Friday, October 06, 2006
Today as I was being driven to our China base I saw something that will stay in my mind for the rest of my life. A young looking girl was lying face down on the side of the main road presumably dead or worse still soon to be, we kept on going as did every one else, it was like no-one noticed her at all.
I had bibles in the boot and if we had stopped 1: I didn't know enough Chinese to be much use and 2: This would involve the police at some stage and really didn't want to be around police whiles my car was full of books.
It was certainly an interesting time looking at this girl and not being able to do anything.
Please pray for this girl it's a prayer that you may never see answered but rest assured God will hear the prayer and answer to your call. posted by pete footer at 10:50 PM
12 Comments:
hey, this is a fantastic blog. China was a country ive always wanted to work in with the army or some other group, I dont know why, but ive been drawn to it before, so when I saw you on sally bloggers I had no choice but to leave a comment, so here it is! I'm Alistair Smith, random 17 year old scottish salvationist, currently leading 2 lives, one as a chemical engineering student, the other as an undercover potential officer, mostly because my dad would go nuts if I told him, but there you are. Am involved in most army things I can get to and guitarist in divisional worship band. This must seem odd, but I just sorta felt the need to contact you, and when i dont do what im being urged to do, me and god seem to go off in seperate directions.
Godbless.
Great to hear your considering officer ship I’m considering that path to and would defiantly take it other some Earthly 9-5 job.
Autumn Rain the guys I work with does take people for two week times if your interested it will help you grow closer to him and learn to hear his voice.
Also I'm in England in March is there any chance we could meet up? I'm speaking at church's around the bottom part of England but have no problems catching a plane up to Scotland if your church would have me. E-mail me some time. petefooter@hotmail.com
You said "It was certainly an interesting time looking at this girl and not being able to do anything." - of course you were able to do something, you just chose not to. It seems you were more worried about yourself and the potential problems you may have encountered with the police. Having read your blog a number of times before I am becoming pretty cynical about you and your mission - your constant bragging about border crossings seems to be more about you own need for thrillseeking than anything else. This little story of yours just seems to reinforce my thoughts in this area - don't worry about the girl who may be dying, just get away from the police so the thrills can continue.
What I love about Hong Kong and allot of the world is the freedom to your own opinion and as the Americans like to put it the freedom of speech, which is why I'll be keeping your comment on the bog. You have every right to think this about me.
I would like to say that I only take bibles into Asia because there is a need and that if you ever came over to do this work you would soon realize just how not fun and some times even straight out depressing it really is, no frills no James Bond moves and certainly no warm fuzzy feelings as you see 100 bibles go to China and look at the need for 50 million (we are hardly winning right now.)
I post border crossings up here occasionally to share the testimony of what God is doing. If you don’t like it bless you brother I have no problems with you or any one else who doesn’t like my work. That is the beauty of Jesus and his mission the billions of souls going to hell and all of the injustice in this world far out way a pointless disagreement.
Even IF Pete here is only about thrills, which I don't belive he is at all, Bibles are still moving into China. Many good things have been done by selfish motives. Many bad things too, but who can say that the spreading of God's word, is bad.
I really don't know what I would have done in that situation. My first instinct might be for a person to jump out and stay with the girl, and sort out the rest later, but I really have no experience with these things, and am only going on imagination.
Prayers for her, you, and China, go up now.
The interesting thing about the blog is that anyone can now be published. Gone are the days when being published meant that you were 1, a skilled and articulate writer - the content being assumed accurate an expression enough that such an attack be permissable, maybe even invited, and 2, published within a particular tradition. Is this a diary? - certainly the name Weblog would lend us to believe so. Is this just a means of staying in touch with friends and family? Is this a theological document? An essay?Propaganda? An epistle? The thoughts, feelings and experiences of a guy along way from home doing some very important and tiring work? What is the appropriate medium of response? An attack of character?
"Anonymous", if that is your real name, I would suggest that leaving critical comments and not your name and making such a brutal assesment of someone's character and motives through the medium of written word (and blog at that!) is not a sound practice.
I know Peter and this seems unnecessary.
I have to say if I could do it all again I would have sent the others on ahead and jumped out to help. But sadly I didn't I had a split second to think about what to do and went with my gut reaction.
Please keep in mind I don't want this to become an argument people are entitled to their own opinion’s and arguments just break up friendship and waste time.
Let God be the judge...
