The Word in Mandarin

I thought I heard God’s voice last year calling me to a task. 

Every Sunday afternoon for 3 hours, I’m at Chinese school while my girls are in class. While I listen to children reciting their Mandarin conversational phrases and watch giddy girls dancing, I bring my own stuff to work on–editing jobs, projects of some sort or another, my Bible Study homework. One Sunday last spring, it dawned on me that I was there reading God’s word and studying while there were hundreds of people, a captive audience of parents like me, who might just want to hear about it. I was sure God had called me to tell them. 

I emailed the principal and asked her if the school would let me lead a small group Bible class there. No. So, I tried again. Would they be willing to add in their weekly newsletter that if anyone was interested in learning about the Bible to contact me to meet privately during school hours? Yes, a reluctant one perhaps, but a yes. And, I was given a name of the one teacher on a staff of many who went to church. Maybe I’d want to connect with her, she suggested. 

I emailed her. And, she came to me filled with energy. She had been struggling with her commitment to teach at the school. It was hard for her to get there on Sundays after church; it was a role she didn’t know if she wanted to fill any longer. She had told her husband she was going to quit, but he told her to stay, telling her that he believed God had a purpose for her yet at the school. Stay one more year, he told her. 

A few days later, she got my email about the idea of a Bible Study. We both realized that perhaps the task God had called me to for now was done. Now, she had a task. She was going to lead this Bible Study, not me. 

I encouraged her to step out and invite people personally. Of all her invitations, two women said they’d like to learn what this book called the Bible is all about. Earlier this afternoon, right inside the door above, I got to sit in with them for a while sitting in classroom desks pulled together to make a circle as my friend spoke to those two women with passion and boldness in words I didn’t understand, introducing them to this book. As the Mandarin sped away and I listened instead to expression and tone and body language, there were a few words I did catch that for some reason were said in my own language. 

One and only and love letter, as she held the book that tells the story of God’s love for us. 

They’ll start studying that love letter next Sunday beginning in John.