| outback in the motherland dinner with a missionary in beijing |
| It was the first stop on our tour...Beijing, or Peking, as it is also known. A visit to Tianenman Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall quickly immersed me into the history of China as we strolled around the capital of China. A dust storm landed about the time that we did, leaving us with orange-tinted memories and dust particles in our bodies and on our clothes. The storm was reportedly the worst in 10 years and the Sacramento Bee reported that it was heading to California. Na and I picked out backdrops from "Mulan" and as we saw more of Beijing, I felt like we were transported right into the set of many Hollywood films. Each night we got free time to roam the city and have dinner on our own, so one night, we met up with TC, a missionary from my parents' church. He had been teaching English in Beijing for three years now and was recently hired by a major university in the city. Being caucasian and an English teacher, he seldom had a chance to practice his Mandarin since everyone wanted to practice English with him. Nonetheless, his ability to get around speaking Chinese proved to be more effective than our desperate attempts at communicating. We all agreed...having a non-Chinese dinner was perfectly fine, so we opted for Outback Steakhouse. There was one within 10 minutes from my San Bruno home, but I never tried it. Now, thousands of miles away from home, I would try it for the first time. Although all I had wanted that evening was to find a tapioca drink, the dinner with TC was a time of encouragement and insight into a missionary's life. This was a guy that was not just in it for the short run. He had devoted the past three years of his life to build up relationships with his students and look for opportunities for him to plant seeds of the Gospel. In building relationships, he has taken up several hobbies to connect his life with his students. Giving them something in common opens up doors for them to hang out outside of class. It's not an easy feat, especially in China, and it's definitely not a project for an impatient person. Currently, he is trying to figure out his five-year plan, and so far, he realizes that he either needs to move home to Sac or get married, preferably to a Chinese local. He said he likes it here, but sometimes he just misses relating to people on small levels. For example, appreciating a prime rib dinner. He would never go to Outback with his Chinese local friends, but he knew that Americans like us (though Chinese) could appreciate a hearty meal like that. When it comes to culture, it's fascinating to learn of another, but there is also nothing like connecting with people who know exactly where you're coming from. When he found out I was going to Brazil, he told me not to feel disappointed if it didn't seem like I was getting anything done. I shouldn't feel pressured like I had some obligations to accomplish certain tasks during the missions trip. The important thing, he said, was to grow and learn from the experience. Find out what God wants you to learn, he stressed, and take that back with you. I was fascinated by his devotion, as I am with other missionaries I hear about. They weren't just giving up half of a year of their lives in the privileged U.S., in a regular, steady lifestyle...they were giving up YEARS...chunks of their time that could be going toward something else. But here they were, heeding God's call to go elsewhere and do His work where they felt needed the most. Whether the person is in a remote tribe in Africa or in the urban setting of New York, just knowing that there are people out there who are so in tune and obedient to God's voice refreshes me. And there, in the middle of our tour, in a destination that many of us travel to for leisure, was a servant of God, just putting in his time and soul to build up God's Kingdom. |