Nǐ hǎo everyone,
As you know, the first four months of this trip were spent in Germany, taking intensive video classes, and intensive classes on the Holy Spirit, our relationship with God, and how He works in the world. We also got the chance to learn a lot about the injustice that is going on in this world, with our focus being on fighting human trafficking. Human trafficking is in short, when a human is kidnapped and sold for labor, or sex. This happens to children all around the world, as young as four years old! During this phase in Germany, we were able to travel to Hamburg and host a conference for a groupcalled Not For Sale, which fights against human trafficking. We got the chance to help raise awareness of this to hundreds of people. Directly after this, my video crew went to Cheb, Czech Republic, to start filming on a movie we were making. This movie was also to raise awareness against human trafficking, and you can find it on Facebook:www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1953710922746
And here is the link to the Not For Sale website:
www.Notforsalecampaign.org
It was an amazing four months of growing closer to God, learning more of His heart, and in general, getting fired up to save the world. Because that's what I was looking forward to. Mum always told me as a kid that I would grow up to change the world. I never realized how possible that actually was. Not necessarily in a crazy monumental way;(that script still has time to be written) but the simple ability to change one person's life, even in a small way, only by showing them love. God's love.
After those four months, I found out that I was going to go to China for my outreach. I was so excited. My original plan upon coming had been to go to India, but after praying about it, I felt like God was wanting me to go to China. I didn't know why. I knew my heart for China was for the orphans there. But I had no idea how much interaction I would be able to have with them there. So it was much to my surprise and joy when I found out that two of the places I would be going to in China, we would be mainly working with orphanages and ministering to orphans.
The first orphanage we went to was called Maria's Big House of Hope. It's a Christian special care center started by Steven Curtis Chapman, after his daughter Maria died. It is more of a hospital than a typical orphanage. All the kids there are either mentally or physically handicapped, and in some cases, both. They are mostly under the age of 3. It is a place for these kids to go to get health care, to be looked after, and for some, to wait to die in comfort. It was a very heavy place to be. But an amazing place to be as well. Every day we had the chance to go and spend the whole day with the kids, loving on them, playing with them, and being able to give them the attention and love that they deserve. It was a really challenging but amazing experience. I grew especially close to a young little girl named Jessica. Jessica has very limited control of her body from cerebral palsy. She can't walk or crawl very well, and her mouth is usually open in a beautiful little smile, tongue out and all. Every day I could I'd go down and play with Jessica, riding her around in her wheel chair, she'd play with my bracelets, take my camera and take pictures, or we'd just sit there and I'd talk to her and pray for her. It was the hardest thing in the world to leave her after those two weeks. I think secretly she knew that I was leaving, and she stole one of my bracelets before I left. I know I'll never forget that little girl. It wasn't that she got healed, or that miraculously she could communicate with me or anything. It was simply that I was able to give her a little taste of a love that she had maybe never experienced before. It wasn't just my love; it was our Father's love.
You can check out the link for Maria’s House of Hope here:http://www.showhope.org/OrphanCare/SpecialCareCenters.aspx
After the House of Hope, a small group of us went to a government run orphanage further south in China. This was by far the toughest thing I had to deal with all outreach. Now, this wasn't exactly the best living situation at the orphanage. In China, the value of life for orphans is very low, and when they're mentally or physically handicapped, it's even lower. So you can imagine how low the standard of living was there. For courtesy's sake, I can't go into detail. But there was one kid there that caught my eye and my heart. I called him "Didi", which means little brother. We were only at the orphanage for three days, but in those three days I got to see so much change in him.
Didi was a wiry little 10 year old kid. He was a classic trouble maker, always running around and getting into trouble, ignoring people, making messes, and generally giggling as he did all these things. He didn't speak much English, or Chinese very well, so there was little or no communication other than hand motions. But I got the chance to take him outside (to get him out of the way of the work the rest of my team was doing there) and hang out with him. I mostly flew him around, sang him some songs, bounced him around, and prayed for him and talked to him. Didi instantly responded to this kind of attention, and was laughing and giggling the whole time. And after this, Didi would seek me out every time I was around to play more.
Before this, Didi never got any attention, and he never asked for any. He always ran around and did his own thing, not caring about people. The nannies would yell at him and hit him, but he never really responded to them. However, I got to devote all my time to Didi, and he responded. As far as I know, it may be the only time in his life that he received constant love from an older person. For me, that made this whole seven months worth it. I know I only got to be in his life for a brief time, and I know he may not even have fully comprehended it all. For me though, just knowing that I was able to show Him God's love and that He was able to experience it in such a real way, possibly for the first time in His life, makes everything worth it. To me, that's changing the world.
Now I know I can't stay away. This isn't something in the immediate future, but I know I want to go back. I sort of fell in love with China in the 10 weeks I was there. And no, I'm not here asking for support. I'm only here laying out my life as it is. You guys prayed for me for the last seven months, and I just want to fill you in on where my heart is at. And right now it's in China. I have such a passion to go back and make a change to the life those kids are living, all over China. To give them a sense of worth that they may never have felt before. To let them know and feel like they are son's and daughters of the KING!
We got to do a lot of other amazing things in China, too. We met people on the streets, played music in coffee shops, taught English, did parkour with school kids, got the chance to share God's love, and in general, were able to just love on the people of China. It was an amazing experience, and I love the people of China so very much.
Now I'm back in the US. I have a job, and am starting college this fall, with an undecided major. Whatever happens though, I know God's in control. I want to thank you all again for everything that you did to make this trip possible. And I want to let you know that you're all in my prayers and praises, and if there's anything you'd like prayer for, feel free to write me back. Also, if you have any questions, or just want to know more, I'd love to talk.
I love you all, and I hope to hear from you soon! Auf wiedersehen!Mikeyy
1 comment:
你好。 :D
Your blog has really nice content. I wish you'd keep the posts coming in the future (more frequently) :)
adieu!
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