The "borrowed" book

It's interesting how one gets new return visits and/or Bible studies.

Several weeks ago, when I went to study with Mr. Jia, my student at the Beijing restaurant, he told me that one of his Chinese customers, Mr. Han Kai, saw his Bible Teach book and asked to look at it. Well, he took the book with him upon leaving and never returned it. So Mr. Jia asked if I could bring him another book, which I did.

The name of the Chinese customer was vaguely familiar to me, and when I checked my records, sure enough I had visited Mr. Han before at his workplace, which is Tiger Auto Ltd., a motorcycle manufacturing company. My first impression was that Mr. Han was polite but did not show unusual interest.

I figured that if Mr. Han made off with Mr. Jia's Bible Teach book, perhaps he had more interest than he had originally let on. So I paid him another visit, and this time he was indeed very interested. In particular he was intrigued by our website, jw.org, and its various features. So I explained that the Bible Teach book he had is the one we use principally to study the Bible. He said he had some time on Sunday mornings, so we set up an appointment for the following Sunday, if I would make sure to call or text before coming. Usually Sundays are slow for the business, but occasionally there are customers.

That Sunday not only Mr. Han but also his wife was there, and we started with Chapter 2 of the Bible Teach book. (This is something we do with Chinese people, because although they may not believe in the existence of God, the information in Chapter 2 about the authenticity and practical value of the Bible often impresses them.) Mr. Han and his wife had so many questions that I had to interrupt our consideration of Chapter 2 to address them. His wife had a question about fate, or predestination. So I promised to send them some information on that subject. (Later that day, I sent the text of a magazine article about fate by e-mail to them.) As we were approaching an hour and a half in our discussion, I said that we had a meeting at 11:30am and we had to leave soon or we would be late. Well, Mr. Han thereupon said he would drive us to the meeting, so we hopped in his car! That was very kind of him. Now he knows where our Kingdom Hall is, and since he and his wife are the only Chinese calls of mine that can speak a bit of English, I am hoping they (and their two kids) will be able to come to our meeting someday.

So that is how another Bible study was started.

By the way, Mr. Jia is doing very well with his new book, and also new Bible. Here is a picture of him as well as his restaurant.