The Baptist Digest

The next time I heard from her was an unexpected late night call, she was searching for a ride from the airport in Denver back to our university. A few weeks later, while Anna and I made the five hour journey from Denver to Hays, I sat and listened as a beautiful story of a faithful God relentlessly pursuing one of His chosen children unfolded.

Anna grew up in a very small town in East Asia. She dreamed of getting an education and traveling the world, and her parents were determined to support her in making it happen. She went to university in East Asia, she graduated, and after a few years she became a flight attendant in Dubai. It was some of her fellow flight attendants that first began speaking to her about Jesus. She recalls many spiritual and philosophical discussions filling their many hours of travel.

While these conversations awakened an interest in Anna, significant questions began to rise in her mind that, for many years to come, would continue to be walls set up against her receiving Jesus. “Why do Christians believe one thing but live another?”, “If Jesus came to set us free, why are there so many rules and regulations?”, “Why have Christians done so many historically terrible things in God’s name?” 

As Anna felt her time in Dubai drawing to a close, many of her friends encouraged her to move to New York City. She found a job in a lawyer’s office translating documents from English to Chinese. Even there God was faithful to bring more believers into her life. Although her understanding of Jesus continued to grow, the real, deep questions were never satisfied. She remained a few more years in New York but realized she hasn’t yet found an occupation that brought purpose and passion to her life.

So her search to fill the emptiness in her heart continued. A friend she had met in NYC encouraged her to check out a small school in the Midwest called Fort Hays State University to continue her education. The university was affordable and, according to her friend, there wasn’t much to do in Kansas anyway so she wouldn’t be distracted.

Anna made the move to Hays to pursue a master’s degree. During her first months in town her housing arrangement fell through, so she sent out a desperate email describing her need to find a new place to live quickly! The first person to reply was a pastor’s wife; she invited Anna to live in her basement. The only requirement was that this family wanted Anna to eat with them and relate with them; she was to share life with these followers of Jesus. Once again God was faithful to bring more believers into Anna’s life, even when she wasn’t looking for them.

The Pastor suggested Anna to attend a Christian conference in Colorado over winter break that was specifically geared towards international students. Only because Anna still had a desire to travel did she agree to go. Anna again heard the gospel message presented at this conference and made some great new friends, but she still wasn’t ready to believe in Jesus as her Savior and Lord.

Two of the people Anna met were a man named Garen as well as another international student from FHSU named Jill. It was these two that drew Anna to Christian Challenge that first Tuesday night when I met her; Garen was our speaker and Jill is a student I’ve invested in for the last three years. It was Jill that suggested Anna contact me for a ride from Denver, which brings us back to that five hour car ride.

God was so faithful to give Anna and me great conversations on that trip. I heard her story and couldn’t help but recognize all the ways He had been at work in her life. We talked about spiritual things the entire time, specifically addressing the questions that had held her back for so many years. 

A month later Anna sent an email telling me she had important news, she wanted to be baptized! I asked her to come to Challenge that night so we could discuss things further. We talked about how she needed to receive Jesus before she could be baptized.

She shared with me that she had decided on our drive together that she was ready to follow Jesus with her life. The only information she still lacked was how to make her new faith “official”. We prayed together and celebrated her new life! One more human being who will spend eternity giving God the worship He so deserves!