A Mission In China: Saying Yes To God With Matthew Faye Terry (Inspirational)

When God calls you out of your comfort zone, will you hesitate—or say “yes” and let your purpose rewrite your story?

In this inspirational, motivational episode, Matthew Terry—an English as a Second Language teacher turned screenwriter—shares how he went from unemployment in Chicago to answering a faith-driven calling in China. You’ll hear how one prayer (“Lord, remove the barriers if this is Your will”), a Psalm on a chalkboard (Psalm 32:8), and courageous obedience opened doors to disciple students, host quiet Bible studies, and spark a new creative mission: English Corner, a miniseries inspired by true events.

If you’ve felt stuck, scared to move, or unsure how to follow God’s nudge, this motivational speech-style conversation will help you motivate your next step, build bold faith, and act with purpose. It’s packed with inspirational takeaways on surrender, obedience, calling, and creativity—so you can stop waiting for perfect and start walking in purpose today.

What You’ll Gain:

• Practical clarity on discerning calling: how Scripture, prayer, and humble steps reveal God’s next move—even when uncertainty feels loud.
• A repeatable framework for obedience: surrender, trust, and act—so motivation becomes momentum and purpose becomes lifestyle.
• Courage to create: how to turn lived testimony into impact (like Matthew’s English Corner) and use your gifts to serve with bold, inspirational authenticity.

Press play now to fuel your faith with this inspirational, motivational conversation and let this motivational speech move you from hesitation to holy action today.

Matthew's Links:

MATTHEW'S LINKS:

Learn about Matthew’s new screenplay, The English Corner, that he is working to bring to life! https://mattfterry.com/the-english-room-adapted-from-dragonflies/

 If you’d like to support bringing this miniseries to life and supporting the ministry of Matthew Perry to inspire others in answering the call God has on their lives, please donate at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/english-corner-a-proof-of-concept-short-film

 Watch Matthew’s Award-Winning Animated Screenplay, Children of God (The Last Remaining Sibling): https://mattfterry.com/children-of-god/

