Erik Burklin: From China
Service with a smile…
I’m sitting in the unheated church building somewhere in the countryside of Sichuan freezing. It is 39 degrees outside and raining today. Even though I am wearing thermal underwear I can feel the bone chilling cold sensation creep up my legs. My feet are numb. I look up and notice a man with a baseball cap coming toward me; he pours steaming hot water into a Dixie cup. He gives it to me and smiles…he doesn’t know any English but he loves Jesus and knows I am cold. I tell him xie xie (thank you)…he waves it off as if to say, “don’t mention it.” I drink the hot water and feel it warm my body. Simple hot water has never tasted so good!
While we have come to serve the brothers and sisters with much needed training I experience service with a smile. I am humbled…another important lesson learned in China.
“I have come NOT to be served but to serve.” – Jesus (Matt 20:28)
