As I reported in yesterday's report, I was up all night in pain from my "massage gone wrong." I think this is spiritual warfare from the trip. Of course the enemy is going to be upset at what God is doing here, and it is not surprising that he would fight back. I think I am lucky that the Lord is protecting me so strongly and the attack is so mild--it could be much worse than it is.
After I finished writing the report about my "massage gone wrong," I checked my email and found an interesting message from Ruth, one of the ladies in my Church. She had sent it the day before (the day of my massage), but as I reread it, it took on new meaning. She had sent me the a passage from 2 Corinthians 1:8-11, which I had never noticed before. It said,
I think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we learned not to rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead. And He did deliver us from mortal danger. And we are confident that He will continue to deliver us. He will rescue us because you are helping by praying for us. As a result, many will give thanks to God because so many people's prayers for our safety have been answered.
When she first sent me this verse, I was excited about the fact that God had sent Paul to Asia--that He had a heart to send revival to Asia since the very early days of the Church. I was reminded of Jeannie Lawson, a British missionary who laid down her life (in the early 1930s) to spread the gospel in China. It impressed on me that revival in China does not come quickly, it has been paved with the blood of the martyrs. I realized that I wanted God to use me powerfully in China, there would probably be some physical suffering attached to it--that it sort of comes with the territory. I prayerfully renewed my commitment to the Lord that I wanted to make a difference for His kingdom in China, to help prepare the way of the great revival that He is about to send there. (That was the morning of the day that I got my massage gone wrong and my first hint of what it must feel like for believers who are beaten for their faith.)
As I reread this verse on Thursday morning (while feeling the full effects of the bruises and welts), my attention was drawn to another part of this verse--the part that said, "He will rescue us because you are helping by praying for us. As a result, many will give thanks to God because so many people's prayers for our safety have been answered." I realized that the prayers that were going up for me as I did this trip were truly helping to protect me from enemy counter-attack.
Still, I am tired and sore and a possibly a bit cranky. I need to be in a good and godly mood because I am going to be meeting a missionary for breakfast in about an hour.
It is already 6:30 AM and I haven't had much sleep, but it is already time to begin preparing for another day. This lady has already been her for a year (along with her 16 year old son) and she plans to stay another year. She leads English-speaking services for the English-speaking Pilipino ladies who work here a maids and does several other ministry things as well. Her husband died three years ago (Sept 15) and tomorrow is the anniversary of his death. This must be a very difficult time for her, and God wants to encourage her. I had brought two sweaters with me, and God told me to give one of them to her. That would not be a problem, except the one He wants me to give her is my favorite one--the white one. I'd really rather give her the other one, the pink one. I was sort of trying to talk God into letting me keep the white one and give her the pink one. God has worked out a compromise for me--I will offer her the choice of which of the two sweaters she likes better and give her that one. Then I will keep the other, as I definitely need a sweater for this trip.
As I reread yesterday and today's write-ups (complaining about the pain and wanting to keep the nicer sweater for myself), I am realizing that maybe my attitudes are not the best right now. The truth is that it is hard to have a good and godly attitude when you are tired and sore. But I really do want to be more like Jesus. I am praying that the Holy Spirit will continue to transform me to be like Jesus, and I'd appreciate your prayers for that as well.
(Written After Breakfast)
The senior pastor of the Church I spoke at Tuesday night had just arrived back in Hong Kong from Los Angeles (about 6 hours before breakfast). Somehow he managed to get up and accompany the missionary to breakfast. That was a bit of a surprise for me, as I expected to be eating with her alone, and was planning to minister to her the things the Lord had shown me to minister. (We were eating the buffet breakfast in the hotel, and I had a "free breakfast pass" for two. I was a bit worried if the pastor would be allowed to eat there since I did not have a pass for them, but the hotel let me purchase his breakfast for only $10.00 US. That was not a bad price for such a big buffet.)
The pastor had a lot on his mind/heart and did most of the talking/sharing. He had a lot of strong viewpoints and at times it felt a bit like he was preaching from a pulpit instead of speaking one-on-one to me. His heart was breaking for the poor in Hong Kong and that somewhat tilted his opinion of what God is doing in China. Still, God is using him and his ministry to be a part of preparing Hong Kong to carry the revival to Asia and it was good to get to meet him.
