Hi, my name is Wei. I was born in China, but I grew up in different countries. I didn’t know much about religion. Somewhere inside my heart I seemed to long for a belief because I felt so broken inside.

I came to California last year. At the beginning it was a very hard time for me because there were problems with communication, and I didn’t have any friends. I felt lonely and didn’t know who could help me and who I could talk to. Then, I saw a brochure from the international fellowship on campus. I met a lot of nice people there and had much fun together with dinner, singing, Bible study and discussions. I was there almost every Friday night. I went to a conference with some other students and saw a friend from China become a Christian there and how this made him change. But I still didn’t feel that I was ready to become a Christian.

An international student from Australia invited me to have a Bible study with her. The story which impressed me the most was about the son who had to make his own mistakes before he came back to his father and felt his great love. The father loved and forgave him no matter what he had done before. It was a story for me about coming home and I was really touched. I also had the feeling that I wanted to come home.

In December, we went to Urbana 06 in St. Louis. So many people all sharing the same belief and praying together impressed me. Probably that was the time I began to change. At Urbana I had begun to pray because I noticed I couldn’t manage my life on my own. I wanted to ask God for help. Our group of international students from California had some discussion about what we were learning at Urbana. I shared my impression that I need Jesus to be in my life, and that it’s a good feeling to belong to one big family. The group asked if I wanted to follow Jesus and let Him come into my life. I said, “Yes.” It was a very happy moment, and I cried. I asked God to forgive me for the bad and wrong things I did in my life. From that moment I asked Jesus to guide my life and to help me not to repeat my mistakes. It was as if I left my past behind me. I could start new from that point and have a completely new life. I was really thankful that there were so many people who helped me and were staying with me at that time. I felt so safe and wasn’t worried or anxious. This all happened December 31st at 2:15am. Now I try to pray as often as I can. I’m still learning because it’s quite new to me, and I think it takes time to change my old habits. Sometimes I think I still want to live my life on my own instead of letting Jesus show me the right way. But I know that’s not right and I want to keep myself close to Jesus.

Today I am being baptized because this is the place I got to know God and made new friends. I am going back to Germany tomorrow. I think my life will be much different than before I came to America. Please pray for me that I may find a community of people who love Jesus and with whom I can share. Pray also that God will help me to overcome the difficulty of letting my family and friends understand my new life in Jesus.

This article is part of the Fall 2007 issue of Internationals on Campus magazine. View a PDF (450 kB) of this page in the magazine.