--Sunday morning had a funny event. In the middle of my ser___, the house-c_____ doorbell rang. In the video monitor was the face of a uniformed policeman. The brothers snatched me into the bathroom. After 10 minutes, the all-clear was called. It was only a well-dressed security guard come to say one of our cars blocked the road.
--On Sunday night, I spoke to a rowdy, good-natured bunch of poor farm workers crammed into a Quonset hut. It was in the middle of 100 huts used to grow vegetables. This rounded shed was converted to a ch____. Clever disguise. But not clever enough; in the recent past the auth__ities broke up meetings twice.
Everywhere I travel, a reoccurring thought troubles me: Do they want mi__ionaries because they smell a revenue source? As we picked our way through the mud and hand-tractors waiting outside the Quonset ch____, the pas___ forced money into my hand. These children of G__ want the truth and nothing more; everything else, they insist on providing.
--It is Tuesday night and we are on the overnight train headed into the interior. I can’t recall when I had a day off; individual faces blur into groups; I have a cold burning my sin sinuses; the train delayed two hours; we got 4 hours of sleep in 20-minute chunks. I am tired of being stared at, of people cutting in front, and the spitting, belching, cigarette-smoke-in-your-face-cultural differences.
Yesterday, I had to remind myself, ‘It is not wrong, just different.’ As the waitress assigned to our table hovered about, she busied herself by picking her nose. On the bus, the couple next to me set their toddler down in the aisle so she could pee around our feet. It is not wrong, just different.
So now I am a tried, whining grump; a cracked vessel with all the Sp____ leaked out.
But here comes the miracle.
We are headed to another province to teac_ rural leaders and I know G__ will show up. I don’t know how, or when, but by some incredible wonder, he never fails. I always fail; he never does. So let’s see how he pulls this one off.
(For this entry, I did not construct the current situation to prove G__’s faithfulness. I need him. From experience, I expect he will step in; I hope he does.)
--It is now Friday night and my work in the interior is completed. After the train, we passed through hours of rice fields, canals, and grubby towns. The paved road turned to dirt, then to muddy tracks as we bounced toward a remote village. Twice the driver stopped, studied the ruts, shook his head, then floored the minivan through the mud-hole and barely out the other side.
The village was maybe 20 houses under trees and surrounded by acres of green wheat fields. Ducks, goats, and cows outnumbered people. In the center was a two-story cement building; not worth a second glance to my eyes, but a hub of eternal-life in the spiritual realm. This is where poor believers come to receive training for leadership of an underg____d network of 6,000. The network is a decentralized c____h of sorts. It functions under a common elders__p.
I was there to provide the first ou_s___ tra__ing since the 1990’s. Only one other mi_____ary helped them. Some traveled from distant cities and they all gathered at my feet and took notes like I was some kind of alien genius. What a shame that after waiting 15 years, the only tea__er they got was tired, grumpy, dimwitted me.
With my translator, we tau__t four sessions a day and covered the supremacy of C_____, to avoid foolish controversies, to love G__ and not his miracles, the benefits of trails, and other such subjects. I tried to get across that if they hang on to J____, they don’t need the outside tea__ing, funding, or organization of the West. I don’t think they bought it.
The last session hit a wall. I was going on and on about the authority of the beli___r over dem__s and the 40 students were numb. Blah, blah, blah, blah… Several nodded off, the translator got confused, and I thought, I don’t want to be here. How can I get out of this?
I stopped, asked if there were any questions, and when there were none, sat down. The leader closed in pr__er, but as the meeting broke up, several crowded me with questions. The leader sent everyone back to their place on the floor and organized a proper Q&A period.
Somehow, someway, those questions brought out the succinct message. I said in 90 words what I had spent 90 minutes struggling against. It was easily translated and received with joy.
Isn’t it just like G__ to wait until the eleventh hour to pull off his intervention? I had given up; my mind was outside the room, and he found a way to get the critical teac_ing accomplished. I am awed by his grace.
While in the village, I had to move about with my head covered. A hat is not much of a disguise for a giraffe among rhinos (to switch continents for a moment), but the brothers were especially concerned with my blonde hair. On the first afternoon, I ignorantly went off on a walk and greeted incredulous farmers. The brothers sent out a search party and texted the translator’s cell phone for us to return asap. I have a lot to learn about the pressure they endure daily.
The women fed and doted over us. We ate in various houses, four times a day, with fruit and snacks pushed in between. At 6:30 am it is hard to face a full breakfast of seven spicy, fatty, salty dishes. But they got up at 4:00am to cook over wood stoves and replaced each slurp with more soup from the pot as we forced ourselves to honor their hospitality.
They heard I like bottled green tea and assumed all foreigners like milk. So each meal I was given two bottles of tea and/or imitation milk. One lady stripped her tree of cherries so we could have fruit on the ride home. We added them to the surplus of apples, mangos, tea, and milk.
I carried more food out of that village then I carried tea__ing in.
Belie___s in yet another province pressed me to postpone my flights and come help them. So far, I have declined, but it is hard. How do I say no to hundreds of hungry, forgotten followers of J____ that would be impacted for eternity? Who will go to them if I pass? I can only scratch the surface of the disci___ship and equipping needed here.
As I consider the requests, I must admit I am a carrier of the deadly virus of knowledgitis. The child-like followers in deep Chi__ have no immunity to this blight on faith. Knowledgeitis is the Western habit of craving unending information until it distracts us from application of the simple truths. Do I want to risk passing that disease on?
For now, I must leave when planned. Others will have to follow, or perhaps I can return on future trips. Boy, I’m glad I am not the Sav__r of the world. He has a big job.
Your friend in C_____,
JDC--
Hope you can enjoy the pics at: http://gallery.me.com/jamesdchristian/100037
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