Alvin Ung shared this inspiring TESTIMONY of a L'Abri couple:
"The visits to the Boston L’abri were life-transforming for me. I saw the strength of Dick and Mardi’s marriage – how they honoured and respected each other as co-equals and openly shared their struggles in their relationship and their work as L’abri staff workers. As an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, I was unused to people who were willing to be vulnerable and share their lives with honesty.
I also saw how they welcomed strangers into their family as part of Christian hospitality. They listened to people’s questions. They provided thoughtful answers to difficult questions, and they weren’t afraid of saying ‘I don’t know.’ Several times a year, they’d be invited to Harvard, MIT, Wellesley and Middlebury colleges to lecture on Christianity to a secular audience. Though they worked very hard, it seemed to me that their work was very meaningful. And that made a deep impression in me that lasted for years.
And they loved books. Dick has written several books on heroism and identity, while Mardi has published books and lectures on feminism and gender issues. They have an immense collection of reference books, and specialised collections on everything from jazz to art to eschatology and archaeology. One night, I asked them how they managed to amass more than 10,000 books, especially since they weren’t making tons of money as L’abri staff workers. “We put aside ten percent of our monthly salary for books,” Dick said. That was exactly what I did when I began working in Malaysia."
"The visits to the Boston L’abri were life-transforming for me. I saw the strength of Dick and Mardi’s marriage – how they honoured and respected each other as co-equals and openly shared their struggles in their relationship and their work as L’abri staff workers. As an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, I was unused to people who were willing to be vulnerable and share their lives with honesty.
I also saw how they welcomed strangers into their family as part of Christian hospitality. They listened to people’s questions. They provided thoughtful answers to difficult questions, and they weren’t afraid of saying ‘I don’t know.’ Several times a year, they’d be invited to Harvard, MIT, Wellesley and Middlebury colleges to lecture on Christianity to a secular audience. Though they worked very hard, it seemed to me that their work was very meaningful. And that made a deep impression in me that lasted for years.
And they loved books. Dick has written several books on heroism and identity, while Mardi has published books and lectures on feminism and gender issues. They have an immense collection of reference books, and specialised collections on everything from jazz to art to eschatology and archaeology. One night, I asked them how they managed to amass more than 10,000 books, especially since they weren’t making tons of money as L’abri staff workers. “We put aside ten percent of our monthly salary for books,” Dick said. That was exactly what I did when I began working in Malaysia."
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