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Transcript

Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. On today's episode, I have Matthew Terry. Matthew is a English second language teacher turned screenwriter. Matthew came from unemployment in Chicago to a mission in China. Matthew's story is a story of God's calling on his life. Welcome to the show, Matthew. MATTHEW: Thank you, good sir. It's a pleasure to be here. REGINALD D: Thank you. Thank you so much to take your time out to be with me today. So, Matt, can you tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what your childhood was like? MATTHEW: Well, yeah, I grew up. I'm a cheesehead, which means I grew up in Wisconsin, which is two hours away. My hometown is two hours away from Chicago, but I spent some time in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and been in Chicago since 2000 and. Sorry, excuse me. Since 1998. REGINALD D: Okay, so I'm asking you this question. You grew up as a cheesehead? You a Packer fan or you a Bears fan? MATTHEW: Certainly not a Bears fan. Certainly not a Bears fan, packers fan. I only watch the Bears on TV so I can root for the other team. REGINALD D: A cold got you. So, Matt, take us back to that moment in Chicago. What was going through your heart and mind when you felt God calling you to China? MATTHEW: Well, as you mentioned briefly a few minutes ago, I was working for the corporate HR world, and I was laid off in 2008, and I had two and a half years of unemployment, but I was still serving at the Moody Church. And I was serving international students and scholars, most of them from China. Many of them knew that I was seeking an employment. And one of them asked me, matt, have you ever thought about teaching in China? And I said, that thought never even occurred to me. So I did some research, started a mantra of prayers. You know, heavenly Father, if this is the route you want me to take, remove our barriers, remove all the roadblocks, if this is the route you want me to take. I was delving into Genesis, the story of Abram slash Abraham, reading that for motivation, for clarity, for God's clarity. And then God revealed to me that the school that he wants me to teach, and I interviewed with that school, and I got the job interview. I'm sorry, the job proposal offer. 12 hours later. REGINALD D: Wow. Wow. You know, that was God in the works. MATTHEW: Yeah, there's no doubt that was God working surprisingly well. Not. No, not surprisingly. My wife, she's Chinese, she's a Hong Konger. She did not go with me because she, at that time was teaching the Mandarin language for a school here in Chicago. So she had her own batch of students that she was working with. So she didn't feel quite right that she go with me and leave her students more or less in the lurch because she just began a Chinese program at the high school level. So she had a lot of responsibilities. But certainly through prayer, individual prayer and corporate prayer, I wound up in Guangzhou, China. REGINALD D: So I know there's probably a lot of uncertainty when all those things, all this dropped on you. How did you wrestle with the uncertainty of dropping everything to pursue something basically so unknown and faith driven? MATTHEW: I didn't have any issues at all, honest. Well, no, I shouldn't say that. I felt very comfortable going there because I knew enough of the Chinese culture and I love the Chinese culture, so I was comfortable going there. However, I did have a bit of a personal emotional struggle flying from Hong Kong on a 19 minute flight to Guangzhou, China. While I was in mid flight, then it really hit me. I am going to a communist country where they shut down Christians. So I almost was going into a silent emotional panic attack. And then of course I started praying and then God in his sovereignty and his love, when I touched down, those anxieties were completely, utterly gone. Because when I touched down the plane. Taxi to the gateway. Anybody who's flung into a major airport, I'm not sure how Raleigh Durham Airport is, but Chicago airport. When you get to the gate, go through immigration, go through customs, get your baggage. You're looking at two hours before you get the curbside with me. Guangzhou is not a small airport, it's not a small city. It took me 45 minutes. Deplane, get a SIM card for my phone, Immigration, Customs, luggage, curbside, 45 minutes. That is unusually fast for any airport. So I knew that immediately God's powerful hand was upon me and watching over me. REGINALD D: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, man. Four to five minutes, follow that. No way. Yeah, no way. Especially major airports. MATTHEW: Yeah, correct. Yeah. REGINALD D: So, Matt, you didn't just teach English. Basically you opened hearts. Can you share a story of a student whose life was transformed by the gospel through you? MATTHEW: Yeah, absolutely. REGINALD D: Thank you. MATTHEW: Nobody has ever asked me that question before. Reginald. Wow. Thank you. One of my students, her name is Lysiao J. Her chosen English name is Little Jack. She really touched my heart and we built an instant relationship. The first moment she walked behind me into the classroom, she wrote this to me in a letter that there's some connection that we made immediately. This was 12 years ago. Currently every weekend we are having Bible studies, she's in Shanghai, I'm in Chicago. Her walk with God is getting closer, and she's very close to accepting Jesus Christ as her Lord and savior. All because of that first time we met each other while she walked into my class. REGINALD D: Wow, man, that's amazing. And I always tell people, man, it's something about you have to understand the power of a moment. MATTHEW: Absolutely. REGINALD D: You know, if