Conclusions and Lessons Learned

 All right everyone, thanks for hanging in there with me as I haphazardly conveyed some of my China adventures!  I’ll never forget the people I met, the things I saw, or the things I learned.  It wouldn’t have been possible for me to go to China and experience these things were it not for those of you who supported me both financially and prayerfully.  I learned so much from my time in China, and I know that it has changed the way I look at our work as ambassadors forever. 

Perhaps the lesson that struck a chord hardest with me is what Dad showed me about being a laborer in his vineyard.  He taught me that he is always at work, sometimes in the places and ways that I least expect, and that he offers me the chance to join in with the work he is doing. He showed me that part of my job is to be intentional about watching for the opportunities that he creates and to be ready to act when those opportunities present themselves. 

I went into this summer wrongfully assuming that *I would be responsible for reaching people with the message.  I thought that Dad had been at work to get me there and that the rest was up to me.  Perhaps I thought that this was how I would repay Him for his faithfulness, by “proving” to him that I could be effective and successful in doing his work.  I see now how completely wrong and prideful my assumption was.  In this, my last blog post about China, I want to share with you one particular instance in which Dad proved himself to be faithful not only to me, but also to our family in China.  (I’m going to be using a lot of jargon in this entry because I don’t want to get anyone in trouble by what I write here.)

The lesson that I want to share with you revolves around my friendship with “Tina”, a sophomore studying at the University we were at.  We met after one of our events when we randomly began chatting, of all things, about American food.  Pizza was a favorite for both of us. :)  I didn’t think much about our conversation at the time, I had no idea that Dad had been dramatically working in her heart, filling her with questions about him and revealing to her the beauty of his unconditional love. 

A day or two after we met, I got a text from Tina asking if I wanted to join her for lunch that day.  She said that she knew a place that sold American style pizza, and she wanted to ask me some questions about college life in America.  It sounded like fun, and I didn’t have any plans yet, so I agreed to meet with her.  We had a great time chatting together, so we started hanging out more and became fast friends. Needless to say, I was pretty excited, and began wondering what Dad had planned for our friendship.

 Not long after this, Tina and I were at lunch again, and she randomly (and quite bluntly) asked me if I talked to Dad every time before I ate.  I told her that I did, and she was surprised.  (We weren’t allowed to initiate any conversations like this, but our leaders had been teaching us how to intentionally guide conversations in this direction and trust that Dad would open the necessary doors, allowing us to witness.)   Because she was initiating the conversation, I got to share with her why I did this and why it was important to me.  JC tells us not to worry about what to say when the time comes because he will tell us what to say.  He certainly did that in this situation! 

After we had talked about this for a while, I asked Tina if I could talk to Dad (yarp) over our food the next time we ate together, and she said yes!  Encouraged by her openness, I then asked her if she would like to come back to my room and look at my Book for a while.  Again, she said yes! Slowly but surely, Dad was letting me join in with the work that he had started in Tina’s heart.  I realized that he had likely begun this work before I had even heard about this trip.  It was very humbling to realize this, but it was also exciting!

We went back to my room and looked at my favorite passage in Isaiah, and Tina seemed to enjoy it very much.  I think that Dad was preparing me though, because somehow I knew that she would not be quite so open the next time we met up.  This proved to be true because the next time we ate together, when I asked if I could yarp over our food, Tina said no.  Additionally we only chatted about surface level things that day.  I was slightly disappointed, but I knew that Dad wasn’t finished yet.

My team and I continued to yarp for Tina, and the next time we went out to lunch things gained momentum so quickly that I was lucky to keep up with where Dad was leading us!  Here’s an excerpt from my journal from June 26:

I got to meet with Tina for lunch today, and guess what, she straight up asked me to yarp for our food!  She was surprised that my yarp was so simple haha she said she was expecting it to be a lot more long and formal.  After this, she asked if we would have time before our afternoon event to go back to my room and look at my Book!  I swear it’s just what JC meant when he said that one sows and the other harvests, one does the hard work and the other reaps the fruit of that work.  I have only had to be available for Tina, she is so close to becoming family, and I can take no credit whatsoever!  Someone has been telling her about Dad long before I got here, and now I get to help bring her even closer.  I absolutely love that and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  :)

I don’t know exactly how, but when we opened my Book later, we ended up in the book of Judges.  We were reading about Deborah, and I think it was significant because it talked a lot about Dad being loving and forgiving and giving his people second chances, even when they messed up horribly.  We connected it to how Dad gives us second chances today no matter how badly we mess up.  I remember flipping to other passages in the Book that talk about these things, and Tina asked me if I knew everything about the Book.  Haha I could only laugh and tell her that I still have a lot to learn.  I told her that Dad often uses the same passages to speak different things to us, even if we’ve read that particular passage hundreds of times.  I told her that because of this we can never learn absolutely everything about the Book.  She sat pondering that for a moment, and I asked her what she was thinking about.  She told me that she was close to wanting JC, but she still had some questions.  I told her that I and the other members of the team would love to answer any questions that she had. 

