Christian's report from the China trip, Feb 2013
There was a team of eight guys this year. We all left the states on Feb 11. Once we got to Beijing we stayed one night there and then caught an overnight train to Lanzhou. We met our contact there and got our schedules for the next few weeks, and split up into sub-teams to start our separate routes. I was teamed with Stephen Lapp from S. Dakota. On this trip we were scheduled to work differently then on all my previous trips. In the past we always took a bus to our target town and would work that night and catch a bus early the next day for the next town. On this trip we were working some more sensitive areas, so we would get to a base town were we left our luggage then we would catch a late train to our target town, work it and catch an early train back to base camp. Stephen and I worked our first night in a town that was about 1 1/2 hours away by train. We had seats on the way there, but on the way back there was only standing room so we shared the entryway with some chain smokers and the cold.
The next day we took a five hour ride to the next base town, then another 40 min to the town we were working. This night was going well until we met some drunks who despite their inebriated condition still possessed that supernatural ability, so common in the Chinese, of distinguishing a foreigner from a native in the dark from a mile away. They ran up to us and wanted to shake our hands and hug is repeatedly, all the while in their broken english, saying how much they loved America. After they got the the greetings out of there system they insisted on taking us to a hotel. We told them politely that they were in need of sleep more than we and than politely excused ourselves and set off down the street. Just as we thought we had made it, one of them made a last ditch effort to get us to let them take us to a hotel, running down the street and grabbing us and trying to pull us back. We were finally able to extricate ourselves from the situation and get our work done.
The following day was busy because we were working two towns in one night. In the morning we caught a five hour train to our base town then hopped a train for our first target town. We had five hours to work in this seemingly sub-arctic town, but we hadn't brought enough tracts, so we finished in three and sat shivering in the virtually unheated train station for two hours waiting for the train. Fortunately the train arrived before frostbite set in so we had 20 minutes to thaw out on the train before getting off at our next target town. Once we got there we had 50 minutes to work and then caught a train back to the base town.
That morning we were able to get some extra sleep because we were staying in that town all day and were going to work it that night. That night we worked a short night and caught an early train to Dunhuang which was to be our base of operations for the next three or four days.
After arriving and getting a room to leave all our luggage in, we got a bus (one of those chinese buses built to pygmy size specification) to our next target town. On our arrival the town was still very active so we ate dinner and walked the streets for two hours before it finally died down and it took another two hours to finish up our tracts. At that point we began looking for a taxi to either take us directly back to the other town where our hotel was or else to take us to the bus station. There were no taxis or any activity at all, and it was too cold to sit and wait for morning, so we just kept walking around hoping to find some kind transportation. Eventually a police vehicle pulled up beside us, and we decided it would be better to try and get some help from them then to freeze to death, so we asked them to take us to the bus station. When we got there they informed us that the earliest bus wasn't leaving until 9:00am (at this point it was around 2:00am) so we had to let them take us to a hotel where we got a few hours sleep before finally getting our bus out of there.
Once we got back to Dunhuang we had about seven hours before we caught a two and a half hour bus ride to a train station. After we got there we missed our 8:00pm train and had to wait for a 1:00am train. This train was the tightest packed one I have ever been one. There were so many people standing that there wasn't even room to sit on the floor. Fortunately I was against a wall so I got to sit on my backpack for a portion of the two and a half hour ride. Since we had missed our original train we were running quite late on our schedule and we only had 1 1/2 hours in which to work before we had to catch our train back.
The next night was rather uneventful. Got to a small town around 8:00pm got a hotel and a little sleep, worked it and caught an 8:30am bus back to Dunhuang.
Since this was to be our last night in Dunhuang, before going back to Lanzhou for a refill on tracts, we were able to finally work the city that we had been in and out of for the past couple days. Because we had a more tracts left over than we wanted, and this was a fairly large town, we worked a long night and got out twice our usual amount. In the morning we went to the train station and sat down to wait for our ride. About a half hour before the train was to leave a police officer asked to see our passports and tickets. After getting them he held onto them for some time and was talking to someone on his phone for a while. At this point we thought they may have suspected us so we sent a text to the other teams for them to pray. About ten minutes before the train was to leave the officer asked to look in our bags, so Stephen opened the only bag we had that didn't have some kind of gospel material. After looking through this for a little bit and finding nothing, he toldus to go ahead and get on the train.
