73. Back to Russia again

 

Hospital dormitories

The first time I went to Russia, although I was treated unfairly, there were two blessings in my heart, such as Marina becoming an apostle and preaching the gospel for the Lord all over Russia, although she did not go to Africa, the seeds of her going to Africa remain in my heart, and one day they will sprout and grow. The second thing was that God called me back to Russia, and one night when our team was waiting for the bus, I saw the stars in the sky, and I said, “It's beautiful!” I began to praise the Lord! Then the Lord said to me, “Why don't you complain about me? But praise me, and you will return to Russia for my name's sake.” Just a few words from God touched my heart very much, how could I not go back to Russia?

Another experience was the last time I was in the small town of Black Sea, Tuapse, it was winter, there were many snowfalls, and thick and deep snow accumulated on the road. But up to my thigh, I was jumping from hole to hole, and I wrote in my prayer letter, “One small step for them is one big step for me...” I was not very tall, but I had a big ambition, and a teacher at the Australian Missionary Training University, Don encouraged me, saying, “He has seen a lot of little sisters, and they are very spiritually well, and their visions and ministries are great.”

However, my stubbornness is a gamble, I never admit defeat, and I rarely have expectations for my future from my teachers, father, relatives and friends; But God gave me faith and hope for the future, as Jeremiah 29:11 said, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, ”plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God knows my heart, the last time I went to Russia I had a spiritual stumble, I had to go back to Russia, in my weakness, get back up, my stubbornness, make me agree with God's call, go back to Russia, fight again, I know this is a difficult spiritual battle, God will lead me to victory in Russia.

When I arrived in the city of Rostov on Don and stayed with a director and his wife, when I opened the suitcase, which contained half a box of daily necessities, Larry and his wife laughed and said, “You can buy everything here.” I asked Vicky, the interpreter in Tuapse, to tell me nothing in Russia that it was no wonder I was overpaying for two bags and I thought to myself, “Shouldn't I bring it, it's funny! Laugh!” I couldn't laugh at all, it was a bad thing, and my whole good plan was ruined, because I just wanted to improve my home life.

The next day, he was sent to the countryside by the person in charge, and for the next two months, he stayed in a small Mongolian town, ran past the local telephone office, and didn't even know where Taiwan was? I waited a full day before the operator asked me, “Where is Taiwan?” I had to shake my head and go back to the hospital, we were living in a hospital bed, there were three people in a small room, there was not a lot of running water, we could only take a cold bath, I could only take a hot bath once a week, the water there was coffee-colored, I really couldn't drink it as boiling water, I only drank coffee or tea to cover the color of the water, I worked with six other Russians, one brother could speak and listen English completely, and one sister in the same dormitory, who could only understand English and answer in Russian, could I survive? I'm a very talkative woman, and I'm so silent that I'm almost suffocating myself.

I had a lot of friction with these Russian brothers and sisters, and I was one of the two sisters who had to manage the food, and I went to the hospital kitchen several times to cook, and the people there had never seen Chinese people, only watched TV series, and these women would touch my head and body as if I were their idol, and I was really uncomfortable. Once, at noon, I saw the soup on the fire, and I saw some shiitake mushrooms on the table, and I washed them and put them in the pot. As a result, more people accused me of poisoning the soup, joke! I want to drink it myself; do I poison myself? Later, I figured out that these shiitake mushrooms needed to be sifted before they could be put into the soup, but I put them all in, which caused a misunderstanding.

Another time, when I was making pizza for dinner, because there was no oven, I fried it, causing a thick smoke, and one of the brothers removed the whole window, so that the smoke that could not be seen cleared, and the leader of the short-term mission told me that I could never cook, and I could eat what other people cooked, until one day, because the new leader did not cook breakfast for me, he said to me; "Cook it yourself! You've lifted the ban.” But the next day, we left the Mongolian town, and it was too late for the ban to be lifted!

When I was transiting at the airport in Germany, I made a phone call home with a charge card, and the next day I went to the countryside in Russia, I lost contact with my family, my father contacted our country's economic office in Moscow through his friends in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the diplomats there sent us the YWAM office in Chinese language, and how could those Canadians understand Chinese, and they were afraid that I would be distracted, so they didn't tell me for the time being, and the telephone office there didn't know where Taiwan was? It was hard to get in touch, and my dad and family in Taipei were so anxious that I didn't know anything. From then on, my family told me that when I go to any country to preach, I must contact my family, otherwise I will not go for mission.