Psalm 27 in China...

China was quite a strange country that never failed to surprise me. Initially my perception was that it was rigid and lifeless but the more time we spent there the more I grew to love the culture and people.

The Lord gave me Psalm 27 for my time there and much of what happened in China parallels what we read in Psalm 27.

Psalm 27:1: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?"- Initially I was a bit nervous of entering China as I had heard that it's sometimes difficult to get past customs and that people get pulled aside for questioning quite often. But after reading the above verse I had such peace after that and I knew that He was in control (even when the Chinese customs lady seemed upset about something in my passport and inspected every single page repeatedly and she didnt seem to believe the photo in my passport was me;-) Our group was also pulled aside once we had collected our bags and they searched some of our bags but we finally managed to get through.

After a few days in Beijing we climbed on an overnight train to our ministry point. That night our team was split into 3 different teams with different focus points. I was super excited when I heard that I would be in the team that would spend some time in a small Tibetan town. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I was planning to go hiking up one of the mountains to get to some snow that was still on the peaks (I have never been in snow before) the next morning we looked out the window and IT WAS SNOWING so that was a real blessing for me:) I was also super proud to have survived my first stoning after some local kids (that appeared friendly at first) started throwing rocks at us;-)

Psalm 27:4 - "The one thing I ask of the Lord the thing I seek most is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lords perfections and meditating in His temple." - One of the biggest struggles for me this year has been abiding in God and drawing strength from Him instead of trying to do everything in my own strength. Since India I have felt the need to remain in a state of adoration for who God is rather than what He can do. So I told God that during China I was taking a step back and that He needed to take control and that He needed to create oppurtunities to speak into peoples lives. We did prayer walks through the town and on our first day of prayer walking a young Chinese man who I will call "J" approached us and started chatting to us. He is an amazingly friendly guy and we liked him immediately. We then went on a hike with him where we could share a little of our testimonies with him while we enjoyed the view of the town from where we were standing.

We also had a huge amount of free time during our time there and it was so awesome where we could spend close to 2 hours every day doing devotions as a team as well as spending time alone with God every day.

Psalm 27:8 - "My heart has heard you say "Come and talk with me" and my heart responds "Lord I am coming"." The one day I needed to be alone with God so I went for a walk, I didn't know where but I just started walking on a random dust road for 2 hours that led me deep into the heart of a beautiful mountain range. I listened to a Delirious cd that I used to listen to just after I was born again and I was singing these worship songs aloud as I was walking in the middle of these beautiful mountains. It was such a beautiful time with God and a reminder of everything that he has done in my life. Eventually it started snowing and raining so I turned back and a Tibetan on a motorbike insisted that he give me a lift back on his motorbike which was random but awesome:)

Psalm 27:13-14 - "Yet I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes wait patiently for the Lord. " We hadn't heard from our friend J the entire week as he was camping with an Australian family in the mountains but on our last day there we managed to see him again. We went for a walk to the one Budhist monastry and as we were walking we started talking about God and the precious Gospel of life. He then decided that he would accept Jesus as His personal saviour:):):):) After we prayed together he kept touching his heart so I asked him how he was feeling. And he said that for the first time in his life it felt like his skin had opened and that there was air in his body. (Justin stays composed on outside but on the inside is dancing like a crazed mongoose) We then started chatting and I mentioned the peace that Jesus gives to his followers. He then shared about pain he had experienced in the past and how it had never left him and he desired to experience this peace for himself so we prayed for that as well and when I opened my eyes I will never forget the look of surprised disbelief on his face and he jumped up in excitement and gave me a huge hug saying "The pain is gone, its really gone". I was just so overwhelmed by God's goodness and grace at that stage. It's so easy to forget there are hurting people who desperately need to hear and experience the love and peace found in God. Jesus IS the answer to the question and He IS the solution to the problem. God is so faithful and good:)

We also joined a church service in Beijing the one Sunday and met a lady who asked us to join her on a prayer walk and to hand out tracts in her neighbourhood which was amazing. We entered a mosque and prayed there and then met some locals where we spent some time and played with some of the kids. She then said that she felt she needed to give some money to us which was nearly the exact amount we needed to break even in China. God was faithful to provide once again:)

Other highlights during our time there was visiting the forbidden city, the great wall and the olympic stadium. Oh yes and after searching for a stuffed llama in SA for over 5 years I eventually found some in China so I now am the proud owner of two stuffed llamas WOOP WOOP:)

All in all China was A to the WESOME.
J