As in the Days of Noe

One-word-weather: WET.  This was emphasized and punctuated during the "unboring" night with thunderclaps, lightning, and the periodic deluge.  Behind us lie many days of rain, and many more lie as far ahead as the weather prophets can see (which seems to be quite a ways).  As I early this morning splashed along the sidewalk contemplating the water all about me, who should come to mind but Noah....something like "and as in the days of Noe, so shall the coming of the Son of man be". (Matt. 24:37)  Signs are pointing to the fact that that day is near---certainly nearer than ever before.  "Noah, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house," which example we cannot do better than to emulate.  God gave him specific directions for his building, and I thought it wise to ensure that my ark-building instructions are fully received and implemented as well.

I told you last time about our visit to the hospital to visit 19-year-old LiJin and his mother, a brand new believer, still not understanding much.   Frank did his best to lead LiJin to the Lord..... just one opportunity, and we little thought  as he prayed that he would so soon be in eternity.  For the Lord chose not to heal him of the leukemia, and now dear babe-in-Christ- Sis. Wang will be needing much prayer support, as naturally she looked for healing of the body.

We thought pictures would be nice (actual photos of sunshine) but the computer has stubbornly disagreed with this viewpoint.  We humbly defer to it, until such time as it deigns to relent.  And, no, we're still not finished moving into "Lighthouse".  Maybe we need a launch to load our luggage, and float off through the storm toward the "lighthouse" on the other shore?

A burst of excitement disturbed this tranquil evening.  Frank had carefully prepared beef jerky and oranges for the men's prayer meeting, and placed them in a bag with one brother's new umbrella, (forgotten at our place). The stage was set for disaster as he placed them on the floor conveniently near the door.  Along come two dutiful youth and gather up the trash,  waiting by the door.  You guessed it..... bye and bye, Frank's bag showed up missing!  Aiya!  Consternation and rushing of three of us downstairs to check the communal garbage ensued.  Nary a trace.  We return for equipment, and armed with a small flashlight, umbrella, and my glasses, Annelisa and I set off determinedly to the rescue.  I succeed in forcing the lock and opening the doors, so we can get in to peer into and prod the yucky garbage. Just then a horn blares and a fine Audi pulls up beside us and the door is flung open preparatory to giving these lousy garbage-pickers a generous peice of their minds.  We are too intent on our prize to heed them, and the yell freezes in their flabbergasted throats as they behold.....foreigners!!  Well, of course America's economy is bad, but had it come to this?!  They stared in horrified silence as we probed with an umbrella handle, until at last we were forced to concede that one of the garbage-pickers perenially waiting in the wings had beat us to the spoils!  I hope someone needy benefitted;  I know some Audi owners did.

Light House

"I am seeing more & more that we begin to learn what it is to walk by faith, when we learn to spread out all that is against us.  All our physical weakness--loss of mental power--spiritual inablility--all that is against us inwardly and outwardly, as sails to the wind & expect them to be vehicles for the power of Christ to rest upon us."  Whew! Spreading out all the things against me as a sail to the wind!  Perfect!  Thank you, Lilias Trotter!

The contract for our apartment in "Light House" in Asian City was duly signed at rainy noontide yesterday.  May it be, indeed, a light house!  Today it is getting a good cleaning.

I was helping going over an English test taken by one of Christian's students (and same-age friend)--and was amazed to find it featured the story of Thomas Barnardo!  I had known little of his amazing life before, so I read up on it.  Pronounced dead at two, he was saved by an undertaker, who also could be said to have saved the lives of many of the 60,000 children who later were to pass through Barnardo's doors.  Inspired by Hudson Taylor, Barnardo planned to join the  CIM, but while preparing, the plight of London's children alerted him to a call to meet vulnerable  children's needs.  Hmmmm...  Since the octuplets' birth, I had been thinking along lines of there being a need for some to open ministries to overwhelmed mothers and their children... a ministry in which I seem to see a wide scope of possibilities.  

We visited a young fellow with leukemia in a distant hospital and prayed with him.  While we ( including three sisters who also came) shared with him and his mom, another patient listened hungrily, but her husband appeared  showing fierce resistance to the Gospel.  The boy's mother came to church Sunday, and her face looked brighter.

Breaking News

A week of pounding the pavement, seeking the right housing, and reaching an impasse, has culminated in finding-- as of this Friday the thirteenth-- a place that we trust is in God's will for us, in "Asian City".  It is amazingly full of built-ins, which is a big plus in a land where built-in closets of any kind are considered superfluous.

