Thursday, August 6, 2015

Summer 2015: Why We Do What We Do - part 2

In this newsletter, we’d like to share with you the story about a young woman from China, named Na Tianye. “Tia,” as we call her, came into our lives more than a year ago, brought by her husband, Jason, who is a Chinese-American from the Pittsburgh area. Jason has been a believer for a long time, but his wife was not. They moved to Darmstadt as part of Jason’s work for Merck Pharmaceuticals. Tia is a professional writer, and works from their flat, directly across the street from our apartment. Both attended the church regularly, came to a LIFE Group, and Tia met with some women at a Friday morning Bible study. She expressed that she was not a believer in Jesus, but she liked coming. God was at work in her life, however! One evening at LIFE Group, Tia shared that she had given her life to Jesus, and had asked Him to be her Savior. That same evening, she came to Bob and said, “Pastor Bob, we were married in a Chinese civil ceremony – but we I want to get married in the church – will you do that for us?”  Then she added, “And I want to get baptized at the same time!” Of course, we agreed! 

 So on a beautiful early summer evening, with family from China and the US attending, our church gathered for its first wedding ceremony. Jason joined Bob in baptizing her, and Tia shared the following testimony. We know it will bless you!

"Hello everyone, thank you for being here. Today I will have my baptism; I want to share a few important moments on my way to be saved. Since I was a child, I have believed there must be a God in heaven, who is almighty, knows everything, and handles everything. That's an intuition of mine, like a hole God put in my heart to be filled.
"As a Chinese person, Buddhism is the first religion I have ever heard. I knew a lot about Buddhism, but I didn't think it's the god in my heart. I met Jason in 2010, at that time I knew almost nothing about Christianity, but I'm interested in it, I asked Jason many questions about Christianity, sometimes discussed with him. I remember one day, after my curious questions, Jason asked me a question: so you trust yourself in your life? I said 'of course, I have no one else to trust besides myself.' And Jason asked: 'but you are not perfect?' I said, 'I knew that. But I have no choice, all I have is myself. I must rely on myself.' Jason told me, 'that's the difference between us, Christians never rely on ourselves, we rely on LORD Jesus.' It sounds really unbelievable to me, can you really rely on someone you can't touch and see? But after that, I can't stop thinking about this discussion. It really shocked me, I began to doubt can I really trust and rely on myself? Is Lord Jesus the God in my heart? Then I began to read The Bible, and I wanted to know more about Christianity.


"The second moment is the day when we got our marriage certificate. I was still not a believer at that time, because I still trust myself, my own judgment, my brain, my logic. According to the Chinese marriage law, we went back to my hometown in China to get the certificate. It's not a modern city, I thought there were no Christians in that city at all. That day after we got the certificate, at noon, we went to a very, very small restaurant for lunch. It's less than 10 square meters, and the food is very cheap. But it's a Christian restaurant; they had biblical story pictures on the wall, and Christian brochure on the table, and some posters on the table under glasses. We were really surprised, that's the first time I felt God is blessing our marriage.

"A few months later, we moved here from China. I thought living in a strange country and city must be very hard and lonely. But we found this church, everyone here is really nice, friendly, we felt like we found a family here, I never knew the life overseas could be so warm and easy. We also went to LIFE study at Pastor Bob's home every week. There we learnt bible together, and we can ask any question about Christianity in our mind. The atmosphere is really free and open minded. There I got many answers about my doubts about Christianity, Pastor Bob is so knowledgeable and helpful. Gradually, I knew this is not only a religion, this is the truth. Lord Jesus is the god in my heart, I finally understood this. Thanks for God who opened my eyes.

"As a person who got used to trust my own judgments, sometimes I still have question about this belief. But When I asked my deepest heart, do you believe Him or not? The answer is definitely yes! I knew him, I have faith in him, I can hear him, I wish to be saved by him! Besides that, I can ask Pastor Bob my questions at any time, he would help me with the answer. 

"From 2010 to 2015, five years passed, my life has been totally changed. Thanks to my husband Jason who led me to Lord Jesus, thanks to this church family. But all in all, thank you my dear Lord Jesus who showed mercy to me, blessed me, open my eyes and saved me."  

As you can imagine, there were lots of smiles, and tears of joy as Tia shared her story! Thanks so much for your support of our mission here in Darmstadt! You are a vital partner in this ministry as you pray for us, and financially support our ministry here. There are thousands of international students and professionals in this city, along with their families, who are lost, lonely and need to hear of the love of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS!
  • Pray for us as we plan a brief home tour.  We leave on 14 September for 7 weeks of Home Service – we will visit supporting individuals and churches from New York to Kansas! (See schedule below). Pray for safety as we travel and God’s anointing as we share!
  • Pray for the church – pray for our elders and deacons as they lead the church in the weeks of our Home Service. Pray that the church will grow in size, depth and impact!
  • Pray for our financial support. The cost of living in Europe is very high, we are very blessed by solid support, but some has slipped in recent months. Pray that God will continue to supply.

Our USA Tour: (if you’re in the area come see us!)
  • 15-18 Sept.      Elmira, NY area
  • 18 Sept.   Darmstadt, IN (Remedy Church)
  • 27 Sept. Mayville, WI (Gateway)
  • 2 Oct. Hartford, WI (Wellspring)
  • 4 Oct. Algoma, WI (Lakeside)
  • 11 Oct. Baldwin, WI (Village)
  • 18 Oct. Des Moines, IA (Union Park)
  • 23-25 Oct. Hutchinson, KS (Union Valley)