you handle that one moment well, there's no telling where to take you. MATTHEW: Yeah. We did not even make eye contact when she walked into the room. Because my first week, my first day, my first class, I made a point of standing in the hallway and greeting each student when they walked in. Make eye contact, them smile on my face. I was genuinely happy to be there. I was so looking forward to it. So I made a point of greeting each student. Xiao J. She's the only one who walked behind me because as she said, she was too shy to say hi, but she just felt a connection immediately even though we didn't make eye contact. REGINALD D: Yes. MATTHEW: I put that on the power and the love of the Holy Spirit. REGINALD D: She was separate. She was the chosen one. MATTHEW: She's the chosen one. REGINALD D: That's why she did it different. That's why she had to do it different, right? MATTHEW: Absolutely. Yeah. REGINALD D: So, man, what was the spiritual atmosphere like in China when you arrived, and how did it shape your mission? MATTHEW: Well, my primary responsibility, what I was chosen to do by the school, my boss, was to teach them how to improve their spoken English so they can read, they can write, they can listen, but they had great difficulty speaking English, particularly Western English. So that was my primary focus. So eventually, after a few weeks of teaching them, the Spirit gave me the courage to put Psalm 32, 8 above the chalkboard. Blackboard. We didn't have whiteboards. This is a very provincial classroom chalkboard. And on a good day, we had chalk. So I printed out on 8 and a half by 11 sheets of paper, Psalm 32. I will teach you and guide you to the way you should go. I'll counsel you and watch over you. And the students, they want to learn. They're eager to learn. And they were looking at this and, okay, what does guide mean? What does counsel mean? What do you mean you're going to watch over me? Are you going to follow me everywhere I'm going? So. So I'm teaching them not only the new words that they don't know in the psalm, I am teaching them spiritually. And I explained to them, I live my life the way these words read. My God, whom I trust, he watches over me. He guides me. If I have a problem, I go to him and he will help me solve it. He will show me the way to go and how to solve this. And I'm telling you as your teacher, if you have any problems with your roommate, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, food, homework, I don't care what your problem is. If you have any problem, you come find me and I will show you the way to go and I will help you solve this problem. And I can feel that the relationship that the cornerstone of relationships with many of these students began when I explained Psalm 32. REGINALD D: 8. MATTHEW: And they can feel some shared with me. He said they could feel that I truly honestly meant what I said and that they knew that I truly cared for them and I was there to not only teach them English, but to guide them in any way that they should go. So that's how it really all began. And that eventually morphed into I was able to have Bible studies in my dorm room. The college, they turned a blind eye to it, but I was able to have Bible studies with the students in my dorm room, which is risky because a college student in a dorm room with the instructor, that's unheard of. But God gave me the power in the college. REGINALD D: Yes, I really like that. And back up on the chalkboard situation you was talking about. See, I grew up in that era. You know, we had the chalkboard and I think that was one of the teachers biggest obstacle, coming to class and trying to teach class. Couldn't find the chalk. MATTHEW: Yeah, yeah, yeah. REGINALD D: Where's the chalk? Right? So Matt, what inspires you to turn your mission experience into the screenplay? The English corner. MATTHEW: Yeah. When I was teaching, I was using Facebook a lot and I would post several messages weekly on Facebook posts. And my cousin, who's an author herself, she said, well, Matt, you should copy these posts and put them into a Word document and you know, start making a journal, you know. So I did that. This is after I came back to the States. So I did that. And I was reading these posts and of course I was doing editing, so reads more easily. Then I thought, well, yeah, okay, this can go somewhere. So I wrote a memoir and had the memoir published. And the memoir is called I came to you in weakness from second Corinthians. And I was reading the memoir and rereading it and I thought, you know, I love movies, this would be a good screenplay. So I did some self studying, how to write a screenplay, how to format a screenplay, joined a group in the Hollywood industry, how they could help me do this. And I drafted a screenplay And I pitched it to several producers and one producer, he liked it, he gave it a recommend and considered which is high marks. Unfortunately, that did not go anywhere. But that's fine. I do this to give God the honor, not for myself. So I'm reading the screenplay over and over again and I thought, you know, there's a lot of holes in us. I can fill some gap. So eventually that would morph into adapted into a miniseries called English Corner. And I've written five episodes of the miniseries and I anticipate this will be either 10 or 11 episodes long. But right now, next week, I'm going to St. Louis to direct the proof of concept film, POC for short for English Corner, which is going to be used as a marketing tool similar to. Certainly I'm not equating myself with John the Baptist, but using this POC in hopes of the studio would buy the first episode. Because the entire English Corner is about how students are coming into God's fold. That's how the whole purpose of this is. That's why I