Heng and his wife Lan (not their real names), a couple from China, now living in South Africa, were invited to attend a Sweetheart Dinner at our new church plant, Mountain View Baptist, located in a suburb just outside Cape Town. At the close of the outreach dinner, I encouraged the couples in their relationship with each other and challenged them about a personal relationship with God. Those who were interested were also invited to sign up for a marriage builder’s course. Five couples from the evening expressed an interest, and we began our study.

For the next five weeks, Heng and Lan attended faithfully. They listened as we studied what the Bible says about marriage, and at the end, the gospel was presented once again. Just prior to that last session, they expressed an interest in continuing some kind of Bible study. So for the following ten weeks we met to study the Bible using ABWE’s The Way to Joy. Although we had only been using The Way to Joy for discipleship, I thought it could work as well for an evangelistic study.

As we began the study, it was obvious God was already working, and Lan was ready to believe and received Jesus as Savior during week two into the study. Heng still wasn’t sure and was even a bit doubtful. He was graceful and pleased for his wife but still had questions in his own life. His “engineering” mind was still working through what he was learning as he was trying to pull together the big picture of the Bible. During our times together, I found out that Heng had been seeking God for several years. He owned a Bible and had actually read it from cover to cover nearly five years earlier. He was even attending a Bible study at his office at the local university during this time. You could see God working in his life.

Upon my arrival for session five, I did something I usually don’t do; I simply began by asking Heng if he understood what God’s desires for him were and if he was ready to receive Christ. In the most uninhibited way, he looked at me, and very matter-of-factly stated, “Yes, I now have the faith to believe.’ God had given him the eyes to see the truth and the faith to accept Christ.

We continued working our way through The Way to Joy, which included a session on baptism; Heng and Lan were now both ready to be baptized. At the first baptismal service in the new worship center at Mountain View, they boldly testified to the changes the Lord had made in their lives and how they wanted to serve Him. You could see it in their faces. They had truly discovered… the way to joy!