Homesick - how faith helped
Tens of thousands of miles from home a young Chinese girl
found support in her new-found faith and local church
Kandy arrived in the UK from China in 2006 to join her husband
Mao who was studying for a PhD in Bolton, Manchester. She describes
how lonely and homesick she felt in the first few months getting to
grips with the new language and culture.
This all changed when the couple joined a local church
housegroup. Kandy said this was the first time she had encountered
the Bible and met a group of Christians in this context.
I felt the lovely affection from the members of the group. We
shared their stories and experienced encouragement, cheerfulness,
sympathy, comfort etc. At the end of the study we prayed for each
other. I was quite inspired. From then on, we regularly attended
the group study every two weeks and went to the church service on
Sunday night."
Her loneliness vanished due to meeting a whole new set of
friends and the following year the couple became parents to Terry.
They briefly moved to London and then due to job changes to Kirkby
in Ashfield. They immediately found a new church home when they
joined the 'Open Door' fellowship group at All Saint's Church,
Annesley.
"The memory is still so clear as Terry and I got a very warm
welcome when we came to the Church Hall for the first time. I was
really touched and it seemed as if I was back in China at that
moment."