Kicked off our new study on miracles at the Bible study last night. We have a pretty high turnover of students every week due, in a large part, to the language gap. Because it’s in English, there are definitely some every week that just don’t get it. But there are some that are really showing some consistency both with their Bible reading and their Bible study attendance.
A. gave his testimony last night. He talked about how he had wondered for a long time if there was a God. And when he started reading the book of John, he started to find answers about his relationship with God. He said some powerful things about how God wanted to be his Father, and that now He is motivated to read the Bible because He wants to learn more about His Father. I think it really made an impact on some of the men – two young men made professions of faith last night!
Including M., our Communist Party member friend! This was really awesome. I taught last night about Jesus feeding the 5,000, and how He proves to us that He is the Provider. He can meet our needs supernaturally, especially our need of a relationship with God. M. talked to one of our workers afterwards and made a profession of faith in Christ! We were all broken up in little conversations, but M. went to all of his friends and announced to them that he had become a Christian! Please pray for M. – this was a huge step, obviously, and it will take even more courage in the future if he truly means to become a disciple of Christ.
I talked to a girl named D. last night for a long time about Christianity. She really grilled me, very curious and honest in her questions. If she thought it didn’t make sense, she told me! Plus, her English wasn’t the best, so we were speaking Chinese and English trying to get our points across to each other. She really was struggling to understand the difference between being part of a religion and having a relationship with Jesus. Pray for her – I think she’s curious, but not truly convicted. But she expressed an interest in learning more about the Bible. She said to me, “This is all so wonderful. I’ve never heard anything like this before! I’ve never heard about God or Jesus or the Bible. I really enjoyed the lesson tonight!” She’s supposed to start reading and get in touch with us soon.
After the lesson, I bumped into A. in the kitchen. He looked like he was really troubled about something. So we started to talk and he told me, “When I read the Bible, I just see the stories. When I read John 6, I didn’t see that about Jesus meeting the needs. I just saw Him feeding hungry people!” A. was really emotional, like he thought there was a problem with him. So I explained to him that the Bible describes new Christians as babies in Christ, needing to be fed with milk. That there’s a lot of places in the Bible I don’t understand at all, and that understanding the Bible comes primarily “by reason of use.” A. really just needed to be encouraged. He’s been saved for three weeks, been very faithful in reading his Bible, and been witnessing to his friends and family. “Encouragement” is not my strongest trait! But it is certainly extremely important for these young Christians – their new zeal will quickly turn into discouragement and disillusionment unless we continue to show them the love of Christ.
The Gospel in China 
Glory to God!
Yes, Glory to God!! Great progress in His work. Always looking forward to your new updates and reports- reading every word, they encourage me in my daily walk.