Lingua-cultural exchange or cultural fraud?

Subject: Please support my Mission Trip? :) Date: 5/12/09

Dear _____, I hope your final week before finals is going well! Ha! Your last finals week! :) Despite the overwhelming work and stress, don't forget that we have God that provides us with His strength and takes all our hard work and turns it into something beautiful. :) Please know that I always remember you in my prayers! I have been wanting to participate in a mission trip for a long, long time. I have always admired the missionaries, or even the common people like us, who goes to remote places in the world to share about Jesus and extend God's Kingdom on earth. But, I never had the opportunity to go, and I have always been afraid about talking directly about Jesus (like, in the streets, you come out to people and start preaching them! It's so scary!), so I only kept the desire in my heart. But as I was wondering about what should I do for the summer, I checked out InterVarsity's Global Projects and found myself drawn to the projects in China. There is a region in China called the Xinjiang (pronounced Sheen-Jyang) province. You may or may not have heard about it. If you want to grab a map, you'll find it the extreme northwestern portion of China, bordering countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan. The region is home to a Turkic-Muslim minority group of about 8-10 million people. It's been written, "From deserts to mountains, Xinjiang is a place of romantic beauty and interesting people." Cities along the Silk Road have rich histories and sites dating back to the days of Genghis Khan. The main reason why I felt called to go is because of the unique culture of the people in Xinjiang; most of them are Turkic- Muslim people, which are the minorities in China (with regards to their religion and ethnicity). [Insert paragraph on how student felt "called" to serve, based on her unique religious/cultural background. This portion was redacted to avoid identifying the individual.] Having these experiences in hand, I felt really called to share to and serve people in Xinjiang this summer. It is really interesting that in Xinjiang, the opposite is true. The TurkicMuslim people are the minority, and the Han Chinese people the majority. I know that I will identify with them; I understand their position, and I hope to share my own experience; about how Jesus has provided me with a love that transcends all religion-cultural barrier. It might also be interesting for them to know that in other place in the world, the opposite thing is

Lingua-cultural exchange or cultural fraud?

happening, and as a Chinese myself, I hope that my love for them will open their eyes that not all (Han) Chinese people discriminate them. Moreover, I have a good knowledge about Islam myself, since I live in a Muslim country all my life, so I know that I will understand their culture more easily, and provide better understanding for them. The program, called XINJIANG LINGUA-CULTURAL PROJECT, is an academic friendship program; each of the team members will share a room with a Chinese or Turkic-Muslim counterpart who is studying English at a college level. Mornings will be spent in class - learning about Chinese traditions, culture and language and tutoring our roommates in contemporary English. Each student will help lead presentations on various aspects of American culture. Afternoons will most often be free for building relationships with our roommates. Evenings will involve planned activities and cultural adventures. Our goal is to build strong relationships with our counterparts. In addition, we hope by modeling a healthy, multi-cultural community of believers, we will be able to express the love of God in a culturally sensitive and loving way. One more thing about this project that appealed to me is that it doesn't require us to 'preach' directly to people (like, coming to random village and start preaching to them), but using a method called 'Incarnation', in which we live out our lives as Jesus has commanded, loving them and caring for them sincerely, so that they will see that there is something different in us. Through our friendship, we hope that they will start to ask questions about our faith, and God will help us to share about the Gospel to them. This Incarnation style really fits me, since it is the style I've always been doing in my life, and as I mentioned earlier, is the one I am comfortable with. It is not scary at all! :) So I began the application for this Xinjiang project, and was officially accepted as one of the team members. Yay! I am so excited about this, but I cannot do this alone! I am writing to you because I really need help from you. Although the team members are the ones who goes to Xinjiang, this project involves way more people who support and takes part in God's works. First of all, I need at least ten people who will be my 'prayer warrior', my partners who will support me during my preparations, and during my trip to China. If you feel called to support me through prayer, please reply to this e-mail, and I will periodically send you my prayer requests, and the progress of my spiritual and cultural preparations before my trip, and maybe we can set up some time to pray together before this semester ends? :) Secondly, my Project Leader told me that we each need to raise $3900, for the airfare, transportation, meals, and living costs there (including toilet costs! If I don't have money, I can't use toilet? Waaaah! >.<). This amount is very scary for me, especially because [name of country of origin] money has half the value of US dollars (because of the living costs is lower there!). So I'm asking you to prayerfully consider partnering with me this summer by supporting me

Lingua-cultural exchange or cultural fraud?

financially. This project has been running annually since 1996 thanks to faithful supporters, and we have seen God's kingdom advance in incredible ways in this desert land. In order to make this dream a reality, I will need 10 donors to give $150 each, 10 donors to give $100 each, and 10 donors to give $50 each. Or, this can also be achieved if I have 15 donors giving $100 each, 20 donors giving $50, and 20 donors giving $25 each (we go to [name of college], we get the idea :)). I want you to know that even $25 will mean a lot to me, and will contribute significantly to my fundraising. Please pray and consider about this, and if you have some questions for me (eg. budget breakdown, biblical basis for asking for support, etc.), feel free to ask me! :) To donate, you can write a check payable to 'InterVarsity Christian Fellowship' or 'IVCF', and either give it to me directly (before May 30th). After I have received my first gift, InterVarsity will make a webpage for me so that you can also donate to me using your credit card on-line (there will be a 2.5% charge to that). All gifts are tax-deductible. If you are considering to help me in prayer or financially, I will appreciate if you can reply to this e-mail as soon as possible, so I can update my project leader about my project. :) Again, thank you so much for your love and support for me! I am so thankful to God that I have friends like you.

Love in Christ, Serena