Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I have been busy traveling to see family and raise support, and I feel grateful to see so many friends and family.
Here are some stories of what God has done this past month. They are written by two of the girls who are living in the city where I lived for the past five years. I changed a few things to make them more readable, but it’s pretty much straight from them. Enjoy!
Xiu was the first girl we saw come to Jesus. We have been talking to her about God since September. During our first encounter, we went to a café and she pulled out her Bible and asked, “Can we talk about this?” and since that point, she has been reading the book on her own and this past week she got sick and went home. When she returned and we met with her again, she told us that she had made the decision to follow Jesus. God is good!
The next girl that received Jesus this week was Rui—some Singaporeans here on a short-term trip met her at a mall and approached her. After they shared, she decided to accept and gave her scarf to Pearl (one of the Singaporeans) who had shared with her—and then Pearl gave Rui the gloves she was wearing. Rui looked at the gloves and said, “I came to the mall to buy yarn to make gloves…I think this is a sign from God”, so God totally used the gloves as a way to show his love to Rui. We saw her again the next day and she had knitted a scarf for Valerie (Singaporean) that had helped share with her too. When we gave her the first Bible she has ever owned, she refused to write her name in it because she was determined to give it away to someone else—“I will give it to someone like me.”, she said…God is doing amazing things in this girl’s heart.
I was with Andrea and Mings (Singaporeans) on Saturday afternoon and while we were walking around the campus, Andrea went up to Yang and Na to ask if they had some free time to show us around. They ended up showing us around by the pond and then they took us into the library, where we sat down to chat for a bit. That actually turned out to be an hour or more long discussion. We all talked about a lot of things but we brought up Christmas and asked if they knew the real meaning behind it, to which they said no. Andrea and Mings went into sharing with them about God and his story. It was quite fascinating to watch their eyes get bigger and look interested in what we were talking about. Yang was very interested. I ended up sharing with her part of my testimony and how God has healed me and that opened her eyes and heart even more to God. She decided to believe and follow God! She wants to just go out and tell as many people as she can about God. Afterward we prayed with her and then she had to leave but I was going to get together with her on another date. What’s funny is that she actually ended up missing her 5pm bus to take her home so she called me asking if we could hangout some more, of course the three of us said yes. While waiting for her, our team leader called and asked if I still needed a Bible and that he was on his way to the Island and could give me one for Yang. So I was able to give her a Bible and proceeded to have a training group with her and we read a bit in Matthew. This whole experience was amazing and the fact that God brought her to us, twice so we could talk to her about Him and then be able to give her a Bible and have a study was just incredible! Andrea and Mings were extremely encouraged by what happened that day. God is doing some amazing things here!