Day 4- Gao Yao- Friday July 3rd

I'm sitting in the car and we're on the way to Gao Yao. The sky is dark and gloomy from the mixture of overcast clouds and smog. The rain is starting to pick up more and more as the windshield wipers go back and forth. We've been traveling for a few hours now. I'm crammed in the back with Adam and Daniel. The trees are heavily swaying back and forth as the sky continues to drop buckets of water. 

I’ve known about Gao Yao for months now. This is the village were our orphaned and disabled friends grew up in. On our previous missions trip in January, we were supposed to visit Gao Yao. On the day we were supposed to leave, we encountered spiritual warfare. David got really sick out of nowhere and was unable to get out of bed. We ended up having to cancel the trip. I was pretty disappointed at the time. I wanted to experience how it felt like growing up in their town. When we had dinner with the orphans a few nights later, I was only able to see pictures and in-person testimonies of how Gao Yao was like. 

Today as I’m sitting in this car with not a single glimpse of the sun, I’m excited to see what God will open up to me as we stay in Gao Yao from Friday til Sunday. I pray that God will continue to show me the needs of these broken, disabled people. I also pray that we will be able to introduce the love of Jesus Christ with the locals and begin to transform the hearts of these individuals...

We arrived in Gao Yao in the evening. The weather is humid and the sky is still gray from the smog. We checked into a motel that we will be staying at for a few days. Its me, David, Adam, Daniel from the house church, and our driver who we hired for the weekend. He is a non-believer and he will be following us the entire weekend. We met up with Connie, Lori, Lisa and her baby who all grew up in Gao Yao with disabilities. Its apparent that these girls make the attempt to cover up their disabilities and hide their insecurities. Connie was born with born with a deformed right arm. Lori was born with dwarfism. Lisa has cleft lip. These woman are very different than the women in Shanghai through their different upbringings and culture. 

We had dinner at a Chinese resturant. The food was very cheap. Afterwards we drove through the city to their house. The streets were flooded with people on scooters and people walking. The streets were absolutely chaotic and I’m surprised no one got hit. The culture is very different than Shanghai. The people are a lot poorer in this area. A lot more people drive around with scooters and bikes instead of cars which leave the streets looking more open. We arrived at their place and had a testimony from Daniel and a bible study with David. Since our driver was with us, it was a great opportunity to witness to him. He opened the bible and was following along with us. It’s good to know that we were able to expose a portion of the word to him tonight. I pray that he will continue to have an open mind and listen to what we have to say in the next couple days. The girls are very excited that we are here this weekend. I pray that we will continue to share the gospel with them and that they will feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Many of the locals in this town believe in idols and evil spirits. I also pray that we will be protected from any spiritual warfare we may encounter.