Some days in China are just pretty super. Today was one of those days. I got a package from one of my good friends who gave me permission to go ahead and open it and so this morning I did. It was pretty awesome. Milk and cookies and directions of how to open them and share them.
I had a good time with G in the morning and had set aside a certain aspect of my day that I wanted to promise to Him. I didn’t quite understand why or how to explain it if anyone asked, but I felt the urge to do it today and just trust that because the Book says so, we should.
First class went pretty well. Tuesdays, I start my new lesson for the week so it’s usually “8:00am Tuesday -give the new lesson. 10:00am Tuesday – rewrite my new lesson plan.” Haha. That’s only been like one time, but I do go back through and edit, fix, tweak, and think through parts better afterwards. As I was about to finish it up I planned on spending some time with Him then doing/finishing my other lesson plan for English Corner after lunch…before the English Corner. But the assistant dean’s assistant came in and told me that my rescheduled class was mistakenly at the wrong time and asked if I could do it this afternoon. …. Sure. So I finished up the reviewing of the lesson. Broke out the good book and started doing some reading. (I know, logically not the first choice of time management – but it’s starting to become more of a habbit.) I had some good time then and started to understand more and just dive in more.
Then I went to lunch with my students. (I’m making them all eat lunch with me at some point so they practice their English and they won’t be as nervous in class, and so I can get to know them a little better. But that means 180+ students, 4 students at a time, is lunch and atleast one dinner 5 days a week for 7 weeks. We’re in week 5 now, I think. It started out really good and intentional, but after a few weeks of having the same conversations and getting sick and all the students blurring together, it wasn’t my greatest effort.) But today… He showed up.
“I believe in G, but I don’t like reading the Book” were the first words that came out of her mouth. After a few minutes of the normal awkward silence, I was working through small talk conversation starters in my head that would work well, but then she just up and dropped this bomb on me. I just smiled and started thanking Him. “Oh! Ok. Good to know” were the words I think that flopped out of my mouth. “Do you think that it is important or useful for us to read?” she continued.
“Yeah. I love reading the Book. It tells us what we’re here for. It tells us what life is about. It tells us how much He loves us. It tells us what will happen when we die. It tells us a lot.” They all looked at each other as if it was the “Oh crap, what the heck did he just say? He was talking way too fast and I don’t know those words.” But instead I heard, “Oh! It seems like it’s very important.” A few “co-insidences” with Family member students stopping by to help translate which story in the Book they were talking about and Jessie teaching me the word for “Family” yesterday aided the conversation along. I asked if another one of the girls read the Book. She said yes, but she didn’t understand it. She read about Captain Noah. How He had to punish the world for the bad doings. Throughout the conversation I found out that that is how she viewed Him was punishing – not that she really believed in Him. I asked if she thought the stories in the Book were true or if they were just stories. She said she thought that some were, but not all of them can apply to today. (It wasn’t really this of an in-depth apologetic argument, it was just her trying to think it out.) She thought that He existed in part. The laws (I think government basically) handle punishment, and that He is within all of us (eastern religin). “Hmm. Uh, yeah, that’s an interesting point, I guess.” (Trying to show my non-agreeance yet still acknowledging that it wasn’t her English ability that I was confused with.)
Then she said it. The joyous words I love to here – “Oh. Why don’t you share with us your view about G?” BINGO! “Hmm. (with a smile on my face) I would love to!” I explained how He is love and how He loves us even though He has to punish us. Like a Father who disciplines us, but that we have a broken relationship with Him. I explained how during Captain Noah’s His punishment was carried out, but how He was still holding back all of the punishment from us until He could dump it on His Son. I explained how His son works as an intermediary between us to restore the broken relationship. How even before, He was pursuing us with Love while He held back the punishment. I explained how He came back from the dead to prove He really was the Son, and how we can have this life too with Him. That if we accept His death and submit our life to Him then we don’t have to deal with our punishment and we get to go “upstairs.”
(As I’m telling this story, they’re all pretty fixated on me. Not like “I don’t know what’s going on,” but more like “Woah! This is a story!”) I remembered what another friend had told me about internationals, how they often need it in steps and not all at once, but as I was mid-story I thought about leaving that with them and I stopped so it could settle, but it didn’t feel right. It felt like I should keep going. The main girl said, “So …….” And repeated it all back to me in her own words about what was happening, so I said, “Yeah! Then…” and told more and she translated it again. When I got to the “upstairs” part, she jumped a little bit and said it in Chinese. One of the other girls said, “so what if you used to believe in Him, but now you don’t. Do you still have to be punished?” (Which is an odd thought, if I don’t think something exists, will the non-existent thing punish me? – but I think that was a translation issue and the heart of it was, I’m not living the way I should or used to…what now?) So after a quick check “upstairs”, I explained that it was all about the Son. If we accept Him, then we’ve surrendered and given control of our life over to Him then we will act different. We will live like He does exist and our punishment will be taken care of because of the Son. But if we’ve never done that, then we still have to deal with our own punishment.
After all of this, I thought… “I think most of that translated, but I think I just got excited and overwhelmed them with information and it was more than they wanted to know.” Then she said, “I think you should teach us more about G, about your view of Him. You have a much different perspective and I want to see it.” (pretty much said, I want to see Him the way you see Him.)
She threw out the different culture thing about learning other cultures, and I tried to show her that our religion came from an eastern culture. That it was her culture too, not just ours. (That part didn’t quite translate) but I agreed and told her that I would love to teach her more and tell her more, that I really like talking about that type of stuff. I’m not sure if she will follow it up, but I definitely am going to try.
Afterwards, our Boy and was telling Him the good news and he said, “Yeeeaaahh, for the past two months it seems as if a lot of people are interested in Book. A lot of the campus is curious and wanting to know more about Book.” I just smiled and agreed saying, “Yeah, it’s awesome what He’s doing here.” “Yeaaaah.” He agreed.
Quick second half of the story: in my English Corner tonight, I showed some short films and we discussed them. They didn’t know that I specifically picked out salty films. In fact, I got them from a pretty salty place, but they’re not too direct. At the end of the last one, they were bumfuzzled. They were so confused. One student guessed the man was a master over the girl who he was running and experiment on (most of the class followed her conclusion). But another student stated that she thought the man was “the G” that He was trying to help and wanted to take away the pain and the hurt from the old memory and wanted to give her a new memory. I laughed again. I’d been asking for revelations and wisdom to flow and it was. They went back and forth until the end of the class and I felt the yearning in my heart to share, but I was chickening out. I wanted to but I couldn’t get an opening and I felt like it was going to be too much preaching. “Just let them ask, please let them ask” I asked. The bell rang. “So what do you think about this one?” one girl in the back asked. “Well, I agree with her (pointing to the revelation girl). I see a picture of Him in this. In the past He keeps trying to help her, He keeps smiling at her and wanting to help so I think He’s a good guy. I also think that she does have a lot of pain and troubles in her past memory and I see that He gives her a new start. I see that that is a picture of G, how He takes those with troubles and pain and He gives them a new start. So that’s what I see.” Short, sweet, to the point, and the only way that video made sense to them. It was beautiful. I can’t wait because that girl has her own attitude and own personality just enough that she’s gonna accidentally try Him out and be swept away.
Anyways, I wanted to share how good He is with you. Well, He’s always good, but today it was much more tangible. Thank you for reading all of this and I hope your day is Beautiful. I love you all.
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