consider this a mission. John the Baptist, he had a specific purpose to tell people that the Lord is coming. You know, once he comes, then I'm going to fade away and he's going to rise himself up. That's how I'm using this POC to bring people into God's fold. So that's the whole purpose, to spread God's word through the Great Commission? REGINALD D: Yeah, I really love that. So let me back up on something, Matt. What did you say? Because from where you came from, what you're doing now is amazing. And you had to really step out on faith, you know, what would you say to many people that feel stuck or just waiting for the perfect moment to step out on faith? What do you say to those that still standing at the edge of their calling? Oh, yeah, right at the edge. MATTHEW: Yeah. Delve into scripture. Just read the Bible. Don't cherry pick the Bible. Don't open a page. Okay. Read a passage. Okay, this is what God wants me to do. No, don't do that. Read the Bible, whatever you want to read. Whether it's First, Samuel, Luke, makes no difference. When you're reading the Bible and a passage jumps out at you, go back and read that passage again. Then ask God, what is it about this particular passage that you want me to know? What is the learning moment from this passage? Why did this passage jump out at you? So read Scripture. Certainly. Pray. Pray without ceasing. Surrender, trust and obey. And God will show you the way. He will show you where he wants you to go. But if you start with. I'm talking with myself personally. If you start acting in the flesh thinking, okay, I'm going to go this route and I act in the flesh, always a train wreck. Always a train wreck. REGINALD D: Yes, it is. It is. You have to be obedient. I really believe that. So you're big on saying yes to God and what it does to a person when they're obedient. Say yes. Go back to what you were saying. And what ways did saying yes to God open up unexpected doors for you, not just in ministry, but personally and your creativity? MATTHEW: When God's saying yes to me or me saying yes, you're saying yes to God. REGINALD D: How does it open up doors for you, not just in the ministry aspect, but in your personal life and in your creativity? MATTHEW: Yeah, well, I'm on the verge of retiring. In fact, I'll be retiring October 1st, God willing. And I'm retiring from working with high school special needs students. Many of them have autism, down syndrome, fragile X, severe and profound disabilities, mild disabilities. So I work with a whole range. And one student in particular, for some reason, he just became very violent with me. He struck me in the face countless times, and I just could not figure out what God. Yeah, I'll work with a student. This is the student that you would assign to me, that you ordained. I'm saying yes to the student because I'm saying yes to you, but I don't understand what's going on. So again, circling back to what I was saying a few minutes ago, Read Scripture and find out. And that's exactly what I did. I was reading Psalm 32, 37, excuse me, in relating that to what was going on with the student who was attacking me. And that gave me so much comfort. That gave me so much comfort. So, yeah, God will say yes, and I will gladly accept the yes. Sometimes a yes can be painful, physically and emotionally. There's a lesson in that pain. There's a lesson in that pain. But you say yes nevertheless. REGINALD D: Yeah, I mean, you know, sometimes, you know, the yes is hard, the yoke. MATTHEW: Is not easy, you know, so you gotta. REGINALD D: You got to understand that part about it, you know? But, yeah, when you call for it, you got to go through it. MATTHEW: At the end of the day, you're just realizing that this is the path that God wants you to be on. Because the hardest part for me is being a Christian, a true believer is surrender. That's the hardest part because I still want to do things my own way. Surrender, trust God. REGINALD D: Yes. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So, Matt, what's the current status of the English Corner miniseries and how can people support the project? MATTHEW: Yep, again, thanks, Reginald, for asking that. I always feel a little uneasy answering this question because it sounds like I'm pushing this for my own purposes. It's not. And so I always kind of stumble over answering this. The best way they can support it, obviously, is through prayer. But if you look up Matthew Fterry on Instagram, you'll see a GoFundMe link. And you click on that link. I'm not asking for money, but if the spirit stirs you to donate, wonderful, great. I'll gladly accept it. But just go to the GoFundMe link and you read why I'm doing the whole English Corner proof of concept that really delves into why I'm doing it and the purpose of God's mission. And I'm doing this only, only for God's glorification, not for my reputation, not for any monies, not for any recognition. Recognition. None of that is important. Absolutely none of that is important. But it's difficult for people to understand that. So that's why I tell them to go to Instagram, read the GoFundMe and get a better idea. And then if God stirs you, wonderful. If he doesn't stir you, that's fine too. REGINALD D: Got it. MATTHEW: So you see me on Instagram, you see me on Facebook, my own website, mattfterry.com that will take you right to englishcorner.com tab of the of the website. That will give you a little more understanding of what English Corner is all about. But it doesn't go into a full depth of it. REGINALD D: Right, got you, got you. And we're going to circle back with that here at the end because I want, you know, the listeners know how to connect with you and I want that to be the last thing you know that sticks with them. So what I have is I call. MATTHEW: Rapid fire questions like Senate hearings. Thanks. REGINALD D: Get nervous, just shoot for it. One scripture that fuse your mission. MATTHEW: Luke 8. