Frank's Testimony

I was born in an ordinary family. My father was a Christian, but he didn’t go to church very often. My mother has been to church before, but she never has prayed to receive Christ. Because my house was near church, I always went to Children's Sunday School when I was a young boy. I could eat candies and hear some interesting stories there. It was very fun to me.

I had been to Sunday school until I fourth grade. But it was not as fun anymore as I was getting older. Compared to church life, the world had so many cool things waiting for me. So I stopped going to church.

At the time I left church, I was very happy because I didn’t need to listen to those boring messages anymore. I could have time on Sunday to do anything I liked to do. But the happy time didn’t last forever. After I left church, my father decided to work in Mainland China. It was a huge shock for me. I suddenly lost my dependence on my parents. Because I was the oldest child in my house, I had to take care of my brother and watch out for my mother’s health. Every time my father came back from China, my mother quarreled with him about many things. There was no joy in my home anymore. I was very lonely and helpless.

One day, when I was 13 years-old and in Junior high school, there was a voice in my heart saying ‘Go back to the church.’ I was very hesitant about it because I hadn’t gone to church for several years. But somehow the voice in my heart kept urging me to go back.

So I did. And I was very surprised that there were still some people who remembered me. They didn’t blame me for leaving church . Since then, I began to notice that the God I knew from Sunday School when I was an elementary student, loves me so much. He never abandoned me even when I left church before. Instead, He pulled me back with his kind hands. I understood that God even sent his own son Jesus Christ to die on the cross just for love’s sake. In God‘s sight, I am his loving baby. I am his child forever, and He is my Father forever too. He gave me a new life! A life I had never had before, a life that would never be the same.

I began to learn how to please God and grow in his love step by step. The self-abased feeling caused by pride no longer troubles me. I am learning how to know myself better with a humble heart and how to accept my own inadequacy. The most important thing is, I am learning how to do things for others not just for myself. Reading the bible and praying to God has become my strenth to face all kinds of difficulties and frustration.

I know I will not feel lonely anymore, for there is a God who accompanies me.
I know I will not worry anymore, for there is a God who protects me.
I know I will not be scared anymore, for there is a God who is dependable.
I know I will not be afraid of death anymore, for there is a God who promises eternal life.
I know I will not be lost myself anymore, for there is a God who guides me.
I know my life will be filled with love, for there is a God who is love.

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The world wants to improve people; God wants to transform people
這世界想改善人們；但上帝想改變人們。

The world seeks to change people from the outside in; God seeks to change people from the inside out
　這世界試圖將人從外在改變至內在；但上帝要將人從內在改變至外在。

The world starts with the mind; God starts with the spirit
這世界從心智開始改變；但上帝從靈魂開始改變。

The world works through reason; God works through faith
這世界憑藉事由做工；上帝憑藉信心做工。

The world declares phoilosophy; God declares truth
這世界宣揚哲學；上帝宣揚真理

The world points to man, God points to Jesus."
這世界將一切指向人；上帝將一切指向耶穌

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When you received Christ, you didn't receive a better life, but a new life
當你接受基督，你不是得到一個較好的生命，而是一個全新的生命。

You didn't receive new ideas, but a new way of thinking
你不是得到新的觀念，而是一個新的思考模式。

You didn't receive new opportunities to improve yourself, but a new kingdom to rule over you
你不是得到新的機會去改善你自己，而是一個全新掌管你生命的王國

You didn't receive better tips on how to handle your problems, but a new Master who is able to handle your entire life. "
你不是得到處理問題的好秘訣，而是一個能夠管理你整個生命的新主人。



〈來自人在美國的Diane分享〉

Tiida's Testimony

I had a bad life in the past. I live in a Taoist family. I will divide this into three parts, including family, schoolwork and friends.

I had an unhappy childhood in my family. There are five people in my family, including my parents, older brother, and younger sister. My brother is very smart and always has good points in school. My sister has talent. She can Chinese yoyo very well. She attends a Chinese yoyo team and often goes to the matches. But I cannot do everything. My schoolwork was not good and I didn’t like Chinese yoyo. My mother loves my brother and my father always says he loves my sister. I always wondered "Who loves me?” Who loves me in this world? I didn’t know, but I wanted to know. Sometimes, I was bullied in my school. I told my parents. No one cared. My parents said, "If you didn’t bully others, no one can bully you." I was very sad and their words hurt me again. And I am quite certain that they didn’t love me. In school, I didn’t have any accomplishments, because I didn’t like studying.

In school, I had a few friends, but I felt as if no one like me. Because I am heavy, I was always the bully. I became very self-abased and pessimistic. I hated myself. I cared about how others viewed me. I cared about my friends, because only my friends understood me and consoled me.

