China?

14 July 2013

Dear Phyllis,

Five years ago it was my great privilege to go on a life-altering trip to Pakistan. Ever since then I have been trying to get back. Three years ago I had a plane ticket to Islamabad and went to Bangkok for a visa. No soap. The visa department head at the Pakistani embassy was unusually kind but explained to me that the security situation in Pakistan had changed so that the Taliban is salivating for any American tourist to show up to use for hostages. With the front door closed, I determined to try the back door of an arrival visa going through China. That also proved to be a very major event.

I knew there was a bus connection between Vientiane, Laos and Kunming, China. I first went to Laos and got my China visa through the Chinese embassy. I purchased my bus ticket through the guest house where I always stay, but ran into an unexpected problem the next day when I got on the bus. Fifteen minutes before departure, the bus man was checking the tickets and told me, “This is not a ticket.” That was interesting news. I asked, “Where do you get a ticket?” But his English was limited to “This is not a ticket” and we wound up in a two phrase go-around making no progress. Fortunately, there was a Chinese girl on the bus who was bilingual who came to my rescue. I don't know what happened other than she told me to sit down and everything turned out alright.

Twenty four hours later we had just crossed into China and had a one hour noon bus stop at the border city of Mengla. I was walking up and down the street looking for a restaurant when I saw the girl that had helped me the day before. I said, “If you know a good restaurant I will buy you lunch.” We did find one, and when they served the food she turned to me asking, “Are you a Christian?” “Why do you ask?” “I am a Christian and we always pray before a meal.” When she found out who I was, she said, “You should meet my brother who is a pastor in Kunming.” I told her, “I will buy you a ticket to Kunming, if you will go with me, and introduce me to your brother.” That started a very profitable relationship with Rosy.

It was through her that I met her brother and a fruitful segment of the underground church in China. And it was through that contact that we were able to get 5,000 Bibles to a group who were doing amazing work among students. Rosy was a missionary sent out by a house church in China living in Vientiane. She told me that her mother was a very active Christian who had started a church in her own home, that had grown to 1,200 members. I said, “I would really like to meet your mother.” A year later Rosy had finished her tour in Laos and was returning home. I needed to take a survey trip to China and we came up with a plan for an extensive tour to visit her home and several other major areas. The first two stops were excellent, but we were having serious social problems in getting along together. Her English was good, but she was a young, highly choleric, totally self-absorbed, girl that made horizontal communication nearly impossible. On the train trip from Yuan to her home, communication went to zero. She got locked up and refused to speak to me. We were thirty minutes from her home when things got so bad I simply took my backpack, and got off the train to return to Chiang Mai. That was the last time I saw Rosy. And it was also the last time I have been in China.

Recently I have been praying about making another major trip to China with the possibility of moving up there. For many years I have had a great interest in Central Asia. This is one of the most remote places on the planet and it is the heart of the 10-40 window. From west China to Jerusalem you have the Muslim block countries of the world. The Chinese house church is targeting this area with their Back to Jerusalem movement. I intensely want to join them in their burden to reach that area for Christ. Xinjiang (pronounced Sing jiang) is the largest province in China and one of the most sparsely populated. It is a huge area of west China that borders with Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia. It is clearly the doorway to the Islamic nations. Xinjiang is populated by a Middle Eastern minority group, the Uyghurs. The Uyghurs have been there for millenniums and are of Turkish extraction. Geographically Uyghurs are part of China but genetically they are as different from the Han Chinese as the Navajo are from the British.

Ever since my visit to Xinjiang I have had a great interest and burden for the Uyghurs. In response to Jesus' commanded us to pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth labors into the harvest I have been praying that the Father raise up mighty men of God to be evangelists and apostles to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. I know I will never be such a man but I would like to get in a lick or two and have a Uyghur fruit in my basket to set before the Lord when I am called into account for my life.

Kashgar is the end of the line in China. That is as far west as you can get. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road and still a key city today. I was in Kashgar a couple of times on my attempted trip to get into Pakistan three years ago. I don't know if it is of the Lord or my flesh, but I have been thinking much about going to Kashgar to live for the next few years. The first step towards that would be an exploratory trip there again to see if I could get a job, and what living there would entail. It definitely is not on the main tourist route. Kashgar isn't Bangkok or Hong Kong. Only the most serious travelers get that far off the beaten path. I would imagine there is a fairly good possibility of getting a job as an English teacher. If I could get one with a university that would guarantee a visa and living expense.

