Journey to the Christian Faith

Catholic School
My parents have no religious beliefs, however, they sent me to the best school that they knew of in Hong Kong, which was a Catholic elementary school. I believed that there was a God, however, I had no personal relationship with him. Gradually God faded out of my life as I found more “important” things to do, like friendship, money and most of all: freedom, which I interpreted as “doing whatever that pleases me.”

In Taiwan
I went to Taiwan for my undergraduate degree and studied at the National Taiwan University where I had 4 Christian roommates. They actively shared the Gospel with me repeatedly over 3 years, but to no avail, or at least I thought. I was irritated by them and didn’t want anything to do with God, because I was certain that I would lose the freedom I enjoyed.

As a foreign literature major (i.e., non-Chinese literature), the Bible was one of the classics that I was asked to study. I learned how to appreciate the beautiful structure of the Bible, but it did not affect my inner spiritual being. Life was too short, I did not want to search for something that was so vague, I had to “seize the day” and enjoy it while I could.

The ‘Jesus Man’
I went back to Hong Kong to find work after graduation. By finding a good job I felt ready to take on the world. On the first day of work, the coworker who sat opposite me invited me to lunch. While at the restaurant, he bowed his head and prayed before he ate. I was so frustrated, thinking, “Oh, no, a Jesus Man.” I had just been relived of 4 Christians, now here I had stumbled into another one. My coworker said, “God was certainly pursuing you.”

The “Jesus Man” talked about Jesus all the time, he challenged me with the questions of life and death and gave me a lot of books to read. I showed some patience at first, but after a while, I told him not to talk about God anymore; he did not listen. Sometimes we got into heated debates and I told him that I had studied the Bible and had found nothing exciting in it, unlike what he claimed as the ‘Word of God’.

Studying Buddhism
I am the kind of person who is serious about life, though I wanted to do whatever I wanted, I thought about the meaning of life all the time. Since this Christian coworker has put the thought about life and death even more so in my mind, I decided to take a class in Buddhism. My father always said, “You are a Chinese, if you believe in anything at all, you have to believe in Buddhism.”

After one year of class in Buddhist philosophy, at the end of the last class, I was perplexed. I have been waiting for the master teacher to give a final conclusion about “Buddha the God”. But he never did. When I went up to him and asked him where was God in Buddhism, he smiled and said, “You got it, there is no god in Buddhism.” I was stunned and utterly disappointed.

WIthout my knowledge, God was slowly working to soften my heart. On my 1-year anniversary on the job, I pulled out from my drawer one of the many booklets that my coworker gave me, it happened that one was about the Last Days; I took it with me while I traveled to meet a friend by bus. I read the booklet and there on that crowded bus, the Holy Spirit moved me to surrender to his sovereignty. I followed the prayer that was printed in the back of the booklet and acknowledged Jesus Christ as my savior.

No church please
I did not attend church after I surrender to Jesus. My reason was that I knew I was a sinner and I did not want to hang around with other sinners; all I needed was to be with Jesus alone. My coworker knew full well my stubbornness and did not force me to go. However, he encouraged me to read the Bible. I started to read the Bible thinking I could develop a relationship with God all by myself. After 6 months I had read my way through most of the Bible. But one day I was reading John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” I pondered these verses for a long time. Then I realized that I not only had to love Jesus, but also to develop relationships with his people. Though it was a difficult thing for me to do at that time, I realized that I needed to obey my Lord. Shortly after I started to attend church with my coworker.

To be in fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ is one of the best things that has ever happen to me—fellowship was nothing like I had imagined. I now know so clearly that then I had a very crooked view about going to church. Now I enjoy the fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ no matter where I am. I found myself growing in Christ much better with all those “sinners” around me.

Knowing what life is for
The biggest change that I have experienced since I acknowledged Christ as my savior, is that I now have a purpose in life, which is to glorify God with my whole being. I realize that the “freedom” that I was so afraid to lose was not freedom at all, it was just an aimless chasing of vanity. Jesus Christ has revolutionized my life, so much so that I went against the will of my parents and quit my job, in which I was doing quite well, in order to attend seminary. In the Chinese culture, going against the will of one’s parents is quite an unusual thing. But I recognized that God wanted me to serve him in a more serious capacity and that in order to do so I needed training!

It has been a many years since the day I prayed on that crowded bus, but I experience God’s grace abundantly everyday, especially through trials and difficult times. The Lord has shown me again and again how he keeps his promises, and that he honors his covenant with me. I thank Him for not giving up on me. He is truly unchangeable in his faithfulness!