Made a New Creation
In 2001, my wife and I came to the United States for pursuing a PhD
degree. Before we came, my wife was a believer in Christ, but I was not.
At that time, I had two admission letters: one from the State University
in Kansas, and another one from UNT in Denton, Texas. Christians my wife
knew in Taiwan told us that we should seek the Lord and His kingdom
first, and then consider the schools where we could get some solid
Christian fellowship. I told my wife that your friends were out of their
mind because we were going there to get a degree, not to get into some
kind of social club or religious organization. Hence, I decided to go to
the State University in Kansas no matter what. Through God’s divine
arrangement, the admission into that school was not working out for my
wife. When there was no way out of that trap, I realized that we needed
to go to UNT. After discovering that we needed to go back to Texas, my
wife said that she needed to contact the Christians she knew there, so
that they could help us get settled in Denton. To me, I didn’t believe
that they would help mere strangers like us. So, I insisted that my wife
call the Chinese Association on campus in order to make arrangements for
picking us up from the airport. After hearing the conversation between
my wife and a Christian brother she knew of in the Dallas/Fort Worth
area, I could not imagine that he worked out everything for us. He told
us that we do not need to worry about anything, just give him the flight
number and how much luggage we have and they will be there waiting for
us. This was the first time I felt that there was something different
about Christians.
Through the help of these believers, we quickly settled down in Denton.
In that period of time, a Christian brother who was younger than I
always took care of our daily practical need. In this young brother, I
found a very genuine heart. What was in him was something that I had
lost a long time ago. I appreciated the simple and pure nature within
this believer. That was the ideal world that I had been searching for,
for a long time. Furthermore, I found out there were not only this one
believer, but also a whole group of this kind of people including him.
One question that came up within me was “What happened to these people?”
I didn’t believe that it was just their good nature; it must have been
something within them and I wanted to find out what it was.
In my first semester at UNT, through this same Christian brother, I
attended a Bible study with Christian Students on campus from Monday to
Friday. I cannot remember how many times I was deeply touched by the
truth of the Bible. When the light of God shined on me, I was softened
and subdued by Him. It was in the fall semester of 2001 that I turned my
heart to the Lord to believe into Him and to be baptized into His
wonderful name. That semester I was reborn and my new life just began at
the age of 36. Two years have passed; I am so glad that I can testify of
the transformation in my life. It is a transformation, which is changing
my old nature and making me a new creation in Christ (II Corinthians
5:17).
I am so thankful to the club, Christian Students on campus. They have
brought to me not only the care of a friend but also the life and peace
that is only from God. This is the true secret that I longed for, for so
many years. Now I am so happy that I became a part of that secret.
