By a member of a SEND team in Southeast Asia | Asia

“I really like Christianity and what you believe” were the first words out of my friend’s mouth as we sat down to eat. I was stunned with disbelief! She had just thrown the door wide open! She continued, “I like the verse that says, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you’ because Buddhism doesn’t have that. In fact, I don’t really believe in Buddhism at all.” I asked, “Do you know what Christians believe?” She said, “Not really.” I responded, “Would you like to know?” She said, “Yes!” And thus began my explanation of creation, why it was that Jesus died/rose again and what that means for us. I don’t have much experience as a teacher, but I think her response must have been what a teacher means when they say, “the lights turned on in her eyes”. She understood. Saying things like, “I knew Jesus died, but I never knew why!” And, “I heard a song about that but I never understood what it meant until now!” She decided it wasn’t quite time to put her full trust in Jesus, but wanted to keep learning.

A few days later I was doing work at a café and sent out an open invitation to any friends who wanted to join me. That same friend responded. It was late by the time she arrived, so naturally coffee lead to dinner. I offered for us to get food and take it back to my apartment where she was more than welcome to keep working on her homework. To this she replied, “And if we go to your apartment, we can read the Bible!” I was stunned for a second time. When we got to my apartment, I offered that we could do work while we waited for our food to arrive, and while we ate, we could read the Bible. She rejected that offer by saying, “Orrr we could just read the Bible now?” She was right. We could, in fact, do that. Genesis 1 was what we landed on. After reading, she sat in awe, “I can’t believe that’s how God created the world. It’s so beautiful. He’s an artist. It makes my heart so happy and I feel like I just want to praise Him!” My friend hasn’t yet decided to put her faith in Jesus, but she has decided she would like to get to know him better.