Holy Ground

I've been sitting here for awhile just staring at my computer screen.  How on earth can I put into words what I experienced today.  I can't imagine anything that could ever top this.  Let me start at the beginning.

I'm so glad that I took a picture out my hotel window yesterday.  The pollution was SO bad, you could only see about a block away, and you really felt like you could chew the air.  When we left the house church at which we taught last evening, it was VERY windy, and when we woke up this morning, the wind had blown away much of the pollution!

We stepped out into fresh air and sunlight this morning, very appropriate, since we were about to see the Son more clearly than we had ever seen Him before.

We were not told much about where we were going, just what we would be teaching.  Peggy is such a great leader, she sent us out to share without her (didn't Jesus do that?), just had our Chinese interpreter / GPiH staff member Hope.  The taxi  kept driving and driving - we left the main part of the city and into the poor suburbs, the part that is the real China, not prettied up for the Olympics.  After getting lost in the maze of old apartment buildings and rubble, we finally exited the taxi and quickly moved towards a door.  There, a Chinese hand was extended in greeting and then firmly pulled us inside with a whisper, down some narrow stairs silently, and into a room packed with young people.  We were to spend the day teaching in an underground seminary!

The leaders of this seminary are a Korean couple who have been ministering in China for 15 years.  They are the most gentle, loving people I think I have ever met.  Every room of the apartment was jammed with beds and then a dining table in the middle.  17 of the students live with this family.  Down another flight is where they study and worship.  Have you ever worshipped with people who have given up everything and who know they could be arrested at any moment?  Joy unspeakable and full of glory!  There just aren't words.  To be on my knees in worship with these saints, to have them grab my hands and plead, "Pray for China!"  Why would they want ME to teach THEM!  I just wanted to sit at their feet and learn, to bring home a large dose of their sold-out faith.  Holy ground indeed.

Yet they loved our teaching and begged us to come back.  At lunch, I asked the pastor ( can't show a picture of him) what their greatest need is.  He said, "More leaders, and more teachers like you all who will come and share with us."  Seminaries like this are growing rapidly, and for safety, they split into smaller groups and spread out.  This one just split into 4.  Which means many more leaders are needed, and always more funding.

It was difficult to leave them, but part of what they kept celebrating in worship is heaven, the fact that we WOULD see them again, that people of every tongue and tribe and nation would be there. 

It was a day of experiencing, "For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

We drove home in silence, moved and challenged by our brothers and sisters.  I pray it's a day I won't ever forget.