The last two days have provided another reminder of the joy
of meeting people in Beijing, the variety of people, and the opportunities this
city brings to impact lives.
Yesterday Cheryl
and I were returning from her weekly Bible study on prayer. As we were waiting
for the subway, I noticed a young woman all by herself. Like so many she was
looking at her IPhone. I asked, “Do you speak English?” Our limited
conversation moved to the subway after we boarded. I learned that her name was
“S”, she was from Moldova, and she was in Beijing for several months for work.
I gave her our email and home phone number, and prayed she might contact us.
Today we received an email from “S”. She acknowledged that maybe we could
address her pursuit of purpose in this life. I responded to her email and
invited her to our apartment any time for coffee, tea, or meal. She responded
back with this email message: “I would be delighted to see you to discuss about
God and other topics when you are free for an appointment.” Please pray for
“S.” Our appointment book is quite open... :)
Today I had to
travel back to our school (Dian Da) to travel with 7 or 8 other schoolmates to
have a physical examination (of sorts) as we are attempting to secure 6 month +
visas for Cheryl and me. This is essentially a $ 70.00 tax/person as part of
China’s immigration policy. When I got to the school, I sat with two African
men who were also evidently waiting to go on the same trip to the clinic. I had
seen these two men in the last two weeks at Dian Da, but had never conversed
with them. R and J, I discovered, are from Equatorial Africa and only really
speak French. We had a form to fill out; R asked me to help him with it, as it
was to be filled out in English. Voila! (spelling?) I made two new friends! I
tried to get the phone number of a fellow from church who speaks French (from
Paris via Cameroon), but Cheryl did not have in our contacts. We checked “no”
to every disease on the form, as we really had no other option. Hopefully I
will get to know R and J more in days ahead.
Today at the
clinic I noticed a young couple that seemed very much engaged with the whole
process as they waited in line to register. I wasn’t sure if they were married.
Eventually my curiosity overcame me: “Do you speak English?” and then “Where
are you from?” They spoke very good English, which only accelerated our
conversation. Quickly I discovered V and V are from the Ukraine. I told them how last October (shi yue’) I spent a month in Vladisvostok.
I tried out my best “hello” in Russian which I had practiced hundreds of times;
they both smiled very broadly. I told them why I was in Beijing with my wife.
They were very curious; I gave them my phone number and email address. I am
hopeful we will hear from them.
Today in the
clinic after our examinations were done, I sat with a middle-aged married
couple and their son in the clinic while we were waiting for others to be done.
I thought the family was Chinese, but they seemed a little different. Aha! I
struck up a great conversation with them and discovered that M, R, and their
only son K (age 24) were from Japan. All I could figure was that it was south
of Tokyo and near Nagasaki (?). I have not studied the geography of Japan, so I
cannot verify for the moment. They had arrived in Beijing August 28, the same
day as Cheryl and me. They study Chinese five days per week, and have already
made progress. They live on campus, and have traded their home in Japan for a small university apartment. It seems like they are here for 6 months or so. We discussed how
our families miss us, our children, and Skype. I told them plainly that I was the pastor of an international church. The son, K, appears to have a
plan to pursue translation (interpretation) as his life’s work. We traded his
phone number (I made sure it was a Chinese cell phone) for my phone number and email address. Pray for this family…we
should see them at Dian Da quite frequently.
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