In my senior high school, my life became worse. Because I cared too much about others something happen. I quarreled with my friend and was very sad. My schoolwork became poor. In my class, all my classmates hated me. I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what I could do. I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t know who could help me. I didn’t want to tell my parents. Then, I remembered a big sister who lived in Taipei. She is a Christian. She always helped me when I had problems. She prayed for me when I called her. But this time she didn’t know how to help me. She told me Jesus can help me if I believe in Him. God knows me and takes care of me. He loves me very much. He understands my feelings. He can help me. So I tried to pray for God and believed in him.

God really helped me, and I also went to church. Everything became better and better. God blessed me very much. I made friends in my class. All my classmates became my friends. I was very surprised, because I had few friends in the past. I felt that God was very powerful. In my schoolwork, I became No3. And my parents and I have a good relationship now. And I know my life meanings. Everything is good. God helped me with everything. So I like God very much. He changes my life. I am very thankful for God and big sister.

Hanging out together on Tuesday evenings

Eddy's Testimony

Before I became a Christian, I felt that life was OK for me and I didn’t need any religion in my life. After I went to graduate school, I met Chris at my school (he played guitar at Bible study here before Julie). I also met some foreigner friends from church. We became friends but we didn't talk about Jesus a lot. Then Chris held an extra Bible study for me and my classmates. So I got more opportunities to learn about God.

At first, because I wanted to improve my English, I thought I’d like to attend Bible study. Each week Chris started to teach us about Jesus. I'd liked learning more, but I didn't believe it when Chris said God healed his cancer or something else like that. I thought that could be relative to any religion, and it didn’t make sense for me. Other times I heard people lose their keys or cell phone, and they pray to God, and when the items were found, they feel God is amazing or great. If they didn't find items, then they will tell themselves God has a plan, so it's OK, but that didn’t work for me.

So I continued learning about Jesus for a year and a half. I didn't used to go to church or read the Bible a lot then (or even now), but I just keep on learning. I am not that kind of person who would say right away "Oh, God, please come to my life." Everything has to make sense for me before I believe it. So I started thinking about my relationship with God, and I wondered if God meant anything to me.

I was born into a Buddhist family, so I did compare the 2 religions, and tried to find out what is different between Christianity and Buddhism. All the time I found that the Bible teaches us that we are sinners. When I was child I felt this was very weird for me. I thought “I don’t do anything bad. I don't steal. I don't rob. Why am I a sinner?” But then I was reminded that I needed to be humble. Am I capable of doing bad things more serious than stealing or robbing? Yes, I could. And sometimes we don't know what we've done. All of us are able to do some really bad things. So I have to take every step very carefully, because I am not perfect!

A lot of people believe in Buddhism where it says they could pay for their sins by doing something good, like helping people. It sounds like it makes sense, but I don't agree that people they could pay for their sins by doing anything. Does it mean they could always pay for their sins by giving away more money? Even if they know they are going to do something bad? People think they did pay for their sins and then keep doing bad things again. They don't feel that they are a sinner.

I believe I am a sinner, and I am not able to pay for my sin without Jesus. I know God died on the cross to pay for my sin. I never ask God to bring me more good luck or take away all of the bad things that happened to me. He told us “If any of you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me. For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it.”(Mark 8:34-35

The Bible reminds me that we are not perfect, so every step I take needs to be taken carefully. For example, I could hurt someone deeply and not know it. God looks at all people equally, no matter if I just a student or a criminal. That is how I came to believe in Jesus; it totally makes sense to me. After I understood the meaning of "we are sinners", I felt I needed to keep learning more about his Word and that He is the only way.

Jessie’s Testimony (the English version)

I didn’t know anything about Christianity before I came to college. I came from a traditional family, maybe like most of you here. My family worships idols and ancestors; I just follow them to do the same thing.

When I was a junior high student, I was very lonely, indifferent, or cool as some people said. For no reason, I didn’t like to talk to classmates. I didn’t care what they think or what they did. I was quiet and always busy on my own things. I had big problems in relating with others. I don’t know if you will agree me or not. Let me ask you a question. In your life, if you get rid of relationship with someone, what else do you have left in your life? I think there are only physical things left. And actually, that is terrible. So during my junior high and high school time, almost six years, I had a very hard time in school. I had no friends, and I didn’t think my parents understood me. I was suffering in my own selfishness and loneliness. In that time, I was unsure of the meaning of life; I couldn’t find anything worthwhile in my life; I hated my life, and even tried to commit suicide.

The first time I felt God’s power in me is from a sentence I heard somewhere. It said ‘There is a reason that God wants you to exist. ’ When I heard it, I made my own decision that someday I will find the reason. This sentence supported my life and became my spiritual stay until now. I want to know the reason I exist. And also, though I didn’t like to get along with people, in my deepest desire, I still wanted to have friends. So when I finally had a few friends, I was very careful about the relationship with them. I tried to do things to please them, trying to get their attention. But even though I tried hard, I still did not get the true friendship that I wanted. I couldn’t feel the LOVE that people pursue their whole life. I thought I couldn’t love or be loved. I couldn’t even feel it from my parents. Actually I was very tired about the unstable relationship and love. In the end, I even had fears about love.

