Journeys

How do Chinese come to know Jesus? Slowly!

 “It will be exciting to meet all of you again! By the way, if your group or you and David go to church on a weekend morning, hope I may have chance to join as well. If it’s possible, I would like to have a look and get to know.” 

I first met M in 2006. She was a sophomore in college and part of the English summer program. The top administrator told me that if I needed something, to ask M. I found her delightful, young and enthusiastic, and very capable in English. Several times she helped me solve an issue with language communication and perhaps my vulnerability helped draw her into friendship. 

Over the next three years M kept in touch with several of the team by email. When any of us were in Beijing, we’d have a meal together. She served as translator for a team of students from a Christian college and enjoyed their company. Another summer a Mandarin speaking girl from that same school interned in Beijing and we connected her to M. M kept coming back to see us, but there was no depth of spiritual conversation.

Two summers ago M arranged a dinner party for three of us teachers and three young women who had been in the 2006 class. We met at the train station and walked back through narrow streets to what she said was one of the oldest restaurants in Beijing. It was tiny and old, but the food was wonderful. The former students glowed with pride at entertaining their teachers. As dinner progressed, we found that one of the girls was in a potentially dangerous romantic relationship. A lot of advice rolled around the table. We’d celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary that month and they asked us, “How can you stay married so long and be happy?” 

We explained that God is the center of our marriage. As long as we both love Him most, we will in turn love each other. If we ask Him to satisfy our needs, we won’t expect our spouse to be the total source of our happiness. Something in that conversation resonated with M and as we walked back to the station, she fell in step with me and began to talk deeply about her family. She knew this neighborhood from her childhood. Her grandmother had taken her to one of the few Catholic churches in Beijing and urged her often to go again. 

Just a few days later I had a lengthy email from M.  After decrying a difficult situation she’d faced with some young friends who neglected their work for partying, she said, “I like to talk with old people like my grandma, but I believe some people who believe in religion in China does not really love God that much. The reason may be complicated, but I think people here put asking more from God to be the first place, instead of loving him truly. Their reason or purpose of believing is different from people like you and your husband. For my grandma, I do not talk about too much with her on her belief now, cause when I talked with her, she always would like to ‘force’ me to believe which made me do not feel so comfortable.  It was new for me to hear from you in the restaurant that your love to God is more than to each other and it is Him who helped you two to keep walking on your way of marriage when facing problem in life! I knew a little bit of Christianity from friends or teachers, but it is the first time to know the importance or the place of God in your heart.”

Another year passed and M changed jobs. The new job was exciting, but she was traveling all over China and her boss was highly critical of her translation work. She wrote several times of her difficulties, noting that she wanted to talk. When summer came, we met one afternoon in a Starbucks and talked for hours. Rain poured down outside, but the conversation inside was dynamic. She told us that on one occasion she felt God had sent a taxi driver just for her – she’d been terribly discouraged, sent back to a hotel to get something, and the taxi driver encouraged her, talked to her about Jesus, and gave her hope. We parted with her promise to read more of the Bible.

A month later she arrived with her Bible and a notebook full of questions. We sat on the couch and worked through issue after issue that she had found in reading Matthew. She was close to believing, but I knew there was no sense in pushing her. 

Finally, just two months ago, M sat at our tiny dining table in Beijing and we talked even more deeply. “If I become a Christian, do I have to go to church, and get baptized, and do that bread and juice thing…what do you call it?”

“Communion?”

“Yes, that thing.”

We assured her that these were rituals. Rituals are not bad in themselves but it is not the ritual that makes us children of God, it is being children of God that brings us to appreciate the rituals of sharing with other believers. “You said one time that this is a journey,” she said. “I think I’m about 75% there.” 

And now her email wanting to visit a church and get a look. We’ve got a date set. Pray for M to keep on the journey and enter the kingdom of Christ.