RED BOOK - BLUE BOOK

Mr. Bi was the first person we met when landing in Beijing. He had received a fax from a mutual friend asking if he would help us; Mr. Bi testified that the moment he touched the fax, God spoke to him and told him, "You must help them get planted in China!"  He certainly did!

The first month, he took us to many different places in China, hoping especially, that we would settle in Kaifeng, the centre of Jewish descendants in China.  But no matter the history or culture of an area, we could not get peace except in Beijing.  Mr. Bi was there again, arranging for student visas for us to study Chinese in a local university.  We were 53 and 51 years old.  

After residing in various places for 2 years, Mr. Bi suggested we buy our own apartment.  After praying, we agreed.  When we got to the land office to receive our "red book", the manager asked us whose name to put on the title.  Larry said it would be nice to have his name on the property, but if not possible, put Mr. Bi on the document.  The manager, "No problem, I'll put your name on it!"  At that time, it was illegal for foreigners to own property in China.  After the meeting, Mr. Bi warned us, "Never lose your red book or the blue book.  Never give or loan them to anyone!"

A year later, Will Go had become a registered Representative Company in Beijing and was beginning to set up nursing home projects and the Geriatric Care Giving Seminars.  One day, while meeting with some government officials, part of the required documents was the red book proving ownership of property.  Unfortunately, on the way home the briefcase with the red book got left behind in a taxi!  We needed that red book to get the blue book that would be available the next few months! 

Within a few days, we received a phone call from an unidentified male who demanded 1200 USD for the return of our red book!  Our secretary, Sarah, was so sorry about leaving the briefcase  behind that she wanted to take the money and go to meet him (under a viaduct) and get our book back.  But Larry was worried about her safety and insisted to go along.  Evidently, when he saw Sarah accompanied by a man, he left.  We never saw our red book again.  

We were scheduled for a trip back to the States, so we left Beijing.  We had "shamefully" told Mr. Bi of our plight in now being "bookless"!  He said, he would see what he could do.  He took his red book to the management company to pick up his blue book and while there, asked if he could pick up our blue book too.  He told them that we were in the States, so he had no way to get our red book.  Miraculously, they agreed!  Now we had our blue book.

Fast forward nearly 6 years.  We couldn't believe it, but God was calling us out of China. We had heard His voice and Jean saw a neon light cross illuminating over Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  We had to go...but we needed to sell our apartment before we left.  Larry prayed and got the figure of money we should ask for the apartment.  We put our house on the market via the grapevine and had an offer almost immediately.  But when the gentleman heard we did not have our red book, he cut the offer in half!  Larry said, "God told me the figure, so I'm sticking with that."  We put out our offer again.  In a few days our neighbours, who lived below us, offered full price, even when we told them that we did not have the red book!  They brought us half the money (in cash) in a paper bag, BUT, insisted they had to have the blue book, so they could get the red book.  Very reluctantly, we gave them the blue book...even though now, they technically, could cheat us out of the second half of the money.  We left to do a geriatric seminar out of province.  During the whole week, the devil tormented us with thoughts of "you'll never get your money! Stupid, stupid, stupid!" However, when we returned, our neighbours knocked on our door and arranged to give us the rest of our money!  God is faithful!

​But that's not all!  God is a set-up God!  A few years prior to this, these same neighbours had lost their wife and mother to Alzheimer disease.  Larry, knowing they had a lot of family, bought Coca-Cola, cookies, and fruit and went down to sit with them during their Chinese wake.  They never forgot it.  Then, in 2014, 10 years after selling them our apartment, we were back in Beijing.  God placed it in Larry's heart to check on our old neighbour and see how he was doing. He told us that he had been very sick and almost died.  We visited together and had some tea. Then, just before leaving, we had the opportunity to present God's salvation message to him.  He accepted Jesus in his heart!  He testified that he believed God kept him alive, so that he could receive salvation and enter into eternal life.  He was 80 years old!  OUR GOD IS FAITHFUL!