for an amazing hike in the mountains that ended in climbing the Great Wall. But what I witnessed was an entire land celebrating Christmas void of Christ. Decorations were grand with large displays of lights, trees and wrapped gifts. Everyone was busy decorating and putting up Old St. Nick. But never a mention of Christ. Never a display of the manger. Never a song of his birth. And I asked my students about this and they said traditionally they have believed in controlling their own destiny without the help of God. But one bright spot Christian foreigners found and that was when asked (and we were often asked) to join in and plan a song, a poem or a note or two, it gave us a chance to do the mostly unthinkable, put Christ in Christmas. And that we did do, one celebration at a time.

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