From Tiananmen to Tokyo: Lu Dong’s Journey of Courage, Faith, and Innovation

Lu Dong is a seasoned entrepreneur and technology innovator based in Tokyo, Japan, where he leads a groundbreaking platform connecting travelers to Japan’s renowned culinary scene through seamless reservations, ordering, and payment solutions. A former Wall Street professional and Stanford MBA, Lu’s
entrepreneurial journey spans industries and continents, including pioneering ecommerce ventures in China. A survivor of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, Lu’s life has been defined by extraordinary courage, from standing against oppression to embracing Christianity and publicly declaring his faith in a country where less than 1% identify as Christian. Lu channels his experiences into building purpose-driven businesses that glorify God and uplift communities, embodying a profound commitment to faith and transformation.
In this compelling episode of The Courageous Crossroads, Jeff Johnson speaks with Lu Dong, a trailblazing entrepreneur whose life story is a testament to courage and faith. Born in Beijing and a survivor of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Lu shares how his family’s defiance of corruption shaped his values and inspired his entrepreneurial spirit. Now based in Tokyo, Lu discusses his journey
from Wall Street to founding a thriving tech platform and embracing Christianity in a challenging cultural environment. With profound insights on resilience, faith, and purpose, Lu’s story is a moving exploration of what it means to stand boldly for truth and make a difference in the world.

Thank you for listening! We hope you feel inspired and encouraged by our conversation today. If you did, be sure to share this episode with others.

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See you in the next episode! Be blessed!

Full Transcript

Intro:
Welcome to Courageous by Crossroads Apologetics, a look into what motivates us to step out in courage and the everyday bravery of men and women like you. In each episode, we hear a personal story of bravery centered around this question. What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? And now your host, founder of Crossroads Apologetics, Jeff Johnson. 

Jeff Johnson:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Courageous Crossroads. Listen, if you enjoy what you’re hearing and we’ve got a growing audience, praise the Lord for that. And more listeners are adding on all the time. So if you’re enjoying what you’re hearing and you’d like to hear more of it, maybe even a conference at some point where we have some of our previous guests come back and share a little bit deeper about their story of courage, or have some other experts come in and talk about the story of courageous faith and that sort of thing. If you’d like to support this ministry, go to our mothership, Crossroads apologetics.org that’s Crossroads apologetics.org and up in the upper right hand corner, you see a little green button that says donate. 

Jeff Johnson:
You can just click on that and donate whatever the Lord lays on your heart to help support this ministry and keep the Courageous Crossroads podcast going. We sure appreciate your support and your help and appreciate you sharing this with your friends as well. We’ve got an ever growing community and it is such a blessing. So thank you very much. Now for our next guest. Wow. I met Mr. Lu Dong just a few days ago. We’ve been corresponding back and forth through a mutual friend, and I was so excited to get to know him. Lou is a survivor of the Tiananmen Square massacre, originally from Beijing, now lives in Tokyo, Japan, and an entrepreneur, very successful guy. Just an amazing story. So Lou’s going to tell you how courage is facing fear and the unknown with conviction. 

Jeff Johnson:
He’s going to talk to you about how courage is rooted in faith and God’s guidance. He’s going to mention, courage often feels natural in the moment. You don’t really notice it until after you’ve done it. And then you look back and you’re like, yeah, that was a really courageous thing that I just did. And about how courage requires humility and a greater purpose and a whole lot more. You’re absolutely going to love our next guest, Lou Dong. And so, without further ado, here he is. Lou Dong, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today and the Courageous Crossroads. Where are you sitting right now? Tell our listeners where you’re at. 

Lu Dong:
I’m In Tokyo, Japan. 

Jeff Johnson:
Okay. And that’s where you’re living and working? 

Lu Dong:
Yes. Now I’ve been living in here in Tokyo, Japan for the second time and this is my second 10th year in Japan. Yeah. With my family. I have a me and my wife and we have a nine year old daughter. 

Jeff Johnson:
Okay, wonderful. 

Lu Dong:
Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
And what’s your business? 

Lu Dong:
My business is a technology platform that connects travelers with restaurants in Japan through three products. One is reservation and one is order through your smartphone and the third one is payment as well. All over a. You know, smartphone platforms. Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
And it’s just specific to the Japanese market so far. 

Lu Dong:
Yes. Because Japan is the, I would say, biggest foodie country in the world. Yeah. You know, there’s. There are about a million restaurants in Japan. Wow. And 160,000 restaurants in Tokyo. That’s the number which put Japan the highest restaurant per capita country in the world. Just in sheer number and in terms of quality. Michelin guide. Right. His known as, you know, publishing the, you know, top restaurants in the world. And I, I would say for the, you know, traceable past. Right. Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, these three cities are always on top. Three of four. Right. So only Paris was number three, you know, here and there. So it’s just amazing. The number of. Not only the number but also the quality of restaurants in Japan is just amazing. 

Jeff Johnson:
So the three, the top, of the top four. Three of the top number of restaurants per capita are in Japan. 

Lu Dong:
And also. Yeah. What I’m trying to say. Sorry. It’s the number of top Michelin star restaurants. Okay. Among the top four, three are from Japan. Right. 

