An online interview on How to Pass on Faith to Younger Generations was held in a church based in China's southern-coastal Guangdong Province.
On June 8, Guangzhou Guangxiao Church held Episode Four of the "I Love My Family" online interview entitled, "Overcome Obstacles, Pass On the Faith". Pastor Guangyao Song was the host with a female believer named Xiaohui Ou as the guest speaker. After she became a Christian in 2014, Ou led her children and granddaughter to believe in God within a few years.
In the beginning, Pastor Song said that he and Ou both belonged to the "grandparent" generation and that the great challenge for them was to pass on their faith to younger generations. He mentioned the generation gap and the influence of social media on young people.
With this in mind, Ou talked about how she introduced her children to God and that what she did while her son was addicted to video games. She also explained how she educated her granddaughter coupled with her faith journey.
When leading children to God, Ou believed that the most important thing was to teach through words and deeds. She once forced her son to attend church services, just finding that he did not want to believe in God. He did not see the difference in his mother as a Christian, wondering why people must have faith.
A staff member told her that maybe it was not her son’s time to have faith. After that, Ou did not force her son to become a Christian but simply prayed for him, paying attention to live out God’s word in her life. Surprisingly, two months later, her son and daughter-in-law were willing to accept Jesus into their lives.
Ou also dealt with the internet addiction of her son. “My son was deeply influenced by the Internet during his study time, locking himself in his room to play games,” Ou said. She did not intervene too much in case invoking his aversion that he went to the internet café to play games. At that time, she just reminded him to “take good care of his body and rest well.”
Regarding her granddaughter's education, Ou mostly prayed for her. She prayed that her granddaughter would follow God in her lifetime and walk according to God’s will with a heart of love, compassion, faith, patience, and reverence.
In the last part of the interview, Ou shared her faith journey. Once on a trip abroad, with language problems, she received selfless help from some Christians, which touched her heart. At the same time, her friend shared the gospel, which she thought was a good thing. She decided to believe in God with an idea of helping those in need. After she went back to China, she was committed to a church. Besides serving in the church, she led her family to God.
- Translated by Katherine Guo
