I went to Denver Christmas Conference last week. It’s a regional Campus Crusade conference where I met up with East Asia friends from this summer. Being surrounded by them took me back to summer experiences across the world, being immersed in the Chinese people and feeling the Holy Spirit move. It was refreshing and renewing, something I needed for a great start to 2011.
I had the opportunity to talk to a few of my close friends, one of them who has a passion for East Asia. She has a passion for the lost and sharing the gospel to the people in the remotest parts of the world.
I left Denver before the conference was over and was headed back to Nebraska. Before I went home to Omaha, I stopped in both Grand Island and Lincoln for a few days. While I was celebrating the new year in Lincoln with college friends, I received a text from my friend that said, “I’m going back to East Asia. Until the Lord closes the door, I’m all in.” Later, she told me she had a vision from the Lord during a worship session.
In Denver, she was worshiping with 1,200 American college students. Their hands were raised and praising Jesus openly and freely. She had a vision of 1,200 Chinese college students gathering to worship Jesus freely. In her message to me, she wrote, “I want too see students freely praising God not because it will change their lives (though I know it will), but I primarily want to see that worship because God deserves it. He is worthy of it. I want to see every tribe tongue and nation praising freely to the Creator of freedom. I want to see 2,400 Chinese hands in the air worshiping as the body of Christ. Now of course I have to idea what to do now other than pray. I’m not sure if I’ll have any part in making it happen and I know that it might not happen on earth. But I am confident that it was not a vision based on feeling alone but also on truth. It lines up with what the Lord desires for his people. I’m going to start praying that that happens.”
What a great vision that the Lord gave my friend that day. Ever since she told me about it on January 1st, I haven’t been able to let that vivid image escape my mind. It’s now the vision that motivates me each day. I want to have a part of making that come true, and I believe all I can do is be obedient and available. I can’t wait to see this happen, whether I see it in this life or the next. I’m praying boldly for God to work and move in the lives of the college students and the government officials. I’m praying for radical change and transformation in the lives of Chinese students! Join me in praying that we will see every tongue, tribe and nation worshiping Jesus!!
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from EVERY NATION AND ALL TRIBES AND PEOPLES AND TONGUES… and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
– Revelation 7:9-10
stories from China 