Jeff Johnson:
Oh my. 

Lu Dong:
You know, the definition of Michelin three star restaurants from Michelin is that just to go to that restaurant, you should go to that country. So it is, it’s not like, oh, I’m in Japan, where should I go to find a restaurant? It’s like in order to go to that restaurant, you should try to go to Japan. You know, that’s the priority. That’s how Michelin star three star restaurants is defined. Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
Wow. 

Lu Dong:
Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
Excuse me. 

Lu Dong:
The French guys just love Japan, but I think the whole world loves Japan, you know, it’s a beautiful country. Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
What led you to start that business? 

Lu Dong:
A quick ver. You know, short version is that this is not my first business, this is my third business. I can, you know, be categorized as a tech analogy serial entrepreneur. I started two businesses in China. So I spent 10 years from 2004 to 2014 in China starting two, I would say consumer brands and the distribution channels were not Only the traditional store based. We do have stores, you know, across China, but we also build a lot of the, I would say e commerce channels in China. So I was among the first to, in China to build e commerce channels to sell apparels, right Back in the days when the modem, the Internet was like 50k, 56k modem. Just to download the picture takes, you know, minutes, right? We were the first to sell clothing online in China. 

Lu Dong:
So that was my, you know, were about empower. So which led to me building a lot of experience in building e commerce retail brands, stuff like that. So with taking that. And the interesting thing is in this 10 years from 2004 to 2014, China grew so much from copying business models from mainly the Silicon Valley, the rest of the world, to exporting business models to be unique, creating new business models that doesn’t exist anywhere in the world to actually exporting business models. So my third business right now is I would say it’s like a E commerce platform for restaurants, right? So then which is kind of started in China. So there’s OpenTable, there’s Yelp, right. There’s stuff like that in the U.S. But the Chinese restaurant tech business models are far beyond anywhere in the world, right? 

Lu Dong:
So they combine, basically there’s a company in China in the food tech, they combine OpenTable, y’all and Uber Eats all in one. So they do everything. It’s like basically it’s called super app, right? So it’s so powerful and everybody needs to rely on this app every day because eating it’s so frequent. It’s like the number one frequency people human do. Everybody eats three times a day, right? Whether you go to a restaurant, whether you cook, whether you get delivered, and 40% of the social media posting are about food is the number one, by far the largest content people view or do. Which I came back to Japan in 2014 taking whatever I learned and experienced in China, which is so in the, I would say smartphone Internet world is far beyond Japan. 

Lu Dong:
Back then in 2014, Chinese people were using QR code to pay, whereas in Japan they’re like, how can you use QR code to make a payment? Well, probably still, it’s still Today in the U.S. QR code payment is not popular, but 98% of people in China use QR code to pay. Not cash, not credit card QR code. So that’s how I would say advanced. It’s like different. It is in China, right? And when people think about taxi, when people think about food, the first thing they Think about is, oh, let’s use this app instead of going down the street or going on, you know what I mean? So that was 2014. So taking that and also another very important trend was there was a huge, I would say, inbound tourism boom into Japan from around 2014 and 2015. 

Lu Dong:
And inbound travelers double every year into Japan. And with that, I have friends from all around the world. You know, I have my experiences because I have friends. I lived in US for a while as well. So my friend from US, my friends from China were just always like every, almost every week I have someone come from somewhere asking me. And the questions were universally about restaurants. It’s like, hey Lou, where’s the restaurant to go in Tokyo or in Kyoto or ask my schedule in the cities. Can you give me a list of restaurants where I should go or can you book? Because I cannot speak Japanese. And we want to have a good experience. Which led to me, huh? This is such a high demand or pain points, right. For people to find and reserve and order, have good restaurant experience. 

Lu Dong:
But there’s no such service exists for this audience, this group, this doubling, you know, this flooding of foreigners into Japan. And they all lost in translation, right? So I’m like, okay, why do I create a e commerce platform for restaurants? It’s like the Amazon of restaurants and it’s nothing new. It’s like taking the concept of this super app in China and try to make it in Japan. So it’s like a cross border restaurant platform. So anyway, so this is how I started in eight years ago. Yeah, it’s pretty. 

Jeff Johnson:
And it’s going well. 

Lu Dong:
Well, yes, but now. But the COVID four years. Three. Four years was devastating. You know, you can imagine we started off in 2016 until 2020. So the first four years were. We were like not doubling. We were like 10x every year. So our restaurant base from 100 to 1000 to actually this first year we had only 100 restaurants. The second year we had 3000. The 30 were about 55,000. So we’re like more than 10x per year. Sky. Just like. And were ranked by Forbes Japan, the fastest growing company, among the fastest growing company in Japan. And were literally filing for IPO in April 2020. And that’s the very month that Covid hit really hard to the whole world. So went from right when you. 

Jeff Johnson:
Were going to do an IPO in. 

