Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:25-26
Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

I came across these verses while reading a Chinese book and these verses struck me... I recall how the Lord has been faithful to me on my China trip, though I was not totally convicted that He will be with me, that all will be safe and well... Sudden fear gripped me two days before I left on my trip after someone cautioned me about travelling alone on trains, as most incidents occur on trains. The fear would not go away... in addition, there were worries about train tickets and air tickets (refer to previous entries). I was also not sure if it has been because of pride and stubbornness that I had insisted on making the trip though nobody is travelling with me.

I called my buddy, T, near midnight, to pray for me. Next day, I was glad that the whole cell came to pray for me. Thank you, dear sisters, for your prayers, support and assurances! They are so valuable to me! Also to thank GJ who drove me to the airport at 4.30am.

Would like to share my trip with you. It is a result of God’s goodness and faithfulness and the prayers of my spiritual family! (photos not available yet-apologies!)

Liting’s trip to China 29th May – 10th June 2006

Flight from Singapore to Xiamen (4-5 hours)
Flight was rather smooth. Appetite was not good due to waking up too early and insufficient sleep. Sitting on my left and right are a pair of daughter and mother. They are both Christians, Indonesian Chinese. We did not talk much, as I was trying to sleep. While the plane descended, the mother began to converse with me and shared her salvation testimony with me. She was the first to accept Christ and brought her husband and 9 children to Christ too. They were baptised together and each of her children are on fire for the Lord (I believe it to be true as the daughter beside me was studying Jeremiah while I was trying to sleep. Hehe..). She shared that her daughter and her will be visiting their relatives in China and bringing the good news to their relatives.

I was very touched by their courage and fearlessness. At that point, I was concerned about being conned / taken advantage of, in a unfamiliar land. Lurking at the back of my mind was also the fear of persecution. Being the light of the world was definitely not on my mind…

What touched me most was she encouraged me to continue sowing seeds of the gospel in my family… I believe God was speaking to me through her! She sowed the sees of hope in me, to see my family saved!

My first meal in China
I got off the plane, excited. YJ and her mum came to receive me at the airport. It’s feels good to see familiar faces. We ate lunch together. I ate sha1 cha3 mian4 (direct translation is sand tea noodles). It’s a dish from Xiamen. Gravy tastes like our satay sauce without the nuts. Ingredients are similar to those in our Laksa. They also bought my train ticket for me.

My first train journey, Xiamen – SanMing (7 hours)
Xiamen train station is much bigger than I expected. I’m very grateful that YJ and her mum bought platform tickets to help me carry my luggage onto the train. Her mum advised me not to disclosed my identity as a non-Chinese, as people might cheat me of my money.

Condition of the train is much better than I’ve expected. It’s clean, new, air-conditioned. I met three girls who are about the same age as me. We had a good time talking! It was not easy trying to hide my identity. Some tell-tale signs:

I started writing my journal. They realised that I wrote in English! Then they realised that I write a lot of English! Haha…
They were talking about the most popular and fashionable shopping mall in Xiamen, called SM. For some reason unknown to myself, I asked, “What’s SM?”

Of course, towards the end I did disclose my identity, feeling that it’s safe to tell them =) One of the girls was quite talkative and we ended up discussing God and religion. Hmm… must keep in touch with her!

When it’s time to get off the train, I actually can’t bear to leave them!

SanMing – YH’s home
One moment I can’t bear to leave the train, the next moment, saw YH running towards me. Ah… I think we hugged… Did we? =) It’s really good to see her! Her mum came to pick me up too!

Had a very warm welcome by her mum and dad. Had some food. Yes, was hungry but had very little appetite. Her parents began to reveal to me the plans for my stay, to bring me to climb a mountain the next day. Climb sounded challenging. We had to wake up at 6am the next day.

Showered, went to bed. Had the usual “I can’t sleep in a new place.” YH comforted me a few times. Felt dizzy, probably due to lack of sleep. Don’t feel up to the climb. I prayed, “God, help me to sleep and rest! God, can we not climb the mountain? Can we not do anything strenuous the next two days? Can I just rest?”

Fell asleep at about 2am. Woke up at ~5am and it was raining cats and dogs. Decided to continue sleeping till YH’s mum wakes us. She didn’t… I woke up at ~8am and it was still raining! It rained the whole day! We did light shopping and had milk tea and BBQ chicken, similar to satay but far better than satay!

