Yummy Bread a Chinese Lady made for us, freshly baked!
Wow what an amazing experience I have had in the past few weeks here in China. From day to day just following after God's own heart and will is an adventure of a life time. Let me share some of these adventures; they include riding on a camel in the desert, flying over the yellow river on a cable,
roller skating with Chinese pro skaters, staying in a very dodgy red light hotel, being escorted by the police to a great hotel, going to a VIP room at a Chinese Karaoke bar, meeting loads of new people, catching lifts on motorbikes with faith strengthening drivers, being treated by our Chinese friends at top Chinese restaurants, even a policeman treated us for a meal once, visiting schools as celebrities, singing praise songs to our Muslim friends, noodles and yummy bread!!!
The past few weeks have been great however reality has also sunk in concerning the need in China. Each day as we explore the town, greet people and make new friends the shocking concern hits me that we have only met one so called Christian during our stay here. Where are all the Christians? Why are the majority of people so deceived about which is the
true God? Will any of the hundreds of people I see each day experience Jesus in their lives? Will they find out about Him? Will they be saved?
All these questions keep going through my head as we journey through China. In the past two towns that we have been in, majority of the people are Muslim. I feel so useless in trying to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and how exactly to do it. However this morning I read the story about Jesus Feeding the Five Thousand in John 6 and a bright light switched on in me.
The story goes about a great multitude that is following Jesus and when Jesus sees the crowd approaching Him, He asks Philip "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" But Jesus said this only to test Philip because He knew what he was going to do. Philip answers Jesus and says, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little." In other words we
don't even have enough cash so that they can even taste the bread?The verse that really stuck out for me was verse 9 where Andrew mentions an almost ridiculous and illogical statement to try solving their problem to Jesus,
"There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many"
I can just hear some of the disciples saying to themselves "Andrew dont be stupid there are more than five thousand people here, how on earth is a lad's five loaves and two small fish going to be able to even feed ten people.? But as we all know Jesus makes the people sit down, He gives thanks for the food and starts to distribute it to the disciples and then to all the people. WOW what an unbelievable and enormous miracle, everybody gets fed and there are still leftovers. This all happens because of one lad's five loaves and two fishes that thousands of people were fed.
So the
Lord really spoke to me through His word and showed me once again that nothing is impossible with Jesus Christ. I felt like the lad with not much to give to all these hungry people in China but what I have I just got to surrender to the Lord and He will make sure that everybody gets feed! He will make sure that a gigantic miracle takes place in this country with all these non-believers. He can do absolutely anything with the little that I have to offer Him. He will use a lad like me to make an impact. I feel like just like Jesus was testing Philip He is testing me to see what I will do, and all I really need to do is surrender all to Him and He will utilize my little that I have to do things that I can't even imagine, comprehend or grasp.
As I continued to read John Chapter 6 I read about The Bread from Heaven that God has prepared for each one of us. Verse 26 reads as follows ?
"Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs,
but because you ate of the loaves and were filled."
27 "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you..."
My prayer for each one of us is that God will show us the importance of the food and bread of heaven we need each day to survive. May we cling to this food just as much as we crave for yummy physical food that gives our bodies the nutrients and nourishment that it needs to be able to function in top gear and at high performance! Let's keep chowing the Bread of Life!!
Blessings from your ChInA in cHiNa ToWn