“When I’m with you, I believe in God. But when I am with others, I do not” one young Asian woman expressed. Her mother had recently died of cancer, and she is searching for answers. She is still equating faith with feeling, but our Bible camp in the woods of North Carolina got her, and many others, really thinking.
Afterwards, she rode back in the car with our friends. They wrote that she said “I just have a song stuck in my head.” They asked “What song?” “Walking with Jesus” was the reply. So going up I-77 they sang the song together. Then she said, ” I love Qing, Qing Ting.” (a Chinese Christian song about listening quietly to the Lord’s voice) so they sang that too!
Last month she was just studying English with Mary Kay, and the camp was her first Christian exposure! Now she is doing a Bible study with our friend! Please keep praying for Chen!
PS: If you want to listen to the beautiful Chinese song, here it is!
How do you explain Luke 14:13 when Jesus says not to invite your friends to dinner!!
Christians value hospitality, the Chinese value hospitality. We invite our friends over all the time!
I am studying the parables of Jesus with several Chinese friends (who have been to our house for dinner by the way). We had just read the parable of the rich fool, who wanted to build bigger barns so that he could rest and enjoy his life. My friend understood the error of selfishly living for yourself, but what should you do with your goods? So I turned to Luke 14.
After some help from the Holy Spirit, I think we finally understood that while it is good to invite friends to dinner, it is not really noble if we are likely to be repaid. And God is not so interested in “good” things that we do, but in “noble” things that we do. Selfless giving. “Wow” he finally said, “That is powerful.” And I was impacted too.
So, are there any internationals that you can get to know, someone who cannot invite you back to dinner? Oh how blessed it is to give!
“… and you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous”
“What did you think of the movie, “Amish Grace” that we watched last Sat.?
Oh how that opened up an entire discussion! I (Mary Kay) forgot the English teaching time and my student told me how she had shared the story of the movie with her husband and several other Chinese friends. Each of them were left awestruck , mouths open wide as they heard how people chose to forgive rather than take revenge.
She told me about an incident in China that had hit the news last week. There had been a very angry driver that had punched a lady that had cut him off. She told me that many Chinese people were discussing how they did not understand how the Chinese had become like this. “People don’t seem to have any moral values. Young girls are becoming prostitutes in order to have more money and there is no law against it.
My friend explained how science has been so important to her culture. There has been no room for a belief in God. Growing up she was told that God and ghosts do not exist because you can’t touch them and that the Bible is just a fairy tale, especially the story of the resurrection. But when she came to America she saw professors believing in God and the culture here taking Christianity very seriously. It didn’t seem like a fairy tale.
It has made her wonder if what she was taught was wrong because her culture is spinning out of control. Her comment was that “people have no “heart of love.” But since they don’t have any faith/religion in their society it is very empty and chaotic right now. She is a very intelligent person and studied law. In China she told me that the law constantly changes as they don’t really have anything to base it on. So instead they just keep copying from other nations.
Oh how her heart is sooo open right now and she is searching. She is just a representation of so many students that are on the same journey. Thanks for your heart to intercede and love these people to Jesus!!
(PS This woman was just interested in learning English from Mary Kay, but now she wants to study the resurrection!)
We hated to say goodbye to our friend, a visiting scholar from China. She had been learning so much in such a short time. After visiting our church, she said “It was the most wonderful experience of my life.”She continued, “But I cannot be a Christian because Christians should get together with other Christians and there are none in my country.” We assured her that there were.
Before we left her, she shared her husband had called her, saying “I had a dream that you became a Christian and got baptized.” She responded, “what did you think of that?” “I think it would be wonderful” he replied.
So keep praying, God is still working!!
On another note, we were also sad that three other of our friends that we have been studying the Bible with are returning to their home country. I (Fred) had a great time sharing more deeply the faith with them, and giving them DVDs to help them continue. I was sad that they do not have the peace that we have. Not yet.
On a positive note, they recommended my English Bible class to their friends and now there are three more students!!
We just had a wonderful retreat with about 14 nonChristians (22 people total) where we discussed “Who is Jesus?” We met in Gatlinburg, where we combined Bible study and fun.
MK is now meeting with two more women who wanted to learn the Bible stories!
“The best part was the Bible studies” said one new Christian. He led a small group for the first time.
“It was a perfect retreat, I wouldn’t change anything” said one seeker.
In small groups seekers expressed their concerns about hell. Young Christians sharpened their apologetic skills.
