{"id":10246,"date":"2021-11-28T23:34:43","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T07:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nexusmission.org\/?p=10246"},"modified":"2021-11-28T23:34:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T07:34:45","slug":"2021-11-where-are-the-foreign-english-teachers-who-love-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nexusmission.org\/en\/2021-11-where-are-the-foreign-english-teachers-who-love-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 11 Where are the foreign English teachers who love Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWhere are the foreign English teachers who love Jesus?\u201d<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere are the Chinese students called by Jesus?\u201d<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Xiao Bai is sitting on the subway going home from work. The subway takes him past the university where he graduated just two years ago. Naturally, he begins to think about the football pitch where he played football, the cafeteria where he ate, and the dorm room where he slept. He also thinks about Luke’s apartment, where he met Jesus. He knows that Luke had to leave during COVID and has not heard from him in more than a year. He also knows that many foreign English teachers are no longer in China. He thinks to himself, \u201cSo many teachers came here and told us about Jesus. I wonder where they are now?\u201d He takes a moment to say a prayer for them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke, just out of college, moved to China in 2015 with two suitcases, an English teaching certificate, and a heart full of love for Jesus. He had heard that the church there was strong, but that there were still millions of people who had not had a chance to hear the Gospel. He found a job teaching first- and second-year college students at a large university on the outskirts of a second-tier city in China\u2019s Midwest.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He loved teaching. He loved His students. He enjoyed learning Chinese, eating Chinese food, and learning about Chinese culture. \u201cAre you used to living in China?\u201d was a question he heard very often, and \u201cYes, I am!” was his usual response. He met many dear Christian brothers and sisters among his students. They would meet with him in his on-campus apartment alongside other students who were not yet believers. They would study the Bible together, and many would understand and receive God\u2019s great plan of salvation. \u201cMaybe I could raise a family here and live here for decades,” he thought.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then COVID happened. Policy changed: getting a visa became impossible. After returning to his parents\u2019 home in the U.S., he felt his China dream fading as the door to return seemed increasingly shut. Luke had seen God\u2019s faithfulness through many challenges over the years. He knew that God wanted him to live overseas and introduce people to Jesus. And he was willing to go anywhere God wanted to send him. But he longed for his Chinese brothers and sisters. They had made many plans together, and now their dreams were intertwined.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One evening, lying in bed staring at the ceiling, Luke started thinking about the many conversations he’d had with his Christian students. One of them, Xiao Wang, had moved to Uzbekistan after graduating from college. He remembered when Xiao Wang had come to his apartment one afternoon excited to share a testimony about a Chinese missionary in China\u2019s far western province who had lived there for three years, sharing his faith with his Muslim neighbors. Through this brother’s testimony, Xiao Wang had felt called to move overseas to tell unreached people groups about Jesus. As Luke reflected on this conversation, he remembered hearing them talk about taking the Gospel along the old Silk Road back to Jerusalem, “from Xi’an to Zion” — taking the message of Jesus to the Muslim world in Central Asia and the Middle East.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke also remembered their enthusiastic discussions about partnership doing evangelism together … learning from each other … helping each other … loving each other. He’d been very excited about those plans and had told his students to stop addressing him as “Teacher” and start just calling him “Coworker.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he lay there reflecting on years of conversations with his students, God began speaking to him, \u201cJoin them in their call to the nations.\u201d The more he thought about it, the more excited he got. Yes, he would move to a city along the Silk Road to welcome and work alongside his Chinese brothers and sisters!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward now to 2021. It took some time to get his affairs in order to move to a new country, but Luke is now in the capital city of a former Soviet country. There are many Muslim minorities around him, and he is excited to start sharing the Gospel with them. But for now, he is mainly learning a new language. True, he has very good Chinese, but he doesn\u2019t have much opportunity to use it these days. He misses his Chinese friends — his coworkers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now he thinks about them again as he kneels beside his bed to pray for them before going to sleep. He is excited, looking forward to the day when they will join him in sharing the Gospel along the Silk Road. He knows God has put the burden in their heart. And so he waits and prays.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xiao Bai sits on the subway and wonders, \u201cWhere are the foreign English teachers who love Jesus?\u201d Luke kneels beside his bed and wonders, \u201cWhere are the Chinese students who love Jesus?\u201d Both are praying for the day they will meet again.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pray that it is somewhere along the Silk Road!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*This story was written by a former foreign teacher in China and represents the collective experience of thirteen friends who met in China and are now welcoming Chinese brothers and sisters to the harvest along the Silk Road.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhere are the foreign English teachers who love Jesus?\u201d \u201cWhere are the Chinese students called by Jesus?\u201d Xiao Bai is sitting on the subway going home from work. The subway takes him past the university where he graduated just two years ago. Naturally, he begins to think about the football pitch where he played football, the cafeteria where he ate, and the dorm room where he slept. He also thinks about Luke’s apartment, where he met Jesus. He knows that…<\/p>\n

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