Serving Others

Anna Dalton lives in Hong Kong where she works with ministries that Church at Charlotte supports. She recently shared an experience that showed her the power of the Gospel.

It was hard to believe the hilly landscape we encountered when we stepped off the bus was less than an hour away from a city that was home to several million people. Grandma Mudslide (a name I gave to the woman) warmly welcomed us into her little home where the floors were made of dirt and the remnants of the day’s laundry still hanging to dry. One bed was piled with blankets and buckets of pickled leftovers stood next to her kitchen. We tried to imagine the daily life she lived with her adult daughter and the young boy she adopted.

Translated first from her dialect to Mandarin Chinese and then to English, she told us her story. Grandma Mudslide always lived in the same area, struggling to make a living since she doesn’t own land. Several years ago rural church planters shared the Gospel with her as they passed through her village. She spoke of her unwillingness to believe.

Then she told us how her son-in-law was stabbed in the side by a drunken man, leaving him with a wound that never healed correctly and caused him constant pain. The church planters heard her story, had compassion and raised money for hospital care. Soon after, her son-in-law was completely healed. Grandma Mudslide told us she knew it was the work of God and because of that, she put her faith in Christ.

Most of the families in her “neighborhood” are Muslim and no longer accept her because of her decision to believe.  She is isolated. She cannot read. She doesn’t even own a Bible. Still, flapping her arms up and down with every word, she joyfully explained, “I can’t read, but give my praise to God in everything I do. When I wash, I give it to God! When I sweep these dirt floors, I give it to God! When I take care of this boy, I give it to God!”

In Mark 10:14, Jesus calls the children to him and remarks that the Kingdom belongs to those who are ready to receive it. As we left the village, I found myself trying to understand Grandma Mudslide’s simple faith. She was the only person we were able to visit that afternoon and it could have been easy to feel disappointed that we spent a morning bouncing around in a bus to see just one woman. But God showed me the bigger picture. I left the village with mud on my shoes and a deeper understanding of the breadth of the Gospel and God’s power as He creatively fulfills the Great Commission.