A Week in China

We are finishing our first week in Beijing and things have gone very well. We have connected with many readers and seem to daily be making more connections as others hear what we are doing. Last year, all of our readers were brand new so we were going through the same lessons with each one of them. This year, because some have been reading throughout the year with other teams, our readers are all on different lessons and different levels spiritually. This has allowed us to have deeper discussions about faith issues with many of them and connect with them more as we show Jesus.

I have had the opportunity to reconnect with about 4 readers that we got to read with for the first time last year. This has been a truly amazing blessing as I have been able to witness their progression both with language and faith. For example, I have one reader that I got very close to last year but she has not read with any other teams this year. She occassionally comes to the church here but not often. On Sunday, she was there. I was so excited because I thought she had stayed connected with Andrew and Jaime. Come to find out, she hadn't been there in about three months and Jaime thought I must have emailed her and told her I would be there, which I had not. God is at work here.

She and I met this week, but she didn't want to go through the lessons, she just wanted to catch up. So we talked a long time about many things. She told me she goes to a Christian church every Sunday and faithfully attends their Friday night socials with people her age. She is bringing her friends because she cannot tell them why she believes in God, she just wants them to see, hear, and listen for themselves, as she told me. She said she had not been baptized because she doesn't think she knows enough. I promptly told her I don't know everything there is to know either! We talked a lot about baptism and what it means and about following God. From my perspective, she answered everything with the full knowledge of God, and I truly believe she is ready to be baptized. She is staying in town to go to the party on Sunday and she agreed to talk to Andrew more. In the meantime, she and I are going today to visit her church and spend more time together. I intend to share with her stories of the people in Acts who were new believers under Peter's instruction and they didn't know everything either!

Nathan is having a wonderful time. He is a magnet for the Chinese people--they are so interested in him. All the girls think he is a "pretty boy!" I think he is enjoying the attention even though he acts a little embarrassed. He has been able to play with some of our reader's children. One of the church members here who also teach Andrew and Jaime Chinese, came over to give him some Chinese lessons. She brought him workbooks for him to practice writing Chinese characters. He now knows much more Chinese than all of us. He is not afraid to learn and try to speak it. The church members game him the Chinese name, "Fe Ma" which means Flying Horse. He was born in the year of the horse and he is very fast. He quickly learned how to say, "Hello, my name is Fe Ma." in Chinese. He uses that easily even with those who don't speak English.