I slept well on the second night. It rained the whole of next day as well. It’s been a very restful time at YH’s place. We had a very good time of sharing and lazing around! Thank God for answering my prayers! The time came for me to leave for HangZhou. Am glad that YH will be with me part of the journey. We ate a hurried dinner and went up the train with lots of food for us to eat on the way.

My second train journey, SanMing – HangZhou (17 hours)
Second train was much older, non-air-conditioned. People smoke on the train. Rather warm…

The feeling of reluctance to leave a familiar place arises again… God reminded me that it’s easy to stay in one’s comfort zone, and that I need to learn to come out of my comfort zone.

HangZhou – LJ’s home
I arrive in HangZhou at about 1140am. It took us about 30min to find each other at the train station.

I like HangZhou immediately! It’s so beautiful, less sounding of the car horn, very much similar to Singapore. And, can you believe it, it was also raining in Hangzhou! Argh!!!

LJ and I faced a dilemma of whether to visit West Lake or go shopping… Another mutual friend of ours was quite insistent on bringing us to West Lake… Finally, we decided to shop and leave West Lake for the next day. I prayed, “ Dear Father, can it not rain tomorrow? I’ll like to visit West Lake…”

And God answered my prayers… It not only did not rain, but the weather was excellent! It was bright and breezy! LJ and I and our mutual friend, RC, had a great time at West Lake the next day…

By this time, the hospitality of the Chinese has overwhelmed me… The care they’ve shown me is much more than the care I’ve shown them… Their parents treat me if as I’m their own children.

On the last day, I visited LJ’s high school. It has a very beautiful surroundings and landscaping. They probably have more overseas programmes for their students than most Singapore schools. But, of course, this is one of the best schools in HangZhou.

My third train journey, HangZhou – XuZhou (13 hours)
Again, I’m very touched that LJ and her dad bought the platform tickets to help me with my luggage. I almost couldn’t bear to leave LJ’s mum… partly because she has been really nice to me and partly because I was down with flu and felt that I needed someone to take care of me…

Train was not as smoky or dirty as the last one.

The ticket they bought for me was the lower bunk. (For bunk beds on the trains, there are upper, middle and lower bunks, with the lower bunks as most expensive. This is because it is usually not possible for people in the middle and upper bunks to sit upright. Furthermore, you’ll need to climb up and down to get to the toilet or to fill your bottle.) A pregnant lady has ticket to the middle bunk above mine…

As it was not time to sleep, she went to sit at the lower bunks that were not yet occupied. Finally, she asked if she could change to a lower bunk. The train attendant said no, unless she could find someone to swap bunk with her. Very naturally, the attendant suggested that she could ask if I wanted to swap with her.

I was contemplating this issue in my mind even before the attendant made the suggestion… This is a struggle for me as I get up and down quite a lot… Finally, I decided to swap with her =)

XuZhou’s – KK’s home
KK stays in the countryside of XuZhou. This is the place where I relearned many things… It is amazing. I had to learn how to shampoo my hair from a basin! As for showering, they do that in a public shower, which happened to be closed for that period because that was a period of harvest for the villagers! So, we cleaned ourselves using a wet towel. It is a place without water heater, so we boiled water and added the hot water to the tap water. It is a place where most people do not own flush toilets. They use our excretion for fertilisers.

It seems like a place which does not have many facilities, yet they are rich in other ways. Almost everybody knows everybody. You can leave the house without locking the doors. Nobody would come in to carry off your TV, etc. You can visit someone you know, and sleep in their homes, eat in their homes without prior notice. You can use their towel to wash your face when you wake. One family share one towel.

It was a period of harvest for wheat when I arrived. KK’s dad took his in his motor vehicle to the wheat fields. We took photographs in the fields and of the countryside – God’s creation. We went about the country roads (similar to trekking paths in Bukit Timah) in slippers… (though I think I twisted my ankle slightly, at the end of the day)

KK’s dad told me, “When you are at home, you depend on your parents. When you are out, you depend on your friends. Treat our home as your home!”

One thing that I had to overcome was the sheer amount of flies. Flies are everywhere! It was difficult to keep flies away from our food. KK and family probably didn’t care as much if I was not there. I prayed, “God, let me not have diarrhoea when in China.” And I did not. Thank you Lord for your protection!

