Harvard University

The Best Story of All

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 18:23:30 +0000

Lisa Rieck

The Best Story of All

What makes a good story?

Author and ��ñ�� alumna Yangsze Choo clearly knows. Her first book, a novel called The Ghost Bride about the Chinese world of the dead, has generated quite a bit of praise. Oprah.com picked it as a “Book of the Week”—in other words, a book they “couldn’t stop reading.” And USA Today called it a “beguiling tale.”

Yangsze’s inspiration for the story came from several different places. One is her own ethnic heritage. A fourth-generation Malaysian of Chinese descent, she grew up reading Chinese fantasy stories that contained ghosts and magic and elaborate depictions of the afterlife.

But she also had C. S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce and its portrayal of heaven and hell in mind as she wrote. The idea of “parallel worlds”—worlds that exist alongside ours—put forth by Lewis and by classical Chinese literature plays a central role in The Ghost Bride.

Admittedly, however, Yangsze said most of the novel came from her own imagination, sparked by a mention of “spirit marriages” (a marriage between a living person and a dead person) that she read while doing research on another project.

Indeed, there is little connection between the life of the novel’s protagonist, Li Lan—a poor seventeen-year-old girl living in nineteenth-century Malaya who receives an unusual marriage proposal—and Yangsze’s present reality as a writer and stay-at-home mom of two. But her own life contains stories that, if not quite so fantastical, are just as interesting and poignant as the one she weaves in The Ghost Bride.

Adjusting to a New Culture

Coming to the United States for the first time to attend Harvard University is one of those intriguing stories. “I had never seen the campus before I arrived with my two suitcases,” she said. “A lot of international students do this. Everyone else had their family that first day, and I felt very lonely.”

In addition to the adjustment to college life, though, she faced the adjustment to a whole new culture—one unlike the many places she’d lived in growing up, such as Malaysia, Germany, and Japan. “Coming to the U.S. felt very strange to me,” Yangsze recalled. “Everything felt like it came right out of a movie—very iconic. . . . And Americans have so many consumer products; it was mind-boggling!” Thankfully, she found support and community from many other international students going through the same experience.

Meeting Jesus on Campus

She also discovered who Jesus is at college—another beautiful story from her life. “I did not grow up in a Christian household,” she recounted. “But I always felt since I was a child that there was some sort of presence of God in my life. I wasn’t sure who he was or which god he was, but it was a very kind and comforting presence.”

When Yangsze arrived at Harvard, her curiosity about God led her to attend several different Bible studies, and to eventually get involved in ��ñ�� at the invitation of a friend in her dorm. “I . . . started asking him a lot of questions, like ‘Why do you believe?’ and ‘How do you know this is true?’” Yangsze said. He didn’t have all the answers but suggested that others in ��ñ�� might.

It was in the safety of the ��ñ�� community that Yangsze came to understand who God is and surrendered her life to him. It was also a place where she developed significant relationships. “I’m still very good friends with many people [from ��ñ��],” she said, “even many years later.” And in fact, the friend who first invited her became her husband! She added, “The gift of ��ñ�� was that it drew people together from many different areas. That was a real blessing to me.”

She was also blessed by the constant space she had to ask questions during college. From fellow students to churchgoers, she talked to as many people as she could. “A wonderful thing about college is you can ask as many questions as you want, because it’s expected of you,” Yangsze reflected. “I didn’t realize what a luxury this was until later in life. . . . God allowed me to run into many thoughtful, interesting people to answer my questions, and that was a great provision.”

Facing Limits

Some questions, however, can’t be answered. And sometimes those questions create the most powerful—albeit painful—stories in our lives.

After several years in corporate jobs and at a startup post-college, Yangsze was forced to quit working due to a herniated disk. “It was difficult to transition from the corporate world,” she said. “I realized that there are limitations to the body—it won’t just fix itself. Coming face to face with that early on was hard.” She turned to God in prayer constantly.

Looking back now, she sees how formative that experience—and other painful points—have been in helping her learn to be honest with God. “It was difficult to say things to God like ‘I am angry’ or ‘I am disappointed,’” she said, “but I realized it was better to tell him, because when you stop telling him the truth you start to lose your relationship with him. I’ve received a lot of peace from that—‘the peace that surpasses understanding.’”

Connecting with Others

Becoming a published author has been its own mini story in her life—one that’s still unfolding as she juggles book signings and publicity appearances with her already full home life. But Yangsze has been grateful for the new adventure so far and the opportunities it’s given her to meet new people. “I’ve really enjoyed doing book events,” she said.

