This language lesson was not going very well. The setting was ideal; we were sitting at a beautiful tea house situated outside among various green plants and trees, but the teacher was killing the mood.
“No! Not like that!” She said to me. “No, that’s wrong too.”
I was trying my hardest. I’ve learned almost all the names for the strokes that are used to form the characters, but I don’t yet understand the rules of each stoke’s placement. But, it seemed that I needed to be doing better.
This was a new approach I was trying. Usually I meet with friends to eat or do something fun. I’ve never met to study the language, but a friend offered to teach me the language in exchange for letting her practice English. It seemed like a good deal, plus I could steer the conversation in the direction I wanted in order to find out what are her beliefs.
I pushed through the not-so-fun lesson and then suggested that we speak English for a while. We did get talking about our beliefs (yeah!), and she expressed an interest in God’s plan to show the world His love. She believes in reincarnation (including the belief that people will come back to earth as another person if they are good enough), but she tried to understand life after death from a Christian perspective.
“Where do babies come from?” Normally, I would feel awkward hearing this question coming from a college student, but I knew she believes that most babies are people being reborn because they were good in their previous life.
“I’m so glad you asked!” I replied confidently. “Let’s take a look at Psalm 139.” We read through David’s words to God, “You put me together in my mother’s womb! You are my maker!”
We had a great conversation about God’s love for us. I’m not sure if she had ever heard about it before now; this may have been her first time. Although the language language lesson didn’t go so well, we’re going to try again next week! Pray she’ll be more open to receive Jesus. 🙂