Bible Study With Jairus - My Spiritual Biography

The Journey to Faith

I was born in the Hebei province of China. My hometown was a small village in the south Hebei province. It is adjacent to the Henan province and is located near a river. My family was poor but started to earn more money when my father began to work at the local township auditing department. My mother stayed in the village to grow crops and feed pigs. In spite of the hardships, my family’s financial situation was more stable than other families in the village.

As a child, I always wondered what our purpose was on earth. I would often think about this in my yard while looking up at the stars. Sometimes I sat on a small hill near my village wondering, “Where will I be in the future?”

My older sister enrolled in college in 1981 and was the only one in our county to be accepted into a college that year, which ended up being a huge event. Not only did the local teaching authority pay a lot of attention to this, but it also changed the mind of my grandpa and other family members in regards to the possibility of success. It was not common for a child from a rural village to enter college. Also, people in the village were prejudiced against females. So, my grandpa said that my brother and I must be accepted into college.

When it was my turn to go to college, I was accepted into a college in Beijing. However, I faced many hardships. Not only was I pressured financially, but I also had to face inequalities. There are always prejudices against people from rural or poor areas in China. I felt hurt inside and sometimes became very shy and withdrawn. After four years of college, I stayed and worked there for another four years. I wasn’t satisfied with that life, and I still felt empty and didn’t know what my purpose in life was.

Because of this, I decided to study abroad, which is a dream of many Chinese students. I got a joint offer from the London School of Economics in the UK and the University of Southern California. The tuition for the university in London was around 10,300 pounds, but I only had 10,000 pounds. By the third semester, I ran out of money. I did not have enough money to pay rent, tuition, and living expenses. I was also unable to find a job. I asked my family to help, and they gave me 1000 pounds. The university later offered help with my tuition, so that problem was solved.

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