Hey everyone, it’s been a long time since my last post. As many of you know, I went on a trip to China, along with 8 other amazing people, to share Jesus with the people there. It is a closed nation, so I wasn’t able to access facebook while I was there or talk openly about what I was doing through this blog or any other means of communication. Now that I am back in America, however, I will share a few stories of what God did in and through us during this incredible trip.
Our team went to five different cities while we were there. First we flew into a large city in the Northeast called Dalian, then we traveled about four hours north to another city called Dandong which is located right on the North Korean border. We then traveled south on a 14 hour long train ride to Beijing, then took a 35 hour train even further south to a city in the Sechuan province called Chongqing. After about a week, half of our team traveled to a city close by called Nanchong due to security issues while the rest of the team stayed in Chongqing. The Nanchong team then came back and joined the rest of the team for the final two weeks of the trip, then we all flew back to Kona, but not before debriefing in Tokyo for five nights. The trip lasted a total of 10 weeks, starting in Mid-September and ending on December 2. It was an absolutely amazing trip and God did so many things, but for the sake of time I will highlight only one event from each city.
Dalian
The majority of our time in Dalian was spent setting up relationships with the local Chinese in the city. We spent a lot of time with college aged students and got several opportunities to share the Gospel. However, one of the most significant experiences there happened in a small apartment building where the power of God broke out in a strong way.
That morning, we all thought we were getting in a bus to go to a mountain village outside of the city to pray for and teach at an underground church, but we ended up at the pastor’s apartment instead, which was situated on the fringe of the city. While there, some 20 or so women, and some men, came all looking to be prayed over for healing. We broke up into several groups and I, along with 2 girls from my team prayed through a translator for 3 Chinese ladies, all of whom had diabetes.
We prayed for the first lady, but nothing significant seemed to happen, although she said she felt joy and peace after we prayed, so I know something happened in her heart. We are believing by faith that that she and the other 2 were healed of diabetes.
The next woman wanted to speak in tongues. She has prayed for it many times in the past, but she has never received her prayer language. So we began to pray and she started to speak out in tongues! As soon as she did, we all started to laugh and cry as the joy of the Lord broke out in the room. Faith was also released and we knew that the Holy Spirit had showed up.
As we were praying for her, I noticed the lady we prayed for first. I didn’t see her doing anything out of the ordinary, but I felt like God was doing something in her as well. I was going to ask what was going on, but I stepped out of the room for a minute to use the bathroom and forgot about it. When I came back I found out that she received her prayer language as well while we were praying for the other lady! It was incredible as we watched the two of them speaking in tongues and laughing together.
We then prayed for the third lady. We found out that she used to pray to idols before she was saved. While we were praying I felt a pain in the top left side of my neck. This indicates idol worship, so it was a confirmation of what to pray against. She said she periodically sees dragons, phoenixes and snakes in the natural that aren’t really there. In fact she was seeing images of snakes right there in the room as we prayed. So we prayed for her and broke the curse off. She said the images went away and that her chronic neck pain that she has had for years was gone!
Dandong
The focus of our time in Dandong was to partner with the base there in interceding for North Korea. We could literally see North Korea from the window of the prayer room there and we got to spend several hours praying and prophesying over the nation.
We also got the amazing opportunity to take a boat trip down the river that separates the two nations. We got incredibly close to North Korea — 20 feet away at times and got to see people clearly going about their daily lives. We also saw armed guards patrolling the river bank making sure no one tries to swim across.
Beijing
Our trip to Beijing wasn’t at all what we expected, it was much better. One of the girls on our team had a friend living in the city, so we got to partner with a friend of her’s and he showed us around Beijing and hooked us up with many ministry opportunities. Besides touring Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and other amazing sites, we had a chance to pour into a lot of different ministries.
We got the opportunity to meet up with an underground Youth With a Mission base and hang out with them for a few hours at night. The Discipleship Training School they were running was completely underground. The students were not allowed to leave the building for 3 months as they wanted to lay low and not attract any attention to themselves.
We prayed that day and asked God what He wanted us to do when we went there. I felt like He was saying that we were to release joy and just have fun with them, not necessarily preach to them. So we decided to bring them ice cream and have a dance party with them and play games. It was so much fun as we watched these guys dance around and enjoy God and each other. You could tell that staying in one building for months was training to drain them, so this was exactly what they needed. At the end, I shared a quick, five minute word on the pleasure of the Father over their obedience to follow Him. We then prayed for them and they were so blessed and encouraged.
