YOU TOO CAN CELEBRATE YUANXIAO!

On a recent Saturday evening George and I sat in a room filled with Chinese men, women and children. We had come to celebrate a Chinese New Year event with them. They all brought food, and participated in making a traditional Chinese New Year food that everybody helps in preparing, similar to Mexicans making tamales at Christmas. The Chinese lantern plays an important part in some sections of China, and there was a professional lantern maker to demonstrate the making of this beautiful decoration.

Our invitation came from Frank and Christene Liu, a Chinese couple from Taiwan. We had befriended them almost thirty years ago when they first came to the U.S. as students. I helped them with the wedding when they married, and we have remained friends over the years.

The event was held in a Fort Worth Church that allows the Chinese Church to meet there also. “Are all of these people members of your Chinese Church ?” I asked Christene. She looked around the room for a moment before she replied, “All of these people have come to Jesus under my ministry.” Some had come from as far away as Alabama to join the Liu party, and they ranged from a Fort Worth homemaker to a neurosurgeon and his surgeon wife from China, who were here for more study and had brought his parents along to care for the children.

“This is our first time to celebrate the Yuanxiao/Lantern Party since we came to this country because it is for families.” Christene explained. “Chinese who come to America almost never celebrate this event because they have left their families behind in China, and there is no one to help them celebrate.” The Lius had invited their spiritual family to celebrate with them.

This is what happens when we minister to international students. It doesn't stop with one; but like a rock thrown into a lake, the ripples multiply as they move across the water. My brother, who served as a missionary to Taiwan, asked us to nurture young Christians Frank and Christene when they came to this country to continue their education. Today, Christene has a full-time job working with International Students, travels to China at least once a year on missions, and she and Frank have a large ministry to students of all nationalities right here in Fort Worth. And so the ripple effect continues.

Last fall George and I agreed to adopt an International Student through the LINK program at UTA. After Lin Wang had been in our home for meals and attended football games with George, he responded by inviting us to his apartment for a traditional Chinese meal. When we arrived we met three other students (his room mate, Lu, and two girls, Megan and Mei). We immediately bonded with them as we had with Lin.

At a later date we took Lin and Lu shopping for some winter clothes, and then to the Asian market for food items. They would not let us leave until they had prepared some of the food they purchased at the market. It is easy to bond with students like Lin and Lu and the two girls we met at their dinner.

We had eight Chinese students in our home for a traditional Christmas dinner before they all left for the winter break. Frank and Christene Liu also attended the dinner and got to know the students.

Later in the evening Frank played his guitar and we sang Christmas carols. I noticed the students sang “Silent Night” along with us. Then Christene read the Christmas story from her Chinese Bible, and took some time to explain what the season means to Christians. She offered each one a Chinese Bible, and I rejoiced to see them taking the Bibles home with them.

Lin and Lu attend a weekly praise service at the Baptist Student Ministry building on the UTA campus, and Lu confessed to me that he feels a “real power” at that service. That opened the door for some conversation about where that power came from, and how it could change a life. When I explained how Jesus' power fills us with love for one another, Lu looked at me and said, “I feel that love when I am with you and George.”

There are hundreds of students like Lin and Lu at UTA and other colleges and universities in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. Few of them will have the opportunities that Lin and Lu have to know Americans on a personal basis, see inside an American home, attend a church, or hear the gospel story from a Christian friend. Our goal was to become a blessing to them, but we are the ones who have been blessed.

George, Claudia Chamma and I have formed a team to lead a ministry to International Students. It's a fairly new ministry in 121 Community Church so we are pioneers in many respects, but with prayer and research, we are finding so many doors opening to us. We have a dream for 121 that we'll be known for our love for International Students and our ministries to them. For years we sent missionaries to carry the gospel to foreign countries, but now the mission fields are coming to us. Jesus said, “The fields are ripe unto the harvest, but the laborers are few.”

Won't you search your heart to see if God wants you to become one of His laborers in this ministry? We can help you find a way to become a laborer in this exciting field.

::Gerry Watkins

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