We left for our Open House soon after that, and she asked some of my leaders questions afterwards!  Omg I really want to see her become part of our family!! We’ve been yarping for her and I honestly think that’s all we can do now. 

***

I ended up talking to Tina several more times after I wrote this journal entry.  I asked her at one point if she wanted to yarp and ask JC to come into her heart, and she said that she did want to do that just not yet.  She said she wanted to go home and talk to her mom about everything she had learned before she made that commitment.  At first I felt worried that something would happen before she made the decision to yarp, but Dad reminded me that he loved her so much more than I ever could and that he was more then capable of protecting her until his perfect time came.  I’ve learned that it’s usually a good idea to trust Dad about things like this haha I’ve been yarping that Dad would protect her and give her a sense of urgency and continue to beckon her with his love.  (You can yarp about this too!)  So far I haven’t heard anything else about Tina, but I trust that Dad is still faithfully working in her heart and in her life.  After all, “He who begins a good work… will continue it on until completion,” right? :D

Throughout my time with Tina, I learned that it is Dad (not me!) who does absolutely all the work in saving people.  All he asks me to do is intentionally look for opportunities that he is orchestrating, and be available to join in the work that he is doing.  I was humbled time and again through my interactions with Tina that I literally did nothing besides show up.  She had initiated our first meeting.  She had asked me about my yarp habits. She had asked to come to my room and see my Book, and she asked me to tell her stories about JC both from the Good Book and also from my own life.  Tina initiated everything with me, while Dad was initiating everything with Tina.  I was merely yarping endlessly in my head (and out loud when the opportunity presented itself) and holding on for dear life as Dad and Tina took me on the most exciting and rewarding ride of my life.  I had merely been available.  See, Dad had provided me with the opportunity to go to China, and also with the opportunities for Tina and I to get to know each other.  Additionally, He provided me with direction as I floundered for answers for Tina’s questions.  He did everything, and *that’s what he taught me this summer.

The fun part is that I now get to take what I learned abroad and apply it to my campus!  Strange as it may sound, I had never really considered the possibility that there might be Tina’s at Hope College.  I thought that everyone there had heard about JC and had already decided where they stood.  I thought that I could encourage those who said yes, but that it was my job to respect the decisions of those who had chosen to opt out.  I now see that while I do need to be respectful of their choice, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have the responsibility to be intentional in building relationships with them. Dad is working in their hearts just as he was working in Tina’s, and they are likely just as hungry to hear about him as she was.  Just like in China, Dad is already doing all the hard work.  All he is asking me to do is be ready to join in.

Matthew 28:18-20

Then JC came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the HS, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Now that, my friends, is loving for real :D Thanks for supporting me this summer so I could learn this lesson—the true message behind the Great Commission. Don’t forget that our Father has also called you to be a part of his work!  Don’t worry though; you’ll never be working alone!  He’s the kind of boss that likes to be right in the middle of all the nitty gritty stuff, so like he said, he will be with you always. Hopefully you won’t need to go all the way to China to learn this lesson like I did :)

Be blessed, and go make disciples!

Rebekah

Much Ado About Nothing

 Adapted from my journal, June 24, 2013

Just got back from the morning market with Aki’a, Grace, Zach, Rebecca, and TaylorAnn!  I love the market so much.  Let me paint a picture of it for you:

It’s early morning, and you’re walking down the street toward the market, when you begin to hear the low hum of many conversations occurring simultaneously.  The humming grows louder as you draw nearer.  You hear several sharp, high voices cut through the general murmur, and you realize that these voices are calling out prices and wares in a language you vaguely understand, but don’t connect immediately in your brain.  You round a corner, and see rows and rows of people, carts, animals, and cars trying to navigate a single street.  Beyond the fruit and vegetable vendors, you see dead animals being chopped up and sold by the leg, pound, ounce, whatever.  Your surprised eyes take in the chaos that continues far down the street, and you begin to feel overwhelmed.  Slowly, you notice that the longer you stare at the scene in front of you, the more your brain is able to process it.  You observe that the vendors line both sides of the street and form a line down the middle.  If you tilt your head and cross your eyes a little bit, you see that it resembles two aisles in the grocery store, only with people and carts instead of shelves dividing the food.  The people calling out are the signs that inform the shopper what they are selling and how much it will cost per pound.  The animals that are weaving in and out of the shoppers and vendors are like the small children that want to sample everything and take it home with them—even though they are repeatedly told to stop asking for a taste of everything you pass.  The meat being chopped up is the butcher along the side aisle.  You realize that the drone of conversation is nothing more than the sound of shoppers discussing amongst themselves which recipe this ingredient will complete, how that fruit will serve as the perfect snack for their kids when they come home from school, and what from their list they still need to purchase before their weeks shopping is completed.   Yes, the morning market is just another day at the grocery store.  Can you see why I love it?  It reminds me of home :) 

Being at the morning market just makes me feel like I know what I’m doing in this country.  Ironically, it also shows me just how much I still have to learn about the language and culture of China!  It seems that the more I learn, the more I have TO learn haha, but I guess if it got easier I would get bored.  One way that the morning market is different from a grocery store in the States is that once you buy something from one vendor, you can eat it while you walk to the next vendor.  Just like at the farmers market.  I bought some yak yogurt (yeah… basically everything that we would get from a cow, they get from a yak! It’s basically the same, but I don’t think the consistency of yak milk is as smooth as the consistency of cows milk.  This made the yak yogurt have a kind of… cheesy aftertaste, but it was still delicious.) from a lady in the middle of the street.  It was pretty tasty, although scraping butter off the top of my yogurt was a new experience.  I also bought a crunchy-crepe-egg-wrap thing from a vendor.  IT’S SO GOOD! And guess what they call it here??  A Chinese burger! Haha I love it. 

