Vashti is a new Christian.  Hebrew-speaking Israelis came to her part of mainland China to be agricultural advisors.  Their language intrigued her.  Vashti heard there would be an intensive ten-day, four-hour-a-day beginning Hebrew class taught by Professor John C. Lawrenz of the WELS seminary in Hong Kong.  She enrolled.  At the end of ten days Vashti and others were reading simplified Scripture in the Hebrew language using materials prepared by Professor Thomas Nass of Martin Luther College.

After class one day Vashti ran up and said, “I woke up this morning so sad about many things.  Hearing the First Gospel in class changed everything!”  We had together read Genesis 3:15 where God points the first sinners to a woman’s Child whom God would send to crush the head Satan, the instigator of sin and death.  Vashti has gone on to read about Abraham and Jacob and Moses.  When I close my eyes and listen, her voice brings me back to the streets of Old Jerusalem.  Her Hebrew pronunciation is that good!   Vashti is one of two who tell me they hope to return to mainland China and share what God says not just in Chinese, but in Hebrew, the language God originally used to proclaim grace and truth in the Old Testament.