Clarks: Zhou Li

Zhou Li (Jo-lee) works in a massage parlor. She spends about 12 hours a day, 28 days a month washing and rubbing people's feet. As far as we know, the place she works is totally legitimate—it’s not an undercover brothel, in other words—although, that’s not to say she doesn’t deal with her share of lecherous men making inappropriate comments and unwelcomed advances.
Zhou Li’s family—her parents and daughter—live several hours away in her hometown. She was young, too young, when her daughter was born, and the man was apparently not interested in being a long-term father, so the girl is being raised by her grandparents, while Zhou Li works here in Hangzhou and sends money home.
She’s not seen her daughter in quite a while, and with only three days off work for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), she’s unable to make the trip home this year. She misses her very badly but is able to talk by telephone fairly often and reassures herself, when we ask, that her daughter is smart and cute and is doing well.
Zhou Li is excited for us to be having a daughter. When we first met her, we were still telling ourselves and others that we had no intention of having a child. Now all that has changed, and we are only days away from seeing our little girl born.
A couple days ago, Zhou Li spent one of her three vacation days riding the bus from her neighborhood in the southern part of the city all the way up here to where our hospital is located. She called and said she was on her way, but it seemed to take so long that I eventually assumed I had misunderstood her. When she finally arrived, we realized what had happened. Before coming to see us, she had gone to a supermarket nearby and bought gifts for us and the baby. She brought us large packs of strawberries, kiwis, walnuts—expensive things we would rarely buy for ourselves. She also gave us three pieces of baby clothing—two precious “onesies” and a fluffy pink jumper—all of which happened to be the same brand as what I had just bought a few days before. Really nice and attractive stuff, and somewhat costly. We figure that she must have spent at least 200 yuan (about a tenth of her monthly salary).
And all of this… the effort, the expense… for two foreigners who just happened to treat her like a person, talk to her, ask about her life—while indulging ourselves in a foot massage. All of this, despite the fact that we’ve only seen her a handful of times, only exchanged a few phone calls and text messages, and only seen her once outside of the massage parlor. All of this, despite the fact that she is not a Christian and, unfortunately, has not had even one Bible study with us yet.
This is just Zhou Li.
This is just the common amazing grace that God gives, in unexpected and marvelous ways, through surprising and unsuspecting people, to each of us day by day.