We had a while to wait at the town where we were to transfer to a different train so we went out to grab some lunch. When we reentered the station around 3:30pm and went through security (which is typical at all stations) they had several officers waiting for us and they immediately took us aside and made us open some of our bags again. This time they found what they were looking for and took us outside where they split us up into two cars and drove us to the police headquarters of that area. Upon our arrival they made us open the remainder of the luggage and they proceeded to count and document everything. At this point they had us both sit in a separate room far enough from each other that we couldn't talk. We remained there for several hours during which time they took each of us out to eat in turn. Then they took Stephen into the back room and grilled him for info for several hours. Once finished with him they did the same with me for a number of hours. We were able to be vague enough that they didn't get much specifics about the other teams or our contact, they were however able to get the phone number of the contact. Since that number is under a false name we don't think that will endanger him much, but if they really wanted to they could track phone records back to him, so pray that he will be protected. After they finished grilling us they told us that they would cancel our visas and give us ten days to leave the country. Eventually, after we told them we already had tickets to leave in about twelve days and couldn't afford new tickets, they relented and consented to let us stay till our scheduled departure(although they still canceled our visas and gave us temporary ones). At this point it was around 3:00am so they took us to a hotel and checked us in, but kept our passports so that we couldn't leave. We ended up staying in the town for a day and a half waiting for them to get the new visa. We left the second day around 3:50pm and got to Lanzhou at 11:00pm.
That night we met with our contact and he resupplied us and gave us a new schedule (we were to stay in Lanzhou and work four universities in the next four nights). We worked the first one that night and it went well.
The next one on the following night was also rather uneventful.
The third one was not so nice. We were working around some dormitories and had just finished a long stretch of doors and vehicles when I saw someone who had been standing in the shadows and watching us. I signaled Stephen and we turned and headed around a nearby building. Once around the corner I stopped and glanced back around to see three men approaching us at a brisk walk. We took off and wound around a few building and made it to an entrance without them finding us and spent the next couple hours finishing up our load in the surrounding neighborhood.
On the fourth night we started working in our last university, but shortly into it we saw that it had a few night watchmen that were patrolling around with flashlights. At one point they saw us and since we had no good reason to be there we just melted into the shadows and decided that instead of risking working there anymore we would leave and work the apartments nearby. It went well for a while and we were almost done when Murphys law struck again. We were working in an enclosed apartment complex and were about to leave through the gate when the guard stepped out of his little shack and started yelling at us. He hadn't seen us personally but he had been watching the security camera feeds on his computer and had seen us. So he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into his shack and continued to fuss at me in chinese. While I was inside Stephen hid the little bit of tracts he had left on him. Once the guard finished fussing at me he left me in the building and went outside toward Stephen. I grabbed the opportunity and walked out of the gate while his attention was elsewhere. I headed across the road and hid in the shadows to empty out the few tracts remaining in my pack, then I stood back and waited to see if Stephen would be able to get out. After a while with no sign of him I decided that the best bet would be to go back to the hotel room and clean it out of anything that would be incriminating. Once I got there I took our map, schedule and some chinese bibles and hide them up in the ceiling air vent and took the empty tract boxes (at this point we were out of tracts) and headed back out to throw them away and see if I could find any sign of Stephen. I met him as he was walking up the road toward the hotel. Shortly after I had split from the scene he, finding that the guard prevented him from getting out through the gate, turned around and headed back into the complex. He jumped a wall and landed on a shed roof, climbed off off that and after trying to scale several walls in this new area, which was some kind of trucking business, he ended up having to exit through the front gate. The gate attendants weren't expecting anyone to be exiting at this hour so they tried to call and get him to stop, but he turned into a dark alley and by a roundabout way made it back to the hotel where I met him.
The next night we met up with the other teams and reorganized the teams some so that I worked with Dad. That night was pretty uneventfully.
The next night was the last we would be able to work before leaving for Beijing. Since we didn't have enough tracts for everyone Dad, Gabriel and I ended up not working while the other five finished up the remainder. As far as I know nothing unusual happened that night.
