A Calvin Theological Seminary Publication by Students & Alumni
Unchanging Love – A Call Story

Unchanging Love – A Call Story

I was born in China. In my hometown, although people don’t really know who God is, they still see their lives as precious gifts. They have a deep appreciation for the world we live in and live their lives seriously and responsibly. They are kind, hardworking, brave and have few complaints. That’s the quiet town where I spent all my years before I went to college. Even though I had no answer about the ultimate truth of the universe where we were living, God was there, working in my life to prepare me for Himself, for He chooses His children before time, and collects all of them in different times and different areas throughout the whole world.

Then I went to university. I learned physics there and had a very happy time with lots of friends. I also met my husband there. The last year when I was in university, a Christian became my roommate. This might have been the first Christian I knew. I really liked her, because she was nice, humble, and easy to get along with. She was full of love and always considerate of others. I could tell that the love she had for us was pure-hearted. I was moved by her love and life. I also knew something about what God is like from her lips. That’s the first time I heard about the Gospel. But I only knew some Bible stories from the story book I read when I was very young. (It was not easy to get a Bible in China, only stories from the Bible could be found. Almost no one knew what the Bible is or why should we pay attention to it.)

After graduating from university, I came to the US with my husband. In our first year here, there was an American church which had an evangelistic ministry for international students from China. One day, friends invited me to go to church with them. I joined their Bible studies. With an excited heart, I went to church to pursue wisdom and truth as a humble student. But during the Bible study, I found that there were so many questions which were blocking me from a totally new worldview. I could not even understand what the worldview was that they were talking about. I asked lots of questions, but few were answered. I loved to join the service even though I could not understand. I loved the people there and their ways of living. I felt something very good and positive there. But I didn’t keep going, because at that time so many questions were bothering me.

Two years later, in 2007, I was invited to play zither, a classical Chinese musical instrument, for that church in a Chinese festival. During that festival party in the church, one of their games was giving a gift prepared for the person whose birthday was most close to that day, and that day was my birthday! After the party, I went to them and asked whether they could find someone to teach me one on one Bible study. After some time, they found a sister named Judy to help me. We studied the Bible together for almost a year, one time each week. We discussed most of the bewildering questions which were in my head at that time. Several years later, when I started to spread the Gospel to others like me, who came from a culture which doesn’t see God as common sense, or people with a solid science background but without knowledge from God, I found out that it was  not only me who was asking these questions. These were normal questions for them. This helped prepare me a lot for later service.

I became a Christian after one year’s Bible study, in 2008. I prayed with Judy after we studied that Jesus was crucified and raised again for us. I felt a love which made me cry without reason, and I felt His gentle presence. This love, which is unchanging and would last to the end, is the love I am looking for all my life.

After that, God showed more of Him to me through painful but joyful suffering in life. God blessed me with a child which was a miracle for us. And God blessed us as vessels to write for Him. Also during the crisis after that, God blessed me with more understanding of Him, both spiritually and in experience. He opened my eyes again, and He led me into a world I could never think about before through His grace and mercy. It is all through His grace. Nothing I could do but His will and mercy. He showed Himself to me and healed me. He is with me all the time. He is always there. And I just want to be what He calls me to be. He becomes my life and all the reason of my life.

I was baptized in 2012, in a Chinese Church which God led me to, and served there until 2013. Then I joined a service in Covenant Church to form a Chinese community there. As one of several Christians there, we formed a community to spread the Gospel to Chinese students and scholars there, through philosophy, science, culture, reasoning, history, and arts. We spread the gospel to them based on God’s truth, and tried to put Western and Eastern cultures together. It has now become a community with a Chinese Sunday service.

Then last year, God led me here.

By Xuefeng Yuan