From Utmost East To Utmost West--A Miracle Story

Alma Jean and I with the Zhou family, Bo Hu, daughter Emily
and Hongyan. Miracle daughter Eliana, age 8, took the photo.

We were greatly blessed having the Hongyan and Bo Hu Zhou family back for a visit with our house church group recently. They had moved to California from here nine years ago.

Hongyan came to EMU as a visiting scholar from the Chongqing University of Medical Sciences in China in 2004, and became a part of our house church congregation through staying with one of our members, Rachel Stoltzfus. (Rachel, who lived near campus, made a practice of opening her home to international students ever since she and her husband moved to the area decades ago, and she continued that ministry until her health no longer permitted and she went to live with her daughter in Maryland. Hers is a wonderful story in itself, told here.)

Hongyan had become a believer through the influence of a US teacher of English at his University, and he and his wife Bo Hu, who worked at a bank, became very active in one of a growing number of house churches in their city. After coming to the states, Hong Yan was granted religious asylum by the US State Department and immediately sought to bring his wife and their young daughter here as well.

Bo Hu and Emily were able to join him and were welcomed into Rachel's home in 2006, and she and Emily, then a fourth grader, soon became a beloved part of our community and our living-room-size church family. In 2009 the three moved to California to be closer to Bo Hu's parents, and where Hongyan got a job in nursing, having just completed his nursing degree.

Meanwhile, Bo Hu, then in her late thirties, had experienced several miscarriages, and her doctors in California discouraged her from pursuing another pregnancy, expressing fears about whether her offspring, at that stage in her life, would be normal and healthy. Their next major test of faith had to do with going through a time of uncertainty about whether she was again pregnant or had a tumor developing in her uterus. When an ultrasound revealed no sign of a heartbeat, their doctors recommended they have that removed, and offered to have the procedure done on that same day.

Seeing how heartsick they were over this, they were given the option of having one more test done at the Valley Medical Center at San Jose.

This time a tiny heartbeat was detected, much to everyone's great joy. But as the pregnancy progressed, later examinations showed possible signs of Downs Syndrome, and there was a bright spot on the heart that was troubling. So they were advised by their doctor and their geneticist to have an amniocentesis done to verify this and to have an abortion done if needed. They declined, putting their trust in God for whatever the outcome might be.

Months later, Eliana, a Hebrew name chosen by Emily which means "the Lord has heard my prayer", was born, a healthy and amazing blessing!

Eliana, Christmas, 2017

Eliana will be in the fourth grade this fall, and Bo, having just earned an RN degree, will be finding full time work. Emily is completing her last year of college at UC Berkley, where she had a full tuition scholarship she earned, amazingly, by winning an art contest in Virginia as a new elementary student in her first year in the states. She hopes to enroll in dental school in the fall of 2019 after completing her senior year this coming May.

Is this a wonderful story or what?

The phrase "From utmost east to utmost west" comes from a hymn "God is Working His Purpose Out" by Arthur Ainger.