The Testimony of Tianyou
"I grew up in a rural area of Northern China. Throughout my childhood, two things made profound impact on my search for a better life: one was the hand-to-mouth existence of my family and people in my village, another was the strong curiosity about the outside world. I left my village when I was 17 for college, continued on my master degree and became one of a handful people in my village that had ever obtained graduate education. I found a job in Beijing, the capital city. I was married in Beijing. After 10 years of work, I came to the States in the summer of 1998 to work on my PhD program in geophysics at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).
When I first came to the States, I did not have very positive views on Christians and Christianity in general. I was as lonely as one can be as a foreigner and one without any family and friends nearby. The second day on campus, I met with two Asian looking guys who were looking for an apartment. One of them eventually became my roommate. The other person who was trying to help a newcomer (my roommate) turned out to be a Christian. On that day, we went over to his house to have a Chinese meal and to meet more Chinese. I started to wonder why he was doing all these favors for a new student who he just met.
One night when, I was studying in my apartment, I heard somebody knocking on my door, I opened the door and there was an American couple, volunteers with ISI, standing there smiling and they were glad to help me and gave me their card with their phone numbers on it. It was a brief conversation and they invited me to a gathering called ICF on Friday evenings. I went to the ICF for a while but soon I quit going because I felt I needed to spend more time on studying. Upon the persistent inviting of ICF regulars, I reasoned with myself that I could learn English from the American volunteers at the ICF gatherings so I became one of the regulars too.
One Friday evening at ICF, they were passing out the free JESUS video. The American ISI volunteers gave me one Chinese copy of the JESUS video, I said I would like to have an English copy of the JESUS video and figured I would watch it to improve my English. I got my JESUS video and put it on my bookshelf and forgot about it for some weeks.
My wife joined me in the States at the end of 1998. During the spring break of 1999, she went to a retreat with some friends she
knew from ICF. I did not want to go with them because I intended to use the spring break to have some schoolwork done. After my wife left for the retreat on
weekend, I started to study for a long time and in the evening I did not want to continue on schoolwork anymore. I remembered I had the JESUS VIDEO, so I decided to watch the video to relax and learn English.
As I was watching the video, the life of Jesus became vivid in front of my eyes. As if I breathed the same air, I saw the people and events happening. I was touched by the movie, hanged on to the every words of the movie and was astonished by the amazing Jesus. At the end
of the movie, there was a believer's prayer, and I just repeated the very sentences of the short prayer. That is how I became a Christian. Praise God!"
"I grew up in a rural area of Northern China. Throughout my childhood, two things made profound impact on my search for a better life: one was the hand-to-mouth existence of my family and people in my village, another was the strong curiosity about the outside world. I left my village when I was 17 for college, continued on my master degree and became one of a handful people in my village that had ever obtained graduate education. I found a job in Beijing, the capital city. I was married in Beijing. After 10 years of work, I came to the States in the summer of 1998 to work on my PhD program in geophysics at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).
When I first came to the States, I did not have very positive views on Christians and Christianity in general. I was as lonely as one can be as a foreigner and one without any family and friends nearby. The second day on campus, I met with two Asian looking guys who were looking for an apartment. One of them eventually became my roommate. The other person who was trying to help a newcomer (my roommate) turned out to be a Christian. On that day, we went over to his house to have a Chinese meal and to meet more Chinese. I started to wonder why he was doing all these favors for a new student who he just met.
One night when, I was studying in my apartment, I heard somebody knocking on my door, I opened the door and there was an American couple, volunteers with ISI, standing there smiling and they were glad to help me and gave me their card with their phone numbers on it. It was a brief conversation and they invited me to a gathering called ICF on Friday evenings. I went to the ICF for a while but soon I quit going because I felt I needed to spend more time on studying. Upon the persistent inviting of ICF regulars, I reasoned with myself that I could learn English from the American volunteers at the ICF gatherings so I became one of the regulars too.
One Friday evening at ICF, they were passing out the free JESUS video. The American ISI volunteers gave me one Chinese copy of the JESUS video, I said I would like to have an English copy of the JESUS video and figured I would watch it to improve my English. I got my JESUS video and put it on my bookshelf and forgot about it for some weeks.
