A friend who spent the last year in China recently commented that if you visit China for a week, you can write a book. It you visit China for a month, you can write an article. If you visit China for a year, you can’t write anything. I now know what she means. I’ve been here for not even a week and I’m hesitant to write, because it’s such a complex, rapidly changing culture. And I’m still in Hong Kong!
This week I’ve had the privilege of teaching and interacting with 70-80 Chinese church leaders from all parts of China. Talk about diversity: yesterday I met a young Malaysian man who is working amongst the Chinese in Tibet. Over dinner I sat next to a woman who was responsible for training 2,200 workers this past summer to reach 128,000 Chinese children in one city through vacation Bible schools. Still another is a bi-vocational pastor who manages a full-time job while circulating between his twenty-one, yes twenty-one, congregations!
This morning before I took the platform to speak, I stood with these leaders singing, “The Old Rugged Cross.” Suddenly a young Chinese woman began to weep loudly with a heart-felt prayer of confession “Lord forgive us, forgive us Lord! We have failed You in being people of the cross!” Others began to weep and so did I. I was moved and humbled by her ardent declaration of brokenness. Most of these leaders Quique Fernandez and I are teaching this week minister daily in very urban settings. Their issues are complex, their questions are thoughtful, their industriousness is exemplary, and their courage is admirable.
Quique said something during his teaching yesterday that resounded with me. He said, “Every time you venture outside your own culture to interact with another culture, expect to learn a great deal about others, but more about yourself!”
I have a lot to learn from these!
Every blessing,
S t r e t c h e d
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