Sweet Memories.

I have been thinking a lot this week about my time in China. There is a story that I would like to share with you all.

On Christmas Eve, my team and I were preparing for the Christmas parties we were going to have the next day. We were wrapping Christmas presents, singing Christmas music, and just enjoying each other's company. Then, we get a phone call from the pastor of a government regulated church and he has asked for us to come sing. We were hesitant at first, but decided to do it. We practiced our songs all of one time and left to go. We were supposed to be there a hour. We walk in while the pastor is speaking and all the attention turns to us. Everyone starts clapping for us. They clear off the first pew for us to sit down and we do. Oh! Did I mention that I was under the impression that there were only going to be a couple hundred people at the most and the reality of it was that there were over a thousand, if not more?! My nerves set in at this point. Then, a lady from the choir comes down and starts speaking Chinese to me and I have NO IDEA what she is saying. What I got out of what she was saying was that we were going on stage in 5 minutes. Haha!! Two hours later...we are still sitting on our pew enjoying all this Chinese culture around us.

Also, Americans are a pretty big deal in China. There people constantly sticking a camera in my face and asking to take pictures with me and videoing me. This can make your ego increase dramatically, by the way.

The pastor is sitting with us at this point and I see that he has a list of the line up for the night. I then realize that I misunderstood what the lady from the choir told me. We were number 5 on the list, not going on in 5 minutes. There are 15 acts on the list for the night. That is right, this Christmas Eve service has been going on for 3 hours and we are number 5 and we have not went yet. :)

Our time comes up for us to get on stage. There is no translator of any sort, but we sing in English anyways. We sang some Christmas songs, Glory to God, How He Loves Us, and a little melody of songs. We were on TV too. Yeah, this was pretty legit. While we sang, the congregation just clapped and smiled with us. We only wanted to glorify God and praise Him, so that is what happened.

We finish and get off stage, gather our stuff to leave, and aim for the door. People follow us out of the church and we are swarmed by them. A lady comes up to Matt, who is a guy on my team, and says that she is an English teacher and she wants her son to know who the One True God is and that she will translate what he has to say. Spiritual warfare automatically hits! We have people all around us and she cannot understand what is being said. So, we go downstairs to the exit of the church and there is a very loud speaker system there blasting. We then tag team to gather people to come to us to take pictures and talk while Matt can be with this lady and her son to share the Gospel. Matt was able to share with her and her son. They were able to exchange contact information to get together so she can ask more questions.

We leave and 2 days later we get in touch with the lady's son so Matt can meet with him and talk. The son texts us back asking if we are tourists or missionaries. We automatically think this is sketchy and are not wanting to meet with him anymore. But, we came to the conclusion if we are going to get kicked out the country it will be because we are sharing the Gospel! Matt and Chris go to meet with this guy. I was not there for the conversation that took place. Matt came back and said that he went into the restaurant thinking that was going to be his last conversation to take place, but he came out so humbled and in awe of God than ever before. They were able to share the Gospel for 4 hours that afternoon!!!!! It was not sketch. This was a mother and a son genuinely seeking the Lord and they had legitimate questions about the Bible and our God! The mother has read through the Bible 3 times in the past year! How incredible is that?! It all started when her son asked her who the One True God was and she has been searching ever since for him. And by the way, one of the local believers was with Matt and Chris and got so loud and excited about the Gospel that the whole restaurant was able to hear that afternoon. Praise the Lord!!

This is just ONE of the many awesome experiences we had while we were there! My God is amazing, wonderful, incredible, holy, majestic, great, mighty, powerful, sovereign, all-knowing, caring, loving, awesome, and He is my Everything! All I need is Him and nothing else. I seek to glorify Him in all I do and make Him known to the people around me. I want people to see Him before they see me because I am nothing with God.