I relayed to Jojo that Hannah and I would be leaving in May and wanted to invite her to a discussion time about Jesus and the Bible that we would be having at our home every Friday. I was amazed as Jojo’s eyes began to fill with tears.
“Ginger and Razzle, I am so very sad to hear that you are leaving. I feel that you are my best friends, and the time we have spent together has meant so much to me.”
I smiled as my Chinese friend, Laura, looked at me and exclaimed, “Ginger, I am not sure I know how to answer his question well in English!”
“Laura, please continue the conversation in Chinese!” I encouraged. “We Americans don’t need to understand everything that you are saying!”
God has placed Laura so deeply on my and Razzle’s hearts and has made it clear that she is a friend that we should invest in.
“Laura,” I ventured, “Razzle and I really would like to spend more time with you and wanted to ask if you would like to meet together each week. We can read the same chapters in the Bible the previous week and talk about what we feel God is speaking to us through it and what He wants us to do about it. We can ask each other difficult questions to help us grow. We can spend time praying for friends and family that don’t yet know our Father. We will also begin a Bible study on Friday nights for those that are interested in knowing Him more.”
“Ginger, that is exactly what I have done with friends before!” Laura replied. “I would love to meet with you each week!”
February 14th marked the Chinese New Year, the year of the tiger, and my partner Razzle and I were celebrating it in our Chinese friend Laura’s hometown 3 hours away. Laura knows our Father, and He has given us such a gift in connecting us with her.
Feature: Best of
My teammates, Razzle and Orchid, and I sat perched with our friend May on our futon. May, our first Chinese friend to receive Jesus into her heart this year, had made the decision to be baptized, and tonight was the night!
Feature: Baptism
With my job as the leader of a team here, there are days that don’t include direct interaction with the students that God has called us to China to reach. This past Saturday, I was not okay with that fact. I was going to spend the day with Orchid as the remainder of my team was out for the day. We had no set appointments with friends, and I had this inexplicable feeling that if the sun set before I spent time with Chinese friends, I would go to bed with this gnawing ache in my heart, knowing that I had missed God’s will.
When on the front lines, you become accustomed to living in the intensity of battle, even to the point of forgetting that you are in a battle. This past week has been a stark reminder that we are waging war here to advance our Father’s kingdom, and surprise attacks, battle fatigue, and rapturous victories are part of life for those that respond to the call of a soldier.
Our church taking place in my living room was a lively one. My teammate, Shamgar, had brought his friend Oliver. Oliver had not yet made a decision to receive Jesus into his heart, but had been attending 3 separate Bible studies each week, was connected with many groups of believers on [...]
Tracy came in and slumped onto a chair. She didn’t look like her usual bubbly self this Saturday night.
“Tracy,” asked Pinky, “Are you ok?”
Tracy said she had caught a cold and thought she had a fever. She didn’t feel well at all, but really wanted to come to our Girls’ Night Bible [...]
“Look! There one is!” someone exclaimed as we continued down the highway in a characteristically shock-less Chinese bus.
I pulled away from my reading and peered out the window to my left. A tall limestone peak stood in the distance, enshrouded by a misty haze and jutting up from the gray-green plain. [...]
