One of faces. Those at roadside stands. Those ready to learn. Those curious about the Person the foreign strangers speak to before every meal. Those whose religion claims that they can earn the right to heaven. Those who were hospitable to foreigners to make a friend. Those who bartered at night markets. Those who smoked. Those who stared at the rare white faces
coming through their city. Those who had high ranking in the government and with whom the foreigners had banquets. The one who owned a laundromat, and who invited the foreigners to her house because they made the effort to befriend her. The one who stuck by them the whole time to help them with anything they needed. The one who taught Chinese to that one foreigner.The one at the roadside stand who sold the hats of her people. The one who was so excited to speak her little known English to an American who visited her shop quite often. The one who owned a salon and made unspoken friends with these visitors. The one who had a 1 Corinthians 13 on a plaque in her house without even realizing it's origin.
One of traffic and lights. Defying death in adventurous taxi rides. Breezy and cool night drives in the city. Learning to balance while standing up in a public bus. Driving across a floating bridge across the yellow river. A bus breaking down mid-route, dumping its passengers to find another one.
One of beauty. Of rugged mountains. Of remnants of one, the Great Wall. Of desert. Of chairlifts to a mountaintop on which hiking commenced. Of fields of corn. Of a valley stretching as far as the eye could see, with the magnificent yellow river winding its way into the mountains beyond. Of magnificent buildings that are replicas of those past.
One of spiritual depravity. Searching for eternal life in all of the wrong things. Worthless prayers to a nonexistent god. Customs that are dearly held onto because there is an idea that they will be a way to heaven. Dryness of souls. A yearning for something more, but what?
But it was a dream of hope. That girl is asking questions about the One who saves. Another girl believes in the Father and wants to start a church for her people. The bus driver has put his hope in the Son some time past and continues to grow. The young man and young girls who saw the difference in the foreigners lifestyle have begun to seek why. Most of all, the One who sees
every bit of this despite the sin and guilt and shame interwoven throughout it all, He looks down upon all of this with great love, longingly working in it, that it may come to Him and be a beacon for nations.
And then I realized it was not a dream. It was real, and it was China. And I long to return to this reality, but till that day, I know the One who provides the only possible hope is still there working in every heart, and he will bring the good work that He has started to completion. To him be praise, in China and the world forevermore. Amen.
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