Her hope has been that people will enjoy the book but also find it thought-provoking—and so far, that seems to be the case. “People don’t really talk about what happens after you die in Western culture. Or what you hope for and fear,” Yangsze said. “I’ve had some great, interesting conversations with people.”

Walking with God

Ultimately, though, it’s the story of God’s love and faithfulness that is most powerful for Yangsze. That’s the Story that runs through every piece of her life. “My faith has been the backbone of everything, the thing that sustains me,” she said.

And while passion and fantasy make for great novels, Yangsze has learned that it’s often in the ordinary, everyday decisions that great stories are written. “When you are young, you want faith to be a big dramatic gesture,” she reflected. “But God is with us in all the mundane, routine moments, too. Life is a series of small, rather mundane things, and yet it’s very beautiful to have God with you all the way.”

That story is one this author will never stop telling.

_{Photo by James Cham.}

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Harvard University

��ñ�� Alumni: Anne and David Grizzle

AD-16225 — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:46:43 +0000

News

Sarah Kirk

��ñ�� Alumni: Anne and David Grizzle

Proposing to the one you love is a daunting task for anyone. Fortunately for David Grizzle, after Anne had turned him down three times, she asked him to marry her! Now, after 32 years of marriage, ��ñ�� alumni David and Anne reflect on how God continues to call them toward love: toward each other, toward their world, and toward God.

Anne and David were both involved with ��ñ�� during college at Harvard. David says, “I came to Harvard with no substantial church or faith background, so I was intrigued by ��ñ��. However, I had come from a harder and rougher background and found the warmth and tenderness of the people in the group off-putting.”

During his senior year, David read Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict. David says reading this book “enabled me to conclude that the claims of Jesus were more likely true than not. This was all I needed to take the first faltering steps of faith.” From that point on, David became involved in Bible studies with ��ñ��, which continued into his law school graduate studies.

While David initially rejected ��ñ��, Anne came to college looking for a Christian fellowship. On one of her first trips to Harvard, Anne noticed a Logos bookstore (a bookstore chain formerly owned by ��ñ��). She and a friend went in and asked if there were any Christian fellowships at Harvard.

The clerk connected her to Betsy Inskeep, an ��ñ�� leader on campus, and that connection began Anne’s long involvement with ��ñ��. Anne says that “with Christians being such a minority on campus, we gathered at ��ñ�� meetings from all denominations, states, and countries so grateful to be bound together with our belief in Jesus.”

A Love Story

David and Anne first crossed paths as undergraduates when they lived in the Winthrop dorm. David recalls: “In many respects, I was the kind of boy that mothers always warn their daughters about, and Anne was the kind of girl I had always dreamed of. We had our first date in April 1975, when I took her to the Boston Ballet. I never really dated anybody else again – or wanted to.”

Anne, however, was not so sure about the relationship. “Since David was not as committed a Christian at the time, I gave him a hard time, being concerned that he loved me more than Jesus. After rejecting several of his expressions of interest in marriage, we broke up,” says Anne. But God had other plans.

While they were apart, “I had one of those few vivid callings from God in prayer to marry David,” says Anne. “So I called him up, and he came down the next day, shocked and delighted that God had spoken so clearly. It was about that time I also became aware that David would follow Jesus whether we were together or not.” Learning to follow Jesus independently of each other has ultimately become the bedrock of their marriage.

Values to Live By

As a married couple, David and Anne made a commitment to two specific values summed up as: “First, a faith in Jesus Christ which is the pillar for each of us individually and together as a couple. This then leads to our second value as a married couple: a call to service and to involvement in missions,” says Anne.

David agrees: “We believe that God has made us strong and rich in order to serve the weak and poor. Anne has been vastly more effective than I in serving the weak, but we have both always agreed with the principle of living beneath our means in order to make more money available for missions and to constitute a form of service. I value excellence, truth, and significance. This had led us both to lead lives of intense intentionality, constant self-improvement, without secrets.”

These two values shaped Anne and David’s lives after college. After practicing law for six years, David went on to work for the airline business and is now the Chief Counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Anne received her master’s in social work from Columbia University in New York, and then worked in nearby Harlem with families in crisis. She continues to work as a marriage and family counselor, consults for a mission to the homeless, and wrote three books.

In addition to ��ñ�� (Anne serves on ��ñ��'s Board of Trustees), they both are actively involved in many missions organizations such as Amistad Mission, serving abandoned and orphaned children in Bolivia; International Justice Mission, fighting sex trafficking; and World Vision, offering relief and development around the globe.

