gwaizhou sharing

7/27/2019 Gwaizhou Sharing

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Dear brothers and sisters,

On this short service trip, I have experienced the truth of this beautiful verse, this glorious

promise. To clarify, a service trip differs from a mission trip in that I wasnt allowed to share the

gospel explicitly; my teams main purpose was to teach students English at an English camp at a

school in Gwai Zhou, China.

To be perfectly honest, I did not really want to join the trip, because I had just come back from

Cambodia, and I didnt really have a burden for China. Furthermore, I didnt know anyone on the

trip besides my mother, who is a supervising team leader, so I was rather lonely and uneager...notthe best mood to be in before a service trip! There was no love in me, and no motivation; little did I

know that God would completely change my heart in 7 days (but hey, He made the world in 6, so no

surprise).

The Hong Kong team consisted of three teachers (one of them the organizing leader), 7

students (four from grade 11, three from grade 9), and me. On the Cambodia trip, our team got to

have team-building activities and meetings prior to departure, but on this trip, we only have 2

meetings, both of which had no element of fun or team-building. And so we left for a foreign place

without even being friends. Once in Gwai Zhou, we met up with the rest of the team consisting of

Americans; Sunny (a physics teacher), Brenda (the camp organizer), Evie & her daughter May, Yangya

& her daughter Julia, and Crickett & her daughter Rebekah. Once again, we had never met before, so

the separation between ethnicities was tangible.

Before the English camp, we had two days of home visits, where we braved rollercoaster

rides on the bumpy roads of Gwai Zhou and trekked through valleys and mountains. None of that

was hyperbole or exaggeration. It was tiring, it was tedious, and boy was it gorgeous; the rivers

flowed with crystal clear water, and the panoramic views took our breath away (or maybe that was

the altitude). The homes we visited were not rich by most standards, but the simple lifestyle that

they led made more than a few of us jealous. In one of the homes, they had a waterspout shooting

out freezing cold water, clear as crystal, which they told us was from natural mountain springs;

needless to say, we washed our hands many times in that home. Squatting down on their low stools,

eating hotpot in 30+ degrees, staring out at the lush green farm hills...it was truly a return to

humanitys ancient lifestyle. The families were all more than hospitable, lavishing their time and food

and attention on us. The sign of hospitality that most touched me was when we visited the home

located at the top of a steep hill. After we had left, we trekked down the hill, and after 10 minutes

reached our vans, only to find to our utter surprise that an old grandma and the mother had followed

us down without a sound. The most touching thing was that the grandma was carrying a baby on her

back, and the mother was carrying a big bag full of homemade dumplings (which their family cooked


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until 11pm the previous night). We could not thank them enough, even though none of us felt like

eating the dumplings.

After the two peaceful days acquiring background knowledge of the students we would be

teaching, the English camp began in full force. I was in a team with Evie, serving as her assistant, and

one of the students from my mums school (Kittie). Evie took full control of the classroom as Kittie

and I watched in admiration and awe. I had expected to be the main teacher before the trip, but

thank God for giving us this charismatic teacher to show me what a true teacher looks like. The

overarching difficulty in our class was that not all the students knew each other (they were from

different schools), and their English abilities varied greatly. To this day I still have no idea how to

teach such a diversified class, but somehow Gods grace sustained us, and we ended up quite united.

We had great fun playing group games (much like the ones in university orientation camps), and their

spoken English improved substantially.

On the last day of teaching, the students formed a circle and insisted that Kittie and I stand inthe middle as they sang lovely Chinese songs to us about friendship. Its an understatement to tell

you that it was touching. Evie invited them to each share something, but nobody really spoke up, so I

thought it would be a good idea to tell them what I loved about them...and boy was it not a good

idea! I managed to thank each one by name, then tears just sprang up out of nowhere, and I had to

leave the room; dont want them to see a teacher crying! Tried to go back in to finish my wonderful

speech, which proved to be just as salty wet as the first attempt. By then everyone was crying, and it

just became a sentimental cry-fest. Now Im not the type of 19-year-old who loves having 20+ peers

watching him cry, so this was not a highlight of my trip. What I wanted to emphasize is the difference

in the farewell between this trip and my Cambodia trip; on the Cambodia trip, I worked exclusively

with Christians, and when we left, it was more of a joyful farewell rather than a teary-eyed one. I

dont have a clear hypothesis explaining this, but Im sure it has to do with knowing that these

students were not Christians, and that I might never see them again, in this life or the next.