Lu Dong:
Tokyo, Tokyo Stock Exchange. We were entering the filing process. But then within that two months of filing, we lost 95% of our revenue. So our Bankers, our auditors, like, hey, let’s. And you have two months of Runway, and there’s no money on the market. We’re not filing for ipo, trying to survive, trying to not go bankrupt. So we have a really, really tough three and a half years, I would say. No travel, right. No globe travel and restaurants were suffering. And these are the business we. We were supporting. Right. So, however, you know, like, there’s a lot of story. We can talk there, but yeah, the result is post Covid. Almost two years in Japan. I think US is a little faster, but Japan, we’re almost two years out and we’re doing historical high in our revenue again. 

Jeff Johnson:
Wow. 

Lu Dong:
And it’s a roller coaster, right? Like, typical. I would say, you know, entrepreneurial story. You have high ups and high, low downs. Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
Well, congratulations with that. So, Lou, you know that this podcast comes down to the one question. What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? But before we talk about that, I’d like to get a little bit more background on you for our listeners and also kind of vet this topic of courage and how you understand courage a little bit more. So can I ask you, how do you define that? How would you describe courage? 

Lu Dong:
Courage, I’d say, is your attitude, your spirit, your action. Facing fear, facing unknown, or knowing something, you’re doing something right against something is powerful, but is wrong. Something like that. 

Jeff Johnson:
That’s a good definition. That’s a really good definition. Who do you look up to as courageous people? Who represents courage to you? 

Lu Dong:
Oh, wow. Obviously, I know there’s a lot of Bible. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, any. Any, you know, like Abraham facing unknown. But, you know, Daniel, you know, the lion’s den, the Fernand is definitely one. And I think the famous quote from the. From the Bible is be strong and courageous. Right? So we are courageous because we made courageous. We were made to be courageous. Without God, we cannot be ultimately courageous. Right. Yeah. When. When Joshua and Caleb, they’re going to this promising land, but these giants, right? This enemy, this unknown, but with this, you know, confidence and promise and, you know, the covenant. So I think, you know, a lot of us, you know, of course, David, you know, facing this Goliath, you know, there’s so many stories I think the Bible is telling us with. 

Lu Dong:
With God’s, you know, like, covenant, not only promise, covenant, we have his covenant to, you know, job, right? Get rid of our fear and get rid of also our pride to face our fear, to face our pride, to face our Enemy. I think that’s to face the, sometimes the authority. Yeah, I know I’m the only one, right. I can face the whole world that I think is wrong. I think that’s courageous, right? 

Jeff Johnson:
Yeah. 

Lu Dong:
Doing what is right. 

Jeff Johnson:
So, so touching on that, you know, the only one in the whole world. This is wrong. I know that you’ve. Excuse me for my little cough here. I know that you’ve had experience with Tiananmen. So where were you born and raised? Can I ask that? 

Lu Dong:
Yes. So I was raised, born and raised in Beijing in China. Yeah, the capital. Right. 

Jeff Johnson:
Raised as a Christian. 

Lu Dong:
No, no. You know, China is communism as same as, you know, Soviet Union. Back then the de facto religion was communism. Right. So I think my, I grew up in a family, academic family. My grandpa was a professor at Tsinghua. Tsinghua is like the equivalent of Tsinghua in us could be, you know, Stanford or Caltech or you know, or MIT maybe, you know, it’s more technology like the top school in China. Very academic, very strong value based family. And my parents too, my father and my mom. So they all were Communist party members. They devoted their lives to a dream that everyone is equal, everyone is. Will be free. You know this concept, you know, as grew up, growing up in China, the concepts are the dream is beautiful, right? No poverty, no rich. 

Lu Dong:
Everyone’s the same, you know, and we share everything, you know, I, I think that’s what you, they in. In hindsight, of course now I know it’s the. Communism is the biggest cult. I would say the biggest gangster group in the world is taking people’s humans. I’ll say natural drive, natural calling. I’ll say, right. Everybody has a hole in their spirit to longing for freedom, for truth. The truth, right? And they give them the false freedom and truth anyway. So current up in a family in China, in Beijing. That’s how I was educated. That’s how I was, you know, brought up until 17. I was 17 and which is 1989. We all know that, right? The tenement massacre happened. 

Lu Dong:
But the background is, you know, usually, you know, it’s a young college students, you know, they’re the most, I would say rebellious where they’re the boldest, right? There’s like, hey, you know, the corruption of the government, you know, the future is wrong. We want democracy. We want, you know, we don’t want corruption, blah, blah. So they went on the street, right, for months and get a lot of support from the whole society, including the police. Right. There were no police. Police wasn’t part of the demonstration. Right. And until, you know, the leader. Well, primarily just Den Xiaoping, you know, the. He decided to crack down by shooting. Yeah. By. By killing people, by rolling the tanks over people, you know, so that’s what. 

Jeff Johnson:
Now let me ask one, Jump in and ask one question then just to get us up to speed. So you’re raised in a communist family, so we can assume that’s everything that you knew. What, what was it that got you to say no? Communism is not right to make you want to go participate in what was going on in Tiananmen. Your parents must have been upset. 

Lu Dong:
No, no. So basically my grandpa, my parents were, they’re all supporting the students because they knew they couldn’t clearly saw they saw that the corruption. They saw the corruption. They fell. The unjustice in social injustice. Right. Some people got rich and the, some people, the people got rich are bad people. 

Jeff Johnson:
So they knew that communism wasn’t working. 

Lu Dong:
No. Something was wrong. Right. That’s why everybody was on the street. But instead of having a peaceful dialogue and try to change something, they crack down by, you know, killing people and protecting the corruption, protecting the government, protecting the wrong authority. That’s where my grandpa, he wrote a letter. He was very. Oh, he’s. I think he was one of the courageous people I saw too, you know, in the real world, not in the Bible. He basically, as a high rank of a very famous professor in the academic world, wrote a letter to Deng Xiao, to the leader in China saying, this is wrong. You should not kill people. Right. And he said, I’m going to resign Communist Party because this is not what I signed up for. This is not what I. Wow. 

Lu Dong:
What you know, what we as a party, you know, promised our people. So he wrote a letter to the leader. Regardless whether this letter can reach to the leader, he resigned Communist Party. And he said, go, you guys. Like, you know, he told my parents, he told me, we had a family meeting, three generations. And he said, I’m gonna stay here because this is my life. You know, I devote my entire life for this dream of communism, but it’s not, it’s going wrong and this country. So he literally, what he literally said, it’s like, I can tell honest people will not have a good future in this country, so please leave China, go somewhere else. 

Jeff Johnson:
Wow. 

Lu Dong:
So from that point, it took us a couple years, right? This is pre Internet era. It’s like very. So eventually helped me to came to Japan and also my parents. My dad, you know, took a diplomat job. He didn’t want to get involved in the domestic political situation. So he became a technology attache to many countries in Korea, India, US and many countries. And then until his retirement. So from that point, my family never really lived under one roof ever. So it’s a huge. From my grandpa, you know, we’re talking courageous. Like that’s a very courageous moment for him. That, A very courageous moment for me because I took one suitcase and one way ticket and came to Japan. Wow. Without knowing the language, without knowing anyone. 

Jeff Johnson:
It’s like just by yourself. 

Lu Dong:
Yes. I was 19 years old, Lou. Wow. And when age of 17, I was among the college student. I was burning the tanks. I was literally burning the trucks. My dad, actually he was here in. 

Jeff Johnson:
Japan last in Tiananmen. You were doing that closer to tenement. 

Lu Dong:
So we’re trying to block the trucks to go into Tiananmen. So we set roadblocks. We try to. I, I try to basically set a fire on the tire of a truck where the soldier standing on top of the truck shooting at us, you know, you can see how dangerous that was. 

Jeff Johnson:
Shooting at you, Shooting at you. 

Lu Dong:
Us. Yeah. Oh, my dad was there. My dad, remember, he’s like, he’s so vivid. Remember that moment he saw me rush to like go under the truck, try to burn the tire with some cloth. And the soldiers, they’re shooting machine guns at us. But he realized if he really want to shoot us, he could, the soldiers could. The soldier somehow at that moment purposely didn’t shoot us so shoot at the ground. So he saw the bullets hitting the ground with. What do you call it? The, the fire. You can see the, you know, he’s just warned us and if he really want to shoot us, I was already dead the moment. But then, you know, it’s like, and my dad was right there. It’s. He saw me, he literally saw me. He’s like, you are so courageous. 

Lu Dong:
And he was impressed and he thought, he thought I was doing the right thing. And he was always so my, my parents, my grandpa were always supporting the students and we realized how dangerous that was in China. And, and of course I was lucky. I was like, hindsight, I know it was God protecting me. But we saw so many people died in that. On the square and along the road. Right. 

Jeff Johnson:
So now when you were in, were you in when you were in Tiananmen at that time. Were you a Christian? 

Lu Dong:
No, no, I wasn’t. Nobody was a Christian. 

Jeff Johnson:
You didn’t have any experience with the underground church then or anything like that? You were a communist and just revolting from what you saw as being false? 

Lu Dong:
Yeah, yes. So from there, you know, our family just separated. We in a way fled. I fled to Japan, you know, survived by myself for 10 years, you know, studying Japanese, try to get into college, Got into college. Somehow I got into Goldman, you know, I did computer engineer, you know, and in finance, you know, when working Wall street, you know, eventually got in Stanford, got me an MBA. Then after 12 years, all this time, I’m like, I, I was still wasn’t as Christian. I was like, maybe. Why? Why maybe I can make a difference in China. I felt. Because one thing, I really was touched when I was in Stanford, because the motto of Stanford was make a difference. And the professor I remember, they said, he said, you guys are the smartest and brightest of the world. 

Lu Dong:
You should not aim to make money. You should aim to make a difference. Because everybody can make money, but not everybody can make a difference. So back then, my drive or my goal was to be a social entrepreneur, right? Because Stanford had a very strong social entrepreneurship course. So I spent two years trying to figure out how to build a social enterprise, which is double bottom line, right? Make profit and make an impact. 

Jeff Johnson:
Yeah, right. 

Lu Dong:
So that was my theme. And then after that, I was like, okay, where I can make the biggest difference? China. You know, I came from China, I knew China. I can be a bridge. And so I’m like, even China was right. I, I left China because of corruption, because the, you know, social injustice. I’m like, okay, maybe I can go back there and make a difference. So, and so I did. 

Jeff Johnson:
You were 10 years in Japan. You were 10 years in Japan. 

Lu Dong:
Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
You studied, you studied, you did the work. What led you to the US Just a continuing education. 

Lu Dong:
Continuing education. But it’s really, I, I would say trying to figure out where I can make a difference. 

Jeff Johnson:
Okay, you were successful enough in Japan to get yourself up on your feet. You had money, you had a job, you had a. Something you could. Yeah, yeah. 

Lu Dong:
Okay. So, you know, the quick story, I’m sure, I’m not sure if I had time, but the quick story there was, I, I was really. I was at Goldman, you know, private banking. I was making way more money than my peer. But I always thought something was lacking, something’s wrong. Until I saw this documentary of Muhammad Yunus, he built his, like, you know, in Bangladesh. He built this microfinance, Grameen Bank. And $50 can change someone’s life in Bangladesh. And looking at that, I literally remember I was crying so hard because I felt I was making a lot of money. I was helping the richest people in Japan to be even richer. But I’m not even really helping. I’m not spending my life to really help the needy, the millions of people. Even $50 can change someone’s life. 

Lu Dong:
I just remember a little at the moment. I just made this rich guy $5 million richer. And so what, right? And it felt I wasting my talent. That was literally my feeling. So it’s like, okay, I gotta quit this. I gotta really do something to make an impact in this world instead of just. Just being happy with my, you know, nice and cozy life, right? So. But where does this idea come from? You know, I didn’t know. I just felt I have this drive. I don’t want to, you know, something’s wrong. I feel my. I’m wasting my talents. This is me. I didn’t know God back then, but I went back to China for the second time, right? That’s where I really face a reality, my dream, my, you know, it’s really ideal. But still, after a year, easily, China’s still the same. 

Lu Dong:
China still more a corruption, even more. 

Jeff Johnson:
Did you have trouble getting back into China? 

Lu Dong:
No, no trouble, you know, when I left. But the corruption is even more. The richest people are still the most corrupted people, you know, with. With the government, a lot of bribery, a lot of lust, a lot of more materialism, right? So that’s where I really start seeing, seeking the truth. And then a friend of mine led me to the underground church because when I was like, hey, you know, why. Why do we have to be good? Like, why are there so many, you know, corruption, so many things wrong, but these are the people that got rich. Why? There’s so much unfairness in this world, right? And then my friend told me, it’s like, hey, you know, I. I think you’re really different. You’re different from, you know, a lot of people in China. And I know a group of people, they’re like you. 

Lu Dong:
They’re seeking the truth. They also feel there’s something wrong with this world. Do you want to get together with these people and share your ideas? I’m like, okay, sure. So that’s my first encounter in the underground church. So then I went to a home. There’s like the moment I went in there when I see these people say, oh, praise the Lord God. I was like, okay, I went to some cult, I need to figure out how to go get out of this. I was looking at doors, how can I get out of here? 

Jeff Johnson:
But you knew that the underground church was a Christian worldview. Did you? Or not? Or okay, so you knew that it was. This is the Christian faith that you’re walking into, that’s the underground church. But you had, did you, I assume you had a basic concept of Jesus and. 

Lu Dong:
No, I had a wrong view of Christianity. I had a wrong, I was like, Christianity or any religions for weak people, it’s like for women and losers. I’m a self made man. You know, I went to Japan. I, you know, I, I, I, I learned this, you know, I, you know, I went to us, you know, Wall Street, Silicon Valley. I can’t, I can be anywhere. It’s all me, right? I know you guys, literally, I told her, it’s like, hey, I don’t want to go there again, this is not for me. I respect you. You’re a group of good people, nice people, but I’m not part of you. I’m strong, I’m courageous. You guys are weak. Yeah, you can, you wish something will happen. You know, like you rely on something not tangible. You know, I, I believe in science. 

Lu Dong:
I believe in hard working, you know, I’m a self made man. You know, so that was me. And, and, and she’s like, interesting. So we had this conversation. She’s like, tell me, why do you believe in science? I’m like, of course science is provable, you know, like, oh, you’re a fairy tale of whatever, you know, you made this world I believe in. As I, I was speaking literally, I stopped and I paused for. I remember this is really weird. Long, long silence. I paused there. I couldn’t continue because I was saying, I was about to say, I believe in fish become monkey becomes human. And when I was about to say that I realized how stupid that idea was. I was like, this is not science. And I never saw this same thing. I never saw anything that’s described in the Bible either. 

Lu Dong:
I realized at that moment, that was the turning moment, I realized it’s not my belief, it’s my choice. And I realized science and all that education I chose to believe was my de facto religion. And believing something I don’t even know, I have no proof of. Right? It’s faith. And after a long pause, I think Maybe a good like five or 10 minutes. I’m just going through my mind. I’m like, okay, why do I do this before I can deny you guys whatever you say that’s wrong in the Bible. Why do we. Why do I. Let me read the Bible with you guys for one year. 

Lu Dong:
I want to finish like reading the Bible so I can pick using my brain, you know, analytical brain, you know, training, business school, whatever, to pick everything’s wrong and, and have a good debate with you because I cannot deny you. Even I. If I don’t read the Bible for once, how can I say it’s wrong? 

Jeff Johnson:
Let me read it first and then I’ll. And then I’ll be able to prove to you that there’s problems here. Wow. Wow. And how many different. How many times had you gone to the underground church? One. 

Lu Dong:
So that’s my first time. And then, yeah, rejected. And she’s like, okay, why don’t you go? So, so I started going. So it’s like, let me just at least follow, you know, go with your Bible study group. But the miracle happened there. Two months, not even a year, only one book. I just wrote Romans. I’m like, wow. All my shallow private prejudice, like about whatever heard from people of the Bible was wrong. This is the truth. Everything I was looking for is in the Bible. I, I took 180 degree. 

Jeff Johnson:
How did you, how did you come so quickly to recognize that was the truth? It was just the Scriptures just had that impact on you and you said it was just the book of Romans. 

Lu Dong:
Yeah, I’ve some books, some Romans, Corinthians. I remember, you know, not clearly, but like the Bible verse is really speaking to me because, you know, like I think for all my life I was speaking, I was looking for the purpose of life, right? That’s why I quit Goldman. Right. That, that’s why I tried to be a social entrepreneur. That’s why I was courageously went back to China, right? All this. I was like, why I’m doing this? I didn’t understand. Why do I have to be so angry with this wrong things. I can just be okay with it and I can just be part of it, but I can’t. I don’t know why I couldn’t. I don’t know why something is driving me to always try to seek the truth. 

Lu Dong:
And after licking the book, like, I know why, because I’m created this way and it’s God who was always walking with me and leading me to this. And instantly I just, I’m Like, I realized, oh, I’m convinced this is it. I don’t need to finish reading the Bible. This is it. I want to spend the rest of my life reading the Bible. And. 

Jeff Johnson:
And that was back in Beijing. 

Lu Dong:
That was back in Beijing after just two months. 

Jeff Johnson:
Wow. 

Lu Dong:
So that’s how powerful God’s word really are. And so what is underground church? Underground churches, you know, in China, after Tiananmen massacre, after this incident, accident, right? China has this law, any gathering for more than 10 people, if you don’t report to the police or the government, you’re illegal by default. Right. And of course, there’s official church, which. The church report to the Communist Party instead of to the Heavenly Father. Right. So. Which is clearly wrong. So it’s artificial, you know, it’s like, you know, church. So the Anacron Church, of course, is. It’s by default illegal. Illegal in China. It’s basically we secretly go. Some. Some go to somebody’s home. You know, we. We try to keep it small to under 20 people. And because we don’t want to get too much attention from their neighbors. 

Jeff Johnson:
Right? 

Lu Dong:
So we have to try to figure out, you know, don’t go, you know, in the same time, you know, we try to be, you know, just be quiet and stuff. And then, because it’s growing so fast. And so I remember once we grow oversize, we have to split home. We have to start another home. Is growing so fast. And there’s so many young people like me at the time was looking for the truth, looking for freedom. Right? So literally. And then what’s happening is there was no. Back then, there was barely Internet, and there’s no smartphone, there’s no Bible app. All right? So everything was still paper. And it’s impossible to buy the real Bible, which is not published by the Communist Party. The real versions of the Bible. 

Lu Dong:
Every time we have to ask someone to go overseas to bring the paper Bible back to China. So to having a real Bible is the biggest. I remember Hong Kong, a brother who came back from Hong Kong or brought me this English and Chinese, like, bilingual Bible. A big Bible with, you know, like black, you know, sort of leather covered with a gold. What do you call it? Paint, you know, side. 

Jeff Johnson:
Yeah. 

Lu Dong:
Literally, I was like a treasure. It’s like little to me. It was like I was sleeping with it every day. And it’s so, so precious. And we have other sort of supporting materials for the Bible, right? And all of that was printed in the underground printer factory. And whenever there’s a raid of police came to, you know, there’s like rumor, hate, like some family got cracked down by the police. We just immediately go home and burn our books. I remember the only book I couldn’t burn was Bible. I was like, try to cover it with something else. Every once in a while we’re just like another round of burning books. It’s just. But nothing can really crack down our faith. 

Lu Dong:
And the more I really literally, when I read the Bible, read the history of Christianity, I realized and also traveling to US and Japan right now, it’s free, nobody’s cracking, there are no police. But at same, at the same time, people don’t feel how precious Bible or the words or the truth is. 

Jeff Johnson:
Yeah, right. 

Lu Dong:
And literally I think Christianity becomes stronger wherever is suffering. I mean, I mean persecution actually makes Christianity stronger. I’ve literally experienced it. Whereas in a lot of freedom countries, it’s kind of lukewarm. Right. It’s. Well, there are churches everywhere you can do at any time and you don’t feel how, you don’t feel the injustice and the brokenness and. Yeah, so I think that’s why God brought me to Japan, you know, to be the oasis in the desert of Super. To be the oasis in the desert of Christianity. Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
Well, you’ve touched on, Lou, you’ve touched on so many different courageous endeavors right now and experiences that you’ve had in your life. I know that I’m talking to a very courageous man right now. I’ve never, since I started this podcast, I’ve never had a situation where I felt a little bit trepidatious about asking somebody the question, what’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? Because I think, oh my goodness, what are you going to tell me now? But let’s come down to that point, Lou, and let me just ask you that question point blank. What is the most courageous thing you’ve ever done? 

Lu Dong:
Well, in terms of life and death situation, I would say, you know, just I was young, 17 tenement massacre, you know, facing machine guns, you know, burning the trucks survived. That was probably, you know, the most dangerous situation. At the same time. Very, of course, courageous. I did for sure. Yeah, yeah. You have to say one. But I would say right now or maybe four years ago, I can continue that in a country where only 1% of Christianity to stand out to really. I wrote a book, basically. It’s called Understanding the Way. You know, it’s a self reflection, you know, like autobiography. 

Jeff Johnson:
We’ll make sure, we’ll make sure we put a link to that in our program for everybody. Yeah. 

Lu Dong:
In this book I basically I publicly declared I’m proud of being a Christian. Not only that I am going to use my company to glorify God here in Japan publish on Amazon. It’s, it’s a big statement and my Christian friends told me it’s like hey, it’s very something really courageous you did because now Satan and his associates all going to target you and but I just feel it’s, but at the same time a lot of people come to me it’s like hey, wow, I didn’t know. Can you tell me more? Like can I join you? Can I? We have faith driven entrepreneurship movement here in Japan for four years. For the first year we have personal in person gathering. I can feel the more the bolder I declare. Like the Bible said, I openly declare my faith and my statement. 

Lu Dong:
It’s polarized, they’re polarized view more. There are more people gonna like me, there are more people gonna hate me. But just like what Jesus promised us as Christians in this world, we’re gonna have more suffering than the non Christians. We’re gonna, but we’re gonna have a eternity. We’re gonna have better future. It’s our choice. And I’m so glad I have no regret in terms of everything I do, you know, I did. So. 

Jeff Johnson:
Wow. 

Lu Dong:
Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
Do you feel courageous? You have to feel courageous. 

Lu Dong:
Of course, of course. So every time it’s literally in front of a desk, be strong and courageous, you know, because our God is fighting ahead of us. Right. As long as this is not coming from me, this is not for my own ego, this is not my, for my own thing. As long as I’m doing God’s will. 

Jeff Johnson:
Right. 

Lu Dong:
I, I, I’m just, I feel I’m the most courageous person in the world. I, I, no fear, but at the same time no pride because yeah, there’s enough for me. 

Jeff Johnson:
Praise God. Do you think there’s courage aside from a life with Christ? 

Lu Dong:
Of course. Of course. Yeah. Life of Christ. The Chris. Of course. Of course. 

Jeff Johnson:
No, I mean aside from that, separate from that. Do you think courage exists outside of a relationship with Christ? 

Lu Dong:
Yes. 

Jeff Johnson:
Okay. You can still be courageous. Not be a Christian. 

Lu Dong:
Yes. 

Jeff Johnson:
Be a brave person. 

Lu Dong:
Yeah. Like my grandpa. I don’t think he’s not a Christian as far as I know, but he’s very courageous. I think they’re still conscious in people’s heart, it’s in people’s mind to distinguish what is right and what Is wrong and standing strongly on the right side. However, I think that Stuka region has a limitation because human definition right and wrong versus Gotham definition of right and wrong. You know, and human courageous can lead to, you know, like conflicts because wars and conflicts always right. Two parties fighting for the righteousness. I’m right. I’m right. No, I’m right. No, I’m right. So, yeah, that kind of, you know, I don’t want to go to. You know what I mean? Right. So. 

Jeff Johnson:
Right. You could be courageous. You could be courageous robbing somebody’s house, knowing that you could be shot robbing his house. It’s an immoral act that you’re doing. But aligned with the Christian worldview. It’s a different. It’s a different thing to say. You’re being courageous, standing in the truth of who Jesus Christ is and what’s. 

Lu Dong:
Right to be courageous for the ultimate righteousness. Truth. That’s the key. You know, like a lot of terrorists thinking they’re doing courageous things. 

Jeff Johnson:
Yeah, right. 

Lu Dong:
Exactly like you said. 

Jeff Johnson:
So, wow. What do you want to do with your business as far as you talk about your businesses for God? So what do you. What’s your objective long term with your company? 

Lu Dong:
Sure. Yeah. So I definitely want to use this. So there’s something called marketplace ministry. I only got to know this concept about four years ago, and now I really believe that’s why, you know what, why God brought me to this world, give me all this experience and all this skills and talents, is to use my, you know, international language and business skills to build this vehicle, which is the company, as a platform. Right. To glorify God. Just like, you know, church is ecclesia, is group of people getting together with calling of God. Right. So a company can be a church. And I, I feel I’m building a church with this business and the influence, the impact of this company can be people within the company, the employees. Right. So now we have a much higher percentage of accretion within our company. 

