thanks to you who contributed either financially or prayerfully to the china mission trip. the trip was so successful in so many ways. for me personally, i was moved by the chinese christian's genuine love for jesus, god's word and their commitment to share it. they soak it up like they are starving…they are attentive to every word and they are living it out with honest, simple passion. the need for bibles is great. my team distributed 6000 bibles in 5 days in rural mountain areas (the total distribution between 6 teams was 50,000...there are 1.3 billion people living in china). we endured rough, tough, and exhaustive travel but the reward was beyond great with every stop…whether it was a pit stop (literally...our "bathrooms" were literally pits or holes in the ground) or a distribution stop. we were so deep into the mountains that most people in these villages had never seen a foreigner. they saw us as miracles from god because they had been praying intensely for more bibles to put into the hands of the people. the fact that we traveled from another country to see that these bibles were delivered just blew their minds. they were truly grateful while praising and thanking god for his answered prayers. i can't describe how humbled i was and thankful that i participated in this miracle. what i witnessed stirred emotion that i didn't know i had in me. i have tears in my eyes as i write this to you. it made me realize how much i take god and his word for granted. i can only pray my desire and thirst for god's word becomes half of what theirs is. i am very enthusiastic to make this a continuing ministry of mine. please continue praying for the word to spread throughout China and what your role will be to see that it happens. in '09 i will participate in two trips with friend church (march and oct) as well as together sending $1500 to purchase bibles. well, if all we did was distribute bibles it would've been enough but we were blessed to see another side of china. we flew into shanghai...this place is massive! i don't think there is another place like it in the world. it was overwhelming, overbearing, over the top BIG. from there we drove to nanjing for training and to meet the other teams. it was there that we had dinner with government officials and it was there that we realized we were already tired of chinese food...we had 10 more days of it ahead of us. the teams parted from nanjing and went to 6 different distribution points all over china. after 5 days we all met again in beijing. we weren't in the airport 10 minutes when we learned there was a mcdonald's and a starbucks inside the airport. we were ordering big mac combos 11 minutes after we landed! we devoured them! we still had 4 days of chinese food left to endure. by the way, when i say chinese food, it is not the chinese food as you know it here. honestly, we didn't recognize much of the food and what we did recognize made most of us gag. however, we ate it and were thankful for god's provision. we all stayed healthy and full! in beijing we toured the forbidden city, tien a men square, saw an acrobatic show, climbed the great wall, and so much more. we have so much video and so many pictures...look for some in my next blog...
back row: left to right - brother drung (a church volunteer and our driver...for another blog!), pastor greg, and ben (our interpreter). front row: left to right - sister li, cristi, kathleen (our team leader from california), me, and sister shung.