On the last night, we organized a game night, where all 140+ students gathered together in a

stadium and we played massive group games. It was hot, it was noisy, and it was FUN. At the end,

each class formed a circle of their own around the stadium, singing friendship songs and sharing last

words of farewell; it was a scene to behold. I think I finished my years quota of tears during the day,

so thank God I didnt cry at night! The smiles, the hugs, the camaraderie was completely different

from the initial emotions; I felt like I was one of them, and they had become more than just names

and faces to me. That night, all the guys on our team (except for Sunny) went to spend the night at

the male students dormitories. You must know that our hotel had king sized beds, showers, a high

ceiling, room service, and most importantly, air-conditioning, all of which the dormitories lacked.

Honestly, I feared this sudden change, but in retrospect I loved this experience more than any other

on this trip. The students main means of entertainment was playing chess, but since I cant play to

save my life, we talked instead. My Putonghua is a fluent mixture of 70% English, 20% Cantonese,

and 10% sloppy Putonghua, so you can understand that it was purely Gods grace that I managed to

have any sort of decent conversation with them. I really wish I had learned more Putonghua before


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this trip...perhaps then I could have shared the Gospel with them. But the thing is, we are not

allowed to share the Gospel with anyone under 18. Surprisingly, one of the students asked me out of

the blue whether Im a Christian or not, and so I told him a little bit about my God - the crowning

achievement of my trip! Some of them laughed at me, but I hope the soil has been softened for

future planting of the Gospel seed.That night I did not take a bath (because I cant take a coldshower, and because I didnt bring a towel), and so I slept in my sweaty clothes, with no fan or

air-conthe typical life of a student in China.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early. After asking my fellow Hong Kongers how

they slept, I realized how much God had blessed me; none of them had slept well because of

mosquitoes, and I was the only one who had a mosquito net on my bed. At the hotel, almost all

140+ students were waiting to see us off, which was quite the sight; we all felt like celebrities!

We had small group pictures taken, then a big one of our team, where the students surrounded

us like paparazzi with countless mobile phones, and nobody knew where to look and when tosmile for the camera. It was the most beautiful mess. My greatest regret on this trip was not

taking a picture with each of my team members; indeed, I had grown very fond of them. Perhaps

someday God will intertwine our paths again.

Reflection

This service trip has most definitely been a milestone of 2013, right up there next to my

Cambodia mission trip. I did not share the Gospel with a single soul, but I learned many lessons

some incredibly difficult that I had never faced in my spiritual walk. I experienced the difficulty

in establishing a ministry; all the political relationships, the hidden agendas, the unfulfilled

tension of the soul that desires to share about God. Evangelism is spiritual warfare, and so Gods

people need to pray, pray, and pray some more. To most, we are fighting a losing battle, but our

God is greater than any demonic power on earth; battles may be lost, but the ultimate winner of

the war will be our Lord Jesus Christ. Tilling the heart-soil is incredibly difficult work, and so is

spreading the seed; I have experienced both phases of this miraculous journey in Gwai Zhou and

Cambodia, and my eyes have been opened. The Spirit has granted His gifts to each Christian

according to His good and pleasing will, and I am more than honored to have served beside

Christians gifted with different callings. I can only echo the psalmist who declared that those

who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy (Psalms 126:5). Amen, amen, amen!

