Transformed Lives

Jun 4, 2023 | by The Fellowship

For the last three years, I have been a part of the team that facilitates Alpha at The Fellowship.  Alpha provides the opportunity in a small group setting to explore issues of life and faith and the basics of Christianity in a judgment-free environment.  For the past two years, I have led the Alpha team.

We have seen many participants’ lives transformed by their decision to accept Jesus as their personal Savior or to recommit their lives to Jesus. The Spring 2023 semester drew to a close this week. For me, it has been the most gratifying semester as God has answered the prayers of His people again and again.

The foundation of Alpha is prayer. Our all-volunteer Alpha team prays throughout the week and before each session.  Our prayers ask God to draw people to attend and that the Holy Spirit brings each participant into a relationship with the Savior.

One of our newest volunteers, whose heart language is Mandarin, invited a couple she met and became friends with at her daughter’s favorite park. The wife only speaks Mandarin and the husband is taking English courses. I was very excited until realizing that the new guests would not get much out of our videos or group discussion if they did not speak or understand English well.

I asked our team to pray for the provision of Alpha videos and participant guides in Mandarin and a Mandarin speaker to host the discussion group. I had heard that Alpha has videos in many languages but was not able to find them in Mandarin on their website. What a disappointment it would be if we could not accommodate our guests in their heart language!

 At the same time this was happening, I had a call scheduled with our Alpha representative. He asked if I needed any help, and I explained our predicament. He quickly directed me to an Alpha page online I had not known about. There were resources for 100+ languages -- including Mandarin. I could get English-speaking videos with Mandarin subtitles or the complete video series spoken in Mandarin with English subtitles. What an answered prayer!

 We continued to pray for the provision of the participant guidebooks in Mandarin and for a host. When I asked our new volunteer if she would consider leading the discussion group in Mandarin, she agreed. And finally, I found several copies of the participant guide in Mandarin on Amazon. God had solved all the issues before the meetings began … but God was not through!

One of our church couples has neighbors from China. The wife is a believer, but the husband and her parents are not. The couple invited all of them to Alpha.  Suddenly, we went from two Mandarin-speaking participants to five. That provided critical mass for their own Mandarin-speaking discussion group.

As we started the semester with our first-time Mandarin group, it was clear these participants had many questions about faith, suffering, Christianity, and Jesus. Knowing that the future video content would provide their answers, I encouraged our guests to continue to attend.  If they still had questions at the end of Alpha, I would be happy to answer them then.

Several weeks ago, the wife of the original couple was on a trip to Malaysia with their young daughter.  One night the husband was unable to get in contact with them -- though he tried over and over.  He was frantic, knew he could never go to sleep without word that they were okay, and decided to pray to God for the first time.  Immediately, he was overwhelmed with unexplainable peace and went to sleep.  Some hours later, he learned that they had left for the day without their cell phone.  He was overcome with thanksgiving, began confessing his sins, and accepted Jesus as his Savior. 

During the Alpha Plus night where we introduce the Holy Spirit to the participants, another of the Chinese attendees prayed to receive Christ.  While an Alpha volunteer was praying for and with her, the power of the Holy Spirit convicted her, and the tears began flowing as she opened her heart to Jesus.  This was the first time this Buddhist background participant had ever prayed to God.

 God has also been at work in the lives of the English-speaking group. One of the participants shared that she accepted Jesus as her Savior back in March during a stressful time in her life.  She and another English-speaking participant have expressed the desire to be baptized.

There is no way of knowing whose life the Holy Spirit is working in even now. My sense is that He is not done yet. So many prayers have been prayed and answered by God this semester that the entire Alpha team is amazed! We all look forward to continually witnessing how the Lord transforms lives.

Pastor Glenn Lerich

We have not received the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit who is from God,
that we may understand what God has freely given us. 
1 Corinthians 2:12