Dear friends,

I hope this email reaches you well and that you are finishing March well.

March was a hard month for me as I got sick during the spring break and received a lot of rejection emails from job and Ph.D. applications. I recently found out that my master’s degree hasn’t been awarded even though I successfully completed all the required coursework and the oral exam. I think part of it is because my advisor put in the wrong graduation date in my DegreeWorks. My advisor had changed the date for me, but I was still told that my degree hadn’t been awarded when I called the registrar office again. The process is very slow, and I am frustrated to see such lack of action. I would really appreciate your prayers for God’s intervention in solving this graduation “mystery.”

I know that God is always the lifter of my head. Three weeks ago, I met a Chinese visiting scholar (Hu) in my Friday night’s Bible study. I noticed that she couldn’t understand the Bible discussion because of her English. I reached out to her after the discussion. I told her that I could help her find an English partner if she wanted. She then asked me if I could practice English with her. I happily accepted her request, and we started to meet remotely last Saturday (I know most of my work is done virtually :). I used the Bible as our language source to practice English. Unexpectedly, the English conversation turned out to be a Bible study. Hu told me that she believed that God exists, but she hasn’t found Jesus yet.

Because I am overloaded with Bible studies, I started to pray that God would raise up new leaders in my groups. Three weeks ago, a Chinese returnee (Xi) and her friend (Mei) came to IFI for a visit. Xi was also in the discipleship program with IFI two years ago. Xi was hoping that someone could reach out to her friend (Mei) during their visit in the U.S. I was studying some discipleship materials when Mei walked in the office. She then sat down to the chair next to me and initiated the talk. As the conversation went on, she asked me if I could tell her how I came to Christ. I found that Mei started to cry when I shared my testimony excitedly. Mei told me that she was really touched by my story. I realized that God was using my story to bring her back. Mei later asked me for two books: a copy of the Bible and the Cross-cultural Servanthood. I was compelled to give her the book of Cross-cultural servanthood even though that was my class reading text. Both Xi and Mei joined my online girls’ group. Praise God that Xi is going to lead the discussion soon.

My brother will start to lead the Bible discussion in the upcoming week. I think he would like to study the Bible with his roommate and co-workers, but he felt challenged to share his faith. Please continue to pray for my brother, and God will use him to share the good news with my extended family members and many others. It’s hard for me to have a conversation with my second oldest sister as she is often very busy taking care of her two little girls. She has heard the gospel a few times from me, but she hasn’t received God. I pray that God will continue to soften her heart. I would like to see that my second oldest sister and her husband will join the family Bible study soon.

I am grateful for your prayers for me, my family and ministry. Praise God that IFI just offered me a part-time job that’s related to my field, so it released me from job hunting. I will be out of town for an International Students’ Retreat this weekend. I pray that I will be able to witness some fruits coming out from this trip.

In Christ,

Theresa