One Night in Beijing
It has been 20 days since i was back from Beijing.
Ever since my colleagues came back from Beijing in June, the Lord has put a desire in my heart - to go Beijing. This desire never crystalised nor surface until 3 weeks ago...
Birthdays are always a melancholic affair for me. I almost literally stopped celebrating them since 1997. Anyway, it was almost a week after my birthday that my friend KL asked if i wanted to piggyback on her business trip to Beijing. It couldn't have come at a better time. I struggled with some guilt then between fulfilling my godly duty first in bsf and indulging in my own personal agenda. After much pondering and prayer, decided that i need to just go away and spend some quality time with God in a foreign land. Excuses....
Everything went smoothly. I managed to get a flight that arrived half an hour earlier than my friend... and paid only half her ticket price. Then i was upgraded to business class and due to some slight delay, arrived the same time as my friend and met her at the immigration. We stayed at Sheraton Great Wall. A nice hotel. Spent a great weekend touring the famous Great wall, Tiananmen, Forbidden city ... savouring local beijing delights - roast duck, "ma la" steamboat, beijing Jia xiang Cai etc.. And of course the shopping was great too.
Strangely for me, the highlight of the trip was Sunday when we went worshipping in an "international" church Beijing International Christian Fellowship. i feel so joyful and liberated to see so many people from so different nationalities coming together, united in one heart, spirit, mind and soul to worship our one true God. The feeling is really fantastic. I felt tears almost when i see a coloured man and a caucasian pastor singing hymns in Mandarin. Trying their best to reach out to the chinese audience in the midst. i am very touched indeed and wish one day i could also stand at the foot of Zion amongst the multitudes of people singing songs of praises while anticipating our Lord's return. On that day.
It is by God's divine will that i met "盾甫" (pronounced Tun Fu). I'd wanted to buy chinese seals for my friend from bsf who's getting married this november. Went to Pan Jia Yuan antique market and almost to my horror, the market is closed except for a few rows of antique stores...and then i chanced upon his shop. Somehow, God impressed upon me to request this young man to carve bible verses for me at the side of the seals. Perhaps becoz he wanted to close his only business deal for the day, he helped me searched frantically for a chinese bible (calling his only 2 christian friend, one of whom is a caucasian) for the exact translation of Ephesians 5. Finally i had to call my pastor back in Singapore for help... Through all the waiting, somehow i manage to share my experience of how i became a christian to this stranger (while praying for eloquence and God to move his heart of course). We spent almost 2 hour talking! And i have to admit that i was a little anxious to leave by 3.30pm to get some lunch and shopping at least! So i paid the money and 盾甫 was kind enough to volunteer to help me get the ink pot (to save time) and deliver them to my hotel that night.
He didn't turn up that night. But he came at 9 sharp the next morning. When i met him at the lobby, clad with a mandarin collar coat with his pony tail and goat tee...i thought he looked like a chinese taoist swordsman from the famous (金庸) Jin Yong's novel! After realising that he's not in a hurry to leave, i delibereately started him on the subject where we left off the day before. We spoke about religion, faith, christianity, God and meaning of life... i left my watch in the room earlier in a hurry so i didn't know how long we had talked. i felt the Holy spirit prompting me to pray for him but yet not sure how i should do it. Finally, i just came right out and asked him "Would u like me to pray for you?" And to my very surprise, he said "yes". My heart was racing. I didn't know how to pray in mandarin! At least not fluently. In fact i felt God has definitely given me the gift of "tongue" when i was in Beijing. He has enabled me to speak fluent chinese the entire time i was in Beijing. We found a very quiet spot at the cafe and proceeded to pray. In my heart i was almost panicking cos i really dun know how and where to start. I did a silent prayer in my heart seeking desperately for the Holy Spirit's enabling to help me pray for this unsaved soul. When we finished the prayer, i'm deeply touched to see 盾甫 still had his head bow down in prayers. Finally he looked up and i can almost feel God's tremendous love for this man. He must have been a seeker, hungrily searching for God in his empty lonely heart that God has to sent me all the way from Singapore to meet him in such manner and pray for him in HIS spirit. I know it is definitely not of my own effort at all. I have never led someone to pray the sinner's prayer...at least not in mandarin! Neither have i prayed so intensively and in such a perfect & "completed" prayer in mandarin.
I am truly blessed and honoured to be used by HIM as his vessel/instrument. I pray that God will continue to find me fit for HIS use.
I pray that 盾甫 will have God's words written in his heart and that we will one day meet again. From here to Eterenity. We shall meet again.
