Sheila Sims Iding
We all have Christmas wishes. As we get older our wishes are less about what we wish for from a store and more about what we wish for in our hearts. Tim’s Christmas wish this year is from his heart. Oh…I asked him for a Christmas wish list so we could put something under the tree for when he comes home in January. And aunties and relatives have been asking what he wants for Christmas. He hasn’t emailed that Christmas list yet. But two weeks ago he told me of a special Christmas wish.
His mission work in China is subtle. It is very humble. It is his own work. It is all he has there. Oh…he teaches English at a university and works hard at planning lessons and making the classes interesting…the best he can do. But he has told me more than once that being an English professor was never his passion. Never his dream. Never what he wanted to grow up and do or be. His passion has always been religion…theology…and sharing that with others. From the time he was little and fell asleep each night reading saint books to three college degrees in theology…including two masters degrees. It has always been teaching others about Jesus that has driven him…not teaching English. But God’s will has always prevailed in his heart and God’s will led him to being an English professor.
And teaching English keeps his subtle, humble mission alive in China. It’s a way to connect with people. In a communist country you can’t have a prayer service, organize a Bible Study or pass out flyers to make people aware of your mission. You can only live your life so they can see the person you are, notice your saint collection in your apartment or ask about your religious pictures or wonder why you attend mass. That is the mission. Just live a good, Christian life and hope someone…anyone…asks.
A few weeks ago a Chinese friend asked about mass and asked if she could go with him. She had never been before and she wondered why it was so important to Tim. Tim welcomed her with a missionary heart and sat with her at mass and showed her The Creed in Chinese. He explained it to her and she seem to grasp some of the meaning of what “we believe”. He didn’t know what would transpire from that mass…or from that Chinese explanation of The Creed. But he did know what his Christmas wish would be. He told me he hopes that on Christmas Day when he goes to mass that she would ask to go with him. It’s just past midnight in China and now the first minutes of Christmas Day. I don’t know if his Christmas wish will come true. I just know when I say The Creed at mass this evening, I will think of Tim and pray for him and his mission…and his simple Christmas wish from halfway around the world.