My church in Shekou started a concert series for the Christmas season. They will have 4 concerts around Shenzhen and I was asked to be a part of the prayer team. They said that outside the church the services will be concerts but having a prayer team will insure that they are Christ-driven and become a worship service. We were asked to pray for the upcoming event during the week and arrive an hour early to pray during the rehearsal and set up. We walked through each chair and prayed that God would fill that seat and bless the person that would sit there. After the service we were to come forward and pray with anyone who came up for an alter call.
I realized that I am not very good at this. My friend said how can you be bad at praying? Is there bad or good? I had trouble focusing; my mind goes wild in silence. When people came up to me to pray for them I couldn’t find the right words and stuttered and stammered all over myself. Also many of the people that wanted me to pray for them were Chinese, so I grabbed a friend to translate my prayer. This was even worse because I felt so much pressure that the translator would judge my words and realize they could say a more powerful prayer on their own. But I had a few moments of wisdom I thought were worth sharing.
First as I was praying for myself, that I would remain focused and in the right mind set (fighting my grumpy mood from a bad day), it came to me that; there are no perfect people but working together for God we can become perfect. I have had a lot of grudges against some people in my bible study group, because I don’t agree with certain things they have done or I have been hurt by things they have said. My first reaction is to stop going, but I know I will be the one hurt by that, not them. I will be the one missing out on the group and they will be unaffected. It is easy to think everything would be perfect if people acted and thought like me. But that is not possible. I have been given a few blows to my ego lately that remind me, I am far from perfect. I need to start with some humility and then focus on aligning my purpose with others, so that God will make our work for him perfect.
Another moment was during the music into. The leader said, “This is our drummer boy David and he is going to play his best for him.” I don’t know why those simple words brought me to tears. The song, of course, was little drummer boy. It was the idea that he was offering his talent to glorify God, just like the story in the song. It became so real. For David it wasn’t much, I’m sure. He has led our music many times, but under the stoplight I saw his passion. He poured his whole body into every drum beat, with his eyes closed for focus.
The Christmas stories the band told were translated into Chinese. It was interesting to hear the words in English and then feel the emphasis as they were retold in Chinese. Chinese is such a powerful language with the tones, it has such a purposeful canter that only passionate English speakers achieve. The 2 pieces of the Christmas story they told were the Christian origins of Saint Nicholas. Tying Santa’s gifts to the gifts given to Jesus by the 3 wise men. His main statement was, “I tell my children Santa is real! Because he IS!” What a neat twist on a story that has almost lost its Christian origins in secular Christmas traditions.
The next piece was about the 3 wise men. She pointed out that one of the wise men is said to have been Chinese! She names a Chinese astronomer that was missing during the time said to be around Jesus’ birth. And the length of time would have been the same length needed to travel from China to Israel. People were shocked to think of ancient ties to Christianity. Last year a Chinese guy told me, “no Chinese is foolish enough to believe in the God like you!” It broke my heart at the time, but now I just feel sorry for him. The fact that one of the wise men may have been Chinese, gives a rebuttal to his flawed statement. Even in my group of Christians, Christianity still seems like a western idea. It is important that my Chinese friends can claim it as their own.
I brought up the prayer concern at my bible study to pray for the foreigners away from their family during the holidays. Christmas is always the hardest time to be away from home for me. The woman who hosts the study told me after that one of her goals when setting up the group was to provide that family atmosphere especially for the foreign teachers - A place where we can all speak English at full-speed and have a home-cooked meal. I really am blessed to have friends here that are like a family to me. But I still miss you all!
At the work thanksgiving dinner one of the girls had her parents in town visiting China and she brought them to the dinner. One of the guys ran up to the girl’s mom and said, “I need a MAMA hug!” We all laughed but we all felt the same inside.
I realized that I am not very good at this. My friend said how can you be bad at praying? Is there bad or good? I had trouble focusing; my mind goes wild in silence. When people came up to me to pray for them I couldn’t find the right words and stuttered and stammered all over myself. Also many of the people that wanted me to pray for them were Chinese, so I grabbed a friend to translate my prayer. This was even worse because I felt so much pressure that the translator would judge my words and realize they could say a more powerful prayer on their own. But I had a few moments of wisdom I thought were worth sharing.
First as I was praying for myself, that I would remain focused and in the right mind set (fighting my grumpy mood from a bad day), it came to me that; there are no perfect people but working together for God we can become perfect. I have had a lot of grudges against some people in my bible study group, because I don’t agree with certain things they have done or I have been hurt by things they have said. My first reaction is to stop going, but I know I will be the one hurt by that, not them. I will be the one missing out on the group and they will be unaffected. It is easy to think everything would be perfect if people acted and thought like me. But that is not possible. I have been given a few blows to my ego lately that remind me, I am far from perfect. I need to start with some humility and then focus on aligning my purpose with others, so that God will make our work for him perfect.
Another moment was during the music into. The leader said, “This is our drummer boy David and he is going to play his best for him.” I don’t know why those simple words brought me to tears. The song, of course, was little drummer boy. It was the idea that he was offering his talent to glorify God, just like the story in the song. It became so real. For David it wasn’t much, I’m sure. He has led our music many times, but under the stoplight I saw his passion. He poured his whole body into every drum beat, with his eyes closed for focus.
The Christmas stories the band told were translated into Chinese. It was interesting to hear the words in English and then feel the emphasis as they were retold in Chinese. Chinese is such a powerful language with the tones, it has such a purposeful canter that only passionate English speakers achieve. The 2 pieces of the Christmas story they told were the Christian origins of Saint Nicholas. Tying Santa’s gifts to the gifts given to Jesus by the 3 wise men. His main statement was, “I tell my children Santa is real! Because he IS!” What a neat twist on a story that has almost lost its Christian origins in secular Christmas traditions.
The next piece was about the 3 wise men. She pointed out that one of the wise men is said to have been Chinese! She names a Chinese astronomer that was missing during the time said to be around Jesus’ birth. And the length of time would have been the same length needed to travel from China to Israel. People were shocked to think of ancient ties to Christianity. Last year a Chinese guy told me, “no Chinese is foolish enough to believe in the God like you!” It broke my heart at the time, but now I just feel sorry for him. The fact that one of the wise men may have been Chinese, gives a rebuttal to his flawed statement. Even in my group of Christians, Christianity still seems like a western idea. It is important that my Chinese friends can claim it as their own.
I brought up the prayer concern at my bible study to pray for the foreigners away from their family during the holidays. Christmas is always the hardest time to be away from home for me. The woman who hosts the study told me after that one of her goals when setting up the group was to provide that family atmosphere especially for the foreign teachers - A place where we can all speak English at full-speed and have a home-cooked meal. I really am blessed to have friends here that are like a family to me. But I still miss you all!
At the work thanksgiving dinner one of the girls had her parents in town visiting China and she brought them to the dinner. One of the guys ran up to the girl’s mom and said, “I need a MAMA hug!” We all laughed but we all felt the same inside.
Christy, I just pray that you would be blessed. Your blogs encourage me so much. Thank you for giving your thoughts and talents and trials to me through your blog.
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