Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Text version of our January newsletter

(Since it is too long for facebook, I thought I would put a link on FB to this blog entry)

A Sovereign Reunion

International college students from all over the city live in the international dorm right off of Penn’s campus. One of my goals for the semester is to start a Bible Study there. Understanding how strategic a place this is, a Chinese church that I partner with recommended I chat with Xing.

We sat down one day at a coffee shop on the first floor of her dorm. She shared her story how she became a Christian as an undergrad in 2005 in the city where Katie and I have worked. I asked her if she knew any American Christians before she came here for grad school. She said that she met one, her name was Amy. She was on a missions trip and led her to the Lord in 2005, but Xing lamented that she would not meet her again until heaven. Because the Lord is sovereign, I told her she did not have to wait that long.

In 2005, Katie and I led a team of 13 students overseas to Xing’s city. We did not go to her school, but a team of staff and students from James Madison University did. Both teams were on the same flight. It’s a long flight so I took some sleeping pills. Before the pills knocked me out, two JMU girls were amused that I was laughing at everything around me.

I have long since forgotten this part of the trip until a couple months ago. One Sunday I dropped off Lilia at Sunday School and her teacher recognized me. We tried to figure out where she knew me, then it hit her...”You were that guy on flight to Asia who was laughing at everything!”

God used sleeping pills on a plane trip and my current job to connect long lost sisters in Christ together. They had lost touch and had no idea that they were even on the same continent, let alone the same city.

Xing has just received her Masters of Education from Penn and wants a job that will help educate rural Chinese and allow her to share the gospel. She is currently contemplating offers from the UN and Penn along with a strong call to full time missions work.

Expanding to Drexel We are so fortunate to live so close to Penn and Drexel, which each have over 1,000 international students. For students who are interested in Christianity, there are two Chinese churches in the area to attend, but it is our passion that all international students would get a chance to hear the gospel.

This past Friday we invited a Bible Study of Chinese Drexel students over for dinner. As we talked about how to take the good news to their classmates, the students jumped at having a baking outreach with Katie at our house and using a survey I used last year in East Asia. We look forward to sharing with you how these work out.

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