Meet Bible students and return visits

I presently have a mix of English and Chinese Bible studies (around 12). You have already met some of them. There are Mr. and Mrs. Han and Mr. Jia. And Peter, from KIE, the university.

John

John, an intern at KIE, is one of the more advanced students. He has almost finished the Good News brochure (excepting Lesson 9, which he insisted on skipping because he is not interested in getting married or having a family), and though he hasn't yet attended a meeting due to refereeing football matches every Sunday, he has expressed interest in any programs we offer to train people to preach to others. I told him, well, if you come to our Theocratic Ministry School and Service Meeting, you can receive such training free of charge. He was amazed at this.

Patrick

Patrick, a student at KIE, is very humble and eager to learn. He came to one Sunday meeting and was very impressed. Of Rwandan origin, he and his family lived in Kenya for a number of years, so after the meeting we made sure that he met some of the Kenyan friends in the congregation.

Charles

Charles is Patrick's constant sidekick, and also a KIE student. He sits in on our Bible studies. He has some of his own ideas, mostly related to philosophy and legends, but when he is on Patrick's study, he seems to be on track with our discussion topics.

William

William works at a papeterie (stationery/printing/copying) shop. Due to the work environment, 10 minutes is about the most we can spend each time in the Good News brochure. Since he is also taking computer classes in the evenings and weekends, his time is limited. But he appreciates my visits, which are generally on Saturday afternoons, and even asks me what happened if I fail to show up on occasion.

Steven and Felix, who are brothers, "graduated" quickly from the Good News brochure to the Bible Teach book. Steven is very sharp, and has his lesson prepared even a whole chapter in advance. Felix used to be a vice-president of some corporation and presently is a youth ambassador involved in peace programs designed to prevent genocide. He is also writing his own book. We have touched on the subject of social and political involvement, but nevertheless he is very interested in the Bible's message. Recently, we were discussing Jesus' lineage as recorded in Luke, and I have never seen anyone so completely surprised by the fact that Jesus indeed had brothers and sisters. A few neighbors were walking in and out of the house (culturally, this is quite normal), and Felix exclaimed to them in Kinyarwanda, "Hey, did you know that Mary had other children besides Jesus!?" So I tactfully told him, 'OK, you learned something new today; maybe there are other things you don't yet know about the Bible. Just think about that possibility!'

Severin and Marcel are students at KIE, whom I met in the "Wifi room." They were studying together and singing a song that I recognized to be the numbers 1-10 in Chinese. So I approached and asked them, Are you studying Chinese and how is it going? They said, yes, they were taking the Mandarin class at the Confucius Institute on campus and showed me their notebooks full of handwritten Chinese characters and pinyin. Even though they are only in the first year, these guys are serious! So I offered a Bible study and they accepted! (conducted in English, of course)

Zhao Li Bo is a Chinese office worker in the Budget Department of the KCC (Kigali Convention Complex), the big round structure currently under construction. I was referred to him by a Rwandan brother named Claude, who attends a Kinyarwanda congregation. Claude is in the construction business and has done business with Mr. Zhao over many months, though in broken English. Their relationship reached the point that they would occasionally go out to eat, or Claude would drive Mr. Zhao somewhere to play football. During these occasions, Claude has tried to witness to him. So sometime back, Claude invited me to accompany him to see Mr. Zhao in his office. Mr. Zhao said he is very interested in the Bible, so we started having discussions using the red brochure. During the last visit, he said he had only about 10 minutes because of pressing work. However, after we finished discussing the first section of the brochure (which he completely marked up as we were talking, even though it was my copy), raising questions such as, 'What is the purpose of life? Is there a Creator?' he asked me, "So, does the Bible answer these questions?" After I assured him that it does, he said, "Can we continue with the second section of this brochure right now?" I guess work can wait! So I ended up spending close to an hour there! He said that since the birth of his son, who is now 10 months old—the wife and son live in China—he has been wondering about the purpose of life and how to satisfy the 属灵需要 (spiritual need).

The red brochure's second section discusses the role of religion in satisfying our spiritual need. What I've noticed is that most Chinese think that all so-called Christian religions are the same. So you have to explain the difference between Catholics and Protestants and how these religions and their doctrines developed, historically speaking. Once you explain this, as well as religion's involvement in warfare, they readily see that these religions are not true Christianity. They can also see how ridiculous some of the doctrines are, such as purgatory.

Mrs. Li is the owner of a new restaurant, called Carving Taste, just next door to Mr. Han's auto sales and repair business. She is very willing to talk and we have had a few discussions in the red brochure.

By the way, the latest on Mr. Jia, who is at CCECC and working 7 days a week, is that he is willing to resume his study, but only for 20 minutes, preferably during his mid-afternoon break. So the upshot is that I need to take a bus to Gisozi (25 minutes), walk on a paved road for 20 minutes, then walk uphill on a dirt road for another 15 minutes to get to his worksite, as well as his house trailer. Then, it is close to the same amount of time returning home, though a bit easier because it is downhill. I have to pray for the energy to make this trek during the hottest time of the day, and also for Jehovah's blessing! (So if you notice that I am getting dangerously thin, now you know why.)

One plus is that while up there visiting Mr. Jia, you have this magnificent view of the city of Kigali. Recently, Eugène, Noah, and I swapped pictures of each other posing against this scenic backdrop.

By the way, before the last study with Mr. Jia, he said, "Wait a moment, I have a friend who wants to hear what you have to say." So he went and got Mr. Wang, who sat in on our study. Mr. Wang had never heard any of this before and was willing to accept some brochures.

Also, while at CCECC, I can go see Zhang Lan (Tracy) at the reception office and continue our discussions in the red brochure. If I can get some other Chinese return visits at this location, hey, maybe I can just plan to spend the whole day there. Wouldn't that be great!