Some years ago, when I was living in Sydney, a young Chinese
student popped her head inside our Reading Room door (it was open briefly after
church one Sunday) and said accusingly “This door is never open!” We responded
joyfully “Well it is now!”
She asked “Do you do Bible study here?” Without too much of a pause, we said “Yes! Come along on Wednesday night.” And so began a joyful time of Bible study in
that strong little church.
Our new friend had been in Australia for just a few years
and her grasp of English was not strong, but she was very determined. Her mother (back in China) had become a
Christian, so Li (sadly I can’t recall her name, so this is a made-up name) had
decided she (a devout Buddhist) needed to become acquainted with the
Bible. Actually she was keen to start
with the book of Revelation (yikes!) but we suggested the Gospels might be a
little easier place to begin.
And so it was agreed.
The next Wednesday, we explained to Li (who arrived with her
Chinese/English version of the New Testament) that we would sing a hymn, then
listen to some readings, sing another hymn, share some gratitude, and then have the
opportunity to read the Bible together. She seemed OK with that. We chose to begin with the book of Mark, and we
simply read five verses each around the circle for as long as we had available before the
end of the hour allotted to our testimony meeting. We finished with a hymn.
Li faithfully came along for quite a few months. In the
meantime, something extraordinary happened: we all fell in love with reading
the Bible together and I couldn’t wait for the next week so we could resume
from where we left off the week before. It was like a
thrilling journey of discovery. Often
our reading would be interrupted as one of us would ask: what do you think that
means, and we would search a commentary or another translation to see if we
could discover new insight. Other times,
someone would break in to give a testimony that had come to thought during the
reading together.
I am so grateful for this reading together. It was a holy time and I’m grateful that it
continued for some time after I moved to Queensland. I know of at least one other group who have
been inspired by this method of learning more about the Bible. May there be many more who get together for
this purpose of reading the Bible together.
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