One woman shared her mother gave her a cross necklace, meaning that she had her mom’s approval to learn about Christianity.
Another young man publicly shared how he didn’t want to be converted, yet he had chosen to come to the retreat which we had prominently advertised the Bible studies. He had deep questions.
One young man called two days before, and said he would drive himself and sleep on the floor if needed, as we were already full! He did come, one person had canceled without telling us!
It was also a great time working with coworkers from ISI (International Students Inc).
Wow! Thank you for your prayers to getting a great start to the year!
We had 10 visiting scholars from the East, for Christmas parties at our house this year!!
We felt like Mary and Joseph, who also had visiting scholars from the East. I think they enjoyed hearing the parallel, and they also loved seeing the story, new to almost all of them, of the first Christmas. We saw the Nativity Movie together, and discussed it afterwards. We shared presents and good food and saw Christmas lights. My wife, a Yankee, even learned how to cook a Virginian ham! (She asked for help from a New Yorker!)
But the dearest, was when one student told us, with tears in her eyes, that we had made Christmas really special for her and her husband, for the first time.
Keep these Virginia Tech visiting scholars, most of them from China, in your prayers.
We are having a retreat with nearly 20 non-Christians, in Tennessee, on the theme of “Who is Jesus?” We are working with two dear friends from International Students Incorporated (ISI).
Please pray for this retreat!
good weather,
travel safety,
open hearts,
clear teaching, and that everything would be smothered with
the love of Christ from our hearts.
That’s January 5 to 7, Monday to Wednesday just after the New Year.
I (Fred) try to play racquetball every week for my health. I play with a group of “mature” men (not their real picture). As typical, sufficient Americans, they are generally non-conversant regarding religion, if not smugly against it. So I don’t share much, until yesterday….
racquetball
My athletic friend shared how he went on a six day wilderness hike, got lost, and wound up in a poor Indian village and soon to miss their plane back. While without hope, someone led them to a missionary, who kindly gave them all a ride, barely making their flight on time (but no time for showers!). Being extremely thankful, he listened to the gospel message during the whole three hour trip to the airport .
He listened carefully, he didn’t want to be kicked out of the car! And he said he was surprised by the missionary. He had had a dim view of them, thinking of them as subverting other cultures and being cultural imperialists. But while in the village he had seen the utter drunkenness of the people — mothers with children strapped to them, passing out and crushing them. Now he says he really respects what this man is doing to help change their culture. Not only did he pay for the gas but he donated to him!
I asked him if was familiar with Star Trek and the Prime Directive, which says that Captain Kirk and the Enterprise were to never interfere with primitive societies. But every other episode Kirk does just that, because the societies that he encounters are highly dysfunctional. The Prime Directive is good in theory, but in reality there is the stark realization that there are cultural absolutes of right and wrong, and there is a cross-cultural mandate to assist all others, no matter where they are in the evolution of their society.
Assistance of a missionary is a tacit admission of cultural absolutes, and eventually of a Right and Wrong by which we ourselves will be judged. Now I pray for him to discover his own moral poverty.
Do pray for this man and his friends to find the Savior before he meets the Judge.
– says Dr. D, not his real name (or picture). I have been reading the Bible with him for several months, and answering questions: “What about people who aren’t Christians?” “Why is there still so much evil?” …. But I had noticed an acceptance on his part, and eagerness to read ALL of the Bible. So I asked him direct questions, he replied “Yes, Jesus is my Lord, yes, he is God, Yes, he came back to life and is now alive with God.”
We were explaining the two greatest commandments to this young Chinese couple who have recently started studying the Bible with us. Suddenly I asked the question
Can you love your neighbor as yourself, without loving God first with all of your heart, soul, and strength?
She quickly nodded her head, “Yes.” But the husband slowly thought about it, and said clearly “No.” I asked why. Here I paraphrase his answer:
I don’t think I could truly love my neighbor because some people are very difficult to love, and because of prejudices, I don’t think I could really love people without God’s help.
Previously we thought he was far from the Kingdom of God, but Now I think he may be close!
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Thursday I (Mary Kay) met with an Iranian couple. They brought their Koran in Persian to see how it compares with the Bible – for 1 1/2 hours, we could have continued even more! They explained how they’ve been told that Jesus didn’t die but someone else did. My question to them was:
why would Jesus ever want that because He was the Only Perfect One that could die
