Testimony on Unity

I'm gonna share my testimony this Monday with the MAS & GIC fellowship.

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Hi, my name is Xiaojia. I just graduated last year and have been working in GIC for a year and a half.

I became a Christian when I was in primary school. Back then, my maid, who was a catholic, shared Christ with me. Her boyfriend was a Christian, who wrote me letters and taught me how to pray. Salvation was a gift for me, as I readily believed and prayed to God whenever I was sad or angry. I was a self professed Christian who never attended church.

I only started attending church when I was in secondary 4. At 15, I was faced with the question of whether I was really saved, for God seemed so distant to me. I had a lot of doubts about God, but I experienced Him in many tangible ways, and that was when my faith was cemented.

As I attended a charismatic church, I believed in a style of praise and worship and sermons. Praise was dynamic and I jumped up and down in jubilee. Worship meant raising my hands and praying in tongues. Sermons were preached by charismatic speakers who were powerful and impacting.

At NUS, I started attending the Varsity Christian Fellowship. There, I was exposed to different styles of worship. God put in our hearts the desire for unity among Christians. As leaders, we prayed for Singaporean Christians to be one body in Christ in spite of denomination.

Last year, my faith hit a crisis as I started reading books written by Christian authors from different denominations. I found some of their points very enlightening and grew a lot through these materials. It was then that I began to feel uncomfortable with my church’s teachings and started praying about whether I should change church.

During this period of visiting different churches, I was rather confused, angry and bitter about my old church. I had been there for 8 years, and uprooting was difficult. There are practices that I don’t understand and perhaps disagree with, yet I am thankful that God was with me during this period. He encouraged me in various ways, through songs, encouragement from others and books as well. One morning in Oct, I woke up and felt this stirring within me. There was an unspoken happiness and assurance from God that He was with me through my journey. I was so thankful for His peace in the midst of the struggles that I faced. I felt my faith had grown as it was not anchored on any human being, but anchored in Him. As time passed, I began to understand the distinctive that God has blessed my previous church with. I missed the praise and worship there, as well as praying in tongues. The sermons preached there were simple and ministered to the youths. After 10 months of prayer, I am now settled down in Covenant Evangelical and am very blessed by the in-depth and strong teachings in the church.

Recently, I went to Philippines with Habitat for Humanity on a house building project in the urban slums. It was an experience of humility, working alongside the poor, regardless of our backgrounds. It strangely reminded me of how united the Israelites were in rebuilding the temple. Some stood guard against the enemies while the rest built. And what is amazing is how the gospel has come full circle in my life. My domestic helper- a Filipina was the one who first shared Christ with me, and now I was back in Philippines to share God’s love.

The body of Christ must be united in tackling the real enemy and not major on the minors by attacking each other. Many of us Christians tend to be inward looking and criticize other denominations without understanding more. Just a few days ago, a colleague asked me which denomination of Christianity I came from. I didn’t know how to answer her. I think I belong to the church of Christ. And being a Christian simply means living out a life that is Christ-like, that glorifies Christ. I find Christ most of all in the slums, when I work alongside the poor. Thank God that He still chooses to work through us, even though no church or human is infallible or perfect!