" The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart." That is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is LORD," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
(Romans 10:8-10)
Ever since my colleagues came back from Beijing in June, the Lord has put a desire in my heart - to go Beijing. This desire never crystalised nor surface until 3 weeks ago...
Birthdays are always a melancholic affair for me. I almost literally stopped celebrating them since 1997. Anyway, it was almost a week after my birthday that my friend KL asked if i wanted to piggyback on her business trip to Beijing. It couldn't have come at a better time. I struggled with some guilt then between fulfilling my godly duty first in bsf and indulging in my own personal agenda. After much pondering and prayer, decided that i need to just go away and spend some quality time with God in a foreign land. Excuses....
Everything went smoothly. I managed to get a flight that arrived half an hour earlier than my friend... and paid only half her ticket price. Then i was upgraded to business class and due to some slight delay, arrived the same time as my friend and met her at the immigration. We stayed at Sheraton Great Wall. A nice hotel. Spent a great weekend touring the famous Great wall, Tiananmen, Forbidden city ... savouring local beijing delights - roast duck, "ma la" steamboat, beijing Jia xiang Cai etc.. And of course the shopping was great too.
Strangely for me, the highlight of the trip was Sunday when we went worshipping in an "international" church Beijing International Christian Fellowship. i feel so joyful and liberated to see so many people from so different nationalities coming together, united in one heart, spirit, mind and soul to worship our one true God. The feeling is really fantastic. I felt tears almost when i see a coloured man and a caucasian pastor singing hymns in Mandarin. Trying their best to reach out to the chinese audience in the midst. i am very touched indeed and wish one day i could also stand at the foot of Zion amongst the multitudes of people singing songs of praises while anticipating our Lord's return. On that day.
It is by God's divine will that i met "盾甫" (pronounced Tun Fu). I'd wanted to buy chinese seals for my friend from bsf who's getting married this november. Went to Pan Jia Yuan antique market and almost to my horror, the market is closed except for a few rows of antique stores...and then i chanced upon his shop. Somehow, God impressed upon me to request this young man to carve bible verses for me at the side of the seals. Perhaps becoz he wanted to close his only business deal for the day, he helped me searched frantically for a chinese bible (calling his only 2 christian friend, one of whom is a caucasian) for the exact translation of Ephesians 5. Finally i had to call my pastor back in Singapore for help... Through all the waiting, somehow i manage to share my experience of how i became a christian to this stranger (while praying for eloquence and God to move his heart of course). We spent almost 2 hour talking! And i have to admit that i was a little anxious to leave by 3.30pm to get some lunch and shopping at least! So i paid the money and 盾甫 was kind enough to volunteer to help me get the ink pot (to save time) and deliver them to my hotel that night.
He didn't turn up that night. But he came at 9 sharp the next morning. When i met him at the lobby, clad with a mandarin collar coat with his pony tail and goat tee...i thought he looked like a chinese taoist swordsman from the famous (金庸) Jin Yong's novel! After realising that he's not in a hurry to leave, i delibereately started him on the subject where we left off the day before. We spoke about religion, faith, christianity, God and meaning of life... i left my watch in the room earlier in a hurry so i didn't know how long we had talked. i felt the Holy spirit prompting me to pray for him but yet not sure how i should do it. Finally, i just came right out and asked him "Would u like me to pray for you?" And to my very surprise, he said "yes". My heart was racing. I didn't know how to pray in mandarin! At least not fluently. In fact i felt God has definitely given me the gift of "tongue" when i was in Beijing. He has enabled me to speak fluent chinese the entire time i was in Beijing. We found a very quiet spot at the cafe and proceeded to pray. In my heart i was almost panicking cos i really dun know how and where to start. I did a silent prayer in my heart seeking desperately for the Holy Spirit's enabling to help me pray for this unsaved soul. When we finished the prayer, i'm deeply touched to see 盾甫 still had his head bow down in prayers. Finally he looked up and i can almost feel God's tremendous love for this man. He must have been a seeker, hungrily searching for God in his empty lonely heart that God has to sent me all the way from Singapore to meet him in such manner and pray for him in HIS spirit. I know it is definitely not of my own effort at all. I have never led someone to pray the sinner's prayer...at least not in mandarin! Neither have i prayed so intensively and in such a perfect & "completed" prayer in mandarin.
I am truly blessed and honoured to be used by HIM as his vessel/instrument. I pray that God will continue to find me fit for HIS use.
I pray that 盾甫 will have God's words written in his heart and that we will one day meet again. From here to Eterenity. We shall meet again.
" The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart." That is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is LORD," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
(Romans 10:8-10)
posted by A Mere Christian at
5:32 PM
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