LIMA, Peru (BP)–There is no God, that much he knew.
Science proved it — evolution explained the origin of all life and Pedro Xie could site verse and chapter. Teachers drilled it into his mind and soul for years and he had no reason to doubt.
There is no God, period.
“But Pedro, there is a God and he’s alive and he loves you,” pleaded his brother time after time by telephone. His brother believed Pedro’s eternal destiny was worth the price to call from Minnesota where he lived to where Pedro lived in Peru. Each had gone his own way after leaving China.
“He’s alive and I’ve found him,” his brother said.
Eventually — finally — a break came in his atheistic resolve.
“I remember the moment I questioned myself, ‘What if there is a God?'” Pedro says. “It was a major step for me to even open myself to the possibility that there might be a higher being. It was definitely the Holy Spirit at work in me.”
A Peruvian pastor ate often in Pedro’s “chifa” — or Chinese diner — and used the opportunities to witness to Pedro. It was during the same time Pedro’s brother was imploring Pedro to consider the reality of God.
Pedro was miserable. His spirit was turbulent. He visited the pastor’s church but couldn’t understand much because everything was spoken in Spanish, a language he was learning. Pedro speaks Cantonese. He flipped through a dictionary groping for understanding as much as he did the Spanish Bible he was given. The pastor knew of a Mandarin Chinese church in Lima — two hours away by bus. Pedro left his business and went to meet the pastor.
Although the pastor in Lima was of Chinese descent, he spoke no Chinese and preaches through an interpreter. He did, however, give Pedro a Chinese Bible. It was easier to read, but he still had so many questions. He returned home and went to see the pastor who came to his restaurant. The pastor led him to accept Christ as Savior.
“I did not understand everything he said, but in my heart I knew I needed Jesus,” he says. “I asked him into my heart that day.”
So convinced he was that God was real, he immediately told his brother-in-law and his brother-in-law’s fiancee. They attended the Spanish church but Pedro quickly noticed the two nodded their heads politely, but understood nothing. They spoke less Spanish than he did.
He called the pastor in Lima and help came as a Chinese-Argentine missionary. “I knew they needed to hear about God in Cantonese,” Pedro says.
The missionary takes the bus two hours from Lima and leads a two-hour Bible study every Tuesday that begins at midnight, after Pedro closes his chifa. Difficult? Yes, but Pedro’s brother-in-law and fiancee also now know personally that there is a God and that he is real.
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