B M H

This may be not be very flowy, but I will write bits of reflection I have. Will be quite long but worth your read (I hope!)

Having dealt with all types of behaviors and disabilities at work, I was not expecting anything too surprising for the first day. After lunch on the first day, one of my girls led us to the convenience store and started grabbing a snack and a drink, but we said she could not have them. She fell to the ground and had a tantrum. That was surprising to me. She also did not have verbal expression so she communicated by vocalizing and gesturing. With the language barrier, I had a harder time being firm with her. My poor ability to speak Mandarin was one of my “disability”. What was interesting was they also did not speak too much and so we were building our relationship with limited verbal expression and it still worked! Ultimately it was not my work experience that helped me get through but God’s grace and His strength upon us.

Each group had 1 or 2 translators and one or two kids. In my family group, I had one translator and two kids. My translator is a believer and it was really neat to work together with her. We got to pray during meal time. In the mornings she read her Bible and one of them has a good memory, prompted her by gesturing to have her read for a couple of the mornings. We did not get to share much about God with the kids, but I pray that they remember the love and us praying and reading the Bible in the future.

I initially struggled before the trip wondering how will we share about God with our kids and translators in China where sharing may be illegal. I felt at peace that maybe God just wants us to care for and love these children. He will reveal Himself to them in His ways. 

By the third day, all the volunteers were pretty exhausted and various difficulties have come up. However, that afternoon during break, I read Mark 4:35-41 which was the story of Jesus calming the storm. It reminded me that God is sovereign over all things, even nature, our hearts, and just everything happening at the camp. For these children as well, their lives may be a storm and there is so much uncertainties for their future. What will happen with them after the camp? Will they ever be adopted? Will they have a good family? Will they be ok in the future? Will they come to know God? Will they recognize His love for them? Yet I can hope in the fact that God is sovereign and compassionate over their lives. Being a little bit older, I tried to view things more as a parent. Usually, at work I would want to have the kids do things as independent as they could - like dressing, putting away their dishes, picking up their trash, etc. But I thought about, what would a parent do? Maybe they would want them to be independent but maybe they also would show love by serving them by dressing, putting away their dishes, picking up their trash, etc. I am thankful that we got to spend the time in China for a week to "visit the orphans" . We may ask, what does God want us to do and what can we do? This camp was an active way of obeying what God wants. It is His grace to have commanded us to visit the orphans. He has not forgotten them. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” James 1:27 

There was a point when I evaluated my life and like how the apostle Paul loved his people a lot to want to switch places, I wanted to switch places in a sense and let them experience a life full of love and blessings and knowing God.

On the last day we were there, it felt like one minute I was having lunch with my girls, and then next minute they were on the bus out of my sight. It felt too sudden. It was an emotional time for all of us, but our camp director who was full of tears said when we are emotional and not know what to do, we need to respond to God and lift these things to Him. So we had a time of worship after which was real sweet and perfect. 

I have heard a lot about China growing up. I remember learning that it was a closed off place to Christianity. I think of “Safely Home” by Randy Alcorn and the persecution that have been in China. I remember hearing of stories how people have to pray with their eyes open or be very careful when they are in their underground churches. It was really neat to worship in China and to meet believers in China. It reminded me that God is ever-present in China.

There is so much more but I will leave it to this for now.