what a beautiful and life changing journey

so i went to China

and i hope and prayed that I would come back a "changed woman"

well i just got back

and this whole changed woman thing is going to be a lot harder than i thought

while i was there i spent more time in the Word than I ever have in my entire life. i learned more than i had ever imagined and I hope that it sticks with me

the Chinese people are so beautiful, caring, kind and hospitable

and, oh so hungry for something beautiful

they are all about romance and love and beauty, all for tradition and meaning and learning.

and, boy, do they ask good and HARD questions. they are the type of questions you and I would never think of.

and no because we've grown up in a Christian home or in the Church, but because of the culture. they are innocent when it comes to the Bible and God and clueless when it comes to spirituality. but beautiful still the same

because of their quite difficult questions, our group of 4, 5 including the journeyman who lives there, found ourselves countless times studying the Bible like I've never done. learning things that we thought we knew.

Dillon, the journeyman, and the chinese students taught me how to question simple things that i had never considered before.

one thing being, does God love everyone. In Romans 9 it says and it quotes, "Jacob I loved, Esau I hated." so...does God hate.

its a good question and i was baffled for a few days.

i have been taught, my whole life that God loves me, you, and everyone. but what about that one verse? its in the Bible, so its true, right?

and as much as i would LOVE to explain my feelings about this now, i'm gonna challenge you to search for yourself the answer to that question.

this is just one example of many difficulties we found. but i have never learned so much before and it was WONDERFUL

something else that was simply amazing, showing the power that God has was seeing that what we studied on our own, would turn up in our bible studies or "english corners" later that week.

whether it was mallory and my personal time studying james or the 5 of us listening to a sermon from Mark Driscoll, the conversation would come up later in a time for questions with the students.

amazing!

so my challenge and prayer for you and me is that we ask questions. as stupid as they may sound, its important for us to search for our own answers and not believe everything we've ever been told.

thank you for your prayers and amazing support and please continue to pray for me as i pray for all of us, that we are challenged to live differently, and our lives never look the same.