During the Pasadena trip, I had an opportunity to meet a brilliant Chinese student who had barely been in the United States even a month. A Chinese student who had accepted Christ a few weeks ago had invited him out to our event. This new student was a practicing doctor back in China and was set up as a visiting scholar getting paid to work with one of the hospitals at UCLA. A few funny things he said about Los Angeles was that he was surprised at how low the buildings were, how good the traffic was, and how much open space there was here. The irony behind that statement is that L.A. is one of the most congested, polluted, and crowded cities in the United States. While we were hanging out, I told this student about how we play Ultimate Frisbee and that he should come out and join us some time. Later that week we ended up playing and I invited him out and he showed up and played.

The following week was our Thanksgiving celebration for internationals and he was in attendance there as well. After speaking with him at Thanksgiving, I encouraged him to come to our weekly service that next week and explained that it was Christian service with a live band and a teaching from the Bible. I told him that it would be the last service of the quarter and it would be a good cultural experience for him and a great opportunity to see the friends he had made at the other activities he attended. He said he would show up, but I had heard that from many students and was not sure if I would actually see him that Tuesday.

Sure enough, Tuesday came and there he was with the Chinese student who originally invited him to one of our events. I was able to share my testimony with the attendees for a few minutes and then my roommate was given an opportunity to preach that night. After my roommate preached, there was an altercall the campus pastor was able to go to the back and speak with this student. This brilliant Chinese student had made the decision to become of follower of Jesus Christ on Tuesday and I am excited to see how God radically transforms his life and the lives of his friends and family back in China. God’s been doing some heavy stuff on the UCLA campus and it’s only going to get stronger and stronger.