Women Preachers
1
Timothy 2:12 says, "And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have
authority over a man, but to be in silence." When this verse was
explained during one of our
Bible study sessions in China,
the Chinese lady at whose apartment the Bible study was held made a
comment that was translated to me as expressing her displeasure. So I explained
to her
that when the Bible says something that we don't like, we need to submit to
the Bible, which is the word of God.
When we returned for the Bible study the following week, the lady was said to be sick in bed and therefore unable to join us in the living room. When Kristin and I offered to visit her in her bedroom, see how she is doing and to pray for her, our offer was declined. Out on the street after the study, I asked the Chinese brother who translates for me what was going on, and he explained that the lady is one of the women preachers of the Three Self Church who regularly preaches to both men and women. 1 Timothy 2:12 the previous week had made her lose face, so this was her way of expressing that she no longer wants to host the Bible study at her apartment, so we moved the study out of her place.
Several weeks later, I was invited to begin teaching at a large English service at a different Three Self Church. Since a foreigner teaching the Bible at both an officially-sanctioned Three Self Church and an unsanctioned house church exposes the latter and gets even the former into trouble with the government, we invited the members of the latter to attend the former.
Early morning of the third Sunday thereafter, just hours before I was due to speak, the man in charge of the English service called and said he had been ordered to stop having me speak, and Kristin was called and told that she can no longer teach Sunday school at the other Three Self Church. Given their timing, the two directives appeared to be coordinated.
Kristin's health deteriorated again in China's toxic air, so I wanted her to leave China with me as soon as my semester ends. But she insisted that she likes the children at her kindergarten and wants to finish her university classes. She was reminded to prioritize her health and that since her Chinese university had decided to not accept her American transfer credits, taking classes there was now pointless.
The new alter still insisted, so I stayed in town with her for three more weeks, at which point she finally realized that her health can't take any more of China's air pollution. She said she needs two more weeks to finish something at her kindergarten, and we were headed to a new city in a new southeast Asian country. There wasn't much I could do for her in China, so I flew out first to the new southeast Asian city to check out its hospitals, churches, and ministries that could help Kristin, as well as the neighborhoods and a place to live, so that when she arrives, I will know where to take her.