The Old Man in the Alley
My "Chance" Meeting With a Chinese Christian Grandpa in January, 2003
The following is a lightly edited update from my missionary newsletter dated February 9, 2003, in which I tell the story of a memorable meeting on January 25, 2003. I also share this story (among other China-related news) on the China Compass Podcast, which went live today.
The last couple weeks have been rather quiet here in southern China. I have yet to return to the mainland, but the time here is being very well spent. Out team of about ten has managed to hire a few Mandarin tutors and we are busily studying for hours everyday to learn the language, so that when we do head north again later this month, we will be more adequately prepared. Please keep our team in your prayers as we study this difficult language.
As you have hopefully noticed, I have included a pic of myself and one of our Australian teammates standing beside an older looking Chinese gentleman. The story behind this man is great:
About 2 1/2 weeks ago, a friend and I were wandering down an ancient crooked cobblestone street in a large coastal city of China (Fuzhou). My friend (we'll call him Jim) stopped at one point to peak through the cracks of an old wooden door on the down-hill side of the street. He soon realized that he had inadvertently gazed directly into someone's home! The home owner was standing on the street just a few feet away and escorted us both inside when he saw how curious Jim was to have a look.
We couldn't help but feel somewhat enchanted as we humbly followed the older man through a few low-hung doorways and around a corner into a little sunlit courtyard where the daily laundry was strung on lines stretching from one end to the other. Branching off of the courtyard were various living quarters where apparently at least three generations of this family still lived. Conversation between us and our guide was minimal, due to the obvious language barrier, but we felt very privileged to be able to get a glimpse of the daily life of just one Chinese family.
After a short time of trying to communicate, we managed to figure out how to ask the man if he knew about Jesus. When the man said yes, we weren't sure we had heard him correctly, so we asked another question just to be sure. Jim continued "Ni ai Yesu Jidu ma?" ("Do you love Jesus?") The man responded by emphatically nodding his head yes! We immediately perked up to this discovery and wanted to know more. As the conversation ensued we managed to piece together our broken understandings of his very good Mandarin fairly well, and came up with the story of how he came to love Jesus.
It turns out that in 1940, when the man was only five years old, a young (maybe thirty year old) teacher from America was living in his city. The man was evidently one of her students and she was the one to teach him about Jesus Christ ... 63 years ago! As far as we could understand, the man has been living in this location for all of these years as a believer. He managed to make it through the early years of Communism, the Cultural Revolution, and is now still working as an art teacher along with designing other Christian artwork on the side. Definitely be praying for this man and his family to continue to grow in the Lord!
Pressing on,
Ben
PS. My friend and teammate from Australia was only in China for a few more weeks.