A Supernatural Encounter
My first night in XuZhou. I was coughing badly. I couldn’t fall asleep. I heard the clock in the living room chimed 12 times, then it chimed once. I went to relieve myself. I prayed, “God, help me to fall asleep! I really need the rest.” I sensed KK’s hands on my shoulders. I thought I had woken her up with my incessant cough. She said, “Liting, be good. If you sleep soon, we’ll visit the internet cafe tomorrow.” I felt really comforted and slept through the night. That was the most restful sleep I’ve ever had for a long time. From that night on, I slept well, wherever I was.
Next morning, I thanked KK for comforting me. Her response was most unexpected. She said, she’s not one who is easily woken up. And she has definitely not said anything about internet café!!
We were both awed… It must have been God or an angel last night… I cannot believe that an almighty God would give puny Liting so much attention…

My dad called to ask me to buy some stuff for him… I prayed, “God, please help me to buy gifts for father and mother. Gifts that will please them…” And I managed to buy the necessary stuff for my dad and a handbag for my mum (which I have been searching for since I was in HangZhou).

My fourth and last train ride, XuZhou – HanKou, Wuhan (11 hours)
By this time, I was rather sick of taking trains… And my ticket was for the upper deck. I braced myself for an uncomfortable journey. I boarded the train and thank God, this train is newer than the last two! And there is a lot of space for the upper deck! Sufficient space to sit upright! God is amazing!

KK said she actually was lazy to buy the ticket for me, but felt that she should do it on that particular day. It turned out that she bought the last ticket for me. KK, I’m proud of you for obeying the Holy Spirit’s prompting!

WuCang, Wuhan – YY’s home
Thank God we found one another. There were so many people! Once again, I was overwhelmed by their hospitality… YY’s mum rented a car to drive me around! We visited East Lake and Huang He Lou, one of the four famous buildings of poetry in China.

The food here is excellent! YY lives beside Chang Jiang. We strolled by the river in the evening. I had a wash and cut at a hair salon, which costs me S$6!!! Also managed to buy lots of things which my family would like, VCDs, tibits.

Watched the news and realised that it was raining badly in Fujian and there were landslides which overflowed onto the railway tracks. All trains leaving FuZhou (a city in Fujian and Xiamen is also a city in Fujian) were cancelled. I called YJ (fren in Xiamen, my finally destination) to find out her home situation. It seems that Xiamen is not badly affected.

I really thanked God that He has directed my path to fly from Wuhan to Xiamen instead of taking the train. Else, my train journey would most probably be affected and I’ll be scurrying around like crazy at the last minute, to figure out how to get back to Xiamen.

Back to Xiamen – YJ’s home
It rained, but we had a good time! Her aunt’s driver drove us around.

Intermission: I’ve just said a prayer that my camera would work and it did!!! The previous few times, my laptop just couldn’t read the file from my camera…

We had something similar to dim sum with her family in the evening. Great dinner! YJ, her mum and I went shopping. We went into this shop whose “S” size fits me so nicely! I was tempted to buy the whole shop! Just that most of the tops are rather transparent, so I only bought a top and a skirt =)

Had a good time of sharing with YJ.

YJ said that Gu Lang Yu is an island I must definitely visit! We have to leave her home for the airport tm at 1030am. So, we really do not have much time and also subjected to the weather… And it was the rainy season in Xiamen.

I prayed, “God, will you hold the rain? I know that it is the rainy season, but can you hold the rain?”
And, He did. It did not rain the next day and we visited Gu Lang Yu in the morning.

Thank you Father, for your favour. May you glorify yourself.

I arrived safely back in Singapore. Having not lost any belongings. Thank you Lord for your protection. As I typed this, I recalled my very first sermon in Leeds, the service I accepted Christ in.

Luke 8:22-25
One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."

Indeed Father, You are the Lord over the storms and the winds and the waters.

And there was one occasion I recalled this verse “that even the winds and the water obeyed Him”. He asked me, “Will you obey me too?”

I was awed… even the winds and waters obeyed Him… Yes Father, I will obey you too! And I am learning to obey Him.

What will your answer be, if He asked you the same question?

Photos to be posted soon. Have typed this entry for about 3 hours. Phew…