Fellowship Memphis

Pictured above: Yang Shen (far right) at the community group Christmas party.

Back in the fall of 2010, Yang Shen wandered into Downtown Elementary School on Sunday because he heard singing. He had only been in Memphis for two weeks and had come over from Shanghai to work on his Post Doc in Molecular Biology at UT.

He came and sat down by us at church. We introduced ourselves after the service, and he had many questions about the sermon and songs from that day. He asked what words meant like “stains washed away” and “hallelujah” and “gospel.” It was such a joy to share the gospel in a fresh way.

We gave him a Bible that was set out on the benches and the next week he returned to church and had read all of Genesis! We invited him to sit in on our community group and we all got a chance to learn more about him and his fun outgoing personality and his success in his line of work.

He joined our families for Thanksgiving and attended our community group Christmas party. He also brought some other Chinese friends and we had an opportunity to introduce them to the gospel. They also joined us at the Memphis Union Mission and heard Hassan preach. When the men came to the front to confess their sins. Yang Shen was puzzled as to what was going on. I told him that they were asking God for forgiveness for their sins to which he replied, “I love. I love.”

When Dan Heuer heard about our new friends, he introduced Tucker to a Chinese evangelist in Memphis who is in connection with the 3 Chinese churches in Memphis and a number of the 8,000 Chinese who live and work in our city. We were amazed at the number of Chinese who are here for only a number of years and then return back to China. What an opportunity we have to make disciples of all nations from right here in Memphis!

Living and worshipping downtown has been an amazing experience for us. We have been challenged, convicted, encouraged, and inspired by our pastor Ricky Jenkins. He has been supportive of the members of the body reaching out to the community and has led and loved us well!