I have a friend who is Hui. She might be my best friend in the city. But how is it that we’re so close when it seems to take so long for relationships to be built here in East Asia? Many times when I try to become friends with people here, I get surface-level answers to my questions, answers like, “I’m fine” or “Life is great” or “No problems here!” Life tells me that NO ONE is fine all the time. So how do we get to know people and tell them about the One who saves, the One we need, when those people say they’re fine all the time and have no need? By sharing our lives with them. I began to share good times, bad times, happy times, and sad times with this particular friend, she became more and more open about her own life. She started telling me about the pressures she’s facing from family to get married. She told me about the conflicts between her brother and new sister-in-law and how she tries to love them when they don’t love her back. She told me about the fear she has of not finding a job after she graduates. She told me about guys in the past who broke her heart.
Sometimes we feel that people from a different culture are hard to relate to, but I’ve found more and more that their hurts and concerns are similar to mine. Sometimes with Hui people, we feel that they need a different Gospel. But as this girl sits on my couch and cries about her life and the struggles she has, I realize she doesn’t need a different Gospel. She needs the same one that has changed my life and given me hope in the midst of hard times.
Please pray that Hui friends who come into our home will trust us enough to tell us about their lives so that we can get to the heart of things and tell them about the only One who can give them true hope in the midst of their sorrow – That is, Jesus Christ!