How Christmas invitations led to conversions of Chinese students
My name is Daniel Shwe.
I am now pastor of Grace Baptist Church, North Watford and I have a story of how God used me which might encourage you this Christmas time.
An administrator’s opportunities
Before I entered full-time Christian ministry I worked as an administrator in a student accommodation office in South Tottenham, London, where I looked after students from different countries and nationalities during their study times.
As I was under the ministry of God’s Word from my pastor in my local church week by week, my heart for the Lord and desire to serve his kingdom grew immensely. I loved sharing the gospel with all whom I met. I had plenty of opportunities on a daily basis, especially in my office and elsewhere.
Students came to the office when they had problems with broken lights, internet disconnections, issues with their flatmates, etc. After I dealt with their difficulties I found the opportunity to share the gospel with them. Through these gospel conversations I was, from time to time, able to bring some international students to my local church, Grace Baptist Church (Wood Green).
Christmas for Communists
In June 2005, mature students arrived from China to study a short course of six months at Imperial College. I had to prepare 52 rooms for them. After they settled I tried to get acquainted with them. I went to their flats on occasion and they were very hospitable. They made Chinese tea for me and we ate Chinese dumplings. The Lord gave me a desire to bring the gospel to these Communist Chinese students.
Christmas was approaching and I knew that on Christmas Day there would be no public transport. Wishing to avoid my Chinese friends being on their own and homesick in their flats I decided to invite them to come to our Christmas worship service. In the run up to Christmas I went to their flats, gave them invitation cards and encouraged them to come to the Christmas service. I also explained to them briefly the meaning of Christmas and told them that when they came I would explain more about it, but that they would definitely enjoy the Christmas service with us. The leader of the Chinese students happily agreed and encouraged all his colleagues to attend. I also arranged transportation for them.
Fifty-two Communist Chinese students and some Malaysian-Chinese students attended the worship service on Christmas Day. My pastor gave me an opportunity to share with them a brief message about Christmas. They also heard the gospel message preached by Pastor Barry King. Then we all enjoyed eating Chinese noodles made by my wife as our Christmas meal.
Bible studies
After coming to the Christmas service some of the visitors showed an interest in studying the Bible. My pastor arranged a Bible study class for them. Some also continued to attend our regular worship services on Sundays. Of those who came to the Bible study, three of them showed the most interest. Their adopted ‘Western’ names were Jack, Steven and Justin. I also taught them after my office time in their flats whenever there was an opportunity.
We used the Ultimate Questions booklets to begin with. I also explained the gospel to them from my own studies in the Bible. My focus was to help them see themselves as sinners and to recognise their need of a Saviour. I sought to point them to the cross and to urge them to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
By God’s grace and his powerful work in them, Jack, Steven and Justin believed in God and came to Christ. All too soon, in January 2006, they went back to China after they finished the course.
Follow up
In order to follow them up Pastor Barry King arranged for an American missionary and his wife to go to Dong Ying City, Shandong Province, China, where my friends came from. They went there as English teachers, then had Bible studies with Steven’s family and other Chinese students there. Pastor Barry , his sons and I went to see them as well.
After I left my secular job I served the Lord, under the guidance and direction of Pastor Barry King, in Grace Baptist Church (Wood Green) as an evangelist. In April 2007 the church sent me and my wife to go for a mission trip to Dong Ying City.
We stayed there for a month and had daily one-to-one Bible studies with them. I taught and my wife translated for me into Chinese. We conducted the Bible studies in our hotel room starting from 10am and finishing at 9 pm daily. We also had a group Bible study once a week in a rented room in a local primary school. I taught them from Philemon. I explained to them that we are all like Onesimus and have rebelled against our Lord and Master who is God. But Jesus came and paid the full penalty for our sins, just as Paul did for Onesimus. I also taught them about the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch from Acts 8.
I was able to teach eight men and a younger man a basic ministerial training programme. After our short mission work, by God’s grace a few people professed Jesus as their Lord and eight of them were ready to follow in believer’s baptism.
After we came back to England I continued to have a weekly Bible study with them on SKYPE for seven years. Susan (Steven’s wife), Samuel, Peter and his students joined us regularly. From time to time Steven joined us from Mongolia, as he worked there at that time. Samuel, a man who came to Bible study during our mission trip, followed in believer’s baptism in a Chinese church a few years later.
Openings with Chinese friends
Most Chinese students from mainland China, when they first arrive in the UK, want to make friends with English native speakers to improve their English. They do not mind going to a church service.
I encourage UK Christians to show an interest in them, follow them up and find out their needs. Then they should invite them to their homes to get to know them and find the opportunity to share the gospel with them. I also advise that they should not be afraid to approach to them. People from the East are not reserved in their culture.
I believe that if Christians here in this country with the compassion of Christ approach Chinese students, by God’s Spirit and power they will see the love of God, the sacrifice and selflessness of Christ and the pure kindness of Christians. Students who come to faith in Christ Jesus, will then go back to their homeland with the good news of Christ Jesus and proclaim God’s excellence to their countrymen.
Leonard, a former Chinese Communist and a member of Grace Baptist Church, North Watford, who converted and was baptised in our church, told me that ‘We, Chinese people need to know the Truth! No one taught us about it’. He was so enthusiastic for the gospel. He went back to China in 2010. Now he serves the Lord in a house church. He also told me that he is now teaching students the gospel at a university students’ campus in Shanghai, China.
I thank God for giving me an opportunity and a desire to tell the gospel to needy Communist Chinese people.
