Across Oceans and Through Time: A Decision, A.Y.

My history, my heritage, stretches across the vast Pacific to the shores of the United States. I derive from a legacy of great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents who were seeking for the purpose of their human existence and found their answer in God, and in the local churches. Their stories of finding God amidst persecution, war, turmoil and strife always amaze me. It has been a long time and we have come a long way.

My own journey began at birth. Being raised as a fourth generation Christian in the local churches, I had a very strong realization of all the Bible truths and knowledge I was receiving by being under the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Yet, the God that I knew was still just my parents' God. I still questioned, like many seeking young people around the globe, “What am I doing here on earth? Is this, the local church, really it? Did my parents really find “THE” answer?” I was still a child under the cloud of my parents' beliefs.

During my college journey, my seeking really hit overdrive. To my great surprise I found that in all my trekking I always had all the answers right under my nose all along. I found my answers not only in the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, not only in the local churches, but in many of the people surrounding me, those close to my heart. They were patterns of those who genuinely love the Lord and seek after Him.

My grandmother passed away a little over a year ago. I always noticed that in her speaking and her actions her strong love for God emanated. At her funeral a video was played that was taped within the year prior to her passing. In it she admitted that since her youth she had always feared death, but now no more. She had a clear sense of the purpose of her life, that her life had eternal meaning in the heavens. I wondered to myself, “How could she be so peaceful, so faithful, so content?” I realized that through all my searching for God I had the answers all along. Not just some teaching, or by being born in the local churches, but by life, by patterns, by reflection upon my own history.

I am in the fourth generation in my family to meet with the local church. This is not merely my parents' decision but because I discovered (or should I say rediscovered) God for myself, and chose to remain in the local church, this lovely place. My journey has only just begun.