“I think that God just isn’t concerned about me,” Mei Li tells me as she sits at my dinner table and pushes food around her plate. Her sentiment is not unlike the feelings many believers have at one point in their life. Mei Li faces intense cultural pressure to be married by the time she’s 30. At 29 years old, her mother’s request for the past several years is that she marry a nice, preferably wealthy, Hui man, which is almost unheard of. But over time, her mother has encouraged her more and more to just find any nice man, Han or Hui, and get married and have children.

After Mei Li put her faith in Christ, she committed to wait to be married until she found a Hui Christian man. Over the years, her resolve has waivered. She’s met very few Christian men, none of whom have been Hui.

Mei Li was born into a Muslim family, the largest minority group in the most populated country in the world. She was raised by Muslim parents but converted from Islam as a teenager. Meeting a man with a similar history has proved to be nearly impossible. And now she sits as my table, overwhelmed with this fact, her mother’s expectations, cultural pressures, and her own desires. All of this battling inside of her making her feel as though God has forgotten her.

Pray that Mei Li will find satisfaction in Christ. Pray that whether or not God provides her a husband that her hope will rest in Him alone. Pray that with all of the societal pressures she faces, she’ll hold to the truth that her heavenly Father has her good in mind.

Pray for Mei Li’s mother. First, that she’ll put her faith in Christ. Second, that she’ll push her daughter toward the only peace and comfort that truly lasts and not push her daughter toward marriage.