This was our first trip to China and all we can say is that it was an amazing experience. We felt from the start that the Lord had called the team together and in it he had placed a wide range of people with different giftings who for two weeks functioned as an expression of His body.

It was so encouraging to experience how the common denominator of Jesus is far beyond race, culture or age. We had both wonderful fellowship and tremendous fun. It was a privilege to travel with people who are at present living in China. Seeing their call, commitment and love for the Tibetan people was an inspiration. We also truly appreciated their insights into the local culture and religion as it was invaluable in establishing in us an understanding of these people. It also was significant in enabling us to appreciate the desire of the Lord for the Tibetans.

Each day was an exciting adventure orchestrated by the Lord. When we met for fellowship each morning, we were dependent on the Lord’s direction for each day. It was amazing how words from Scripture, visions and prophetic words provided us with God’s direction for the day. It was also awesome to realise how our safety was even linked to what God showed us. During one fellowship time, when we were praying for God’s protection on that day’s journey, my husband was impressed by the Scripture: “He shall surround you with songs of deliverance” (Psalm 32:7). Late that evening, when we were on a very muddy stretch of road going along a cliff edge, one of the team started to sing, “Our God is an awesome God.” Halfway through the song the bus went into a skid and veered into a boulder on the left-hand side of the road. This song did prove to be a song of deliverance for, if the bus had skidded to the right, we would have careened over a very high cliff edge.

It was also a time when God stretched us spiritually and brought us into new things in Him. The Lord revealed things to my husband in a way and with a degree of insight and accuracy he had never experienced before. During our first night in a new place he was often awakened and had pictures of places where we were to pray the next day. These pictures were not of specific buildings but were of such things as unusual arch shaped patterns, which turned out to be the design on the bridge over the main river that flowed through the town.

I have not been very perceptive of spiritual atmospheres in the past but during this trip I was very aware of the spiritual atmospheres in different towns we visited. This made me appreciate how difficult it is to live in places where the Name of Jesus has not been lifted up and I also was aware of how prayer can change places. The difference in how we felt as we entered a Tibetan sky burial site and how we felt when we left it was incredible. The effect of declaring the Word of the Lord over a place and exalting the Name of Jesus made a tangible difference. The feeling of oppression and darkness lifted and we were aware of an open heaven.
We have returned to Ireland with a part of China in our hearts. Images of people and places regularly come before us and, as we continue to pray and receive reports from AM-CCSM teams in the future, we feel our involvement with China will be for a long time. Of course we also have a real desire to go with another team in the future.

We feel very privileged to be able to act as prayer messengers for the Tibetan people. We have had quite a number of opportunities to share about our trip and this has enabled us to encourage others to pray for this people group.