May Day, May Day

Today was May Day. So I had off. A 24 year old student had invited me to his home in the countryside.
But when we met this morning he told me that his father, sister and uncle were not able to make it. That turned out for the best as I will explain in a lttle while.

I will call the student Dan, although that's not his real English name. We first went to his mother's humble restaurant. She's a pleasant woman of 47 or so.

After a meal I presented him with a New Testament. He wasn't happy about it. Later he told me that though he knew me, he began to believe that I was "crazy" which I think means overly zealous.

After some walking around we both sat on a bench and I read several passages to him. The TNIV was on one side and a Chinese translation was on the other. He read the one in his language out loud. He found the passages rather unbelievable.

The passages were Matt. 5:1-12; John 1:1-5; John 3:1-14; John 17:1-12; Ephesians 1:3-5 and Col. 1:15-20.

I admit it was a bit of an overload. It was all so new and seemingly absurd to him. And of course he couldn't quite follow all that he read. But I did my best to explain basic points to him.

Prior to out get-together all he knew was that Jesus died on a cross and that He had something to do with Easter.

His grandmother has been a Christian for 3 years or so and has a giant print Bible that's apparently of immense proportions. He has been to church only once when he was 10. But he was playing, for the most part. But he did remember hymn singing and how devout the people were who sang.

While having lunch I had basically summarized Romans 1:18-20. I said he would one Day meet God face-to-face and that he would not be able to offer any excuses for ignoring Him. I told him about that heavens, stars moon and everything he has observed in nature. "Do you really think that you are an accident Dan? Am I? No, we were designed by Someone. Even one little unit of our bodies is too complex to think a Great Designer was not responsible." (I should have used Psalm 139)

He said later that that conversation had moved him.

During out evening meal I showed him the N.T. again. "Don't take it if you don't want it. But you had told me that I was the only foreigner who ever told you of the Gospel and cared about your soul. It's not something you can afford to put off for a future date.“ I wasn't pressing him for a "decision" as such then and there. I told him he needed to know God and that to do so he had to know God's Word. I opened it up to the front and wrote some remarks and dedicated it to him.

As we parted he referred to his initial apprehension that I was a crazy person. But at this point he became serious and realized that out encounter today was no accident and that he understood that he better find out if God really was real and no mere fairytale.

His grandmother's younger sister has been a serious Christian for 20 years. He said he will talk to her as well as his own grandma. He freely said that he would go to church with them this Sunday. I didn't push him into that.

So, please pray for "Dan" and his spiritual journey. He will no longer be a student of mine. He will go into the work force with his uncle's factory. But I do intend to visit him again. He asked me to.

It was all for the better that the rest of his family didn't join us today or I probably would not have had the opportunity to share these matters with him.

 

No kidding. I like catchy headers.