"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."
Judy Thompson tells of their adventure with God in China and their praise of God's faithfulness in the midst of danger, doubt, and disease.
We prayed for over 4 years to be God's servants on the mission field. After applying with many agencies we were accepted with CAPS (China America Personnel) based in Seattle. We had 3 months to prepare ourselves and we were off to China in 1987. We spent 17 hours on a DC-10 to Hong Kong. Arriving in a typhoon. We were the last plane to land. Two days later, we boarded an OLD ship to Xiamen for another 17 hours in a terrible typhoon.
Xiamen was a city of 1 million people and very crowded with open air markets, taxis, accordian buses. We did not have a kitchen; we cooked on an old wire hotplate and used a rice cooker. We did dishes in the bathroom sink, and our laundry in the bathtub. We had to shop everyday as there was no refrigeration. The people were so kind. We made many friends and we became a part of their culture. Life was hard, but we loved the Lord and people could see there was something different with us. We told them we had Jesus in our hearts. We had to secretly share about Jesus as it was forbidden. Students wanted to know how we could love a God we could not see. After 3 months, and praying hard, we asked the university if we could teach the Bible. We were allowed to teach 2 hours weekly. God put on those tennis shoes and RAN. So many students became believers. We had to leave Xiamen after one year. The government did not allow visitors to stay more than one year in the same place, as they rightly knew that powerful relationships would be formed. This was a very difficult time, we had made so many friends with the professors and students, and it felt as if our hearts were being ripped apart.
We moved to Chongqing, a city of over 10 million with terrible weather! The university was 1 hr. away from the city, high in the mountains. Stan taught teachers and had a great schedule. Judy's schedule was in the evening, as the students had to be in class all day. Sometimes classes were not held due to shortage of electricity and they never made the classes up. They were Marxist and very stubborn.
Most of our team was sick and after the first semester our director pulled many of us out to go to Hong Kong to wait upon the Lord. After 3 days, Stan felt God was taking us to Taiwan.
Taiwan is beautiful with 21 million people. We taught in Taichung for 19 months and applied to return to China in 1989. We were accepted in Hongzhou when the Tienamin incident occurred and all foreigners were evacuated. Just one day before returning to the states, however, we got a call from our director that Dr. Jonathan Chou needed teachers at Christ's College in Kwandu, Taipei and after an interview we were hired. We went there in Aug. 1989.
This was a Liberal Arts College where many students who had failed their Joint Entrance Exams (preventing them from attending prestigious universities) were able to attend. When they came to Christ's College, the students had to sign a contract that they would abide by the Christian rules, and one of the rules was to be in Chapel 6 times per week. These students were broken in their spirits. They had very low self-esteem and their English was very poor. Plus they had never been around any foreign teachers. Students and teachers all lived on campus. We not only taught conversation, we developed a program for the listening lab, visited with students, and held dorm devotions 3 x per week. We were known as "Mama Judy and Papa Stan" outside the classroom. Our days were 16 hours long.
December 15, 1992 we celebrated our 30th anniversary by renewing our vows in the chapel and had a party with our discipleship class. It was very special and the students were able to recognize that God is in our marriage. Most of the students after 4 years do become Christians. It is a MAJOR event when they do. Often painful for them as their families disown them and they are rejected by their own siblings. We saw time and time again God's faithfulness to the students. He is BIGGER than all of us and HE NEVER failed them.
We also grew in the Lord. We were a community at Christ's College and we also had weekly staff/prayer time. This was very good for us and we depended on God for EVERYTHING.
When you do God's work you are always on the battleground. Satan will attack in any way to keep you from doing what you are called to do. As many of you know, Judy battled breast cancer in Feb. 1992.
We came home for the summer but had no sooner returned to Christ's College when Judy had another attack from the Evil One. This time her colon had separated requiring 2 surgeries with many complications. Judy was in ICU for four days. During this time the students came to pray, to sit and be with us. The community stepped in and the church supplied our meals for a long time.
Judy is a fighter and told the students that God had already won the battle, and was taking care of us. They saw God was indeed our anchor. When she had a total knee replacement in Jan. 1994, again, students rallied around and prayed for us. We had a BIG family of God.
We left Christ College in Aug. 1994 after much prayer. It was time to come back and heal. The pain in our hearts never left - we longed for China and we prayed that one day God would take us back.
And He did. As you know, we returned to Quanzhou, Fujian in Nov. 2004. This trip was much more difficult. We saw gangs just like here. The students are very bold and have dyed hair of all colors and baggy jeans, trying to be Western. There are many large supermarkets and all kinds of American restaurants. The parents/grandparents take the babies outside to pee or poop even though they have a bathroom. It is just cultural. People spit on the sidewalks everywhere. Smoking and alcohol use is rampant.
Due to health problems, we felt we needed to return again. As you know Stan is a diabetic and the food was not good for him.
We find that China is changing rapidly. The government still cracks down on religion and yet there are churches including a huge Islam temple in the middle of the city. We didn't see the Communists in the green uniforms as much as we did before.
If our Father would call us to return to Asia or elsewhere, we would be the first to say yes. We pray that God's footprints were left in the hearts of the people. We will always be His disciples.
