Asia Recap 4

I got up around 8:00 this morning and had an amazing fresh-fruit, bacon-filled, pastry-induced breakfast.  It was some of the first western food that I had eaten since arriving.  I wasn't opposed to eating local dishes, but something familiar was pleasant to my mouth and my digestive tract.  I stopped by the concierge and asked about recommended sights to see and things to do.  I also asked them to write down instructions in the native language so I could purchase a train ticket.  After establishing the agenda for the day, I got into a taxi headed to the train station.  The taxi driver and I had a pleasant non-conversation about stopping at the bank before going to the station.  I was confused because the night before the train station looked much different that it did in broad daylight.  He kept telling me that it was right behind us, but I insisted on curb-side service.  He turned the taxi around and drove for about thirty seconds, and then once again pointed at the train station.  I felt like a complete idiot.  Humility knows no international borders.

I bought a train ticket and attempted another taxi ride to get to a mountain park.  After my less than successful bus ride the night before and arriving at the wrong hotel, I figured pointing at a map and telling the driver I wanted to go there had a better chance of success.  Once again the Lord wanted to show me that my way is not the best.  The taxi driver insisted on jabbering about how he could not drive to the park despite my best efforts to communicate to him that, in fact, he could drive there.  I got out of the car and headed over to trusty bus number two with high hopes that the bus stop map I was given was correct.  After about ten minutes on the bus, I got off and headed to the park.  It was definitely a festive entrance.  Hundreds of people crowded the street leading up to the entrance.  Music was playing, sales were selling, and beggars were begging.  I found the ticket counter and paid the $0.75 entrance fee.  I was greeted by the traditional sidewalk artists and not a clue as to why I was there.  I observed many cultural sights and sounds before deciding to head up to a temple.  On the way to the temple, I saw women preparing some sort of dance routine, men playing badminton, children dancing, and a band playing some traditional music.  The whole park was filled with culture that created an incredibly soothing atmosphere despite my inability to understand much of the words that were being spoken around me.

I definitely stuck out like a foreigner.  During my three days here, I saw one other white person.  I was pretty sure I was the only American in a several thousand mile radius.  Nevertheless, I was determined to figure out why the Lord had asked me to come to this particular city.  After hiking up a mountain, I arrived at the temple and observed some of the darkness in which these people walk.  I saw a glass encased Buddha and many people coming to worship him.  It was odd that these men and women lit incense and prayed to a god that had to be protected from the elements.  It was sad to see them worshiping a god that needed a shelter to be protected from a storm when the true God could say to that storm "Peace, be still", and it would obey.  I walked in and around the temple sights for an hour or so before heading up the rest of the mountain.  I observed many wild monkeys on my way up.  I was the only person heading up this way, so it was a little bit disconcerting to be on my way up a mountain that was inhabited only by wild monkeys and signs in a language that I could not understand.

Earlier this year, I was wrestling through the Lord's will for my life.  I studied Moses and his time on top of the mountain in Exodus.  During my time leading up to my trip, I was prompted to a forty day fast from some distractions in my life.  It was providential that I was hiking up a mountain at this time.  In the United States there are very few churches that embrace Spirit-filled worship.  I had music pumping through my ears, and David Crowder led a worship session like none other that afternoon on the top of that mountain.  From the top I could see much of the city through a hazy pollution filled sky.  I prayed over that city and its people in way that I had never done before. My soul screamed in silence that people would come to know Jesus and the freedom He offers His people if they would only trust Him.  My heart bled tears as I witnessed the false gods that they had been worshiping for the past several thousand years.  Something happened to me on top of that mountain that would forever change they way that I live my life.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon walking around the park and talking to a university professor who helped me get some lunch/dinner.  I walked back to the hotel and guitar store caught my eye.  I stopped in and talked to the owner for a minute or two before heading back to the hotel.  I grabbed some coffee at the hotel and went back to the store.  We sang an Eric Clapton song together and swapped a few songs.  He sang American songs while I sung worship music.  He had no idea the Gospel was being proclaimed, but hopefully a little bit of light now shines in that store.  We exchanged farewells, and I walked back to the hotel.  I realized that evening that I had a train ticket in a plastic chair instead of a soft-sleeper bed.  I had a million excuses as to why I could not travel this way.  Tomorrow's agenda would include exchanging my ticket and experiencing other scenarios of God's provision and protection.