God did give me a bit of alone time with the missionary at the very end of breakfast. I told her that I had something in my room that I wanted to give her and asked her if she would be willing to accompany me to my room. The pastor prayed a short blessing over me (and I did the same for him) and he went back to his church.
As we rode up the elevator, the Lord let me know that she would be choosing the white sweater. By then, that was perfectly ok with me. I had some cookies that I wanted to give her (a gift from someone else and I had not been able to eat them and could not carry them with me as I traveled). She knew about the cookies, but did not know about the sweater.
When we got in the room, I showed her both sweaters and asked her which one she liked better. It was an easy choice for her--she hates pink. So she choose the white one and put it on, and it looked very nice on her. I could see the Lord's signature all over this and I knew that He had it planned for her back when He told me to buy a second white sweater before I left for China. I had a chance to prophesy and minister to her the things that God had shown me to do, and she was deeply touched. She again reminded me that tomorrow was the third anniversary of her husband's death and it would be a very hard day for her. God gave me a word of knowledge that her husband used to give her little gifts to make her feel good on their anniversary. Then God said that He was taking her husband's place in doing this and that this sweater was just the first of many to come throughout the years.
I was so touched at how carefully God had orchestrated this to take care of her on this "special day." I had this strong witness that He was going to take just as good care of me as He did for her, and that thought really warmed my heart.
The afternoon contained a bunch of logistical things as well as a last minute visit with Tim and Deborah. I had been given so many presents from various people that I could hardly stuff them in my suitcase. It seemed that I had too much to carry with me to Macau and Mainland China, so Deborah bought me a small case to travel with and we left the majority of my stuff in the larger case, including all of my medicines. That was going to be a mistake, because I started to catch a cold the instant that I became separated from my suitcase containing the medicine.
I was supposed to get picked up to go to Macau in less than an hour when I started to develop a really bad sore throat. So I went to the pharmacy near the hotel to pick up some cold medicine. Unfortunately, they did not have anything as strong as the medicine I had just packed away, and what they had did not help me at all. I ended up developing a bad cold, that later turned into severe bronchitis.
The trip to Macau was a bit involved. We took the subway (the call it the MTR in Hong Kong) to a port, and had a quick dinner in a fast food plaza of a shopping center near the port. (There are big shopping centers everywhere in Hong Kong, I think shopping may be the national pastime there.)
When we got to the ferry, it was only a few minutes before the boat left. Technically there should not have been enough time to catch this ferry and it was an hour wait until the next one. But the man who I was traveling with commuted from Macau to Hong Kong daily for work, so he knew all the workers there. They let us run through to catch the boat--you would not believe how fast customs processed me (because you have to through customs to go from Hong Kong to Macau). Then we had to run down this really long ramp to get to the boat. I was actually supposed to leave two minutes before we arrived, the someone had phoned them that we were in route and they waited for us. That little burst of speed allowed us to catch the 8:00 PM ferry and saved us an hour wait.
The only problem was that running for about 4 blocks was not so good for my developing cold. The ferry was very comfortable inside, sort of like seats on a charter bus, much nicer than I expected. However, it was also very air conditioned. I started feeling really cold in about ten minutes. They brought me a blanket, but even bundled in the blanket, I was freezing cold and my nose was starting to run and I was starting to cough. I ended up sleeping most of the hour ride and the man escorting me talked to his wife on his cell phone.
I was pretty sick by the time we arrived. They have medical checkpoints at all the ferry ports and airports because they are on the watch for bird flu, which makes it difficult to cross boarders if you have a cold or flu. I was very surprised that no one stopped me at the medical checkpoint, because I showed up yellow (not blue) on the body heat monitor. But the person at the checkpoint was busy with someone else and did not notice me. The next thing I knew, I was in Macau.
My escort brought me to a really nice hotel and I went to bed just as soon as I checked in. I hoped the Lord would heal me and I'd wake up all better in the morning.
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