From California: Reach out to those who are suffering

Becky, I have used your Seeker Bible Study guides for the past 2 years with all sorts of groups. I’ve seen incredible growth in the lives of my seeker friends! For example, one woman I worked with was diagnosed with cancer a year ago. I said I'd pray for her, and visited her in the hospital, and after her surgery I called her a few times to see how she was doing. Then I went out to dinner with her. A few months later, I invited her to the Seeker Study we were starting. She started coming and every week she would say how the Bible stories were starting to come back to her as a result of having gone to Catholic church as a little girl. She hadn't been to church for over 40 years! In fact, she refused to go to church because she said she hated institutional religion. Amazingly, she started coming to our church. She continues to come to our Seeker Study and I have watched her slowly being transformed. It is clear to me that she now knows God in a personal way.

From Northern California: Why it’s important to befriend internationals!

Becky, I am doing one of your Seeker Studies with an interesting group! I met a young woman who grew up in Communist China. We invited her and her husband over for dinner. When he asked my husband what he did for a living, they did not know what a "pastor" was. So my husband tried to explain that he was a leader of a Christian church - but they didn't know what "Christian" was. We said that Christians are people who worship Jesus. They had never heard about "Jesus." Amazing! They had no Christian knowledge whatsoever. So I invited her to join our Seeker Bible discussion group.  After several weeks of not saying anything, she made her first comment during the discussion. Her question was, “Why do you think God had Jesus born as a baby rather than just showing up as an adult?”  Then she went on to say:  “I think Jesus came as a baby so that He could really know us – know what our lives are truly like. He had to grow up, just like us.” Just by reading the gospel stories she is beginning to understand that he was fully human and fully God! On a lighter note - as we concluded, I noticed that she was reading and re-reading the pages in the Bible and I wondered what she was trying to find. Then she said, "I don't see anywhere in here where it says Jesus was born on Dec. 25 -- why is Christmas on Dec. 25?" That’s a good question I hadn’t thought to address!

From Malaysia: Consider doing a Seeker Study at McDonalds!

I just started doing a Seeker Study using one of your guides and we decided to meet at McDonald’s in Kuala Lumpur. The seekers I invited seemed interested and responded well to the questions. But what I hadn’t counted on was that we’d draw the attention of total strangers! Soon other people began asking what we were doing. I explained and continued the study. But when I realized that they hadn’t left I said “Would you like to join us?” and they said “Yes!’ So our Seeker study has expanded in unexpected ways! I will keep you posted on our progress!

From Malaysia: I did a Seeker Study on the airplane!  

Becky, I was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong recently when a Japanese woman sat down next to me. I am Chinese and a bit hesitant to initiate conversation, but I kept thinking about the questions you taught us on how to start conversations - so I decided to try. When she told me she was an atheist I was sure the conversation wouldn’t go anywhere – still she seemed interested in talking. We talked quite a while about the possibility of God’s existence and she was clearly intrigued that I was a Christian and an engineer – a thinking person. Then she said “I have never read the Bible – in fact, I’ve never even SEEN a Bible. I’m sure I wouldn’t understand a single word of it.” So I said “Well, I’d be happy to show you mine! Why don’t we read a story together and I’ll ask you some questions and then you can see for yourself if you understand.” She seemed intrigued so I got out your Study guide in John and we had a Bible study right on the plane! She had never read the Bible in her life and she was clearly fascinated by what she was reading. We hadn’t quite finished the study when the plane landed.  When I asked her if she’d be interested in doing more Bible studies she said “I definitely would!” So I said “If I give you this guide would you promise to do all the studies?” “Yes, I will” she answered. So I gave her my copy of Looking at the Life of Jesus and she has promised to email me her response to each study. I have to buy another study guide now but it felt like a good investment!