East Asia Experience

It has been a while since I last updated my site. I’ve just returned from another adventure, this time I was in a land far east in Asia, in a country where the government tells it’s citizen what’s best for them, a country filled with people ready for a change, a country desperately in need of God.

I was in East Asia on a week long vision trip, and during this time, I saw God moved, and saw the need for laborers. Our target audience is college students, and our site was strategically located next to one of the top three universities of this country. Just to give you an idea of the kind of students that attend this school, here’s how the acceptance system works.

Each province is allowed a certain amount of students in (in some cases it can be as little as 3-5 people); so in order to get in the university, you have to be the best of the best, not just top 20% of your class, or top 10%, but much higher than that.

One of our smaller team got in a conversation with this character. The conversation went something like this…

us : Hello, how are you? Do you speak English?
student: yes, I’m doing well.
us : We’re new here, just visiting for a week. We would like to meet new students and make some new friends, we are wondering what you like to do on your free time?
student: You may not believe this, but I’m a world memory challenger.
us: What do you mean?
–student pulls out a deck of cards–
student: Here, shuffle these
– we shuffle cards, while student pulls out a timer, and started breathing slowly –
us: Alright, these are shuffled… {hands cards back}
student: start the timer, as I go through the cards.
–1 minute and 20 seconds passed, student went through the cards twice–
student: alright, here are the cards back, I’m going to name off the cards in order.
–student just starts naming each cards in order.. –
student: alright, I’m stuck right now, skip the next three…
– student continues naming the rest in order –
student: alright, now tell me one of the three cards that are left.
us: 3 of Hearts
– student then picked the right card, and name the other two in order–

These are the kind of students we are influencing. The top students, and perhaps the smartest person in this country (or world), studies here. The best part about the story is, our team had a chance to share the gospel with this student, and he accepted Christ.

That was a story shared by one of our team mates, I did not experience it personally. My experience with the students is quite different from the rest of the team. Since I’ve been in the US for the past 10 years, I have lost my ability to read or write in Chinese. However I can still speak Mandarin because I use it at home. For me, it’s hard to start a conversation in English. It’s just weird for a Chinese man to go up to another Chinese man and say “hey, do you speak English?”. So as a result, all of my conversations with the students began with “你好，请问。。。” (hi, may I ask…) or I might say, in Chinese “hey, I just arrived here, and I’m new here, I was wondering where… ” .

All of the students actually couldn’t tell my “broken Chinese” and just thought I was one of them. I usually proceed to explain, that I am a Malaysian Chinese, not native, and I’ve been in the US for past 10 years, so I cannot read or write anymore. Which leads to just a bunch of conversations, because they were intrigued by my background.

Out of our different students, we had two who are especially interested spiritually.

The first one, I’ll call her Amanda. We met Amanda as she was walking out of class with her friends. Told her we are Americans and looking for new friends, and was able to setup a time to meet and grab coffee with her right there. She brought her boyfriend along to our meeting which turned out to be an interesting story, because as it turns out, one of our previous STINT-er, Rudy, (short term international missionary), had been working on him. He mentioned that Rudy would always talk about religion, and soccer. (At this point, we have not mentioned any spiritual content) Then we talked a little more, then he proceeded and asked if we are Christians. It was from that point both Maria and I were able to share our testimonies and explain the gospel to Amanda. At the end, Amanda said “I am not ready to make a decision yet, I need to read this over many many times”. It is soo cool to see the work of one of our previous STINT-er to have such a big impact on Amanda’s boyfriend, he speaks very highly of Rudy. It’s also amazingly cool that he initiated in asking us about religion, which is a perfect jumping off point for spiritual conversation. It was so cool that Maria and I were able to share in Mandarin (with some mix of English, because our students like to show off their English). This is the first time I’ve shared the gospel in my native tongue. And this is completely a divine appointment. After they left, Maria told me, that was probably one of the most significant spiritual conversation she had ever had. A seed has been planted, our long term workers there will follow up with her.

The second person with high spiritual interest was the last person I initiated. I noticed he was practicing his English (walking back and forth on the lawn, reciting English), and I went up to him and said, “hey, I hear you are practicing your English, I just want to say, you are pretty good…”, quick 2 minute conversation with him, and invited him to come to our party so he can practice with more Americans. He came to the party, and we were able to share our testimonies to him. He asked a lot of good spiritual questions, and I can tell he’s thinking and processing. The last day we were there, I met up with him, and had lunch with him. He is sad that I had to leave and wants to keep in contact with me. I introduced him to one of the long term worker there, and they got connected.

Overall, my experience had been just amazing. Even though the pollution was really bad, just a bad environment for people to live in. I felt like my time there was well spent. I’ve made friends with new students, and potentially becoming brothers and sisters with them. I’ve met some of the brothers and sisters there, and it’s so encouraging to see their level of commitment and their heart for God to move on their campus. I asked one of my brother there what his prayer request is, and he said “for every student to be able to have a chance to meet Christ”. His sincerity have touched my heart, and even right now as I am writing this, just thinking about those words he spoke to me, just brings tears to my eyes. God is moving, no doubt about it. There are strong believers even in a place where it seems spiritually dead. God will raise up men and women to go to them, and spread the good news, and God will also raise up men and women within this country to GO and spread the good news to places we cannot.

How can you not travel across the earth to tell someone the greatest news that have changed your life? How can you not travel across the earth to tell someone what Jesus had done for you?

It’s the only thing on this earth that is relevant!

Thank you supporters for supporting me through prayers and or financially.
Please pray for the men and women doing God’s work overseas.
Please pray for men and women to GO overseas to do God’s work!
Pray for this country to become a sending power in the future!

I still have not raised full support financially for this trip (I am at ~50%), please pray for that as well.