[The Bible, God’s Word, was] written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:31
One recent Saturday afternoon we received the following email from our church secretary. The email is slightly edited for clarity since English is the writer's secondary language.
My name is N. I’m from Germany and wanted to reach out to Pastor Mark with my story and how his ministry in Beijing literally was the starting point of me giving my life to Christ. As I don’t have any contact information for Pastor Mark, I decided to send this email to your church and would be really happy if you could forward it. I usually am not one to write such emails but as I continually get the impulse to reach out, I finally was brave enough to write this email.
In 2017 I had the chance to spend some months in Beijing. By that time, I was 26 years old and had just started my dream job at BMW the year before. All the studies did pay off well, and I was finding myself in the privileged situation to spend three months in Beijing working on an interesting work project.
I was thankful for the opportunity, really happy to “have made it” when I started thinking about life and what actually matters. I started talking to friends, family, and mentors, about what made them happy and literally would never ever have thought of Jesus as the answer.
Faith and church didn’t play a role in my life or the life of my family or friends. When I became a teenager, I concluded that faith is a useful invention for the weak and for the worried. But I, someone who is well educated and rational, will not believe in such an invention and also that I didn’t need to. And to be honest I lived quite well: everything worked out the way I wanted. I had lots of friends and after having successfully graduated, I even got the best job I could dream of. And just at that moment, a colleague [from Germany] who had gotten to know your ministry during his time at BMW in South Carolina, invited me to come to this church in a shopping mall in Beijing, China.
At first, I declined and was even more confused about the invitation, but then I got curious. And even though I thought it was ridiculous to visit a church in China after I have not even entered a church for years in Germany, I decided to join him. It probably was the first Sunday in June 2017. I have never heard somebody talk about the gospel like that before and even though I left the church with lots of questions and doubts about God, this was the moment where God started his journey with me. I got invited to lunch after church and had small talk with some of the guys there.
What I will never forget is this feeling of peace, fulfillment, and joy that I saw in these people. After having heard that Pastor Mark and other members left their “comfort zone” in the U.S. to go to China to preach the gospel [to foreigners], I was so confused about so much passion, that this left me with only two conclusions: either these people are completely brainwashed or there is something real about the Jesus they are talking about.
To make a long story short: this was the only time I went to that church, but God planted a seed in my heart that day. After coming back to Germany, I contacted a local church, confronted them with all my questions and doubts and was able to encounter God in that journey.
I gave my life to Christ, got baptized a year later, and am now part of a church in Germany where I lead our social ministry/charity department and get to experience God and his miracles while serving him. And yes, I am still working at BMW and am thankful every day for that placement in Beijing and the invitation to church that really changed my life.
I just realized that this email was really long but I hope you still enjoy it whilst reading.
This is basically only a
“thank you letter” from my side for your ministry in China and that this
allowed me to visit church that Sunday back in June 2017 in Beijing.
Best regards and greetings from Germany, N
Our reaction? WOW! JUST WOW! God does amazing things when people hear His Word of life and truth. We rejoice with N and her new life in Christ. Maybe someday we can meet her again.
