… who lives with you, as yourself – Leviticus 19 :33-34.

The only thing better than going to the Museum of the Bible was bringing non-Christians there! Here we were walking in a recreated Nazareth village and we saw a description of hospitality.

Love the foreigner…

One student shared how he had been in America for two years, but he didn’t have any friends, except for now the Chinese Christians reaching out to him.

We had lots of great conversations and clarifications with our seeking friends. We saw how forgiveness was powerful for rescuing people in prison, I told them what I had seen when I worked there.

We sat at a table and saw the universality of Christians with different meal time thankfulness from across the world. We kind of experienced the Old Testament as we walked through the Red Sea.

My (Fred’s) most difficult conversation was trying to explain the American revivals in the 1700s and 1800s. I prayed as an atheist student openly shared his ‘faith’ in Psychology and his distrust of religion (he was from a Muslim culture, very understandable). But a non-Christian quickly defended religion!

I pointed out that Jesus was very opposed to the religionists in his day, and that instead of religion, I suggested we each need a direct connection to God to cope with the confusing issues of today.

In the end of the conversation, we left respecting each other, open to more dialog, and I think very curious about us Christians who don’t believe in religion, but who believe in Jesus.

I knew the picture of the Lord’s Last Supper, but I really loved experiencing eating the same meal like Jesus ate.

– Bebe, an international attendee

It was our first ever Seder Passover Meal for internationals. We had experienced a few, and we had a good group that had recently read about the last supper. Unfortunately the traffic was bad, we ran out of time, so we are saving the foot washing till later. A surprise!

Bebe told many of her friends about the dinner, and other stories of Jesus. One friend responded, “I didn’t know there were love stories in the Bible!”

Bebe thought she had to know the whole Bible before becoming a Christian, but we corrected that thought. Please pray for her and her boy friend who are close to the kingdom!

Hospitality is the glue for thriving relationships. 

Each of the students pictured above (except for 2 that returned to their home countries) have continued to be in our lives this semester.  Some are attending Bible studies for the very first time! Bridges and conversations continue…

We just took internationals to a restaurant taste testing. Two years ago we took Shiba. Now she is a young believer and she told me (Mary Kay) last night during our video Face Time Bible study that she had attended a Christian retreat for the first time!

She heard testimonies of other internationals coming to know Jesus.  She now gets up early in the morning to spend time with Jesus, reading His word, and her unbelieving husband is noticing how self-disciplined she has become. 

Her love for Jesus is so evident!

I (Mary Kay) continue to grasp more of what these students are coming out of in the way that they face life.  As Ning and I were talking one day she told me how she used to pray to Buddha to help her with her tests and to give her success in getting accepted in to school etc.  But she had joined a friend for a 6 am prayer meeting and she was amazed to hear how they prayed. 

Each person was just telling God how much they loved and appreciated HIM and not asking God for anything.  She had never experienced anything like that before.  She is a young, new believer and is just learning about prayer and oh how I rejoiced to think that there are students at VT that have such a love for God and could teach her this valuable lesson.  Now she understands….

Can we talk? That was the text message from an international friend that returned to her home in Sri Lanka, about 5% Christian. She has had a number of health problems, and Mary Kay so wanted to help her. Previously she wasn’t interested in Jesus. But now she really wants someone to talk with, who can share the burden.

So we will send her some Internet resources, and videos. What she really needs is Jesus, Mary Kay told her. Then the friend told her how another friend recently gave her a “Jesus book” ! Wow!

And after Mary Kay prayed for her, over the phone, the friend said that the next time that they talk she wants to learn how to pray, since her religion doesn’t really do that. She wants to pray so that she can pray for Mary Kay!

Until she learns to pray, can you pray for her, and us too?

This way you can reach across the world, where in Sri Lanka “Christians were regularly subject to very violent attacks” yet now “the outlook is ominous for Sri Lanka’s Christians.” See Christian Today.

Guess what Danny got at our yard sale?

We had not seen our former student for a couple of years. He had graduated and was doing well. He got married and got a job.

He had met his wife at our yard sale!

Every year we try to host a yard sale for internationals, as a way of serving them by helping them to get all of the new items they need after they have left their homes. Danny was one of those students, and he attended a Bible study with us a couple of years. He even volunteered to help with the yard sale, and he asked to come to our church!

And that is how he met his wife, while helping Christians do their thing! Previously we wrote how one student met Mary Kay at the yard sale and she started a Bible study, and became a Christian after a year.

Now pray for Danny, that now that he has met his wife, pray that he will really meet the Lord of his life.

Good things come at yard sales!

“I got to shake Jesus’ hand!” my friend excitedly told me. “Me too!” his college friend chimed in.

We took them to their first ever Easter Passion Play at a local church, and it was well done. It was packed, but God provided practically the last seats in the house for us!

After the performance, the cast walked out and met the audience, and our friends, all new believers except for one, got to meet him. “I hope you enjoyed the play” he said, and they almost didn’t recognize him, out of context. Similar to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

May we also be so anxious and excited to meet Jesus someday too!

Tis the Season to Celebrate the birth of Jesus. Would you pray for the celebration of several more births into the Kingdom of God?

Mary Kay uses her baking ability to get to know some Korean and Chinese women at Virginia Tech. Fred is meeting with one guy who is going back to China at the end of the month, who has just read Genesis and Matthew for the first time. Another graduate student is finishing up reading Matthew for the first time.

We also just showed the Nativity movie to several people who had not really heard the story of the first Christmas. They had so many questions!

