China went something like travel for 3 days to The City ... Town 1 ... Town 2 ... back to The City ... Town 3 ... back to the City again ... and then onwards and outwards to India via Tibet and Nepal. I'll try to fill in a bit more detail in a half-completed blog I'll post later, but for now my thoughts have been road blocked by my experience around the time of Town 2.
For me, Town 2 was mostly about Megan-and-God. It seemed my 80% return to health (part of the story of Town 1), was for the purpose of traveling only, and by the second morning in Town 2 I was passed out in bed again, with golf balls growing in my neck where my glands once were. By morning three, the one side more closely resembled a tennis ball, my team was calling me "Godzilla" (feel the love?) and I was on my way to see a Christian doctor couple in a town about an hour away.
Expecting to just be grabbing some miracle drugs and be back on my merry way again, I took nothing with me but cash and my camera. About half an hour into the gesturing and phrase book diagnosis process, we realised that the doctors wanted me to stay with them for three days for treatment.
It was during that time that God reminded me of just how much He loves me...
The doctors tended to me with such gentleness and compassion, taking me into their home, and giving me a room to rest in ... and then declining payment for the 11 drips, multiple other tablets and 3 days worth of meals they shared with me, explaining that it was because Jesus lives in their hearts.
Their 2 year old daughter took a strange liking to my semi-lifeless form. She would some into the room to, in the beginning, just watch me curiously, and then, as she became less shy, plant little wet kisses on my face, hand me my own bottles or glasses or papers from the bedside table, or just rest her head next to mine on the pillow as I tried to sleep.
Just the experience of the love in the lady doctor's face as she tended to me had its own healing powers: the fatherly heart of God, sending someone to show me such motherly love when my own mommy is so far away.
Later reflection on the experience also led me to realise how privileged most of us are to always have the Word close at hand. For me, "home" is a country where we can freely buy and read our bibles - in the language of our choice - and between modern technology and eSword, access is always as close as our cellphones. As I lay in the clinic on the first day without my bible, I realised how pitiful my memorisation of scripture is: that my "sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God" is rather wobbly and blunt without a "hard"copy and concordance to back it up.
Looking back, I know my time at the clinic was one of my most significant experiences during our month in China. It grew in me an eagerness to know more - experience more of God's heart for me... as my father, my daddy. It also made me realise that the Word is no exception to the "you never know what you have until you don't have it anymore" rule. I thank God that my experience was a rather gentle chiding in that respect, but pray that it will be enough to shake my sometimes lazy heart (and maybe yours too) into action and appreciation.