Yesterday was the hottest February twelfth in 45 years, well into the eighties.  And firecrackers were still popping, though I expected them to finish after the huge barrage for Lantern Festival, the night when the moon was at its roundest in 60 years.  Christian went alone (Annelisa being laid up with fever) to see the Lantern Parade in which nearly all the lanterns were cows.  Since this is called the year of the cow, the greeting is written "Happy Niu Year" (Nui  = cow)

Have you heard about the brand new two-billion-dollar tower in Beijing that burned?  It has been kept quite quiet, at first "firecrackers" being blamed.  CCTV's tower was designed by a brother here, and he was telling about it at the men's Bible study  Wednesday.  We were just now looking at a picture online of it burning.

I am praying for the precious little octuplets, born into such an unbelievable situation, and realizing that God does have a hand in their lives, which emphasize so strongly the fact that His ways are past finding out.  With all the worthy women  longing for a child and waiting long years, who would have thought that an unprecedented number of babies would be given to a misguided woman who would not appear to need any!  No, I am not among the irate majority, but trust that the God who made the "ba bao tai" live, has not ended His miracles there.  He who sees the little sparrow fall, surely loves and cares for each of us more than we dream.

Sunshine

With the dawn's early light I was up and off  to early church ( I attend two places) where a brother just back from the northernmost province told of the heart-hunger, and stark living conditions of the people he had gone to (for the sixth time).  They will sit and listen endlessly as long as one can preach, never glancing at the clock.  It was thirty below zero and there were  no bathrooms......... and, well, I can't go into all that.  They eat not much besides potatoes.  He preached on family relationships and they wept and made things right between family members.

In the gloriously warm sunshine, a large number of us strolled along the canals for a long afternoon walk, sharing  what God is doing and counseling on concerns.  The preacher at that early service had said that so many Christians, when they get together say things like , "Which college will you send your son to?  How big is your apartment?" ---just like unbelievers, instead of asking, "What are you reading in your Bible?  What is God doing in your situation?"  I thought of that, as we walked...... I was the only one in the group who had heard that message, yet I was glad to hear the appropriate topics of conversation introduced.

The children each quote Scripture they have learned each Sunday after they sing,  about midway in the service.  Some have been quoting whole chapters, and I have been thinking how good if we adults would do the same.  A nine-year- old friend in THP has set herself to learn one verse every day, and during vacation it's three verses a day.

House Hunt Ahead

I hate to tantalize you fine freezing folk, but spring has sprung, and blossoms brighten our lives, so recently bereaved of our "piggies". We do miss their eager welcoming squeals as we come in!

Plans are afoot for Frank's parents to come to Hangzhou and live in this apartment, while we rent a more commodious one (adequate for meetings ). This should keep us occupied for awhile, as it also involves renovating this place. And with the coming of spring I am longing to have just any wee spot to plant a few of the seeds I've prepared by faith....or presumption? Here there is not a square inch available even on a balcony.

A prayer request came in today from Yunnan, where Bro. Fang (Scarlett's husband) is right now. A family of (former) sorcerers whom they led to the Lord two years ago, are under attack, while all the village looks on to see what happens to followers of Christ. The mother was quite wounded when a cow kicked her....which the enemy would use to discredit the Lord.....but we are praying for the Lord to be greatly glorified in this very thing.

And today as I think of troubles snowballing in about every direction I look (except Up), I am glad to pass on a quote from Parables of the Cross by Lilias Trotter:
TAKE THE VERY HARDEST THING IN YOUR LIFE--THE PLACE OF DIFFICULTY, OUTWARD OR INWARD, AND EXPECT GOD TO TRIUMPH GLORIOUSLY IN THAT VERY SPOT. JUST THERE HE CAN BRING YOUR SOUL INTO BLOSSOM.
I am reading A Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter and am struck by the fact that towering accomplishments came in spite of physical frailty. May I share another of her gems?
TRAINED FAITH IS A TRIUMPHANT GLADNESS IN HAVING NOTHING BUT GOD--NO REST, NO FOOTHOLD---NOTHING BUT HIMSELF--A TRIUMPHANT GLADNESS IN SWINGING OUT INTO THAT ABYSS, REJOICING IN A VERY FRESH EMERGENCY THAT IS GOING TO PROVE HIM TRUE---THE LORD ALONE-- THAT IS TRAINED FAITH.
and in conclusion:
When God delays in fulfilling our little thoughts, it is to have Himself room to work out His great ones.

