One spring evening my husband and I went on a date. It was the kind of date where we hop on our bikes
and explore our big, beautiful, people filled city. The plan wasn’t specific, but it was expected that the
night would include an interesting experience and, of course, food. Our expectations for this night were
greatly exceeded, as we went home with, not just an interesting experience, but a life-long friendship
with a lady I now affectionately call “Jie Jie” (the Chinese word for older sister) and her family.

As we explored, we came across a couple of “new to us” hole-in-the-wall restaurants nearby our
apartment and we decided to pop into one and check off the food requirement of the night. After a look at the menu, we realized that the only dish that this particular restaurant served was sheep head. We just weren’t feeling sheep head that night. So out the door we went and into the next place.

In the next place, we were greeted with a menu that looked much more favorable and a family that
exuded hospitality and peace. As we sipped tea and ate the best home style Hui cooking that we’ve ever
had, we chatted it up with the owner and his wife. The husband was uncharacteristically engaging in
conversation and the wife had a radiant smile that brightened up the room. It was a friends at first sight
kind of experience.

The friendliness and flavors of their family restaurant kept drawing us back in. On a weekly basis we’d
stop in during a time that we thought wouldn’t be very busy to grab a meal and have a conversation. We
talked about the weather, Chinese and American culture, the differences between Islam and
Christianity, and what the Bible says about who God is. As the October holiday approached, they invited
us to spend it with their family out in the village. This is when our friendship was really sealed. We met
the parents, slept on the kong (heated platform used in the village home for just about everything), used
the out-house, and bonded on a deeper level.

When we returned to the city after that holiday, we felt more like family than friends. We were
expected at the family table once a week, but usually ended up there multiple times. I got called in to
waitress when things got too busy and was happy that they trusted me enough to clean tables and pour
tea for their guests. We opened up about the hard things of life to each other and gave lots of hugs,
which is pretty abnormal in their cultural. We celebrated Christmas and several birthdays together and
we returned to their village home to celebrate their sacrifice festival.

Over the past two years our friendship has blossomed and our love for my Jie Jie and her family has
grown deeper. The Gospel has been explained several times over and threads of the Gospel have been
weaved into our everyday conversations. We hope that the Gospel has been seen in the way we live our
lives and love this family. And we pray that the Gospel will be understood and believed by the working
of the Holy Spirit in our friends’ lives.

I love the story of our friendship, because it’s kind of quirky that it started simply by us being out and
about and not wanting to eat sheep head. I love the depth of our friendship, because we are able to
share real life with each other and we can speak the truth in love, over and over again. I love the
weirdness of our friendship, because we have a lot of differences and we don’t make sense to a lot of
people when they see us together. And I love that you know about this friendship, because now you can
pray that God will use this friendship to bring this sweet family into His family through the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.