Jessica
One day early last fall, we met Jessica at BBC. After
visiting another international church in BJ for a couple of months, she found
BBC and then she continued to worship with us for her remaining time here. She spent
about four months here as part of her PhD studies in violin performance, teaching
violin to Chinese children and performing in several venues to introduce them
to a music company.
It’s always fun to ask people what brought them to BJ. (Speaking
of BJ, Jessica earned her undergraduate degree from BJU in Greenville so we
enjoyed talking about places around our own town.) During her graduate studies,
she met a brother in the US who returned here to start a local music company.
Through that connection he encouraged her to come to BJ. Jessica blessed us with godly friendship and blessed
BBC with passionate violin accompaniment. She jumped right in meeting and
reaching out to people. For example, we discovered that she spent one Sunday afternoon,
after a service and lunch, walking around town with a Mexican gal and a
Taiwanese gal who then all ran into other foreigners on the subway. The group
of them continued walking together, talking, sharing and generally having a
great time. Jessica planted seeds wherever she went and with whomever she met.
Through Jessica, we also recognized how small God’s world
is. In conversations, we dropped RB names and she knew them all as she attended
an RB church growing up. Then later she told of us some of her very good
friends in KY where she lives. She wrote us the story: one day she went hiking
with a good friend. She shared about her experience here in BJ and told her
friend of us. That friend said “Not Mark & Cheryl??” Those friends are the grown children of one
of Mark’s dad’s partners in Williams, Hatfield, & Stoner in FL. Mark knew
the wife many years ago and even visited with them when they drove through
Greenville in summer 2014.
Manuel
Through her connections in KY, Jessica introduced Manuel to
the music company in BJ and he came over to work for a few months. Manuel traveled
from Mexico to share his operatic tenor gifts with Chinese children and adults,
teaching them and performing with the music company.
Manuel not only attended BBC when he could, he also participated
in a few Guys’ Nights. So fun to see the different countries and personalities
represented on any given Guys’ Night.
Ana
After Jessica returned to the US, Manuel and the music
company invited Manuel’s girlfriend Ana to share her operatic soprano gifts with
the Chinese. Manuel and Ana came from the same opera company in Mexico.
Bernard & Debbie
Bernard & Debbie visited BJ from Australia. For 25
years Bernard (pronounced BUR’ NERD) has sung various tenor roles with a traveling
company that performs Phantom of the Opera
around the world. They stayed in BJ for 9 weeks with Phantom of the Opera. This believing couple provided lots of
encouragement to us and to BBC. They make it a practice that no matter where
they are in the world, they find a worshiping body to attend. What devotion and
testimony to the Lord! Debbie shared how they are committed to traveling as
husband and wife as much as possible and to plug into a body as time allows. They told us that many of their companions travel
without their spouses and also that most of them, even if believers, choose
other activities on Sunday.
Bernard leant his musical expertise to BBC by meeting with
our regular musicians, leading singing, and gracing us with his own renditions
of classical hymns.
So God brought some excellent musicians from around the
world to worship with BBC for a short period of time. Mark & I had numerous
times of fellowship and laughter with all of these friends, from meals together to just
hanging out. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know people to whom God has given
these special gifts and talents. We
rejoice that we built friendships with all of them and pray that seeds of Truth
that were sown in new ground will take root and flourish in time.
(All pictures courtesy of their respective Facebook pages.)
