Moments

So this past week, we were on a holiday from school. So my teammate Hailey and I decided to take a quick 860 mile trip to Shanghai for 3 days. Before we got there I told Hailey we weren't allowed to freak out about how amazingly awesome we both knew Shanghai was going to be. We weren't allowed to stare at all the foreigners, squeal over the Western delights we found, marvel at how people actually waited until the green walking sign came on to walk across the street, or just basically gush over anything that was not like Taiyuan.

Did we listen to me?

PFFFTT! Nah!

People actually waiting to cross the street. SAY WHAT?!!

Me asleep on the overnight train

Me and Hailey on the Bund (famous big road in Shanghai-look it up)

And while we were there, I got to see my friend, Christian who also is teaching in China. It's so crazy and awesome that we are both in China teaching this year. 

Me and my friend Christian

Hailey and I also got to visit these beautiful gardens in downtown Shanghai. We shopped around at the market outside the gardens too. We found this street that looked like Christmas threw up on it. I've never seen so much Christmas stuff in my life. 

There were like 20 of these Christmas shops on this street. INSANE

Me and Hailey at the gardens

There are moments where I often wonder what in the world I’m doing in China. I know this is all part of Father’s plan, but sometimes I can’t always see what exactly He has me doing here. Then He shows me.

 As we sat in the train station waiting to leave Shanghai, a little girl carrying a small bag and a sign came up to us. She saw me playing with my iPad, and she sat down next to me and starting playing with it. I was sort of in shock at first, but I figured “it’s China, I’ll just roll with it” [my life motto now]. We looked at her sign but it was in Chinese so we couldn’t read it. She sat with us for almost three hours while we waited for our train. She was probably the most vivacious, funny, quirky Chinese child I have met yet. I can’t pronounce her Chinese name, but I figured out she was seven years old. She played with me, made funny faces at me, ate the oranges and candy we gave her, gave me hugs and kisses, held my hand. She also kept pointing out how white my skin was compared to hers. She would point at her hand, point at my hand, and point at the white floor. I think she was trying to tell me that my skin was as white as the floor.

Hilarious.

The little girl showing me her loose tooth. Isn't she precious?1

We still couldn’t figure out why she was there or where her parents were. Finally, a lady sat down near us who spoke English and Chinese.  She was able to translate for us.

This is what we found out.

This little girl was seven years old, and her parents had sent her to the train station to beg for money. Her parents were off somewhere else begging, and her father would pick her up later that evening.

It took everything in me not to burst into tears right there in the train station. All I wanted to do was to take this precious, beautiful little girl into my arms and never let go. How could anyone send their seven year old little girl out begging for money? By herself? In a train station where all manner of people are? I just couldn’t fathom it. How does someone reach that level of desperation?

I sat there, wrestling with these questions and unsure as to what I was supposed to do. That’s when I remembered why I was in China: to show Father’s love. In her beautiful brown eyes I could see the hunger for love.  So for those three hours, I just loved on this little girl. I held her hand, let her lay her head on my lap, gave her kisses, stroked her hair, played with her until it was time for her to leave.

I’ve never seen desperation and poverty that close before. Even when I went to Mexico and saw one of the colonias near the border. This was in my face, raw and exposed. And I didn’t know how to deal with it other than to show this child love.

But it broke my heart.

All I wanted to do was to take this child home with me. I wanted to take her away from the situation she was and give her a safe home, a place where she doesn’t have to beg for food or money. But I couldn’t. And that frustrated me to no end. All I could do was just sit there and play with her and give her candy.

But maybe that’s why I was there.

Maybe this little moment, in the crowded, dirty Shanghai train station, was the reason why Father brought me to China. Maybe this little girl will remember the strange, white foreign teacher who played with her in the train station. And maybe some day she will understand that Father loves her. That is my prayer for her: that maybe during those three hours I spent with her, Father worked in her heart.

Me holding the little girl's hand

I know the holiday season is crazy, busy, and sometimes there isn’t any time to just stop and listen. But I encourage you to take some time this holiday season to love on someone who has no one to love them. Whether that’s a sick child in a hospital, an orphan, the elderly in a nursing home, a homeless person, it doesn’t matter. Just love on someone. Because maybe, just maybe Father will use that moment for His glory and bring that lost person to Himself. After all, that’s what Christmas is about isn’t it? Father sent His Son to love us and show us what true love is.