Lu Dong:
Everybody knows we manage the business with a biblical wisdom, right. And we use our products and services to express our Christian values. Right. To the millions of customers with touch base with. On a daily basis. Right? Everybody needs to eat food just like Jesus, right? In many scenes in the Bible, he was in the banquet. So eating at a table in a banquet with sinners, right? It’s, it’s. It’s one of the most popular way that Jesus, you know, to. To preach, you know, to lead. I think, you know, there’s a. There’s a reason why I’m doing this. Food related technology. You know, food is universal. Right. And you know, helping the SMEs in the restaurant industry. Right. 70% of the million restaurants go out of business in three years. That’s 700,000 broken families. Right. 

Lu Dong:
How it can help them to lead them through from sufferings to truth to God. Right. So I think there are a lot of potential for this business to be what I called triple bottom line instead of double bottom line. So we can be as, or even more profitable than a secular business. And we can be making as a big impact as any type of social entrepreneur enterprises. But on top of those two, we have the third bottom line, the third return, which is the kingdom return. Using this company as a vehicle to call so many people to the banquet of God’s table. Right. And, and save them to the eternity. Right. That’s the ultimate commitment we have. Right. So, yeah, if I can achieve these three, oof. I think I. 

Lu Dong:
That’s my purpose of life, you know, and be a good father, be a good husband, be a good son. And that’s basically my personal goals. Yeah. 

Jeff Johnson:
You’re an impressive person, Lou. I. You remind me when Jesus first called his first disciples, they were fishing. 

Lu Dong:
Yes. 

Jeff Johnson:
So they’re in there. So in their, they’re in their boat. And that’s essentially their factory. That’s their workplace. That’s their office building, or that’s in my case, that’s their steel plant. You know, your case there, whatever. And that’s where he met them, was in the workplace. And then what he did was he got in one of the boats and he pushed off from shore and he preached a sermon. So he came right into that marketplace, right into that factory, right into that business, and preached a sermon from there, right where they were. So I’m right there with you, Lou. You’re inspiring me all the more. It is in the marketplace where we can share the good news of Jesus. Jesus Christ. And if you’re dedicating your life to that, I’m saying amen, brother. I think that’s absolutely fantastic. Wow. 

Lu Dong:
Thank you. I can learn from you. You, you’re doing way more like. 

Jeff Johnson:
You’Re like, I don’t know, but I don’t know about that. I’ve never been, I’ve never been in Tiananmen Square, but thank you. Well, we’ll just, we’ll just be friends for the rest of our lives and we’ll just encourage each other. I think that’s what Jesus would have us do. Any, any last thoughts, Lou, before I let you go on the, the topic of courage, you know, is courage something that we can hand off to people? Is courage best understood through the scriptures? I mean, what kind of thoughts do you have to leave our listeners with this idea of courage? 

Lu Dong:
Courage, I feel, when you ask me, when I look at my life stories, I, I realized something interesting. That, that moment when I try to look back, oh, you’re acting. Oh, what was the courageous moment? I can pick it and, and sort of, you know, pick it up, you know, the parts. This scene or this decision and that defined it as a courageous action, whatever. But in that moment, I never thought it’s a courageous thing. Thing. You know what I mean? It’s very natural. It’s like, you know what I mean? Like, I, a lot of people too told me too. It’s like, wow, how can you do that? Wow, it’s so bald. But at that moment, I didn’t thought it was bald. It’s just natural. It’s just like, I have to do this. This is, you know what I mean? 

Lu Dong:
Then I think like, David facing Goliath. People think it’s, are you crazy? But to David, this is so natural. I killed lions, I killed bears. I’m like, this is what I do. You know what I mean? So I think this is courageous to Joshua or Caleb. This is what God told us to do. You know, like, why not? Right? So I think courageous is not intentional, is just doing the doing natural and God will make it supernatural. I love that. That’s, I think that’s what I’m trying to. Don’t try to do anything courageous. It’s something coming out of you. I think that’s what I just kind of realized. 

Jeff Johnson:
Trust God and do the next right thing. And you might just find in retrospect, you’re doing something very courageous. 

Lu Dong:
Yes. 

Jeff Johnson:
Yeah. Lou Dong, you’re a man of great courage and I’m grateful to know you. Thank you so much for taking time with our listeners today. 

Lu Dong:
Thank you for listening to me and pulling so many stories out of me, and I’d like to learn more about you and I like to be helpful to whatever I can contribute to your ministry or whatever you do. Thank you. 

Jeff Johnson:
Wonderful. Thank you so much. 

Lu Dong:
Thank you. 

Outro:

Thank you for joining us today on Courageous. If you’d like to hear more about the work and ministry being done at CROSSROADS Apologetics, please visit our home on the web at Crossroadsapologetics.org Would you or someone you know like to be featured on Courageous? Send us an email at infocrossroadsapologetics.com or infocrossroadsapologetics.org telling us about the most courageous thing you’ve ever done.