The past month I have been traversing round the great land of the east and I have thoroughly enjoyed the culture, the challenges with the language (become quite good at the art of charades I might add!), and the beautiful countryside. Although it has been a very challenging leg of our journey in terms of team dynamics, I have learnt a lot and grown through these situations, both personally and in my faith with the Lord.
Our time in China was spent split up in smaller groups in which we were based in different cities across the west. We spent time building relationships with different families and people, experienced many train and bus rides and laughed one too many times at the Chinese yak- an animal which they also make biltong from…!
My highlights from China would definitely include: meeting a Muslim lady on the street one day and being invited to come share about J.C in her Islamic school with her friends; being invited into a number of Muslim houses and meeting and sharing with Muslim women about J.C and faith; learning in person about Muslim, Buddhist and Taoism faiths; understanding Chinese culture; enjoying Chinese food and noodles; running up and down a section of the great wall on our tour; visiting a mountain city on the Tibetan plateau with amazing scenery and quite high altitude; experiencing the joys and struggles of eating many varying types of noodles with chopsticks on a regular basis, including the frustrations of messing it all down the front of you!; and most importantly meeting fellow Chinese brothers and sisters!
Some challenges have included being horrified at cultural habits such as spitting wherever you want or whatever you want; people’s public toileting habits; children’s attire until the age of 5 years old with the bum and front of their pants and underwear missing for easy toileting!; the need to teach the entire Chinese country how to queue and what waiting in line actually means; working with different team members in our split groups throughout the western areas of China; and being pushed from one accommodation place to another by request from higher orders.
nOur first night in China was actually spent sleeping outside a major train station in Beijing on the streets- this was our first street sleeping experience all year and it went down pretty fine. We even had use of the neighbouring hotels bathrooms on the 3rd floor!
But our most interesting form of accommodation during this past month would definitely be sleeping on the floor of the train- under the seats and under people’s feet! I wonder what you would do for a good night’s sleep in a horizontal position?!
I have eaten many strange foods (no dog thank-goodness!), and had quite a scare with a crab dish one evening, but overall I’ve really enjoyed the Chinese cuisine! A little over noodles, rice and chillies now, so it’s a good thing we’re heading to the land of rice and curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Time for a change I say…!
As we are nearing the end of our 1 year journey, India shall be our last ministry country, with debrief taking place in Jeffrey’s Bay South Africa for 2 ½ weeks in mid Nov. Your support throughout the year has been much appreciated. Please continue to pray for: team finances, team members health throughout India and the ‘acceptance’ of curry in our bodies for 6 weeks!, safety as we travel around Delhi and India in general, and that we can transition smoothly back into ‘normal life’ again at the end of the year, without neglecting the amazing things we have all learnt in our personal journey’s with God. A global challenge expedition is definitely not without its challenges or tough times, but without a doubt one of the best learning experiences I have ever undertaken! Thankyou Lord!
NB- For safety reasons I cannot mention specific places or people that we met and spent time with through our weeks in China, but our Father did some miraculous work in people, with hearts and lives being changed, including my own!