Mountaintop

     An invitation from Sis. Scarlett resulted in three of us accompanying her, her parents, her son Tony and his classmate, Apple, to the ski resort run by our company.   When we reached the mountaintop   we found it enveloped in fog which persisted all day.   Our whole group gathered in our room for worship, a first for two of them, I think.  Christian did the story.                                          First Apple was appointed to learn to ski, and after Christian had given her a few pointers, I was left with her while the others took a walk.  It was interesting teaching a little girl to ski, and I must say she had no trouble surpassing her teacher!  Then it was Tony's turn, and by this time there were so many children tumbling down (adults as well), that I made it my mission to go around lifting up the fallen.  The foggy slope was crawling with people!

     We were in bamboo country, so lunch was a roadside special of bamboo strips strung on a bamboo twig, and then there was rice cooked and served in a section of bamboo log.  

     After a night in the company hotel, I looked out to see the fog lifting, and  was reminded again of a special moment in my daughter's life when the fog lifted.  As the previous morning we had driven by the field where it happened, I recalled walking with my tiny tot there, when suddenly her face lit up and she exulted, "I can just write all the sounds together and make words!"   In my skeptical wisdom, I expected she would find roadblocks, but had the sense to keep quiet, while she took this exciting revelation and ran with it.  I was wrong: she didn't worry about spelling or the direction the letters headed, but proceeded to become a prolific writer on her own.  Within a year or so, she had written scores of letters, authored an autobiography,  a dictionary (with German words added by a friend), a devotional for me, several workbooks for her dolls or me, and a songbook full of her lyrics.    That moment when the fog lifted and it all came together was a gift from God, full of laughter and joy in retrospect.  But back to today.....

      We set out from our room, and then went back for camera and phone, only to find that the battery in the door was dead and it could not be opened.  So we went without, and hiked up to some wonderful sites for viewing the panorama of bamboo-and- mist clad mountains.  We got on bicycles built for two for a spin around the reservoir, and I had Apple riding with me.  That was fun and (predictable at my age) brought back favorite memories again---this time of sharing the saddle with a wee blond as I rode a high mountain trail from one Mexican settlement to another.  "I hope this horse doesn't stand on his back," she said as she looked straight down the mountain from the narrow trail's edge.  Now Apple was more nervous than that intrepid little MK had been, even though this bike ride was not near the edge nor was the drop down to the ski area that far.

     Our door was recharged when we got back to the hotel, and gathering up our belongings, we set out on slippery trails down the scenic mountain.  An hour later we arrived at the house of a sister ( a place where meetings are held.)   Crash! the marble table fell, dismembered, as one of us tried it for a perch,  (uh-oh!) when we sat on the veranda for snacks. Sis. Wu served us lunch of nien gao , a new year specialty, and then we sat outside again and sang from some songbooks she produced for the purpose.  Sis. Wu had been given up by doctors when the Lord healed her--quite a testimony to the community. We then descended into THP where it seems strange to no longer have a home.  The company bus brought us to Hangzhou, and so closed our little outing.

Ｓｔａｒｓ ｏｆ Ｈｏｐｅ

• 　My harbingers of spring are the bushes that border the canal that runs along a few yards behind this building.  The arched green branches are flecked with bright yellow blossoms here and there (the leaves come later).   On the bare, bowed branches the blossoms shine like stars of hope.　
  
• Cover your ears!  Firecracker days continue and it wouldn't do to let up on the noise polution and air polution until the year is well-launched, would it ?  I mean, it's just a week since Chinese New Year's Day, (a day when the smog never lifted).  Mornings you can watch fireworks in broad daylight.
• Saturday we enjoyed feeding some sort of llama in the zoo. This amiable black fellow liked our apples and bread, but wisely declined the Coke a boy proffered.  Up stepped a younger llama and sniffed our food disdainfully; then -----typical teenager!----slurped the Coke eagerly.
• I remain in the afterglow from the wonderful big meeting.  When our people heard about it yesterday, some couldn't wait to go (next time).  It was special that at the big meeting it was noted how Hudson Taylor had got off his boat at that site and prayed for the church there.....a blessing they believe is still in operation.   One thing is sure, that miracles still take place!