The next day we flew to Beijing and over the next few days visited with some believers at a church there. One of the men on our team also preached a message through an interpreter that Sunday.
All in all this trip went well. There were a few hiccups but although we can't necessarily see it God works all things for his glory and I am sure He had a reason for everything that happened. Maybe the reason for getting caught was just so that the police could have a chance to hear the gospel.
"And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives... and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted."
Nate Saint
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
Jim Elliot
The next day we took a five hour ride to the next base town, then another 40 min to the town we were working. This night was going well until we met some drunks who despite their inebriated condition still possessed that supernatural ability, so common in the Chinese, of distinguishing a foreigner from a native in the dark from a mile away. They ran up to us and wanted to shake our hands and hug is repeatedly, all the while in their broken english, saying how much they loved America. After they got the the greetings out of there system they insisted on taking us to a hotel. We told them politely that they were in need of sleep more than we and than politely excused ourselves and set off down the street. Just as we thought we had made it, one of them made a last ditch effort to get us to let them take us to a hotel, running down the street and grabbing us and trying to pull us back. We were finally able to extricate ourselves from the situation and get our work done.
The following day was busy because we were working two towns in one night. In the morning we caught a five hour train to our base town then hopped a train for our first target town. We had five hours to work in this seemingly sub-arctic town, but we hadn't brought enough tracts, so we finished in three and sat shivering in the virtually unheated train station for two hours waiting for the train. Fortunately the train arrived before frostbite set in so we had 20 minutes to thaw out on the train before getting off at our next target town. Once we got there we had 50 minutes to work and then caught a train back to the base town.
That morning we were able to get some extra sleep because we were staying in that town all day and were going to work it that night. That night we worked a short night and caught an early train to Dunhuang which was to be our base of operations for the next three or four days.
After arriving and getting a room to leave all our luggage in, we got a bus (one of those chinese buses built to pygmy size specification) to our next target town. On our arrival the town was still very active so we ate dinner and walked the streets for two hours before it finally died down and it took another two hours to finish up our tracts. At that point we began looking for a taxi to either take us directly back to the other town where our hotel was or else to take us to the bus station. There were no taxis or any activity at all, and it was too cold to sit and wait for morning, so we just kept walking around hoping to find some kind transportation. Eventually a police vehicle pulled up beside us, and we decided it would be better to try and get some help from them then to freeze to death, so we asked them to take us to the bus station. When we got there they informed us that the earliest bus wasn't leaving until 9:00am (at this point it was around 2:00am) so we had to let them take us to a hotel where we got a few hours sleep before finally getting our bus out of there.
Once we got back to Dunhuang we had about seven hours before we caught a two and a half hour bus ride to a train station. After we got there we missed our 8:00pm train and had to wait for a 1:00am train. This train was the tightest packed one I have ever been one. There were so many people standing that there wasn't even room to sit on the floor. Fortunately I was against a wall so I got to sit on my backpack for a portion of the two and a half hour ride. Since we had missed our original train we were running quite late on our schedule and we only had 1 1/2 hours in which to work before we had to catch our train back.
The next night was rather uneventful. Got to a small town around 8:00pm got a hotel and a little sleep, worked it and caught an 8:30am bus back to Dunhuang.
Since this was to be our last night in Dunhuang, before going back to Lanzhou for a refill on tracts, we were able to finally work the city that we had been in and out of for the past couple days. Because we had a more tracts left over than we wanted, and this was a fairly large town, we worked a long night and got out twice our usual amount. In the morning we went to the train station and sat down to wait for our ride. About a half hour before the train was to leave a police officer asked to see our passports and tickets. After getting them he held onto them for some time and was talking to someone on his phone for a while. At this point we thought they may have suspected us so we sent a text to the other teams for them to pray. About ten minutes before the train was to leave the officer asked to look in our bags, so Stephen opened the only bag we had that didn't have some kind of gospel material. After looking through this for a little bit and finding nothing, he toldus to go ahead and get on the train.