After a three year silence I took a chance to see if Rosy was still on the line. I was surprised to receive a friendly response from her, and was pleased to hear that she got married. (My heart goes out to the poor turkey that got stuck with her.) She seems quite desirous to reestablish contact with me and strongly encouraged me to visit. Hearing from Rosy changes the picture somewhat. I don't know to what degree she is still able to help me or what the Lord would have me do in China. I was always grieved that I was unable to keep up the supply of Bibles that I had promised the group in Yuan. They were wonderful Christians who were seeing thousands saved each year. It has been three years since I have had much contact with China and I have heard very little about what is going on up there. If there is still a desperate need for Bibles, and they are still available through New Life League, it would be a worthy venture to see if I could bring the dots together again. To do that I would need Rosy. I know nothing about her husband, but if he would be a key worker, this would be an excellent team. Where they are living in Shanxi is a long ways from Kashgar. It is further than it is from Cleveland to Los Angeles. I wouldn't ask them to help me go that far west, but it would be interesting to visit them and see what is happening in Shanxi.

Needless to say something like this is major guidance. I have no desire to go outside the directive will of God. Is this trip of the Lord? We have been extremely financially strapped for well over half a year. It seems the Lord has brought us briefly out of that desert and for the first time in a couple of years I may be in a financial position to make such a trip. There are several other things on the table requesting money and I must know where the Lord wants me to make the investment.

It isn't that I don't like Chiang Mai. It would be hard to imagine a more comfortable place to live at this time. Several years ago my friend Luke Kuepfer was lamenting that there were a number of senior Christians who had gone to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to spend their twilight years playing shuffle board, when there was a need for senior Christians here in Chiang Mai. He was wondering how he could get these retirees out of Fort Lauderdale to serve the Lord in Thailand. I said, “Forget it! If they have that mentality you haven't lost a thing. Let them stay in Fort Lauderdale and play shuffle board. Lord, send us soldiers for Christ!” Now I wonder how my life is much different than theirs. I would rather live in Chiang Mai than Fort Lauderdale and what I am doing every day is more interesting than playing shuffle board. But am I really serving Christ? I didn't sign up for an easy life. I don't want to rust out. I have had an ambition to be a terrorist for Christ.

I believe the Lord has raised up Islamic terrorists to shame the church of Christ. I am appalled at the gutlessness of Christians and missionaries. The name-of-the-game seems to be “what is the safest, easiest, most comfortable approach?” We have come to the place in world missions where traditional missionary methods won't work. What we need today is suicide bombers for Jesus. We need people who will strap a bomb of the love of God to their bodies and go to the most dangerous places to see how many they can get saved. If these crazy Islamic terrorist are so dedicated to their religion to go into markets to see how many they can kill, what excuse do we have if we hold back from going out and see how many we can get saved? The early Moravians weren't thinking about their retirement policy when they left all to go to foreign countries with the Gospel. Over the centuries hundreds – perhaps thousands – of missionaries have been killed. Giving your life for Jesus was supposed to be part of the call. But that isn't true in America today. Fortunately, the Chinese have a different attitude. Many of the Back to Jerusalem Christians are going out one way. They don't expect to come back. I doubt that the Lord will give me my request to give my life for Him. In all probability, I will wind up rusting out in a junk pile somewhere, but before I get too rusty I would like to get back to Kashgar and get in a few licks for Jesus.

Bravado and a death wish is not the index for spiritual guidance. It is true that the Lord has giving us all things to enjoy (1Tim 6:17) and we should enjoy the life He has given us. I sure do. I couldn't enjoy Chiang Mai more. But I am uncomfortable making shavings in my shop every day when there are so few carrying the flag for Jesus in the more difficult places in the world. I have long felt that I was the most expendable turkey in the Lord's inventory. Getting married two years ago changed that slightly, but we are at square one in guidance concerning the marriage. I am satisfied, but Pammy has never made the grade to have the mentality of a married woman. She has an incurable problem abut staying out very late and sometimes not coming home at all. It is a weekly event for her to promise to be home by 5:00 or 6:00. I plead with her, “If you can't make it, please call.” Some times she does call at 8:00 and promises to be home in half an hour. Then two or three hours later she may come home. This happens almost every week.

God hates divorce and so do I. I made a promise to God to be a faithful husband, but at this point I am not sure what would be the thing that would help Pammy the most. Lord willing next week I should be in Laos on my first stop on my way to Kashgar. This is not to say I will never return. I may. But I do want to look into the possibility that the Lord may be moving me west again. This morning I read in Isaiah 43:5, “I will gather thee from the west.” Most of the Bible promises I get turn out to be false. I am not saying that this is a Word from the Lord to me – but if it is – perhaps this may be my last trip and the next one will be vertically. I am not even saying that next week my letter will be from Laos. But today it looks very strong.

When you speak with Jesus this week you might remind Him that He has a very weak sheep in Thailand that desperately wants to do His will .

Until then,

bill