Shi Xue on the left and Feng Jing on the right, at my apartment, 1998
I first met Shi Xue through Feng Jing, my study partner. The latter was my huxiangbangzhu. The term means mutual help. I helped her improve her English language and she helped me with my Mandarin. Soon all three of us became more than language partners. We became friends. We went shopping together, visited musuems and I even visited Shi Xue’s place. That’s quite something at that time because the atmosphere was still pregnant with mistrust and suspicion of foreigners and a bad report from neighbors could land her in serious trouble.
She’s a medical doctor as well as an inspector of hospitals – a very influential position. She shared that some parents would kneel before doctors to beg for the lives of their sick child. Remember the one child policy. Shi Xue never joined us for church. She was afraid she would be spotted by someone from the hospital.
She once told me that she found a group of cleaners in her hospital, reading the Bible and praying. “They looked so happy,” she said with nostalgia in her voice and eyes.
We kept in touch after I left the college and she told me once she was ready to become a believer. I wonder if she has. Surely, there is less restriction today than there was way back in 1998. P/S Feng Jing was baptized in the year 1999.
Lord, this coming Christmas
As the gospel is being proclaimed
Pray that it will touch those seeking
For the true meaning of life
For those who have fallen away
May their faith in You once again be restored
Unto your glory
Lord, I pray that the faith of your people
Will be solidly built upon your Word
So that their faith remains strong
Despite the winds of adversity
The cruelty of the wicked
Or the twisted distortions of evil lips
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