Friday, September 9th

Friday the 9th was a day of firsts. Actually, it seems that I am experiencing a lot of firsts here in Beijing. Of the 18 different people I have read with, 5 of them said the name of Jesus for the first time while we were reading together. "Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Sweetest name I know. Fills my every longing. Keeps me singing as I go."

First things first.

On the 9th, I spent over 8 hours reading the Bible with 7 different people. My first reader of the day, 15 year old Rita, had just finished going through LST's "Acts" workbook, so on Friday, she read from the Gospel of John for the first time ever.

The next hour, was Yo-Yo who was reading the "Lord's Prayer" for the first time. After our reading session I asked her if she wanted to pray with me. She nervously agreed and I began to pray. It wasn't the first time she had heard someone pray - Yo-Yo had attended her first church-service only a month ago and she remembered a prayer about some juice and crackers, she wasn't sure what it was all about. But, after I prayed she held my hand as she spoke her first-ever prayer to God.

Later that day I met with Jessie who was eager to read the last few chapters of the story of Joseph. For the first time, she read how Joseph openly wept and forgave his brothers that had once sold him into slavery.

After Jessie, I read with Bush, a 25 year old guy who read the Bible for the first time just 4 months ago. On Friday, Bush read about not being able to serve both God and money. As is typical of Bush and many of my Chinese readers, he related the lesson to an ancient Chinese proverb: "On one mountain there can not exist two tigers." The idea of focusing your life on something greater than just building up personal wealth was nothing new for Bush. So, he wanted to continue discussing what we had talked about the day before - The Prodigal Son. Forgiveness of the younger son seemed way too easy. And the older son had done just what every good Chinese man does - focus on their work, get the job done and work quietly as they anticipate, except, and rightly deserve a reward. Shifting our discussion, I asked Bush about his relationship with his own dad and as we talked, Bush admitted out loud for the first time that he had never heard his father say "I love you" or "I'm proud of you". He went on to acknowledge that his drive towards achievement was his own way of trying to earn and be worthy of his father's love. I could hardly keep from letting the tears gush out. Then for the first time, Bush heard about God's love for him. Among several verses, together we read and discussed Zephaniah 3:17 and for the first time, Bush didn't have a Chinese proverb to relate to this lesson.

At 8:00pm, I sat down with my 8th and last reader of the day. Ethan, a forty year old physician turned pharmaceutical researcher has been reading with LST workers for over a year. Currently reading through Acts, Ethan's last session with a previous LST'er was about those who followed Jesus after Pentecost - Acts 2:42-47. His first words to me were "So, have you sold everything you own and given all your money to the poor?" I won't go into the details of our long discussion which was less of a discussion since I was mostly asking lots of open ended questions and Ethan was processing and reaching his own conclusions. (I think I watch too much TV because sometimes as I think of questions to ask a reader in order to engage them more deeply into the Scriptures, a voice in my head says 'Objection! Leading the witness!') Anyways, one thing led to another which led to Psalm 23. And for the first time in his very educated life, Ethan read a Psalm - Psalm 23. When he finished he just stared at the words and said "Wow. Beautiful." Again, I had to restrain the tears, but it didn't matter cause Ethan couldn't take his eyes off the words of Psalm 23. Can you blame him?

"The Lord is my Shepard. I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever."