They came by plane, train and private car from all parts of China. Several bankers, an investment portfolio manager in charge of billions of dollars, several global finance consultants and multi-national business women trading in large machinery, computers and commodities in South America, Europe and throughout Asia. They came for one purpose: to honor my dad!

My dad is a successful landscaper in Nebraska. His daily work is all about dirt. He has built a lot of great retaining walls, but nothing on the scale of the Great Wall. So why did these influential Chinese executives, 22 in all, travel so far to honor my dad? They came because, 23 years ago, this happy, clever man changed their lives and destinies. How exactly does someone armed with a backhoe change the destiny of people on the other side of the globe? By being a tentmaker.

My father and late mother responded to a call to be English teachers in China. For 10 months they poured their lives into their International Affairs students. Their classroom was four cold, gray concrete walls. The students shared their dorm rooms with roommates and wore heavy coats in the classroom to stay warm. The students were bright, but their English was poor. By all appearances, my parents’ expenditure of time wouldn’t result in much. But investments of love are seeds that always bear fruit.

Being American, my folks looked at the world differently and asked different types of questions. They challenged assumptions and made these Chinese students growing up in a communist environment think as they had never had thought before. My parents taught their classes with role playing and skits. They told stories about American life and traditions. My mother gave answers anchored in her faith and trust in Jesus. My dad discussed the U.S. Constitution and its guaranteed freedoms. Their classes were mind-expanding far beyond simply teaching English.
It so happened that this was the year of the U.S. presidential race between Bush and Clinton. So my dad allowed the students to debate the virtues of the candidates, and then he held a mock election. He told the students that his own vote as a U.S. citizen was up to them to decide. So that year, those communist students got to actually participate in American democracy. They voted for Bill Clinton and watched my dad as he filled out his mail-in ballot. When Clinton won the election, they shared the joy of participating in the victory.

Now, 23 years later, these professionals gathered to recognize how my parents’ teaching had put them on the ladder of success, which they had proceeded to climb to the top. They had an advantage in the global marketplace because my dad and mom had drawn back a curtain for them and thrown open the window of possibility, inspiring their curiosity and imaginations to fly.

Two months ago as my sister and I sat at a Chinese banquet table and watched these former students hug my dad, honoring him with gifts and words of praise and laughing as they recounted memories, I teared up. Though they had never met me, they greeted me as if I were their brother, because my mom and dad had treated them as their children. My mom had even instructed them to call her mom, and many had. I was surprised as they recited family stories they had tucked away in their memories, stories no one but our family knew. We were all family.

At that banquet, one of the executives looked at me and said, “I remember your mother because she loved us so much.” And she did. At the end of the school year, she had to go to Hong Kong for emergency medical attention. On her trip back, she determined to smuggle in a box of New Testaments, one for each student. How she got them in is another story, but she succeeded, and each student got a Bible. The students, now global business leaders, spoke of this gift and have never forgotten it. Times have changed, and now they can buy Bibles anywhere, but none like the Bibles my mother gave them. Those came with love that changed their lives.

Some have asked me as I have begun GoTential, “Do tentmakers really make a difference?” Yes. Yes, they do.

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