Delayed Reaction

We have been home from East Asia for nearly five days now which would have been hard to imagine on day four of our journey when the heat nearly got the best of me, but I have delayed writing about the experience because I wanted to think about what just happened before I wrote about it in a blog entry. I kept a daily journal of our time overseas and what each day had meant for me on a physical level and spiritual level. The aforementioned heat was the most intense that I have ever encountered on this planet. Teammates who had been to Cairo, Egypt the previous year said that the 120 degree heat in Cairo was no match for the humidity fueled flames of East Asia. Each day was around 100 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit, but what made the heat borderline unbearable was the high humidity. I checked the heat index and when you factor in the humidity it made the temperature feel like it was 125 to 150 degrees depending on the day. The heat was our primary "physical" enemy that we faced (though we did have a few stomach/intestinal problems on our team). We left the CBU globe at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 30 and returned to the CBU globe at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 18. For nearly three weeks we got to know the members of our team (we knew some better than others before we left), got to know our field workers and their family, and got to know the teachers from various regions in East Asia. I want to focus this blog entry on three things. The Zhuang people on a macro level, the Zhuang people on a micro level, and following the lead of the bridegroom (Jesus).

The Zhuang people number around 19 million yet are still considered a minority group. We learned that while most of the Zhuang speak the national language they also speak a language unique to them and their region. Some of the older Zhuang, however, do not speak the national language and only speak their native language. This makes them a difficult people group to reach with the good news. Many of the eastern and south-eastern Asian countries have the same spiritual darkness oppressing them (Buddhism, animism, ancestor worship, demon worship) and this is definitely the case with the Zhuang. They are what I would call (though I am not an expert yet on them as a people group - keep in mind I only have worked with them for a few weeks) a mixed bag of animistic beliefs, ancestral worhipping, and demon worshipping people. We discovered both through what was told us by our field workers and through experience of talking/interacting with the teachers we worked with that the Zhuang place a heavy emphasis on "luck" and having good crops. Not surprisingly, many of the Zhuang worship natural gods (god of corn field, god of rain, god of crops, etc...) with the hopes of a good crop supply coming in the following harvest season. We also learned that they pray to ancestors and make sacrifices in their honor as they worship and venerate their deceased relatives. While watching the testimony of a now born again Zhuang farmer he said "I used to worship my ancestors and pray to them, but I was never told why we did these things. I would ask my father why we would do this and I was never given an answer." Everywhere we went we saw people with red ribbons tied around things (car doors, rearview mirrors, door knobs, door entrances, etc...) and we found out that these red ribbons are designed to keep bad spirits/demons away and to keep them protected. Our field workers explained to us that Zhuang will make sacrifices to demons and worship them not out of love or respect, but out of fear that if they do not do worship the demons that the demons will make their lives more difficult or harm them. It has been estimated that 0.25% (or 1 in 400) of the Zhuang people are born again Christians. They are an unreached people group and as far as we know there are only a few believers living among them. One of the field workers was grieved to find out when talking with some youth that the name of Kobe Bryant had reached their market town, but they had never heard of Jesus or who He is. That is a tragedy in my estimation. On a macro level pray for the Zhuang people group to hear the good news and respond to it while they still have breath in their lungs. Petition the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into that developing field. 5% of the people live in the city (which is where we worked during our time there), 15% live in market towns, and the remaining 80% live in remote villages. Pray for congregations of believers to rise up in the city. Pray for those in the cities to have a burden for the market towns and for congregations to rise up in the market towns. Pray then that the believers in the cities and market towns will have a burden to take the good news to the villages where most of the people live now. This is a people group that needs to know and experience the love of our dear Savior!