Our friends are so close to the kingdom of God, would you pray for them this season? And for opportunities for us to share, with courage and boldness, being led by the Holy Spirit and not by ourselves?

May all of us be not so much “bakers for Christmas” but bakers for Jesus!

Have you ever shopped for Jesus? We do this every summer.

We buy yard sale items for international students, that we give out in August when they arrive. That is how we met one woman, at our yard sale.

And she became a Christian through it! Here is her testimony she recently gave:

Hi everyone, my name is Xiaoping Zhuang. Many of you know me as Sunny (or Shopping). I come from China. I am a part-time student studying accounting at Virginia Tech. I’m here to share my experiences of knowing Jesus, our Lord.

I was born in a Christian family. However, because of many reasons, I didn’t REALLY know who Jesus is. I believed there is only one God and he sent his only son to this world. And this son died on a cross and came back to life. And he is a perfect man. If I want something, I should pray for it. That’s basically all I knew or what I understood about Jesus for the past 25 years. I didn’t go to church every Sunday and I didn’t read Bible. I didn’t really know Jesus.

Two years ago, I married my husband, who was a student at Virginia Tech. I quitted my job, left my family and friends, and came to Blacksburg to take care of him. I used to think that getting married is the ultimate goal of my life. “The prince and princess end up marrying and then live happily ever after.” That’s what I believed. As you may imagine, a marriage without the guidance of our Lord didn’t go very well. Sometimes when we had a fight and I was so upset, I had nowhere to go, no people to talk, but just stay depressed in that little apartment. Miserable! Many of you may know that my visa status doesn’t allow me to study in a degree-program, nor to work with payment. Before coming to Blacksburg, I had a well-paid and well-respected job. But here, it seemed I lost my identity. I found my useless; I felt anxious because of the unknown future. So, this is first part of my life in Blacksburg.

However, Jesus comes to people in need.  August 2016, the Eichelman’s held a yard sale near my apartment. IT IS THAT YARD SALE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE. It was a normal day, I took my new roommate to buy something that she needed. I remember they asked me, “We have bible classes, would you like to sign up?”   Why not? So I began an 1-on-1 bible class with Mary Kay every Thursday. And through Mary Kay, I went to Across Fridays and got to know Jay and Grace. So I began attending ICF, where I met Sandra. So I began attending women’s bible study group every Tuesday. And Grace took me to the Chinese Church and I joined their bible studies, too. You can see my social connections being built up. So if I have a fight with my husband again, I can finally slam the door and go to my friends! But believe me, I never had a fight with him that makes me depressed ever since I know Jesus.

It’s the same week as the yard sale, I got admitted to a part-time program at Virginia Tech with the help of a professor, who, I later found out, is a Christian! That’s another story. But I mean, God has his plan for me. He sent Christians into my life when I was desperate for him.

As I knew more and more Christians, I was amazed and still are being amazed by their aroma of the knowledge of Christ, the unique fragrance that comes from the followers of Jesus. Can you imagine a person having surgeries almost once a month, but you can hear her loud laughter even before she comes into the room? Can you imagine a couple who got married for decades, having three grown-up children, but when you see the couple, you see love in their eyes as if they are newly-married? Can you imagine an international student who got a phone call out of blue asking her to leave this country in one week when she was about to settle down, but you see her pack up peacefully, without a word of complaining? There are so many Christians who amazed me. Thank you! Thank you for spreading this amazing aroma everywhere! That’s testimonies! As a witness, I see God’s glory reflected from you! I believe the strength, the love and the peace come from our Lord, Jesus!

By attending these activities, I get to know more and more about Jesus. He is God. He came to this world and he was crucified. He is the sacrifice. Through him our sins are forgiven and forgotten. He is the Christ. He came back to life, so everyone who believes in him can have the hope of eternal life. I used to think that I have to be perfect to be a Christian. If I am not good enough, then I don’t deserve Christ’s salvation. This is one of the reasons why I didn’t become a Christian even when I was born in a Christian family.  But No! That’s not true. You don’t have to be perfect! Acts 2:38 says, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of Holy Spirit.” Repent and be baptized. It’s not “repent and be perfect.” Our God knows that you are not perfect. But he still loves you. As long as you believe in him, your sins are forgiven. I will be baptized two weeks from today, before I leave Blacksburg.  I’ll let Jesus be my savior. Let the Lord lead my everyday life, my marriage and my future.

To every one of you who are not believers, I encourage you to attend bible studies and to make friends with Christians. You can’t imagine how your life will be different after you know Jesus. To Christians in Blacksburg, I am grateful for your help, your love and your testimonies! Coming to Blacksburg is the luckiest thing I have ever done in my life! Thank you!

Would you say that?

The answer was “Yes, please!”

This happened at our marriage retreat last weekend. We spent a year with four couples in pre-Christian marriage teaching seminars using Family Life and CPREP materials. Only one couple were Christians besides us, but after spending the weekend together, one woman said she wanted to learn more. Her husband is already learning about God through reading Genesis with Fred. And now she wants to learn from another Chinese Christian. Pray for the young Christian couple to boldly share!

These international student couples are so eager to better their young marriages. And for the first time they see their need for a savior as they struggle in their marriages. Don’t we all!

We also showed the Fireproof movie that one couple will be buying for their nonChristian friends.

Keep praying for these students and the so many others that are in need, and that we will have the opportunity to share and that we will have courage to share (Acts 4:29) !