When I came to college, I met Sara who is a missionary from America. My teacher knew her and asked her to have a Bible study for my class, just the same as we do now. So I went to her Bible study. At first, we had about 10 students. But it became 9, 8, 7……and finally only one student stayed. That was me.

I just didn’t want to leave. The more I read the bible, the more I found out it was true and it’s the answer of the meaning of my life. And also it’s true that God is love, just as we talked about the four spiritual laws last week. God does not only love us, he also has a plan for us. I got totally free when I came to know God. Because he is so true, and he won’t change. He is always the same. His love won’t change like peoples’, he is perfect and stable. And I believe he loves me just as he told us. The Bible said ‘God will never abandon you or forsaken you. ‘ God is stable and he is our creator. Now, I don’t fear anymore. I can tell you that even if one day everyone in the world abandons me, I will still feel peaceful because God is always with me and he loves me from the beginning to the end.

I really want to see you guys believe in God, and that’s the reason why I am here and sharing my life story. If you have any questions or comments during our discussion, please feel free to speak. I hope all of you can enjoy tonight, and can come back every week to know God more.

Julie's testimony

Julie Theobald
From Minnesota, USA
我來自美國的明尼蘇達州 ....

這是她放在投影片上的字句，簡潔明瞭，文字兩邊還附上她跟她sweet男友與家屬的合照，第一次聽到Julie分享見證，又從我這個不成熟的翻譯口中說一次，我有種怎麼樣也想把她的故事記錄下來的感動，這位來自明尼蘇達州二十六歲的大女孩。

「我六歲的時候就信主，那時候我知道上帝愛我，也知道他為原諒我的罪惡而死在十字架上。」

是的，決志禱告的重點就僅是如此，相信上帝愛你，為你的罪而死在十架上。

然而基督徒的生命成長往往才是神奇蹟作為的關鍵所在。

「我國中的時候很害羞，那時若要我去帶領團體跟大家說話，或到台灣來，那根本是不可能的事。」Julie這麼說著。但那和我印象中的她基本上是扯不上太大關係。

Julie不管在哪裡，都是那種可以在十分鐘內跟十來個不分種族、男女老少的朋友四處哈拉閒聊的人。平常的她就是那麼的可愛親切，擁有彷彿每個外國人都天生具備的幽默特質，也有著活潑有力但不至於嚇壞你的年輕嗓音。我想那也是她見證吸引我的原因之一，因為似乎五個裡有四個大家所以為的outgoing people，他們都有段不為人知的過去。

「上了高中以後，上帝給了我一個很明顯的抉擇。他讓我意識到，我必須認清楚自己身為基督徒的身份，究竟是因為我的父母、爺爺奶奶，爺爺奶奶的爺爺奶奶...是因為他們是基督徒，所以我才是，或者──因為我自己願意成為基督徒，所以我是。」

Julie說她至少有七十個表兄弟姊妹是基督徒，從小她就是在教會環境下長大，所以她是真的很care這事，我也不只一次聽她談過。顯然，就算是從小就有福份接觸基督信仰的人，也未必能知道接受耶穌進到生命裡到底對我們有多深遠的意義。她曾分享，她提早得救，是因為上帝的恩典，不是由於她自己做了什麼。不過人人都要面對這樣的選擇。

「高中後，我感受到上帝滿滿的祝福。他讓我知道，我不需要刻意去在乎別人對我的想法如何，我想去在乎的是上帝對我的看法如何。我了解到上帝的愛，是他犧牲愛子耶穌在十字架上，是為了原諒我的罪，為了我而做。我開始變得外向，還有今天為什麼我會站在這裡，都是為了向你們分享這些經歷，分享上帝所做的一切。」

Julie讓我發現一件事，我們常常感覺宣教士或牧師從自己的國家大老遠飛來台灣傳教，是很了不起的事，很厲害，有很大的勇氣跟毅力。但我們有沒有想過，究竟是什麼支持著他們這麼做?還有為什麼他們會願意這麼做，又怎麼能一直持續做下去甚至做到殉職也甘願?我想這才是更有意思值得去思考的東西。

我很喜歡Julie，或許是因為她擁有著和我完全不同的性格，我在她身上看到自己所沒有的、那可以學習效法的一切，也看到了她是如何想透過行動來表達對耶穌及周遭朋友的愛。當然，最重要的是，她讓我看到活在上帝靈裡的人所過著的豐富生命，也感謝連結我與所有朋友關係的──那位永遠不滅的生命泉源，總是隱藏在我們身後卻又無所不在的天父。他真的很可愛，上帝照顧孩子的方式超溫馨!

那麼，筆就先到此，請大家為Julie鼓掌吧，也為她禱告吧，她總是要透過天父的愛將她的熱忱持續延燒，感染每個人，與大家同在。

哦，打個岔，下次如果還有人問她什麼時候要結婚，我想她的答案大概還是會指向天空:

「Go to Ask God.」

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┼ For nothing is impossible with God.

(Luke 1:37)