Jill’s journey began July 2015 when she saw a TV show about the Bible and went and bought herself one. She started to read it and take in every aspect, and within just a few months was baptized; right before she left for the United States to work on her Ph.D. September 2015, when I (Rusty) first moved to Delaware, I received an email from a random Chinese student that only said “Hello, my name is Jill and I would like to study the Bible with you.” The excitement to have my first study at UD filled my soul. As we studied and grew, she asked all sorts of questions about growing closer to God. By Christmas her husband agreed to come, and we studied for 3 hours straight. After a year, Jill left to go back to China, and she continued to keep in touch with short emails. However, this last year in 2018 her questions and direction started to change as she began to focus more on God for her marriage, her stressors, and prioritized time with Him before anything else.

      Blessings continued when this past spring her husband started seeking God more, and this summer he decided to be united with Christ in baptism! From this moment on their relationship started to change as they both focused on glorifying God together despite having been apart for most of their marriage! This last week she invited all of her Chinese colleagues and coworkers to her dissertation defense. During the stressors of finalizing it all she continued to put time with God first and was reading Nehemiah 6; which says “this work has been done with the help of God.” the night before her defense. With this, she boldly stood up in front of her colleagues, coworkers, and professors and professed her reliance on both faith and God to get her through life. She sent me this message afterwards, “It is absolutely true that my PhD study and my life in the US has been under the grace and mercy of God. When I prayed, I was touched by the Holy Spirit, and I decided that I needed to speak out my faith and my gratitude to God in one of my most important and official events. As a result, yesterday before my presentation, I spoke out the verse in front of professors, students, and you.” In doing this she spoke with boldness and confidence in God despite what the professor who she had to defend in front of thought. Above the fear of persecution, the fear of losing her 12 years of higher education, the fear of governmental reappraisal, Jill allowed the Holy Spirit to lead her in what was for me, one of the most humbling moments of my life - as someone for a brief moment boldly shared Christ’s impact in their lives.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

- Rusty Jordan, on behalf of DCCMF