My Students

by Jian Qiang

My biggest wish when I first came to study in America was to become a college professor some day to taste the fruit of having students all over the world. Today I seem to have strayed away from my dream. Nonetheless, I have felt the joy of having a lot of students from a different perspective. This is because I began to run a Bible study group at home a few years ago. Since I am the main speaker in the group, I have naturally assumed the role of a teacher. Watching my "students" grow to become brothers and sisters in the Lord one after another, I feel more joy than I would if I were a professor. I also learn a lot from these students of mineˇK

1. Wesley

Wesley was from Tianjin, inheriting a straightforward temperament of the Northerners. His round face carried a pair of honest eyes that appeared easy to be acquainted with. When his wife heard that my wife didn't know how to make buns, she immediately invited us to their home to enjoy their famous Tianjin buns. She also offered to teach us how to make them. I found it hard to say no to their hospitality. It was a good opportunity for me to preach the Gospel to them too. So we dressed up and went. After a big dinner, I was just about to find a way to start talking about religious belief when Wesley initiated the conversation of this subject:

"Do you believe there is a divine entity who controls the entire universe?"

He knew I was a Christian. There had to be a reason for him to ask such a question. So I remained calm and asked: "What do you think?"

"I think there is!" His assurance greatly surprised me. "I have believed in this ever since I was little."

I had heard he came from a family with revolutionary tradition and he had been a member of the great and glorious Party while he was still in college. Having been recruited by the Propaganda Department after being a resident doctor for a few years following his college graduation, he was a typical youth of the Red. I was amazed he would make such a statement. At the same time his comment also strengthened my determination to preach him the Gospel. I said:

"Starting from next month, we are going to have a regular Bible study group meeting in my house every Friday evening. You are welcome to join us."

"I'll come!" He replied without hesitation.

Wesley kept his words. He became one of the early regular members of the Bible study group. Soon their two-year-old son came to America. He always brought him along, saying he should also need some education. Two-year-old boys were usually very active, but his son was very quiet during the one-hour long Bible study sessions. At his worst, he would creep under the table and squeeze everybody's feet. We all laughed, saying he was learning from Jesus and trying to wash our feet! What successful parents they were in child education!

"Not really, he was very naughty at home. But every time I come here, I pray to God that he would be quiet during Bible study."

Wesley was very good at praying. One rainy day his car was stuck in the mud. He repeatedly stepped on the gas panel only to find his car slipping further into the mud. Then he remembered of a Bible story in which someone (Joshua) had prayed to stop the sun for one full day. If this is true, then isn't it going to be trivial for God to pull my car out of the mud? So for the first time in his life he uttered a prayer to God. Then he stepped on the gas panel one more time and his car was magically pulled out of the mud. Since then praying had become his life necessity. His son was also affected by this. Before every meal, he would push his parents' head down to pray. He even prayed to Granddaddy God when he went for a drink.

Wesley had a job interview before he graduated. He told me in private: "God has revealed to me through my prayer that if my first sight in that place is a cross then I will work there." I didn't have this kind of experience; so I offered no comments on his revelation. What I could do was to encourage him and share with him my own interview experience: "Do not be nervous. Interviewers will most likely look at your people skills. Here is a win-win trickˇXsmile. Smile as much as you can."

A few days later he came back and called me:

"Your smile trick seemed to be pretty effective. All interviewers seemed to be contaminated with it and they were very friendly to me."

I very much wanted to know about God's revelation to him in his prayer. So I asked:

"How about the revelation of the cross? What happened to it?"

Wesley smiled and replied: "You are not going to believe this, but I stayed in a hotel the previous night. In the morning I opened the window and saw across the street a church building. The morning sunlight shone on a cross on the wall of the fellowship hall." Soon afterwards a job offer came to him. At the farewell meeting, I said to him:

"Wherever you go, may the Lord always lead you forward. If you find a good church there, may your spiritual life grow further and may you become a good soldier of Christ. If the church there has problems, may you become their new blood and contribute to its revival."

Wesley stood up. He held my hands and said emphatically:

"May the Lord give me double portion of your spirit!"

Indeed! I often hope there are more and more students of mine like Wesley, who not only believes in God but also becomes the seed of the Gospel and soldier of Christ.

    1. Diana

Diana came from Hunan Province. She was originally a visiting scholar on government funding in another city. After she fulfilled her one-year contract, she bought an air ticket and was ready to fly back to China. But one week before she was ready to take off, she was invited to come to this city by a professor in the medical school. So she canceled her flight and came here as a scholar on a six-month contract.

During her first visit to our Bible study, we had brothers who had just accepted the Lord and had prepared to be baptized the following Sunday. I was planning on running a discussion about baptism at the Bible study meeting. We were going to study the Biblical teachings about baptism before we proceeded to discuss practical issues: "If you are baptized here, what is going to happen to you when you go back to China?" This was perhaps a sensitive issue common to all Chinese friends from the Mainland. When I brought about the subject, Diana, who had been quiet till now, spoke up:

"So what is going to happen to us? Does the Bible say anything about it?"

"Of course it does. Let's see if we can find it." I noticed her dubious looks; she might have been exposed to the Bible before.

Indeed so. She later told me that there was a Chinese church in the city she was from and that she was often invited to take part in their gatherings. Because she was very busy in her lab, she seldom went. But shortly before she was ready to go back to China, one of her colleagues who came with her from China had an accident. She was greatly touched to see so many helping hands from church. And she very much liked to find out a bit more about Christianity. No wonder she never stopped coming to our Bible study. Bad weather failed to keep her away either.

Diana had heart problems and so she brought with her lots of medicines from China. Coincidentally one of the sisters in our Bible study also had heart diseases. Then one day following a Bible study session they were chatting and enjoying refreshments, and their subject turned to medications. Then Diana turned to me and asked thoughtfully:

"If a Christian is ill, does he rely on praying or taking medications?"

I was a bit startled at this. I gave it some thought and replied:

"In my opinion, we rely on both medications and praying. We pray that God would heal us. We also pray that God would make our medications effective."

She nodded sincerely. Later she told me she had started to pray before she took her medications since then.

Six months had quickly passed. In the airport waiting room, Diana said to us with a bit of emotion:

"After I go back to China, I will tell my family everything I have learned and heard from your Bible study meetings. I will also be baptized there as a testimony for the Lord. If you have a chance, please do not forget to come to see me in HunanˇK" She could barely fight back her tears when she waved us goodbye.

We surely will! One day I will go there. I hope I will see Diana again in the land that has raised me but that has since become foreign to me. I also hope I will have more students like Diana, who, though staying in America for a short period of time, seized the opportunity to accept the Lord and become the seed for the Gospel, and who went back to our motherland and brought with her hope to our hometown under great sufferings.

The author now works in Louisiana in Southern America. 


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