At first, Meghan LaSalle* was frustrated when municipal lockdowns for COVID-19 delayed her friend and house helper, Li Wei*, from returning after the holidays in East Asia this past winter.

It’s common in East Asia for families to hire someone to help with household chores each week. It not only simplifies daily life for the families, but it also provides steady employment to those who need it.

Because of the lockdowns, restaurants in Meghan’s city were closed and supplies in stores were limited. Without Li Wei, all the daily work of finding groceries and preparing meals for her family of seven fell to Meghan. Meghan was used to a few weeks of this during the holidays each year, but as three weeks stretched into four, five and six, it was challenging. Meghan was also disappointed because in the three years they’d known Li Wei, she had yet to put her faith in Christ.

Meghan could remember many times where they’d be chopping vegetables together or preparing dinner, and Li Wei would pepper her with spiritual questions. She’d ask what Christmas and Easter meant, and what it meant to be a Christian. She’d ask questions about adopting, since Meghan’s family had an adopted daughter.

At one point she told Meghan, “I want to believe, but I just don’t know how.”

Meghan got excited and showed her resources for listening to Scripture so that she could listen while she worked. Last Christmas, Meghan invited Li Wei to dinner in hopes she could talk more with a local pastor and his wife, but she was working three jobs and had to leave early.

Meghan’s family prayed for her, and asked others to pray. They kept sharing the gospel, but it didn’t seem like Li Wei was going to believe. It was discouraging.

But to Meghan’s surprise, when Li Wei finally returned after New Year’s, she told the family that her parents had put their faith in Christ and were planting a church in their village. Meghan had so many questions for her, but they only had a few days together before her family had to leave the country unexpectedly and indefinitely.

Again, another disappointment. But even in Meghan’s sadness over their abrupt departure, God was at work. He provided other believers for Li Wei to connect with, and several weeks later the believers told Meghan’s family that Li Wei put her faith in Christ. The believers have begun discipling her, and she is growing in her faith.

She wrote Meghan herself to say, “I know God has used you in my life to show me who He is, and I’m praying for you.”

“At first I thought Li Wei was God’s provision to make my own life easier,” Meghan said, “But now I see He was doing something really spiritual in her life and in her village, and that was the whole point. It wasn’t about giving me comfort or giving me help. It was about the eternal work He was doing through it all.”

God used Meghan’s family to soften Li Wei’s heart, even when they couldn’t see what He was doing in her life. He worked through many different people and circumstances to draw her to Himself.

“I learned that He’s always weaving all these different threads together to bring about His will, and to bring people to know Him, and to grow His church,” said Meghan.

“Even though we had to leave the city and we miss [Li Wei] dearly, she’s in much better hands now. She’s with a whole body of local believers now who are loving her and teaching her what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We were just the introduction and the launching point.”

*Names changed for security