Well, those talents weren't basketball, but at least I got better. So here I am, a few days returned from halfway across the world, trying to explain what in the world happened over the past month. I saw a God who was real in East Asia, working in the hearts of people who cry out in need. And it was amazing the way our team worked together. Each person's gifts completed the team, and I cannot imagine any other group than the one God so aptly put together this summer. Not to say we were perfect, but as long as each person remained humble and teachable, God would be able to use us.
We spent a week in preparation of the weeks that lay ahead. Some of this time was spent in the first stage houses of the St. Stephen's Society (Jackie Pullinger's ministry). I lived with a group of maybe 25 men, former drug addicts who dropped their habits in the name of Jesus, former Triad members who left the violence and power to become broken and loved by Jesus. To hear some of them worship God with such passion that I had never seen, to see the power of God working in their lives; I began to feel at home there by the next day.
God also did some work within me. Breaking down any sense of pride. Realizing how much I was people-pleasing, trying so hard to make others happy, while keeping up this image of being strong at all times, never failing. Always needing to serve in some way, thinking, "what can I offer to this group, what is my role?" when all that God wanted was me, and not the things I could do for Him. Only then was I truly able to glorify his name and allow God to use me. God has a heart for the poor people, who are truly dependent and humbled by their need for Jesus. And so maybe its not until you run out of everything, that your eyes are opened.
Our ministry was basketball, but its heart was for the people. We played basketball and built relationships, meeting cautiously and discipling these children of God. They want more of Him but there are few workers of the harvest to teach them. God has since raised up a couple there with the heart to try to meet with them regularly. We went prayer walking through the city and through an athletic school, where children are groomed for their sport from age six. We held a basketball camp for children of a small village and shared with them what we could under watchful eyes, covering them and surrounding the basketball court with prayer, blessing them to know Christ. We met in homes, shared scripture, and broke bread together.
The fatherless. An orphan, up in a remote village accessible by a two-hour walk. Food and clothes were brought to him. The whole time, he just cried, whether out of sadness or joy. Tomorrow was Children's Day, when all the kids of the village showed off the new set of clothing that they had received. For once, this boy would be able to join them. And this boy became a part of a bigger family, with a Dad who would always be there. The widow. The basketball camp we held was the [2nd Annual] [Coach] Memorial Basketball Camp. Coach ** was the old coach of the basketball team of the village, a man whose crippled legs had been healed by God. He went to be with his Father last year; we were able to visit his wife. A rather joyful woman, she had finally gotten rid of the idols of ancestor worship and had stopped lighting incense sticks for her late husband. She said, "I talk to Jesus wherever I go, he keeps me company." The alien. Feeding people on the street who present themselves in need, without judging whether or not they truly 'need' it. Going off just to buy a sandwich for dinner and meeting a woman who had traveled down to find her husband, who had since been fired from his factory job and was nowhere to be found. She was hungry and had not eaten all day, but Jesus heard her cry and this 'Samaritan woman' was given water and offered living water.
Of course, we had fun, too. Some of us even managed to find our way into a [very-loud-in-the-morning] dance club [just conveniently outside our hotel windows], where we found middle-aged people dancing to more 'teenager-oriented' dance music. I can't even count the hours we spent playing cards, especially Big Two [with the scumbags variation]. Maybe it's just a guy thing, but what better way to pass time when you're on a 18 hour train ride that was delayed 6 more hours because the train kept breaking down? And there are plenty of things that I won't try to explain here, since the Korean Bear, [], and the dirty-mouth boy (and his friend) might not really be that funny. Hey, ten 'adults' together for a month have got to find some way to amuse themselves, don't they?
You could come home from all this, back to the world you first left behind and feel a culture shock bigger than the original. The things that we talk about that are so trivial to our lives and even our faith, when the gospel is so much more important. The times we talk and pray instead of acting. I don't want to be the priest or Levite who passed by the disgusting man, beaten and bloody, and simply offer up a prayer and walk on by to attend to more important and pressing matters. And it's almost a drab life here, when the life there is so vibrant and alive, with people so hungry for the Gospel that they may fill their spiritual holes with the false gospels. Truly, we are so much more alive when we are doing God's work, we are most excited when God is using us to feed his sheep. I learned so much about 'losing my life' and 'denying myself' for Jesus before. Pray that I will do the same for the gospel as I go back to school. Thanks again for all your prayers and blessings. Even though I may have been mostly unaware of them, I have no doubt that God used them, and that I could not have gone out without them. To God be the Glory. David Yung-Ping Chong PS
77:14 You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among
the peoples. |