I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get back to America and there aren’t any street vendors anymore.  The best I can hope to do is find a hotdog stand, but it just doesn’t compare.  I wish street vendors didn’t break nearly every health code regulation in the book.  Maybe then they’d stand a chance at home!

(end of journal entry)

It’s a good thing that the food in China is so delicious.  Without it, I doubt that I would have been quite so energetic while climbing all these mountains!  So far, my team has climbed three mountains.  Two were just outside the city, and one was at Qing Hai Lake. 

RABBIT TRAIL!!!

Ok, so funny story.  My Chinese prof here at the University was teaching us about Qing Hai Lake. She was telling us how it was the largest fresh water lake in China, how the province was named after the lake, and how it was so far above sea level… lots of stuff right? So then she just stops and looks at us.  She tells us that the pronunciation of “lake” in Chinese is “hu” (sounds like an owl: hoo hoo).  Then she says, “knock knock!” we respond “Who’s there!” “Qing Hai” “Qing Hai who?”  Before the “who?” is even out of our mouths, we realize what she’s done, and we all begin to laugh uncontrollably!  I’m not usually a huge fan of puns, but when you understand them in another language, it just adds something special, you know?? Hahaha I still smile and/or laugh when I think of that knock knock joke.  It has become my favorite :D

End of rabbit trail :)

The mountains that we’ve climbed so far have been absolutely breathtaking (in more ways then one)!  They never look especially steep from the ground, but once you start climbing, you’re out of breath in just a few minutes!  It could have something to do with the high elevation, but I like to think that I’d be winded climbing up a mountain in the States as well!  Especially when you consider that Rebecca, Zach, and I literally sprinted up the side of the mountain!  Well, technically I only sprinted for like half of it because I felt like I was going to pass out and die.  I really didn’t feel like plunging over the side of the mountain because I, you know, kicked a poorly placed bucket or something.  In that moment on the mountain, the only thought going through my head was something along the lines of, “I (gasp, wheeze pant) am DYING! I (suck in air) refuse to die on a mountain!  I’m (heroic effort to breathe deeply) going to walk starting…..NOW!”  Haha aren’t I a champion? ;)

No matter how often I walked though, I always made it to the top, and I never once regretted my decision to continue the trek.  Seriously, when you climb up that high, you can’t help but marvel at God’s creation!  I mean, my God created those mountains.  He spoke them into being.  He walks on them.  He is SO MUCH MORE majestic than the most awe-inspiring mountain on Earth.  And what’s more, He’s bigger than them. All.  Put together.  I mean, for goodness sake, if He “holds the whole world in his hands” than those are some seriously huge hands!  Yet, He also made me.  He knit me together in my mothers womb.  My God creates details in big things, and details in small things.  He sees the big picture, as well as the thoughts and desires of my heart.  MY heart, one among billions currently beating.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, my God is a beast.  He’s the most awesome, most amazing, most mind-boggling…..thing EVER! He’s freaking GOD! Seriously, how does that ever cease to blow my mind??  Whew, when he tells me not to worry about tomorrow, I should seriously listen.  He doesn’t mess around!  And if he can create everything so perfectly, and so intricately, and so beautifully, I’m ridiculous for being reluctant to give everything to him. 

I love that God is showing me this right now, because this past week I’ve been so frustrated by trying to figure out what specific career I want to pursue when there are SO MANY different options.  I have no idea how I’m supposed to narrow it down or make wise decisions, however, as I just stated many times, God is totally in control.  He’s always been in control, and he always will be in control.  He has plans for me, and because I want what he wants for my life, I don’t have to worry.  His plans have a knack for becoming reality… in his time.  That’s as frustrating as heck sometimes, but at least it takes some of the pressure off.  God’s got me.  As long as I keep seeking him and diligently research how the desires he put in my heart line up to a career and what it will take to get into that career, I don’t have to worry.  So you know what, I won’t worry.  Life is smooth sailing when God is your captain. 

You know, I love sailing.  I’ve never steered a ship, but it’s so relaxing to just sit and enjoy the waves, the salt air, the wind, and the sun…  Similarly, God is inviting me to relax as he shows me bit by bit the life that he is preparing me for and directing me towards.

Aren’t you guys so glad that I have a blog so you can see how my thought processes work?  I mean, life just wouldn’t be as fulfilling for you if you didn’t understand how I could go from talking about climbing mountains to sailing a ship with a pit stop in trusting God with my future!  haha jk, but seriously, you’re welcome ;)

Rebekah