A MODERN-DAY ZACCHAEUS
Sabbath worship in one of China’s new church plants where Cao attends.
Because of monetary and prayerful support of Project Panda by Florida Conference members, church planting pioneer teams are sharing the Gospel and growing God’s Kingdom in unreached areas of China. The following story was reported to Audrey Folkenberg by one of the pioneer team members.
Cao was selfish, lazy, jobless, and thoroughly unlovable. Despite attempts to explain to him how harmful his behavior was, Cao remained unchanged. His community-wide reputation was that of a loser. To put it another way, Cao was just the type of person Jesus came to save.
While we were familiar with his reputation, we never met him until others suggested we use our positive influence to change Cao. These folk felt we were good people because we believed in Jesus. So, with their encouragement, we went to meet Cao and see if he lived up to his reputation. Unfortunately, he did.
For two challenging years, we worked with Cao. He was only interested in our church activities when they included free meals. As difficult as it was, we knew we needed to be the light of the world to Cao, reflecting Jesus’ love-based principles of Christianity.
So, we welcomed Cao to our meals. We also told him we had a weekly Bible study group that included a meal! It didn’t take any more convincing; he happily joined our Bible study group.
Slowly, but surely, we noticed a change in Cao’s heart. He was no longer focusing on the food but rather on the messages from the Bible. He started to help us clean dishes after meals. He also found a job and started working. People in our community became more comfortable with him. Finally, Cao was baptized as an Adventist!
One day, we asked our church members to try giving Bible studies to non-Christians. Cao was the first to volunteer. In the beginning, he had trouble reaching people because of his bad reputation in our community. However, he apologized for his bad behavior and shared with others how Jesus had forgiven him, using his experiences to tell Bible stories. Recently, Cao met three new friends and led them to a Bible study group.
It is our daily prayer that Jesus will fully use Cao and our other church members to expand His kingdom and have a great impact on our community in wonderful ways!
Cao was selfish, lazy, jobless, and thoroughly unlovable. Despite attempts to explain to him how harmful his behavior was, Cao remained unchanged. His community-wide reputation was that of a loser. To put it another way, Cao was just the type of person Jesus came to save.
While we were familiar with his reputation, we never met him until others suggested we use our positive influence to change Cao. These folk felt we were good people because we believed in Jesus. So, with their encouragement, we went to meet Cao and see if he lived up to his reputation. Unfortunately, he did.
For two challenging years, we worked with Cao. He was only interested in our church activities when they included free meals. As difficult as it was, we knew we needed to be the light of the world to Cao, reflecting Jesus’ love-based principles of Christianity.
So, we welcomed Cao to our meals. We also told him we had a weekly Bible study group that included a meal! It didn’t take any more convincing; he happily joined our Bible study group.
Slowly, but surely, we noticed a change in Cao’s heart. He was no longer focusing on the food but rather on the messages from the Bible. He started to help us clean dishes after meals. He also found a job and started working. People in our community became more comfortable with him. Finally, Cao was baptized as an Adventist!
One day, we asked our church members to try giving Bible studies to non-Christians. Cao was the first to volunteer. In the beginning, he had trouble reaching people because of his bad reputation in our community. However, he apologized for his bad behavior and shared with others how Jesus had forgiven him, using his experiences to tell Bible stories. Recently, Cao met three new friends and led them to a Bible study group.
It is our daily prayer that Jesus will fully use Cao and our other church members to expand His kingdom and have a great impact on our community in wonderful ways!