Dinner with Serenity

The first Christian student who ever came to our house in Shaoxing a couple of years ago was a girl named Serenity. When she recently found out that we were moving back to the US, she and some other girls from her student church group wanted to cook a farewell dinner for us. So last week they came over to our house and cooked for us. It was pretty special and unique because they bought all of the supplies, cooked everything by themselves, and washed dishes. They insisted that we just hang out and enjoy!

Through the evening we got to talk with the girls more, especially Serenity (above in white) and Zhou Zhou (above in blue). Serenity was just baptized last semester and Lisa's studied some with Zhou about baptism, but she's not quite ready yet. Serenity shared about her recent experiences with serving in the church and a change of heart she's had recently. Last semester she felt too busy serving and was planning on focusing more on her English studies this semester. But during the spring break, she felt moved to totally commit to serving in the church and being content with whatever God had in store for her. Since that decision, she's actually felt less busy serving in the church and she's also felt more joyful about it.

Serenity shared this experience with us because she really feels like God is leading her right now and working in her life. Even though she was sharing her own story, it really spoke to us about our future move back to the US and our need to contentedly accept God's plan for us. Serenity said that just like God asked Abraham to totally commit by offering Isaac, but ultimately had other plans, we should have the same attitude about our work & life back in the US. It was kind of surprising and really encouraging to get such advice from one of our students!

This sort of evening also really reflected our way of doing ministry. There was lots of hospitality, talking, and hanging out together. People had some fun, shared life together, and at some point during the evening the Bible was brought out in response to something that we talked about. We read and discussed in Philippians 2:13 about how God gives us the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Lisa was further reminded of God's work in Serenity a few days later. Lisa was on her way to attend a student Christian meeting on Sunday morning and she met Serenity in the teaching building. Serenity had woken up early to study some before going on to her own church meeting. A few minutes later, Lisa met five or six students walking in another direction. After talking to them, Lisa discovered that they were on their way to their "part-time jobs" where they would impersonate other students and take important tests in their place. Some of the students were ashamed to admit what they were doing, but others insisted that there was nothing wrong with helping your friends and making money at the same time (even if it is obviously wrong to all the rest of us)! Within just a few minutes, Lisa had seen a stark difference between young girls like those and Serenity.

We're really proud of young Christians like Serenity and the other girls who cooked for us. We were also honored by them and reminded of why we love this ministry so much!