We had a while to wait at the town where we were to transfer to a different train so we went out to grab some lunch. When we reentered the station around 3:30pm and went through security (which is typical at all stations) they had several officers waiting for us and they immediately took us aside and made us open some of our bags again. This time they found what they were looking for and took us outside where they split us up into two cars and drove us to the police headquarters of that area. Upon our arrival they made us open the remainder of the luggage and they proceeded to count and document everything. At this point they had us both sit in a separate room far enough from each other that we couldn't talk. We remained there for several hours during which time they took each of us out to eat in turn. Then they took Stephen into the back room and grilled him for info for several hours. Once finished with him they did the same with me for a number of hours. We were able to be vague enough that they didn't get much specifics about the other teams or our contact, they were however able to get the phone number of the contact. Since that number is under a false name we don't think that will endanger him much, but if they really wanted to they could track phone records back to him, so pray that he will be protected. After they finished grilling us they told us that they would cancel our visas and give us ten days to leave the country. Eventually, after we told them we already had tickets to leave in about twelve days and couldn't afford new tickets, they relented and consented to let us stay till our scheduled departure(although they still canceled our visas and gave us temporary ones). At this point it was around 3:00am so they took us to a hotel and checked us in, but kept our passports so that we couldn't leave. We ended up staying in the town for a day and a half waiting for them to get the new visa. We left the second day around 3:50pm and got to Lanzhou at 11:00pm.
That night we met with our contact and he resupplied us and gave us a new schedule (we were to stay in Lanzhou and work four universities in the next four nights). We worked the first one that night and it went well.
The next one on the following night was also rather uneventful.
The third one was not so nice. We were working around some dormitories and had just finished a long stretch of doors and vehicles when I saw someone who had been standing in the shadows and watching us. I signaled Stephen and we turned and headed around a nearby building. Once around the corner I stopped and glanced back around to see three men approaching us at a brisk walk. We took off and wound around a few building and made it to an entrance without them finding us and spent the next couple hours finishing up our load in the surrounding neighborhood.
On the fourth night we started working in our last university, but shortly into it we saw that it had a few night watchmen that were patrolling around with flashlights. At one point they saw us and since we had no good reason to be there we just melted into the shadows and decided that instead of risking working there anymore we would leave and work the apartments nearby. It went well for a while and we were almost done when Murphys law struck again. We were working in an enclosed apartment complex and were about to leave through the gate when the guard stepped out of his little shack and started yelling at us. He hadn't seen us personally but he had been watching the security camera feeds on his computer and had seen us. So he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into his shack and continued to fuss at me in chinese. While I was inside Stephen hid the little bit of tracts he had left on him. Once the guard finished fussing at me he left me in the building and went outside toward Stephen. I grabbed the opportunity and walked out of the gate while his attention was elsewhere. I headed across the road and hid in the shadows to empty out the few tracts remaining in my pack, then I stood back and waited to see if Stephen would be able to get out. After a while with no sign of him I decided that the best bet would be to go back to the hotel room and clean it out of anything that would be incriminating. Once I got there I took our map, schedule and some chinese bibles and hide them up in the ceiling air vent and took the empty tract boxes (at this point we were out of tracts) and headed back out to throw them away and see if I could find any sign of Stephen. I met him as he was walking up the road toward the hotel. Shortly after I had split from the scene he, finding that the guard prevented him from getting out through the gate, turned around and headed back into the complex. He jumped a wall and landed on a shed roof, climbed off off that and after trying to scale several walls in this new area, which was some kind of trucking business, he ended up having to exit through the front gate. The gate attendants weren't expecting anyone to be exiting at this hour so they tried to call and get him to stop, but he turned into a dark alley and by a roundabout way made it back to the hotel where I met him.
The next night we met up with the other teams and reorganized the teams some so that I worked with Dad. That night was pretty uneventfully.
The next night was the last we would be able to work before leaving for Beijing. Since we didn't have enough tracts for everyone Dad, Gabriel and I ended up not working while the other five finished up the remainder. As far as I know nothing unusual happened that night.
The next day we flew to Beijing and over the next few days visited with some believers at a church there. One of the men on our team also preached a message through an interpreter that Sunday.
All in all this trip went well. There were a few hiccups but although we can't necessarily see it God works all things for his glory and I am sure He had a reason for everything that happened. Maybe the reason for getting caught was just so that the police could have a chance to hear the gospel.
"And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives... and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted."
Nate Saint
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
Jim Elliot
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