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bed. Instead they put it on a table. So those who enter may see the light. That's one that really pops out. That's one of many that sticks out about how this relates to English Corner. REGINALD D: Got it, Got it. What's one of the biggest lessons learned while living abroad? MATTHEW: Get to know somebody who speaks the language. That's a good one. Because when you go to a restaurant and they don't use the Western Alphabet and they don't have pictures of what you're ordering. You're taking a chance. Heavenly Father, please make sure I'm not ordering shrimp because I'm allergic to shrimp. REGINALD D: Yes, exactly. So if you had a dream actor to play you in the English corner, who would that be? MATTHEW: Yeah, I've already chosen the actor, but his name is escaping me. So three. It's a three name person. Oh, yeah. Boy, you caught me. You caught me here. He's in third Rock from the Sun. Yeah. Can I go to my website? REGINALD D: No, you're cool. No, we just. We just playing around right now. MATTHEW: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's gonna hit me probably 3 o' clock in the morning. The actor I'm looking for, but I've already chosen one. REGINALD D: So let's go with this one. What advice will you give anyone feeling like they've missed their moment with God? MATTHEW: Your moment is never missed. I mean, you don't know when God is going to call you, where he's going to call you, at what age he's going to call you. He called Moses when he was 80 years old. So you just don't know. Trust and obey. If you feel like you are not where God wants you to be, ask God. You know, okay, show me the path. Show me the path. He will. God will. REGINALD D: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, Matt, what does obedience over comfort mean in your life right now? MATTHEW: What does obedience over comfort mean? REGINALD D: Yeah, over comfort mean in your life right now? MATTHEW: Well, life is not going to be a bowl of cherries all the time. The example I use is the student who kept on hitting me. So obedience is again trusting that God is doing the right thing for you. And there are hard lessons to be learned through physical, emotional and spiritual pain. REGINALD D: Yes, sir, I understand that. I really feel that. So, Matt, what's one final encouragement you would like to leave with? Someone afraid to answer the call God has placed on their heart? MATTHEW: Oh, I'm sounding like a broken record. Reginald, forgive me. Read scripture, have fellowship, listen to online messages from a pastor or pastors that you can relate to. With me is Tony Evans. He really rings strong in my heart. Charles Swindoll. He's very powerful in my heart. Philip Miller, the senior pastor of the Moody Church, the church I attend, he's got some powerful message. So continue to seek the Word either through the Bible, through fellowship, through attending church itself, listening to online messages, listening to Reginald B. He's got some good messages. Yeah, just don't shut yourself off. Don't put yourself on tunnel vision. Don't put yourself on tunnel vision, for crying out loud. People, I'm not sure how old your audience is, but just don't spend so much time on wasted time on, like, useless things. Useless things. Read more scripture. Trust in him. REGINALD D: Yeah. Because your purpose, you know, it takes integrity, you know, making the right decisions and inviting the right things in your life for the business, you know. MATTHEW: Yeah. Today, I mean, it's difficult to explain through words, but once again, I'm my own personal testimony. Once God reveals the path he wants you on, that is felt so deep in the heart and in the soul and that just brings so much comfort. So much. Yeah. God, I can feel that this is exactly where you want me to go, what you want me to do. So comforting and so peaceful knowing that. REGINALD D: Absolutely. So, Matt, lastly, let's go back. Where can listeners connect with you and follow your screenplay journey? Sure. MATTHEW: Instagram, hashtag Matthew Fterry Facebook Matthew Fayeterry F A Y E T E R Y and my website, mattfterry.com caution to your viewers, if you Google Matt Terry, you're going to see some things that that is going to shock you because there's a Matt Terry in Florida who is arrested for. He was an educator. He was arrested for either a sexual predator or something like that. And there's another Matt Terry who's a young male model. Certainly that is not me, nor is the one in Florida me. So that's why you have to do Matthew F. Terry or Matthew Fay Terry. Then you'll find me easily. REGINALD D: Got you. Got you. Thank you for making that clear because that Matt is probably a name that's all over the place, man. MATTHEW: Y Florida. Yeah. REGINALD D: Yeah. MATTHEW: I was shocked when I googled myself and I saw that. I was a little shocked. I was a little shocked. REGINALD D: Yeah. MATTHEW: The guy is my age, but he looks nothing like me. But again, he's an educator. I'm an educator. So there's some weird similarities there, but it is not me because I live in Chicago. REGINALD D: Right. Got you. Okay. So, Matt, thank you so much, man, for stopping by, man. I really enjoyed it. Really had a blast today. Thank you. MATTHEW: I hope I didn't tuck your ear off too much. REGINALD D: No, it was great. It was great. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the insight. God bless you. MATTHEW: Thank you, sir. You as well. REGINALD D: Thank you for tuning in to Real Talk with Reginald D, if you enjoy listening to Real Talk with Reginald D. Please rate and review on Apple podcast. See you next time.