The next day we found out that the police discovered them and broke up the operation. We were worried that our involvement alerted the police, but we were relieved that it was due to something else completely, but it was still upsetting to hear. Thank God though, we found out later that they all got together in a different city and continued on in their school.
Chongqing
After the longest train ride of my life we arrived in a city called Chongqing. As soon as we got there, we found out that there was a security issue arising, so we weren’t able to move into the apartment they had provided for us. Instead we all checked into a hotel and tried to get situated. There weren’t many opportunities for us to do much due to the restrictions that were placed on us, so we were given the opportunity to go to a nearby city called Nanchong were some contacts were pioneering some things. Half of our team was divided on whether or not to go, so we split up. I, along with 4 others, decided to go there, so we went for about 5 days while the other guys stayed back.
Nanchong
One of the main things we did in Nanchong was hiking. The city was completely surrounded by mountains, so we climbed them on a daily basis and we prayed and prophesied over the city from the high places. We had some amazing times up there speaking destiny into the city and taking the territory for God.
On the way back from one of these times, we passed by a music store and I felt an urge to stop in and check out the guitars there. I told the team I wanted to stop in, and they said they would come with me. Immediately the store owner, in broken English told me to have a seat and play a Yamaha guitar. I quickly had a crowd of Chinese gathered around me waiting to hear what I had to play. To told me to play a song, so I started playing “You Won’t Relent” by Misty Edwards. All of a sudden and guy started playing drums along with me and everyone was clapping their hands and singing along. We were having a worship set in the middle of a Chinese music store!
A few days later I was in an internet cafe and found out that God told a friend of my mom’s to give me a check for $200 and that I had received a check that weekend as well for $89 from selling some things on ebay before I left. I decided to go back to the store and buy that guitar which was only $100.
I went in and told him that I would buy the Yamaha and that I needed a hard case for it. He grabbed a case from the back and opened it up. Inside was a beautiful guitar which was $300, but he was willing to sell it to me for about $230. He also threw in the case, a set of strings, a strap, some picks and a tuner for free. I felt like God was saying it was a gift from Him. It was completely covered, plus more by the money that had just come in. During the entire outreach I felt like God was releasing me into worship and that this was a confirmation that I was to pursue leading worship.
Chongqing
Our team came back to Chongqing for the final two weeks of our outreach and were welcomed into our new apartment by the rest of our team. It was so good to all be back together and we were ready to finish strong.
Since we were gone, the guys back in Chongqing were able to make some amazing connections with a few college students in the city. They randomly met a guy named Jimmy by skating in the city square, so we got the chance to hang out with him and his friends a few times while we were there.
On one of the last night we were there, we went out to dinner with Jimmy and a couple of his friends. One of the guys on team really got an opportunity to share the gospel with Jimmy as my friend and I talked to Jimmy’s friends. It went incredibly well as my friend led Jimmy to the Lord right there at the dinner table!
The next day we went to Jimmy’s university to follow up on him. He took us to his dorm and we got to answer some questions he and his roommate had about God. We opened up so many things to them and also got to prophesy over them and encourage them. They said that no one has ever explained who God really was before so clearly and were super encouraged by the prophetic words we spoke over them.
As we were leaving, Jimmy gave me a big hug and began to cry. He told me that he was like my big brother and that he loved me. He said he has never felt love before like the love our team had shown him over the past couple of days. It was such a beautiful moment. If we had done nothing else the entire time we were in China besides hanging out with Jimmy, the trip would have been worth it.
We passed Jimmy’s contact information on the long-term missionaries in the city and headed out of China two days later. It was such a growing trip and one of the most amazing times of my life. It was time to go back to Hawaii, but there one last stop we were to make, and it was quite a significant one.
Tokyo
There is a rule that exists in YWAM. It is a really good rule, but at times can be a very frustrating rule as well. That rule is that someone on staff in YWAM cannot date someone who is a student. This is a very hard rule when you begin to have feelings for your outreach leader and can’t express those feelings for 6 months.
This is exactly what happened to me and my outreach leader and best friend, Lizzy. We began to have feelings for each other at the end of our last outreach to Amsterdam last June. Many awkward times lay ahead as we had to deal with the silence and miscommunication of not being able to express our true feelings with each other until I joined on staff with YWAM.
Both of our staff encouraged us separately as we sought guidance to wait until outreach was over to speak openly with each other and pursue a relationship together. So, technically outreach was over as soon as we landed in Japan on November 27. On the 28th, I took her to a Japanese garden and we have been together since. (Don’t worry, I called her dad for his permission first.)
God has been so faithful to me this past year and I can feel his pleasure over my life each and every day. I am so looking forward to see what He has in store for me in 2010 and beyond!
