Cornerstone - Stories II

Stories

The Way We Have Been Blessed

I was born into an ordinary family in northern China. Educated in traditional Chinese culture, I had some personal beliefs since my youth, which were to be good, to be doing good, to befriend people…so on and so forth; all these, I believe, come from the philosophy of Confucius which advocates humanity and has had great influence in Chinese history. I grew up with my parents seeing me as a good boy, my teachers seeing me as a good student.

But a or all the time of my youth and the years thereafter, there was always an unsolvable question wandering in my mind: I could not understand why I should behave in this way. This question accompanied me many years, and left a lot of confusion in my thoughts until I became a Christian.

After graduation from university, I worked in Beijing, I met Wenying, and we got married in 1993. One year later I went to Japan to continue my study at Osaka University; Wenying come to Japan a year later, and we lived together in Japan for the following three years. In the summer of 1999, Wenying left Japan and went to Phoenix to pursue her Ph.D. degree at Arizona State University, I was in the second year of my doctoral course at that time. As a newcomer, Wenying's life was kind of hard at the beginning, but soon she met some very nice people from Living Hope Community Church (LHCC) in Phoenix. The people from the church gave her a lot of wholehearted help, and Wenying quickly got settled in Phoenix.

On one of my visits to Phoenix during a semester break, I was invited to attend the Sunday church service with Wenying. I was touched by that service, and I met so many nice people there. I could feel they we spiritually full of faith and kindness, and they cared for people with true love and forgiveness. I immediately realized they were the people I would really like to associate with. Later Wenying told me that they were Christians —Gods' people.

On my visits afterward, I got opportunity to take part in a Friday Night Fellowship—a very attractive Bible study group in the house of Owen and Shirley. Later, Wayne and Christine, a couple from LHCC, very nicely invited Wenying and me to build a four-person Bible study group; I also got my first Bible from them. From then on, I began to know the world of God from this Christian couple. Gradually I found that my world was extremely small and limited. The world they showed to me was so big and infinite. At the time I went back to Japan, I took my Bible back with me and kept reading thereafter. Wenying became a Christian in the winter of 1999, so I had more time and opportunity to learn the Bible and understand the world of God in my following visits to Phoenix.
It was in the summer, one day after reading about the death of Jesus, that I suddenly realized I had found the very answer to the unsolvable question I had pondered in my mind for so long: Jesus is the greatest holy One, innocent and righteous, yet he still obeyed God’s will to come to the world to die, and to redeem all sinful human beings, offering us through his death an opportunity and a way to go to heaven to unite with God the Father. What a great thing Jesus did. Compared to Jesus, I was so small, and the goodness in my faith was so small and limited, I had no reason to boast. What I should do is have no doubt of God, but put my faith in Jesus.

Echoes from the True Life Retreat

Last weekend found many of the youth and adults from Cornerstone at the True Life Retreat. Though we have already heard from some who attended, we wanted to hear just a few more testimonies of God’s work in peoples’ hearts through this time.

From Faith Mauk:

In the first session, Joe Norvell said something to the effect of "even if its not the most fun thing in the world, God has you there for a reason, whatever that may be" and I was reminded of being in Mexico and playing with all those kids, with a really bad sunburn.

The kids wanted to ride on my shoulders, and since I didn't know how to say "no that really hurts," I had to ignore it. So when he said that I realized that God had put me there with those kids for a reason. Though I am not sure what the reason was, I'm glad I was there.

From Nate Tate:
The first day at the True Life Retreat, Joe Norvell gave a talk about being where God is. It was such a blessing. Some people know exactly what they want to do next, but I'm not one of those. I had ideas about what I wanted to do, but was wondering if God agreed with me or not. I like to plan my work and work my plan, and the uncertainty was getting to me. Then, Mr. Norvell laid out the steps for being in the will of God. I was even used as part of the demonstration, but it was fairly simple: Just be where God is. If I'm with Jesus, how could I have gone wrong? He won't leave me, so if I'm outside His peace, then I was the one doing the leaving. I don't know where I'm headed, but the fact that I now have the peace of God about where I am and what step I should take next has been one of the biggest blessings of this year.

From Jon Tate:
My testimony was kind of unusual because it had nothing to do with the sessions. Near the end of the last break, I decided to go on a walk and proceeded to get lost in the woods. I had no idea where I was and it was like God was forcing me to be humble and to call on Him with all of my heart. So after about an hour of wandering around in the woods trying to get back to the camp, God allowed me to find a trail. I think that the biggest lesson I learned at the retreat is to be humble and to call on God in every situation no matter how simple, whatever it is you’re doing.

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