Our Guide

I want to make sure and mention that we were instructed as far as our faith, to keep it to ourselves unless we were asked.  Well, Heidi was very interested our Christian faith and has asked us lots of questions.  We asked her questions as well.  She is very proud of her Chinese heritage and her culture, which is very respectable.  She told us about their differnt holidays and how they celebrate.  Yesterday when we went to the Great Wall it was "Tomb Sweeping Day".  That is why we aren't getting Fisher until Tuesday, because the consulate is closed for the holiday on Monday.  So she told us for tomb sweeping day they decorate the tomb with flowers, but she said that is a modern thing.  Traditionally they take items they think the ancestor would like or could use in the afterlife and they burn it at the grave.  
For example, food, clothes etc.  They also make fake paper money and burn it so the ancestors can use that.  She even said they were making paper iPhones and burning those!  We talked about what happens to people after they died and she said she thought there was a heaven for good people and hell for bad people.  I wanted to ask her where she thought she was going and I wondered if heaven was go great why did they need money or food or iPhones?  There were many things I wanted to ask and to say, but I wanted to badly to show her love and respect and to be gentle in our discussions.
Sterling asked if I thought Heidi was a believer and I said, no.  We started praying for her the first day we met her.  On our last day we had to stop at the airport to exchange money.  Heidi and Greg went into the airport and the kids and I waited in the car with our driver, Master Lee.  They were gone about 30 minutes.  While they were gone, Greg had the opportunity to talk to Heidi a little about Jesus Christ and about the Bible.  She told him, "I just don't undertstand why you would want to adopt a child that is not yours".  Greg told her that Jesus told us to take care of the orphans and the widows in the Bible.  He asked her if she had ever seen a Bible and she said she had a children's Bible, but she said, "it's just stories!"  Greg told her yes, there are stories, but there is much more.  
When they dropped us off at the hotel, Greg decided he wanted to give Heidi his Bible.  I already had a gift prepared for her, so we just put the Bible in the bag with the other gifts.  I brought it back downstairs and told her to open it when she got on the train.  She took a train everyday to come help us.  We prayed for her last night and as I woke up through the night I continued to pray for her that The Lord would water the seeds that He planted through us.
This morning when she met us in the lobby she ran up to Greg and said, "you gave me your Bible?"  He said yes, and she said thank you.  She told Greg that she read it last night and found where it tells us to take care of the widows and the orphans in the book of James.  Oh my heart could have exploded when Greg told me!  I told you already how quickly and deeply we had bonded with Heidi.  I could never had imagined how much we would trust her and become attached.  Sterling wrote her several notes and drew her several pictures telling her God loved her and she did too.  What a blessing it has been to be with her in Beijing.  We will keep up with her by email and maybe even skype with her!  Being with her and having the opportunity to introduce her to The Lord was truly the best part of Beijing.  I cannot wait to see what The Lord has planned for Guanzhou!