"Alissa老师,你是罪人吗?"

If you can read the title of this post, you'll know that it is an interesting question.  For those who can't, it's titled "Teacher Alissa, are you a sinner?"

That is the question that I received last night at Bible study.  I teach children, and they ask me a myriad of questions.  Unfortunately, it's not always easy for me to answer, because the girl who asks the most questions doesn't understand English.  Thankfully, last night I had a friend co-teaching with me.  She is Chinese, so she was able to teach in Chinese and include me when needed.  Usually she will teach in Cantonese, but it came up that I know some Mandarin (the kids love the fact that I can "speak" Mandarin!), and they decided that they wanted to practice Mandarin in class that day.  I obliged.

So the questions kept coming.  I understood some of them.  We stopped the questions so that we could get the story in, and I told an anecdote about fishing...in Mandarin! It was using really bad Mandarin...my grammar was horrible and English words were weaved into it, but with my friend's help, the story came across.

After the story, the kids just started firing questions back.  A lot of the questions had to do with Mary and her state of perfection or imperfection.  They then asked if priests and pastors are sinners.  Then came the question if I was a sinner.  I looked the girl straight in the eyes and I said that yes, I am human.  I am a sinner.

I feel like we really got through to her.  She knows that I am an imperfect person.  I feel like that is important for her to know!

I try not to blatantly sin.  Always.  But especially in front of other people. But it is important for people to know that Christians are not perfect people.  They are not free from the bondage of sin.  The difference between Christians and non-Christians in regards of sin is that Christians are forgiven for their sins while non-Christians have not asked for forgiveness, and thus have not received it from God.

I hope that one day we will see this young girl be baptised.  She attends a Catholic school, but she comes to our English center most weeks, and hears what we have to say!  I am very excited that she has questions to ask us, and I feel blessed that I am able to have my friend join so that we have the ability to answer those questions in Chinese! :)