Before this trip, I had the stereotype in mind that mainland China students only had a few

problems, such as poverty and limited scope of living (with only academics or money as their life

goal). But on this trip, we learned that there is a suffocating mass of darkness covering the land,

eating away at the souls of students. Many of them have broken families, broken bodies, broken

paradigms, broken hearts indeed, an existence defined by brokenness. It is a brokenness that

hides deep in their hearts, some even refusing to be comforted or revealed. We have heardmany tragic stories, and they are but the tips of the iceberg. In Cambodia, the evil was relatively


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visible, a tangible sort of darkness that even tourists can observe. But in China, the secretive

culture has managed to hide the darkness behind closed doors, drowning out the cries of the

wretched with the gongs of materialism. Despite Chinas flourishing economy, all is not well. Only

in the last 2 days did I learn of these stories, so if God is burdening your heart as you read this,

please, please, please plan for your own mission trip in the near future go see for yourself.As a psychology major, I naturally thought that these students need counselors. As a

Christian, I could only fall to my knees and beg God to establish His kingdom in China. I urge you

to pray for them. If you have read my Cambodia sharing letter, you will have heard these words

already; now I urge you once again to grasp this weapon, this greatest weapon that we all have

prayer. It is a weapon that dulls and rusts without constant use, so bring it to your everyday life!

Pray for the ministries that face constant political oppression as they seek and save those who

are lost; pray for the missionaries that are being persecuted; pray for the students whose minds

are still relatively open to God; pray for the adults who have hardened their hearts; pray for theauthorities who are enslaved to their greed and sinful natures. Finally, pray for yourself. Hudson

James Taylor was a British missionary who gave up everything to share the Gospel in China; he

was a white man sharing a foreign religion in a foreign land. Today, us Chinese Christians owe the

Gospel to our own nation; if a foreign man could leave his own people to save another, how is it

possible that we refuse to leave our homes to travel a few hours away to save our own people? If

you are a Chinese Christian, I appeal to you; we were born in this colossal country for a reason

dont waste your opportunities. For the duration of a movie you could fly to many states in China,

each with its own brokenness that WILL break your heart. For the price of an Xbox you could be

changing the world alongside God, doing His mission, fighting REAL battles, saving REAL souls.

I am SO glad I joined this trip.

I dont want you to read the above sentence and just nod your head or feel happy for me

or even to share this letter with your friends. In fact, if this letter only makes you feel warm and

fuzzy inside, I have failed in every way possible. May the Creator of the universe, the living God,

stir in your heart a passion; a passion to see His name glorified in every tongue, every individual,

every nation across the entire world. Trust me, NOTHING can save these people but Jesus Christ

Himself. After knowing even just a little bit of their situation, I can honestly tell you that no

earthly resources can save them. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, Darkness cannot drive out

darkness, only light can do that.

After the Cambodia trip, I had the distinct notion that my life had paled in comparison to

my missionary work. After this trip, as I entered the cosmopolitan mall at Tung Chung (a

relatively wealthy area of Hong Kong), I realized that everything before me was paler, not as

inviting or entertaining as before. I can honestly say to you that after a few mission trips, your

current life no matter how colorful it is to you now will pale in comparison. In Chinese we

have a saying, Reading ten thousand books is inferior to walking ten thousand miles, and after

two mission trips I agree 100%.


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I would just like to leave you with one thought; God is doing great things around the world.

If I had read that last year, I would have merely nodded and continued on with my life, ignorant

of its implications. On paper, it is only 8 simple words; in reality, it is millions of broken souls,

countless myriads of missionaries, a spiritual war the size of which you would not believe. If you

step out of your comfort zone, just a single a step (believe me, a mission trip is but a single step),you will surely see Gods work; if you never step out, you will never see.

During the trip, I read Numbers 16:47-48, and I instantly saw the metaphor between Aaron

and the duty of all Christians to stand between the living and the dead. I will not write more for

fear that this will turn into a sermon, but please go read that story, and may God speak to you.

Thank you very, very much for taking the time to read about my experiences! I truly pray

that you are blessed and encouraged by it :)

God bless,

David Lui

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