Steve talks me up... wow that's amazing there's hardly a week that goes by with out me telling some one how great he is and how every one should be in War College. That's really amazing... wow.
As for the shirt how cool are they!! I'm told they want to sell them later on I think every one should try to get there hands on one.
I love Pete.
I love lamp
Hi Pete,
During my 15 years in Asia, I have seen some heartbreaking scenes just like the one you described, and the awful feeling of not having the presence of mind or the ability or the opportunity to help. That it cuts you up shows that your heart is tender and is moved by the things that move God's heart. Once Doug saw a bleeding, battered man on a street in Guangzhou. Later when Doug told me this story, he broke down in tears and anyone who knows Doug knows that this stoic man does not often do that. Once I saw a young woman being bullied and assaulted by a young man while I was in a bus hauling Bibles in China - I had no way to get off and intervene. Once we saw babies laid out in the sun, dying and dehydrating so the "owners" could beg money. We have seen children who have had their limbs cut off on purpose so they could be used for begging. I have seen people stabbed, kicked, beaten and frogmarched off right in front of my eyes. I saw a man whose friend had just been killed by a train while they crossed the railroad tracks. The survivor crawled onto the platform. And the police began to beat and scold him - while he was still so shocked and dazed he could not even respond. We were here when tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square in 1989 and thousands of innocent young people were slaughtered. We were here when several of the house church Christians were beaten to death in prison. Once I tapped a police officer on the shoulder as he was kicking two young bound prisoners in the head as they were forced to kneel before him. Doug thought i was about to get myself and him both killed. I said in Chinese, "please don't beat the prisoner". That time, this approach succeeded in preventing more brutality .... at least while we were still around. Did they beat those poor boys even worse afterwards, to pay them back for how I humiliated that policeman? Another time we saw an old man lying bleeding on the ground. We went to help. Suddenly, a man drove a bike straight into his head as he lay there. Doug just reacted, and grabbed the guy off the bike. 5 hoods jumped Doug and began beating him. A man began bashing the old man lying on the ground. I jumped in the way and yelled, "Don't you dare!!!" The attacker back-handed me and sent me flying. I jumped back up and yelled, "You can hit me again if you like but I am not going to let you beat this old man!" Doug yelled, "Watch out Julie, they are bringing an axe!" Just at that moment, the police came and we were rescued from further trouble. The dispute was between the old man whose son had messed with the local money lending sharks and this gang of thugs, like triads. Did we do any good by getting involved in this brawl? We did what we thought was right at the time, and went away feeling guilty and ashamed. We tried to figure out a way to snatch those dying babies from their Fagin owners and smuggle them through Lo Wu to Hong Kong. When we went back, they were gone.
Many, many, many times, we have seen terrible sin and need that we felt compelled to do something about, and for various complex reasons, were unable to find an effective way to address the need and solve the problem. We have been saddened and humbled and sometimes filled with grief and guilt about our inability.
But, we have spent all our adult lives trying to do something. Trying. Something. Something to hold back those who are staggering away to certain death. We do what we can, we try to be faithful to what God gives into our hand to do, and we trust our God of mercy with all that is beyond us. And we pray that many, many thousands more like Anonymous will leave their computers behind and come to help. We know that if they do, they too will make an exponential impact for eternity on the one hand - and that their hearts will be broken all the times they are unable to help on the other hand - they will be torn just as we have been torn. Pride and self-congratulation will be impossible, because the burden of the needs and the nagging feeling of guilt for all that you were not able to do kind keeps you grounded in the face of such overwhelming need.
Whatever we do for the Kingdom, whether locally or overseas, spiritual pride is a pitfall we must all avoid like the plague. But this something we must check in our own heart of hearts in our prayer closet with the God who knows every heart and sees all. It is too easy to judge those who are at least attempting to do something.
Pete, we have seen your heart and your faithful work and your compassion towards the lost as well as towards ourselves and your othr co-workers. We know that the Lord is doing a good work in you. You have been a blessing to us all.
May the Lord send many more like you to this challenging harvest field.
Meanwhile, let's all go on in humility, knowing that we are trying to glorify the Lord and obey His leading, but that we all have dodgy motives at times, or cop attitudes sometimes - but praise God He knows our hearts, that we really do want to love and serve Him and to be His hands and feet to a hurting world that needs His love.
Julie Bell autumnrainoz@bigpond.com
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