Discovering the Joy: Serving the City with Chinese Scholars
“Volunteering created this opportunity for me. I realized that these are real, ordinary people. Some people are homeless because they suffer from addictions or mental illness. Others have lost their homes because they don’t have a job. They are not like the remarks that people make about the homeless in the newspaper or on websites, or that my friends make all the time. Maybe some of them had caused a crime before, but isn’t my prejudice another crime of the heart?” Robert, a visiting professor from China at the University of Washington, wrote the above after volunteering for the first time, serving a meal to people at the Recovery Café in Seattle. Visiting scholars like Robert are professors and researchers from top Chinese universities, visiting the United States for one year with a program sponsored by the Chinese government. I minister to Chinese internationals and our goal is to love, serve, and ultimately equip scholars for return to China, sharing the gospel with them. I have found that one of the best ways to serve scholars is to invite them to serve others with me here in Seattle.
