Giving thanks

Shenzhen local time Friday 11:52pm

 

Greetings from China. My parents and I spent the past three days in Hong Kong and today we met up with some of my mom’s friends for a three day tour of Shenzhen, China. Even though I am in a communist country halfway around the world, I have not forgotten that it is Thanksgiving time in the United States and, in accordance to this blog’s tradition, I am going to share with you some of the things I am grateful for as we get ready to close 2007.

 

The foremost thing that I am grateful for is how my religious faith has sustained me throughout this job search. If someone had told me prior to business school that I’d be without a job six months after graduation, I would have thought twice about going. The past six months have been disappointing. Yet I am surprisingly hopeful about this job search and I credit this to God having prepared me for this. Over the past two years, I would spend my prayer time not so much presenting to God a list of things I wanted. Instead I would ask Him to give me spiritual preparation for whatever plans He has for my life.

 

One of the things I have noticed since arriving in Hong Kong and China is that this is an extremely secular place. Christianity has a very underground presence here, especially in comparison to aspects of Buddhism which is everywhere. Yet Christianity is slowly winning the hearts and minds of the people here. When I was taking the underground train this morning (I purposely did not say subway because in Hong Kong a subway is an underground pedestrian tunnel you use to cross the street) I saw a sign advertising a Franklin Graham event in the next couple of weeks. I know a UNC alum who is a missionary in China working with Chinese students. He gave me two interesting pieces of factoids. The first is that in the last 50 years, the number of believers in China has increased from less than 20 to about 110 million. The second is that approximately one out of every four students who hears the gospel eventually becomes a believer. If this trend continues, I will live to see the day when there will be more Christians in China than in the United States.

 

In a little more than a week, Imus returns to morning radio – right in time for next year’s election. Now if only he could get a local station in North Carolina.