32 Years of Marriage

Balancing marriage, work, and family is never easy, but David says, “I’m not sure we are called to balance. Instead, I think we’re called to sequential periods of imbalance. The key is to know when to move from one imbalance to the other and how to compensate for the areas that suffer when we’re most unbalanced. St. Paul, Billy Graham, and Mother Teresa were all way out of balance in many ways, and yet they made great contributions to the Kingdom of God. I’ve never tried to be balanced, but to instead excite my family with the passions that were making me unbalanced, and to make sure that I didn’t get stuck in any one direction of imbalance for too long.”

With each new life stage, imbalance, or direction from God, one thing has always remained clear – God comes first. Even in marriage. “We believe that marriage and family exist to serve God, that it should not be an idol in itself but a means to loving and serving God,” Anne says. “We tend to think of our home as base camp for the many work and ministry adventures we each have been called to pursue. I believe our adventures of service actually enhance our marriage, giving us grounds for vibrant communication and enjoyment of one another when we gather at home.”

David agrees and says, “You’ll work harder on your marriage if you truly believe it’s the only one you’ll ever have. It’s easier to stay interested in each other if each of you also stays interesting, which you can only do by having a fertile interior life with God.”

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Harvard University

Family Groups at Harvard

webteam@intervarsity.org — Fri, 03 Oct 2003 05:00:00 +0000

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Kristine Whitnable

Family Groups at Harvard

Deborah, a freshman at Harvard, tells of her introduction to small groups. “All the first semester revolved around getting used to the new environment and getting to know my fellow freshmen. In conversation, people would drop references to family group, and I was eager to see what the hype was about,” she said. When Deborah finally chose a group, the women accepted her immediately. “There was never a time that I felt awkward or like I didn’t belong. They included me in the inside jokes and just overall joy that overflowed from each person.

Harvard’s Asian American Christian Fellowship (AACF) has twelve family groups. These groups are organized with a variety of formats. Some are single-gender and some are co-ed. Some have an emphasis on prayer; others, on personal accountability. Some study a single book of the Bible, others do a topical Bible study. Each group works out a balance between content and community, between time for Bible study and time for sharing and prayer. The students in the small groups have gained insight into the Scriptures and the power of prayer. They continue to enjoy the support and fellowship of a consistent group of people who are true friends.

Students pray for one another in family groups. God has answered these prayers: He has healed students of eating disorders, resolved interpersonal problems and helped students do well on exams.

Tiffany, a freshman, is excited about God’s immediate answer to a prayer that had been offered for a fellow student who was having trouble getting plugged into a spiritual community. The next day this student went to church with Tiffany.

The study of the Bible is also a focus of the groups. Studying the Bible with others has been helpful for many of the students. Tiffany tells us, “ In the past, reading Psalms on my own had often been extremely boring, but my family group has had such amazing insights – insights that are very telling of how each person experiences God and grows in faith.”

By far the most impressive result of spending several hours a week in a Small Group, sharing and studying the Bible, is the support and accountability fostered among the group members. Students can be open and ask questions without the fear of looking foolish. They are encouraged to follow the commands of God.

Dave, the leader of the Men’s Accountability Group, even learned some things about being a Christian leader. “As it turned out, my men’s group formed a sense of brotherhood that has humbled my prideful expectations as a leader. The six of us, men from different faiths and life backgrounds, have formed a level of trust that has allowed me to share deeply with my brothers.”

Members of the Men’s Accountability Group sum up the year’s experiences. Steve, a sophomore shares, “The brotherhood that exists within our family group is the kind that is rarely found in other college activities. It’s a time of bonding and vulnerability, and it’s definitely the high point of my week.” Ted, another member of the group, adds, “In family group, I’ve met and come to know excellent peer Christian models. It provides for good accountability, advice and great fellowship.”

The world can be a lonely place. God knows this, so he tells us to meet together, to care for one another and to love one another. The students of the Asian American Christian Fellowship at Harvard have given us a glimpse of what obedience to this command can mean to a person.

News Keywords

Harvard University

Harvard University

The Best Story of All

The Best Story of All

Adjusting to a New Culture

Meeting Jesus on Campus

Facing Limits

Connecting with Others

Walking with God

��ñ���� Alumni: Anne and David Grizzle

��ñ���� Alumni: Anne and David Grizzle

Family Groups at Harvard

Family Groups at Harvard

��ñ�� Alumni: Anne and David Grizzle

��ñ�� Alumni: Anne and David Grizzle