The Dutch celebrate Liberation Day with gusto. Just past noon on May 5, an Allied military convoy roared down the banner-lined main street of Hilversum, an Amsterdam suburb. Soldiers on motorcycles high-fived the crowds along the street as women in 1940s attire dashed out to leave red-lipstick kiss marks on their cheeks. WWII-era bombers zoomed overhead as the Netherlands relived the day Nazi subjugation ended 74 years ago. Dressed in green fatigues and sitting in a U.S.

As a child growing up in the Smangus tribe 5,000 feet high in the verdant mountains of northern Taiwan, Yuraw Icyang remembers life being extremely difficult, yet filled with evidences of God’s grace. Lacking electricity, phone lines, or a road, the Smangus tribespeople during the 1970s lived a simple agrarian life growing mushrooms, millet, and sweet potatoes.

For Dalits—formerly known as “Untouchables”—in rural southern India, officially declaring their Christian faith comes with a cost: Leaving Hindu caste identity requires Dalit Christians to abandon government benefits such as free college tuition and potential job opportunities.

As 2019 began, the 110 newly elected members of Congress arrived in Washington, D.C., to less of a fresh slate than a fresh slew of problems: A partial government shutdown trudged into its second week, with each party blaming the other for the impasse.

Mary Li Ma and her husband Jin Li collaborated to write Surviving the State, Remaking the Church: A Sociological Portrait of Christians in Mainland China. Through hundreds of interviews with Christians all across the country, Ma and Li show how Christianity transforms the lives of believers, including their views on education, marriage, charity, and nationalism. Here are edited excerpts of my interview with Ma, who grew up in China and professed faith while earning her Ph.D. in sociology.

How did you come to Christ?

HO CHI MINH CITY and HANOI, Vietnam—Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is a mix of the past and present. Motorbikes whizz past a French-colonial-style post office; a red banner with a yellow hammer and sickle hangs from a lamppost next to a sleek skyscraper; slender women in flowing ao dai (a traditional silk tunic) snap selfies in front of a bronze statue of Ho Chi Minh.

This is the second story in a series about Christians born in the 1980s and ’90s in Chengdu, China, and how their faith influences their lives and livelihoods. I visited four of the millennials mentioned in “Taking the narrow path” (April 1, 2017) seven months after our original interview to see how they were doing now and added a new character, Zheng Xianghuang (the seminarian). The believers all attend Early Rain Reformed Church and represent the next generation of leaders in the Chinese urban church.