Our editor, Lilian, shares her account of those who weren’t able to pray out loud and the lesson she learned after witnessing it.
I sometimes take my faith for granted. I didn’t have to “work” or “go out to seek” my faith. For the longest time, my faith was something I had taken for granted. Everything changed when I went to a rural village in China for a business trip. As part of my job, I used to inspect and tour factories, or what we call in North America— sweat shops. While the factory manager was leading me into the cafeteria, I saw a few girls praying in a corner. These girls looked like they were around my age but they were praying while paying attention to their surrounding. In the few years that I traveled to China for work, it was the first time I encountered a group of local people praying publicly. The factory manager saw me paying attention to them and quickly brushed them away.
I asked the manager why he was brushing them aside? His response was “up to no good.. no good.” It suddenly struck me: Why were these girls who were around the same age as me being brushed to the side and described as being “up to no good.. no good,” when they were just simply praying in a corner? These girls were just simply having a prayer meeting. Something that most Christians do on a regular basis around the world.
I was very upset about the situation and I shared this with a Christian coworker. She told me to consider it a blessing. These girls out in the middle of nowhere had the opportunity to know about God’s love. Someone must have followed God’s words to “bring the word to many nations” and these girls were saved.
It hit me like a truck. I must have been on numerous business trips to similar factories but that was my one and only time seeing someone pray in public. Ever since then, whenever I give myself an excuse for not doing something— I think of these girls and what they have to go through just to pray.
