Somewhere in China there is a man or woman who is without a refridgerator.
Imagine for a moment life without a fridge.
Yet, there is a person in China who sold their refridgerator to make it to the Call2All conference.
They sold their fridge.
This is just an example of the radical faith that these Chinese men and women have. While the religious tolerance level in China has dramatically improved, most of these men and women have lived through a time when that was not the case. Most of these amazing Christians have come to the Lord in an atmosphere that most of us would crumble under.
At one point during the first night of the conference I went over to the side of the auditorium that the Chinese delegates were sitting on and just stood there.
Immediately in my spirit I heard, "Do you see these men and women? Do you see how they have suffered? Do you see their faith? Do you see their humility? I have seen it, I have watched them and I am overwhelmingly proud."
It was clear that on my worst day in America, I still have it 20x better than most of these men and women. It was humbling.
Later that same night they encouraged everyone to pick a country on this giant map that was laid out on the ground. There was not enough room for everyone to be on a country, so I chose to stand off to the side.
The speaker then encouraged us to dance and worship just as those from that country would dance. I looked over and saw a woman in full Hawaiian dress and a couple of men from Tonga dancing on their islands.
I had a sudden vision of what worship around the throne would look like....not just every tongue, but also the diversity of dance. I was struck by the spirit in these men and women as well. While following the Lord is not as hard in Tonga as it is in China, it is still not exactly a spirit-filled nation and to watch these men doing traditional Tonga dancing while obviously worshiping the Lord struck me to my core. It was humbling.
The contrast throughout most of the conference between the Western church and everyone else was stark. We westerners sat on one side of the conference while the Chinese sat on the other. Now this is not unusual...people sit by those they are most like. It happens all the time. But, the attitude of knowing it all and "do it our way, we know best" was tangible. Even by our church. The divide was there, it was obvious and it was awful.
We did not even realize how much our pride and our "westernism" was there until Wednesday night, almost 3/4 of the way through the conference.
We were having a team meeting on Wednesday night before the large group session and Brian pointed it out to us. This was supposed to be a commissioning for the Chinese church and instead the Western church's spirit of dominance and control was taking over. We were not excluded from this. He encouraged us to intentionally bridge the gap between the Chinese side and the western side and ask for the Chinese men and women to pray for us and ask the Lord for a dose of their humility.
Suddenly, Dan, one of our team members brought three Chinese women up to the front of the group and Brian asked them to pray over us. It was like a wave of repentance hit our group and as one we hit our knees, weeping as they prayed over us.
Cries of "Get America out of us!" were heard across the group as these three women prayed fire over us. When they were done, most of the women hugged these three. I clung to one of the women, weeping with her.
I have no idea what they prayed, but just being in their presence was enough. It was humbling.
On Thursday morning of the conference I had a meeting with a couple of men from Call2All, a few members of our team and a couple of men from Egypt to plan the next Call2All conference.
I sat there at a table with these two Egyptian men as they talked about why we could not advertise the conference in their country and I was struck by the cost that they still pay to be a believer in the Muslim world.
One of the men is a leader of a group called "Frontier Missions." They are based out of Egypt. This is an organization that is not only full of Christians, their goal is to win the Middle East to Christ. The amount of faith and courage that this must take is overwhelming to me.
Yet he, and the other man we met with are full of the Holy Spirit, running hard after the Lord and serving their guts out. They could be killed for what they do.
The man in charge of Frontier Missions came one night and prayed and prophesied over our group and again, I was just struck by the faith of this man. It was humbling.
I think for me, that was the big take-away from this conference....the pride and arrogance that are in me and my lack of perspective on what it truly takes to follow Jesus in most of the world.
I am humbled.
Blessings,
Erin
Imagine for a moment life without a fridge.
Yet, there is a person in China who sold their refridgerator to make it to the Call2All conference.
They sold their fridge.
This is just an example of the radical faith that these Chinese men and women have. While the religious tolerance level in China has dramatically improved, most of these men and women have lived through a time when that was not the case. Most of these amazing Christians have come to the Lord in an atmosphere that most of us would crumble under.
At one point during the first night of the conference I went over to the side of the auditorium that the Chinese delegates were sitting on and just stood there.
Immediately in my spirit I heard, "Do you see these men and women? Do you see how they have suffered? Do you see their faith? Do you see their humility? I have seen it, I have watched them and I am overwhelmingly proud."
It was clear that on my worst day in America, I still have it 20x better than most of these men and women. It was humbling.
Later that same night they encouraged everyone to pick a country on this giant map that was laid out on the ground. There was not enough room for everyone to be on a country, so I chose to stand off to the side.
The speaker then encouraged us to dance and worship just as those from that country would dance. I looked over and saw a woman in full Hawaiian dress and a couple of men from Tonga dancing on their islands.
I had a sudden vision of what worship around the throne would look like....not just every tongue, but also the diversity of dance. I was struck by the spirit in these men and women as well. While following the Lord is not as hard in Tonga as it is in China, it is still not exactly a spirit-filled nation and to watch these men doing traditional Tonga dancing while obviously worshiping the Lord struck me to my core. It was humbling.
The contrast throughout most of the conference between the Western church and everyone else was stark. We westerners sat on one side of the conference while the Chinese sat on the other. Now this is not unusual...people sit by those they are most like. It happens all the time. But, the attitude of knowing it all and "do it our way, we know best" was tangible. Even by our church. The divide was there, it was obvious and it was awful.
We did not even realize how much our pride and our "westernism" was there until Wednesday night, almost 3/4 of the way through the conference.
We were having a team meeting on Wednesday night before the large group session and Brian pointed it out to us. This was supposed to be a commissioning for the Chinese church and instead the Western church's spirit of dominance and control was taking over. We were not excluded from this. He encouraged us to intentionally bridge the gap between the Chinese side and the western side and ask for the Chinese men and women to pray for us and ask the Lord for a dose of their humility.
Suddenly, Dan, one of our team members brought three Chinese women up to the front of the group and Brian asked them to pray over us. It was like a wave of repentance hit our group and as one we hit our knees, weeping as they prayed over us.
Cries of "Get America out of us!" were heard across the group as these three women prayed fire over us. When they were done, most of the women hugged these three. I clung to one of the women, weeping with her.
I have no idea what they prayed, but just being in their presence was enough. It was humbling.
On Thursday morning of the conference I had a meeting with a couple of men from Call2All, a few members of our team and a couple of men from Egypt to plan the next Call2All conference.
I sat there at a table with these two Egyptian men as they talked about why we could not advertise the conference in their country and I was struck by the cost that they still pay to be a believer in the Muslim world.
One of the men is a leader of a group called "Frontier Missions." They are based out of Egypt. This is an organization that is not only full of Christians, their goal is to win the Middle East to Christ. The amount of faith and courage that this must take is overwhelming to me.
Yet he, and the other man we met with are full of the Holy Spirit, running hard after the Lord and serving their guts out. They could be killed for what they do.
The man in charge of Frontier Missions came one night and prayed and prophesied over our group and again, I was just struck by the faith of this man. It was humbling.
I think for me, that was the big take-away from this conference....the pride and arrogance that are in me and my lack of perspective on what it truly takes to follow Jesus in most of the world.
I am humbled.
Blessings,
Erin
No comments:
Post a Comment