Laws

We were driving to GaoYan’s hometown for the Spring Festival. Just before we turned at a traffic light to get on the highway, a policeman stood in the middle of the road and stopped our car. “Turn over there and pay your traffic fines.” I remember back, being stopped by a policeman in America when I was much younger. My heart was pounding and racing and my hands sweating. This time was all very friendly. The policemen were laughing and joking. Another man was smiling paying his traffic fines. He communicated two words to me in English, “pay money.”

600 yuan! What did I do? It’s not really what I did, but the traffic eyes of Hangzhou have been well developed in the past year. There are radars and cameras at every intersection now. A speeding ticket, four parking tickets, and an unauthorized right turn on red.

Of course, I have a perfectly good explanation for my speeding ticket. We were driving across this long bridge, speed limit 40 mph. Suddenly without warning the speed limit changes to 20 mph at the end of the bridge with radars and cameras. That’s not fair.

We were over the limit so GaoYan had to walk to another office to pay the money. Our Sunny car was all loaded up for the journey, Caleb and Joy sitting in the back seat. I was circling around probably amassing more traffic tickets. Phone call, “Josh, they need you to come sign the paper.” “There’s nowhere to park. How can I come in and sign the paper?” Poor GaoYan had to put all the points on her driver’s license, but they were mostly my mistakes.

Two weeks later driving in downtown Hangzhou. I slowly eased up to a red light centered perfectly in my lane. I was studying the intersection planning my path so I would not get another violation. I noticed policemen had stopped a group of seven or eight pedestrians who had just walked across the road. They were digging in pockets and purses for their ID. Yes, that’s right, walking tickets! The policemen were pointing down the block to the walking overpass. You have to walk up the stairs, across the overpass, down the stairs carrying your heavy bags of vegetables. Walking across the road at this intersection is very dangerous.

Drive perfectly in the center of the white lines, park just right in the box, walk inside the fence. You better do it right or “pay money.” I guess if you have a lot of people you need a lot of laws. As time goes on the new laws keep piling up and they feel such a heavy burden

Amazing the law of the Lord is so old yet revives the soul, makes wise the simple, …

Psalm 19:7-11
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.


Caleb and Joy delighting in the law of the Lord posted on the walls of a church.

Selling Our House Conversations

We have loved living here, the views of the mountains and lots of space to run and play on the university campus. However, there is not an elementary school really convenient, and we live on the sixth floor with no elevator. And we live a good way out of the city. So other people do not think our house is amazing as we have.

In America you can just tell one realtor you are selling your house and they will take care of the rest. China is different. The more people, realtors and friends, you tell you are selling your house, the more people will come and look at your house.

We are praying that people who come to look at our home will know we love Jesus.

So in the month of February we had these conversations:

Teacher Wang and her husband came to look at our house. One of Teacher Wang’s responsibilities is to keep relationships with students that graduated from the university, especially the ones who become very successful and might donate some money. She is Communist but Teacher Wang’s personality is bubbly and she races everywhere she goes. Teacher Wang is friends with 1000 people, surely one of them would buy our house? GaoYan and I have been friends with Teacher Wang for five years now. She lives in our neighborhood. When Caleb was little and got sick she arranged a car to take us to the hospital. “You call me when Joy is ready to be born. I will send a car in 10 minutes.” For two years I taught Teacher Wang’s daughter YiYi and some of YiYi’s friends English lessons. Now YiYi is studying in Oklahoma. GaoYan’s parents had cooked up a big Spring Festival visiting dinner to welcome Teacher Wang and her husband. I asked, “Does YiYi have some good friends in America? She needs to be careful. Some friends can be a bad influence.” GaoYan suggested, “YiYi should go to a church in America. They will really love her and take care of her.” I have tried, but I estimate that I have not planted any spiritual seeds in Teacher Wang’s family in the past five years. Then GaoYan’s Mom and Dad started in, “You need to go to church. Believe in Jesus.” It was like turning on a bright light of truly considering on Teacher Wang and her husband’s face. Same culture, same generation, the words of GaoYan’s parents carried so much greater influence than my two years of visiting Teacher Wang’s house for English lessons.

Shelly came to see our house along with Shelly’s sister, sister’s husband and their son. Shelly is such a strong evangelistic Christian leader in the JiuLian church. We were all sitting at the table, chatting, and cracking sunflower seeds. Their son was playing Legos with Caleb. “So is your sister a Christian?” Actually they are strong Buddhist believers. GaoYan’s parents were busy boiling up a big batch of meat filled jiaozi. The husband said, “No thank you. I can’t eat that. I have been a strict Buddhist vegetarian for 10 years.” GaoYan’s parents said, “We’ll make some vegetable jiaozi real quick.” Shelly is a strong Christian and her sister’s family strong Buddhists, I wonder if they ever talk about their faith or avoid the topic to keep peace? We are grateful the topic came up at our kitchen table.

A group of three realtors came to see the house. The one named 雅各 saw a Bible sitting on the coffee table and asked, “Are you Christians?” Then the two other realtors said “雅各is a Christian too. His whole family are Christians.” 雅各 YaGe is James. Praise God that James the realtor is shining his light for Jesus in his workplace. (That is the first time I have met someone in China with an actual Bible name.)