The Jesus Way

By Tara Miller, IMPACT Editor

With an anonymous Chinese scholar, Lily, and an anonymous COM campus staff member, Jing, for security purposes.

“I wanted to change my life,” Lily explained. “But I didn’t know how.” Lily had no idea at the time, but she realizes now that her struggle was the beginning of her faith journey.

Lily had been facing difficult problems in her family for a while. Her husband didn’t have a stable job, and her marriage was in trouble. She was depressed, and so was her teenage son.

On one of those dark days, Lily received an unexpected call. It was her college roommate from more than 20 years earlier, Jing. The two friends had stayed in touch, but Jing now lived in the United States. They hadn’t seen each other in years, and with their busy schedules they didn’t talk often.

There was no ordinary explanation for the timing of Jing’s call that day, but Lily now says it was “a miracle.”

Jing had been thinking about Lily—what she now recognizes as the Holy Spirit’s prompting. She thought, Why don’t I call her? –And that’s what she did. To Lily’s surprise, Jing suggested she come to America to study. Eager to escape her unhappy situation in China, Lily decided to act on Jing’s idea.

With Jing’s guidance, Lily applied for a visiting scholar position in her scientific field at a large American university. She was offered the position and received the needed research funding from her university in China. Separating from her husband temporarily, Lily moved to the United States with her son.

Soon after arriving in America, Lily began to attend Bible studies offered by China Outreach Ministries at Jing’s church. She often had questions, and others in the group helped her understand. But she found the answers confusing, and she struggled to believe.

During the first year, Lily attended an Eastern Gospel Camp with COM. The pastor asked who wanted to believe Jesus, and she hesitated, not sure which way to go. She was confronted with the weight of her family’s Buddhist identity and felt “a big conflict.” Later that night, however, she experienced a sense of regret. “I didn’t know what the power was, but I cried most of the night,” she remembers.

Lily gradually came to believe that God was real and powerful. Maybe he could help her, give her hope, she reasoned. She wanted to fully believe in him, but she still had questions. The struggle continued for more than two years.

Meanwhile, Jing was burdened because she knew that Lily would be returning to China soon and still hadn’t trusted in Jesus. “It was so sad,” she remembers. When Jing shared the story in her Bible Study Fellowship group, she said, “lots of sisters wanted to pray.” She enlisted others to pray, too—COM volunteers, financial partners, and other staff.

Then another miracle happened. God opened Lily’s heart, and she acknowledged that she couldn’t save herself. She felt God leading her to understand and speak truth. Finally, she “followed Jesus entirely.” Over the next few months, Lily began learning how to live a new way—“the Jesus way.” Reconciliation with her husband progressed. She began telling her friends in China about the difference in her thinking and in her life.

Lily says the process of change had begun three years earlier. Over time, she came to believe that God directs her in the right way. She now has hope, and she recognizes the pain of chasing the world’s values. “Only God can take me out of sin,” she says, “and now I have peace in my heart.”

Now back in China, Lily asks for these prayers: for God to lead her and keep her in faith, for her husband and son to follow Jesus, and for her witness with friends. It will be difficult to tell people that she is a Christian if she wants to advance in her career. In all of this, she emphasizes, “Power from the world is imaginary. The only true power is from God.”