On a smaller scale we had the opprtunity to share in the lives of some of the Zhuang people on a personal level. The teachers that worked with us at the seminar that we held were from many different counties (some schools in the city, some in market towns, and perhaps even a few in villages). I found that many of them have the same desires that you would find in any American man or woman. They wanted career success, they wanted to travel, they wanted good relationships, and they wanted happiness. That sounds similar to us doesn't it? I remember watching the Living Waters crew go to Europe to share the good news and they made the claim in the video that people in all countries have the same conscious that we do and that they have the same will to live that people in America do. I found this to be true. Though I had shared with each person in my class about who Jesus was I was able to talk clearly about it one last time at our farewell dinner with our teachers. We had just read the book "One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven" by Mark Cahill before we left for our trip and I remembered one of his lines of questioning used in the book. It is the "what next?" line of questioning. I had each person around the table share one thing they wanted to do before they die. When it was my turn I shared how I had read in a Christian book before we left that we always think there is "something next". First I will get a job, then I will get married, then I will buy a house, then I will have kids, then I will raise the kids, then I will send the kids to college, then I will see the kids married, then I will welcome grandkids in, then I will retired...and then...what next? I shared that the reality is that we will all die one day and that I was supremely grateful that Jesus died on the cross for my sin and quoted John 3:16 to them. Our field workers shared with us that we probably would not see any conversions (though they said anything is possible when God is involved), but that we were still doing good work in their lives. They said "whenever you share in someone's life the love of Jesus you are taking them one step closer to knowing Him and loving Him". They called it "X+1". Wherever they were before you invested in their lives and told them the good news they are now one step closer. I was pleased that all of my students (even a special lady who had to leave the seminar after only a few days with us) were at least "X+1" by the time they left us and many were X+2, X+3, or even X+4. A few of us on the team were able to give the gift of a Bible to some of our students. I gave my Bible to one of Nicole's students who was supremely grateful for the gift (he was bowing and smiling radiantly when we gave it to him). The Bible will not only help him with his English skills, but also it will help teach him about the God of the Bible whom we hold to be the one, true hope of this world. It broke my heart that of our class for 16 teachers only 3-4 had heard of Jesus before we arrived. Only two of them owned a Bible (which was not even in their native language) before we arrived. Pray for these wonderful teachers that we go to work with that God will send other believers to follow up with them and teach them even more about Jesus, and pray for their salvation!

Nicole and I were challenged at the conclusion of the trip. I had inwardly thought to myself "everything is going to be a bit different when we return home". So when our field worker challenged us to be "messed up for the ordinary" it made sense of what I was feeling inwardly. I do not know if God is calling us to full time overseas work. I do not know what the "next step" will look like. Our field worker taught us from Song of Solomon on the last day of our trip. I thought that was an odd choice to teach people from as they leave from a short term trip to return to their "normal" lives. My opinion changed dramatically though as he illustrated this book (Song of Solomon) as a picture of the relationship between Jesus (the bridegroom) and the church (the bride). We read in Song of Solomon 2:

Song of Solomon 2:8-10

"Listen! My beloved! Behold, He (the bridegroom) is coming, climbing on the mountains, leaping on the hills! My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag; behold, he is standing behind our wall, He is looking through the windows, He is peering through the lattice. My beloved responded and said to me, 'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along.'"

This is a picture of the bridegroom calling the bride to arise and come along for whatever the bridegroom has in store. Our field worker shared with us that Jesus will be calling each of us in a unique way to join Him in the adventure that He has planned out for us and we can choose to say "yes" or choose to say "no". The bride indirectly says "no" to the bridegroom after this passage in chapter 2 of Song of Solomon and at the beginning of chapter 3 she cannot find the bridegroom. She looks for him but to no avail. Our field workers shared that we lose intimacy with our bridegroom (Jesus) when we directly or indirectly say "no" when He calls us to arise and do something with Him. We may look for Jesus but might not find Him like we used to. The point was not that we will lose our salvation but rather to illustrate that when we go back to our country to be open and willing to be obedient to whatever we are called to do. I know that Nicole and I are open to working overseas. Our field workers went on a short term trip like we did ten years before committing full time. What I loved about them is that they did not preach down to us or try to convict us. They shared their journey and what the Bible says about obedience and that was enough. Pray for God to give Nicole and myself direction as we try to figure out what it means to be "messed up for the ordinary". We have so much access to the good news here in America (which makes it even more mind boggling that so many people reject it) and there is such limited access to the good news all over eastern and south-eastern Asia. I do not know what the bridegroom has in store for us, but pray that when He says "arise and come along" we will know it is His calling and react in obedience.

I hope this gives you a glimpse into what God is doing among the Zhuang and even among the people that went on our team. God bless!

-Fei Cheng (my new name)