if you know me at all, you know that just about everything that comes out of my mouth is about Asia. i just can't get enough of it. something about it intrigues me. maybe its the fact that at any given moment you could be severely persecuted for your Faith. or maybe its the fact that a small city has 1 million people in it. or that there are still hundreds of thousands of people still unreached for the Gospel.
i love their culture. they are so hospitable and extremely gracious. but, they tell you like it is which is hard to find in American culture. it was here, that my love for kids really grew. here is a short story about the far left picture at the top of my page.
my team and i were walking around just prayer walking. it was so interesting to pray out loud while walking. anyways, we were at the main entrance to the city and just taking in the sights, smiling at people yet praying for them at the same time. as we were wandering around in pairs, a fellow teammate and i noticed that we were being followed by 3 girls, about elementary school age. we would look at them and they would giggle and run, but they kept following us. until finally we stopped. we stopped at this open courtyard/square area to meet up with our group. these girls excitedly come over, since we were the only Americans (white people) they would possibly see in their lifetime.
as we stopped, jennifer and i (thats my teammate) decided to teach a few games. so, here we are with about ten kids around us, playing London Bridge. it was a sure hit, and they knew the game! so, we decided to teach them another game. duck, duck, goose was next on our list. they, however, had not played this game. so we taught it to them. soon enough, we realized that our circle had grown 3 times its original size and a crowd had stopped to watch. so, here we are, about 10 total on my team, in the midst of some of the coolest people on the planet. so, we stop our game of duck, duck, goose and continue to a game of red light, green light. this was a hit. that lasted a few rounds, then we started to get tired. playing with kids is hard work sometimes!
after that we ventured over to a set of stairs that were closeby. we (the americans) sat down to take a load off...the people followed us. so, a teammate pulled out his guitar and started playing worship songs. people listened intently, and during that time, those 3 cute little girls surrounded me. we took pictures, and laughed, and sang (well i sang) and clapped. about halfway through singing, someone, asian mind you, asks the guy playing guitar to sing a hymn. but, what is even cooler, is he only knew it in spanish, and she only knew it in manderin! now, i know you probably picture this lady to be late 20's early 30's...nope. this woman had to be in her late 60's early 70's. how cool is it, to know that someone that age, on the complete opposite side of the world, knows Jesus, when it is very much frowned upon in her culture!
so, the singing comes to an end. i pull out a picture of an old friend and i and give it to the girls. and we walk off hand in hand. they tried to ask me questions, but i couldn't answer because of the language. but i would give anything to see those precious girls again.
they simply changed my life.
