How I came to the Lord

I was born in a family of intellectuals. Both my father and my mother graduated from universities. My father worked in a medical college which later became a part of the local university. I grew up in an atmosphere which put study in a high position.

Beside study, my family has another tradition: sports. We had a homemade Ping-Pong table. My father kept every year’s short-distance race champion among all the teachers and professors of his college. They had a husband-and-wife 100 meter relay race. No matter how far my mother fell behind, my father could catch up and finally got champion. My mother is good at volleyball and so am I. I was both Women’s Volleyball Team member and Women’s Basketball Team member in university. My brother played basketball every afternoon with his fellows and their court was called “Colosseum”, for he and his fellows are the best basketball players in the city and their game is always white-hot. My brother had three times got his leg fractured in a basketball match. Each time he had to lie in the bed for several days and his friends keep coming to visit him.

I went directly into Hunan University without the entrance examination. This was very unusual; a big university with thousands of students did not have more than 10 students that were allowed to enter University without an entrance exam. It was a reward for my excellent performance both in study and sports in high school. I chose the major of Highway and Bridges Design in Civil Engineering. But this was the beginning of my hardship. I was an idiot in mechanics. Hydromechanics, structural mechanics, soil mechanics and elastic mechanics made me despair. I began to have inner pain from the struggle of trying to be the best. I failed and I couldn’t face it. Neither did I know how to change my unlucky fate.

A friend of mine came to the Lord and he shared the gospel with me. He gave me his testimony and brought me to different Christian fellowships. I kept arguing with those Christians. I had no god in my heart. If I had, that might have been my father and mother. I began to read some little gospel brochures, the ones with interesting pictures and a few words. Finally I got to know that Christians thought there was a God who loved them and this God became Jesus, who died for all human being’s sin on the cross.
“For He so loved the world”, I read one day, then I though in my heart, if there was really a God and He loved me, He should come to look for me, for I didn’t know where to find Him.

Then this God came to look for me. On August 17, 1994, that night I was sleeping in my bed in my dorm of Hunan University thinking through my life: I even have no goal, everybody goes to tomb; no standard of being a good person; success couldn’t make up the wrong thing I have done. I recognized I had done a lot of wrong things! I felt my heart was heavy. I wanted to have a new start, but how? I knew my life was burning and one day it would come an end, but for what purpose? Then I began to think; what lay after death? In other words, what would i be if I go through death? I believe that my earthly life ended at that moment and just at that moment I heard a voice said to me in Chinese, “My blood has cleansed your sin.”

These words were powerful, as they were spoken out, taking away the heavy thing in my heart. It was Jesus. I immediately knew it. I was lying there and let tears come out of my eyes. It was like my inner tap was broken and water rushed out. Jesus surrounded me with His love. I knew that He understood me and loves me more than my parents. He knew my inner struggle. I knew I had Jesus and in this life I was totally satisfied, even though I had nothing else.

I wanted to say something to Jesus although I couldn’t see Him but I knew He was there. I didn’t know what to say. After all, this was my first time to speak to Jesus. So I jumped down from my bed, finding out a brochure named “Why You Should Believe in Jesus”. A paragraph jumped into my eyes and I just wanted to read it out to Jesus. Later on I found it was a prayer that one should pray to Jesus for the first time:

“Jesus I need you…thank you for dying for me and for my sins. I give my life to you. Be my Lord and Savior. Guide me in all my life till I see your face. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen. ”
The next day was a brand new day. For the first time I found the sky was so blue, the flowers were fragrant, the birds were singing and the grass was so green. Everything God made for He loved us.
Then I began to read my spiritual books. The first book I took was titled “Fasting is the Most Efficient Prayer”. After reading it in the morning, I decided to have three days fasting and that began my Christian life.

--to be continued