My wife joined me in the States at the end of 1998. During the spring break of 1999, she went to a retreat with some friends she
knew from ICF. I did not want to go with them because I intended to use the spring break to have some schoolwork done. After my wife left for the retreat on
weekend, I started to study for a long time and in the evening I did not want to continue on schoolwork anymore. I remembered I had the JESUS VIDEO, so I decided to watch the video to relax and learn English.
As I was watching the video, the life of Jesus became vivid in front of my eyes. As if I breathed the same air, I saw the people and events happening. I was touched by the movie, hanged on to the every words of the movie and was astonished by the amazing Jesus. At the end
of the movie, there was a believer's prayer, and I just repeated the very sentences of the short prayer. That is how I became a Christian. Praise God!"
The Testimony of Tianyou's wife, Yan
I grew up in an environment that people pursued knowledge constantly and believed in holding and using intelligence would change the society and improve the world at large. I went to the most prestigious university in Beijing, China. Later I changed a few jobs working for different companies. I was married and knew that my husband would continue on his PhD someday. In 1998, my husband went to Dallas, Texas to get his PhD. Six month later, I came to the States to join my husband.
Before I came to the States, my husband had become a regular participant of ICF on the University of
Texas at Dallas (UTD) campus. I was not enthusiastic about going because I did not want to visit with total strangers. My husband had told me that I had to pick up on my English to adjust to the life in the US and I obliged. I found the people in ICF were very friendly. One of the American volunteers helped me in dealing with daily life problems; yet another volunteer spent time to correct my accents. I started to notice that all these Christians were helping the students without any thoughts of getting back anything for themselves. I pondered what had motivated Christians to do good things for others. I told myself that I wanted to be like the Christians who seemed always peaceful and warm. In the meantime, I started to read more about Christianity.
During the spring of 1999, I was invited by some friends I knew through ICF going to a retreat in Oklahoma. My husband did
not go with me due to the schoolwork. I had a good time over the weekend. On that Sunday morning, we had a wonderful speaker tell us about the purpose of life and the love of God. I was captivated by his words and repeated the believer's prayer by myself. There was a large crowd; I was alone from my friends so I did not go forward to the front as the speaker asked. After the speech an American volunteer with ISI asked what I had thought about the speech, I replied that I believed what the speaker had said. Upon farther inquire, I confirmed that what I had come to believe.
I grew up in an environment that people pursued knowledge constantly and believed in holding and using intelligence would change the society and improve the world at large. I went to the most prestigious university in Beijing, China. Later I changed a few jobs working for different companies. I was married and knew that my husband would continue on his PhD someday. In 1998, my husband went to Dallas, Texas to get his PhD. Six month later, I came to the States to join my husband.
Before I came to the States, my husband had become a regular participant of ICF on the University of
Texas at Dallas (UTD) campus. I was not enthusiastic about going because I did not want to visit with total strangers. My husband had told me that I had to pick up on my English to adjust to the life in the US and I obliged. I found the people in ICF were very friendly. One of the American volunteers helped me in dealing with daily life problems; yet another volunteer spent time to correct my accents. I started to notice that all these Christians were helping the students without any thoughts of getting back anything for themselves. I pondered what had motivated Christians to do good things for others. I told myself that I wanted to be like the Christians who seemed always peaceful and warm. In the meantime, I started to read more about Christianity.
During the spring of 1999, I was invited by some friends I knew through ICF going to a retreat in Oklahoma. My husband did
not go with me due to the schoolwork. I had a good time over the weekend. On that Sunday morning, we had a wonderful speaker tell us about the purpose of life and the love of God. I was captivated by his words and repeated the believer's prayer by myself. There was a large crowd; I was alone from my friends so I did not go forward to the front as the speaker asked. After the speech an American volunteer with ISI asked what I had thought about the speech, I replied that I believed what the speaker had said. Upon farther inquire, I confirmed that what I had come to believe.
Their days after becoming Christians
Yan came back from the retreat; her friends were extremely excited and told Tianyou that his wife had become a
Christian over the weekend. When they backtracked the events, they were grateful that God had led them to Himself
almost at the exact same time! Yan received her Masters Degree and then Tianyou completed his PhD. Lately Tianyou led his mom to
the Lord back in China.
Yan came back from the retreat; her friends were extremely excited and told Tianyou that his wife had become a
Christian over the weekend. When they backtracked the events, they were grateful that God had led them to Himself
almost at the exact same time! Yan received her Masters Degree and then Tianyou completed his PhD. Lately Tianyou led his mom to
the Lord back in China.