Dear Phyllis,
I’m in Vientiane
We had every prospect for a
marvelous trip traveling extensively around China Kunming Kunming Rosy thought so also as she became quite angry when no one
showed up. She tried to reach the brother by phone but no contact. After an
hour of frustration Rosy turned to me and said, “We will have to stay in a hotel
and fly to Daiyuen tomorrow.”
“What!??!” The whole purpose
of our coming was to talk to the brother in Kunming
“Go.”
“I can’t go by myself. I need
you to read the Chinese Internet.”
I had bought a new cell phone
(my first) to take on this trip. We went back in the airport to look for an Internet
connection and Rosy bought a Chinese Sim card for my phone. My phone
seemed to work better than hers and somehow she finally was able to get brother
on the other end of the line. They had moved since the last time we were there and
he was able to give Rosy directions how to get to his apartment. The first
major miracle.
We got a taxi and got to the
area but needed someone to come show us the right place from there. Another
call to brother, but he was at church and couldn’t meet us. He would send his
wife’s mother who lives with them. We waited an hour and no one showed up. By
this time I was complete burned up. I said, “If this is what he thinks of us
and the importance of getting Bibles; forget it! That is the last time I will
work with him.” Then Rosy dropped a bomb on me. “I know where they are. They
were never sent here. The Bibles are in Daiyuen.” Shock! That was the first
time I heard that, but Rosy got angry with me because I didn’t know it. She read
the riot act to me and told me in the strongest term what a bad man I was. The people
in Daiyuen weren’t in a position to receive 3,000 Bible and I had caused a big
problem. Gong! The thing that I thought was one of the major accomplishments of
my life turned out to be a huge mistake and put others in danger. You talk
about depression; now there is a good reason for it.
We started walking around and
finally found the mother-in-law. She took us to the apartment and then said we
must go out to eat and have a shower. I didn’t know what connection there was
with eating and taking a shower, but soon we went in a very elaborate place
that looked like a hotel. Rosy told me to go in the men’s side and she and mother
went in the ladies. No one spoke a word of English but I got the point that
they wanted me to take all my clothes off. “Here??!!” I undressed and put my clothes
in a locker. They gave me a set of loose pants and shirt like a pajama and told
me to go to the 2nd floor. I have been in very elaborate onsens
(spas) in Japan Rosy and mother looking for me. We were in a fancy buffet with everyone in
pajamas.
After the meal we went
downstairs to a huge onsen with as many different pools as you would find in Japan Rosy has sent a note saying that they were waiting for me on the 3rd
floor. Wandering around I finally found the 3rd floor and was
shocked to see a huge room full of plush lazy-boy chairs and a hundred people
sitting in them watching individual TV screens. Rosy told me to sit down and relax. That’s a good idea but pretty difficult
when your mind is numb and you have no idea what is going on. I felt odd as I
was the only one not in pajamas and went back down stairs to redress in some. Apparently
this is where we were going to spend the night.
That evening brother and his
wife came over to see us and the sun broke out of a black thunder cloud. I
still don’t know what happened, but apparently brother didn’t know we were coming.
He wasn’t at church as we were told but was in the mountains some distance away
doing dendo (evangelism) among the Hmong. I finally got everything straightened
about the Bibles and had a terrific time with brother. He is top class! He did
get some of the Bibles and appreciated them very much. But he pleaded with me
to get him 1,000 Hmong Bibles as soon as possible. We really were on the same
page and I have great admiration for him. He is exactly the kind of man we want
to help.
I never learned why, but Rosy asked me to play shiran kao (we are strangers – I don’t know who you
are), and don’t talk. From the airport on I played shiran kao and kept 10
meters (30 feet) distance between us most of the time. That was hard to be so
artificially sullen and I was pretty square jawed when we got to Daiyuen.
The main leader came to the
airport to meet us and took us to a Chinese restaurant to eat with about half a
dozen other believers. I enjoyed meeting them. One sister there has a Christian
book store where we went to talk. For the next three hours the Holy Spirit met
with us. Rosy cheered up and did a fine job interpreting. The fellowship
was outstanding. Man howdy, that is what I came for! That meeting more than
justified any confusion I had to wade through to get there. That brother is a
major man of God with a fine network. He said they didn’t have a place to store
3,000 Bibles and sent them out to various places almost immediately. He was
tremendously grateful for what we were able to get to him. I was much gratified
to learn that the Bibles had gone to exactly the kind of places we hoped they
would. We talked in detail about their needs and made plans for further shipments.
The house church movement in China China
The next morning the brother
took us to the train station. Rosy and I went
on our way for another five hours to her home to meet her mother and her home
pastor there. But the devil took over. For the entire trip she had been one
very unhappy angry sister. An hour out of Daiyuen she unloaded on me again
railing at what a terrible person I am. I could take that, but there simply was
no way to explain anything to her. She simply did not have listening ears. I
might as well been talking Swahili. She railed against me because I said if
things didn’t work out in Kunming
“NO!”
“Would you like to know what
is in my heart and the pressure I am dealing with?”
“NO!”
What finally cooked it was
when she hit me with one point where there was some justification that I was
wrong. I desperately wanted to apologize and tell her she was right, I was wrong,
and I am very sorry. I pleaded, “Rosy , may I say
a word?”
“NO!”
“Rosy , there is something in my heart I really want to tell you.”
“NO!”
“Rosy , this is important and I really would like to say something.”
“NO! Don’t speak to me!”
When I got off that train I
felt like I had just jumped off a cliff. I was somewhere deep in China
At 5:00 I walked in the book store to greet a startled
sister. I told her it was terrible tragedy but it was impossible for me to go
on any further. That night she called another fine interpreter and another
pastor to come talk to me in the book store. W e h a d
c h u r c h! Oh my goodness, we had a good time! The brother told me how
three other brothers from their fellowship are presently serving three years
prison sentences and another man was arrested the day before. As an outsider I know
things about China
They put me up in the same
hotel again and bought my ticket to fly back to Kunming Kunming Hong Kong . When I
told him that they didn’t go to Kunming Kunming
The Lord had His way. They
all got there safely and are in the hands of new believers who have just come
into Jesus’ family. The mission was a great success but the trip was a horrible
failure. I felt that the Lord had other places where He wanted us to go. We had
at least four other stops including a conference that the brother in Kunming Rosy and made it impossible for us to work together. That
part I feel was a loss for the Lord.
From Kunming Laos Vientiane
Jesus is still victor:
bill
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