These are a few incidents in my life as an overseas student. What I really want to tell is God's faithfulness and His wonderful work.

I came to study in America. During a summer vacation I went to a large city in the South to earn my tuition. I didn't have a car but I lived close to a subway station. So I started to work in a restaurant six and a half days a week.

I had no car; not even an umbrella. But summer in the South offered plenty of rain. One morning it was raining extremely hard. If I ran to the subway station, I would be wet all over and all restaurant patrons would certainly be scared away.

So I prayed to the Lord: If you permit, please reduce the rain a little so I can run to the station.

Five minutes before the train arrived, the rain stopped all of a sudden. I was extremely happy. I ran out the door with thanksgiving and I wondered how much the Lord cared for me.

When I got off the train, the sky was still dark and the cloud was still thick. I crossed the street and went into the restaurant before heavy rain resumed like thunder. Before I started to work, I had a chance to appreciate the southern scene of a wet summer.

Don't take this as a coincidence. I had had this kind of experience four times. Not that I was able to direct the rain, but the Lord of storms always cared for me.

Needless to say, my academic records for that semester were the worst I had ever got. The only "F" I got in my eight years of college life came from that semester. My accumulative GPA also went down quite a bit because of that semester. I had to retake the course I flunked. But I didn't feel bad at all because peace and joy never departed from me despite my failure in the academic. The church was founded and my wife and my child were both healthy. I believe I wisely used my time.

And that was not the end of it.

One day I absent-mindedly wandered back to school and ran into a professor, who was in charge of the graduate program in the department. She asked me abruptly: "Would you like to be a teaching assistant?"

I was a bit startled: "I'm not even enrolled in the graduate program."

"Would you like to be enrolled?"

"Follow me." I followed her into her office. "Here is the graduate school application form. You GPA is low, so get ready to take the GRE test. You can be the TA for the Integrated Circuit Lab class next semester. They'll pay you several hundred bucks." What a great gift!

My GRE scores were 1500 and I was enrolled in the graduate school. So as I ran out of my own wits, I began to see that the loving God already made arrangements for me.

In my days as a graduate student, I worked my way from a lab TA to a lecture TA, and I had a chance to review what I had learned as an undergraduate student. Many theories and concepts were now much clearer to me than before. The experience also tremendously benefited my current work. The more I lectured, the more I got paid. The department even waived my tuition altogether.

So in the year of bad economy when everybody lived with fear, I became rich all of a sudden. My knowledge was strengthened and my income increased. Isn't it double happiness?

I believe God is humorous. He is able to make fun of the human society through His work on a believer.

I was offered to work in my current company before I graduated. All I did for Him was to carry the Cross of "F" for Him once. What He paid back to me was all the happy days in the graduate school with a bunch of "A"s.

Success or failure? All is within His control. All we need to do is to believe and to obey. Heavenly peace is something no earthly accomplishment is able to provide.

I mentioned our first-born. Let me talk a little more about her.

Right after we knew our child was about to arrive, many came to congratulate us and some also expressed concerns. They knew that we, the students couple, were to collect a huge sum of medical expense. At that time we had no medical insurance. Some good-natured people gave us advice out of their concerns: "It's not the right time for you. You should do this and that."

I gave my thanks to these good people. But a Christian as a righteous person must be righteous according to the righteousness of God. I knew God's will was that we relied on Him. So I said to my wife: "God gives you and me a baby. Don't you fear He can't raise him up." Remembering God's promise, we made the decision: "Keep it!" I knew God was in control.

So we kept the child. I stayed in school. I continued to work in the restaurant. And we continued to worship the Lord.

God sent His angel! She was a black nurse whom we had never met. But when she first saw us in the clinic, she brought us to the social worker. The social worker asked us a lot of questions and we had to fill a lot of forms before he gave us a card. He told us to show the card on our next visit.

The next time we came to the clinic, we did what the social worker had asked us to do. Then I fetched out my wallet and was ready to pay the bill. The lady at the clinic glanced at us as if she wondered why we were so ignorant. "It's free," she said.

"What?" We were astonished. We didn't know what to say.

So the impossible became a piece of cake.

From prenatal examination to postnatal care till we had medical insurance, all medical expenses were covered.

So in God's free grace, our 8-pound kid arrived. And she was adorable! When grandparents talked about the baby, their eyes all became thin lines! If we had taken the advice of those good-natured people, our little baby would have been a life-long nightmare and the righteous God would never have credited us righteous. A clear blessing from God would also have degenerated to a black spot in the life of those who covered their wickedness with good nature.

And that was not the end of it.

Some experienced people came to warn us: Get ready to lose a lot of sleep in the next three months. But our baby never made any trouble at night. She got fed at 7 in the evening and she wouldn't wake up till 7 in the morning. I had never heard anyone talking about a baby that kept quiet at night. God once again made fun of those experienced people. He knew us well and He took special care of us so we were able to concentrate on our work. Just a few months old, our baby sat in her cradle and went to church with us. She didn't read the Bible, nor did she understand God's message, but she always sat there quietly and never made trouble. When she grew a little older and heard hymns, she was able to sing with us with her child's voice. And everybody was very happy seeing this. It was a song of joy from a child, one that God pleases.

Everybody likes her.

The biggest blessing I have received since I became a believer was the change of life. Materialistic abundance doesn't seem nearly as important. So I seldom talk about the Lord's blessings in worldly belongings. What's more valuable than eternity?

The above mentioned was only a few incidents in my eight years of college life. Fifteen years have passed since I believed and God's grace is far more than just that.