Chinese woman meets Jesus in Canada
Mei Ling wanted to be baptized.
Her husband had become a Christian while studying in Canada and had recently gotten baptized. Mei Ling, who had followed him from China across the globe, saw a big change in him. She was sure baptism was what did it, and she wanted it too.
Knowing that Mei Ling was not yet a Christian, the pastor of her Toronto church suggested that she learn about the Bible first. Mei Ling was happy to oblige, and agreed to meet weekly with Esther, another lady from church.
Esther and Mei Ling met weekly to study the Bible’s message using The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. Having grown up among atheists and Buddhists, Mei Ling had no previous knowledge about the Bible.
Esther reflects: “What I love about The Stranger is that it starts at square one. Everything was so new to Mei Ling. The sacrificial system impressed her. When we got into the Ten Commandments, it hit her that you could be a good person, but if you didn’t keep all the commandments, you were still a sinner. In the New Testament, she was amazed at the injustice that the sinless Jesus suffered. She asked questions like: ‘Why didn’t they believe Him?’”
Throughout the study, Mei Ling nodded her head frequently and seemed to agree with Esther. She even agreed that Jesus died for her sins. But when they got to the last chapter, there was a problem: Mei Ling couldn’t accept the exclusivity of Christianity.
“She knew Buddhists who were good people,” Esther says.
Esther did not want to push Mei Ling into agreement just to please her. So she left it at that and continued to pray for her and visit her. Months later, Esther received an e-mail from Mei Ling. It said: I am going to take the baptize.
Surprised, Esther called her friend.
“She told me she had been miserable,” Esther says. After months of contemplating the Bible’s message, Mei Ling had come to realize that as a helpless sinner, “there was no other way. She needed Jesus.”
Mei Ling was baptized two weeks before Christmas. But now she knew that it wasn’t baptism itself that changed someone, but faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Esther was encouraged that their study together had been a big part of Mei Ling coming to know the Lord.
“I think everybody should have a Bible study with Esther,” Mei Ling told others at her baptism service.
Names and locations have been changed.
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