Testimony of the Week: Rebecca Wong

Rebecca enjoys trying new restaurants (especially dessert shops!), exercising, and occasionally singing (with people who are playing instruments). She likes to drink coffee, go hiking, and spend time outdoors.

Ever since I was young I remember being easily influenced by the people around me. I spent my elementary years in a small private Christian school, where we memorized Bible verses, had our annual Christmas play, and prayed together before lunch. Even though I went to a Christian school, I didn’t I understand what I believed in. From around 4^th grade, I struggled with swearing, stealing, and gossip, none of which I should have been doing at my age. I did start attending church with my mom and brother around third grade, but even then didn’t take Christianity or church seriously.

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Testimony of the Week: Daryl Moniaga

Daryl is a first year psychobiology major who loves food, weird awkward things, and puppies. He enjoys cycling, terrible jokes, doing mediocre accents, and thinks that being weird is pretty great.

I grew up knowing all the words to the songs in church, always praying before every meal and before bed, and hearing the classic old testament stories through talking vegetables so many times that when I had started to make obscure jokes about talking vegetables at school that teachers began to worry. This was probably partly due to my dad being a pastor, making me, what some people would call a “PK” or pastor’s kid. I was always known as the good Christian kid who never did anything bad. A pastor’s kid who followed the rules and did whatever I felt was the right thing I was supposed to do. I went to church every Sunday, heard the word of God in and out of the house, and prayed regularly. “Why wouldn’t I do all these things? I was expected to as a PK,” I thought. But it wasn’t at all genuine. It became more of a systematic process, almost as if I were on autopilot where I could go to church, worship, hear a sermon, and leave. That was it, nothing more that; going to church just be there.

Testimony of the Week: Grant Gates

Grant F. Gates is a math major (class of 2016) who really likes beards, books, coffee, reading books, baseball, writing about books, and theology.

God blessed me with Christian parents and church attendance from the age of negative forty weeks. From birth I was exposed to gospel centered Biblical teaching at home, in Sunday School, at mid week Bible studies, through AWANA, and at chapel meetings for our homeschool group. I quickly compiled a lot of Bible knowledge. At a very young age I took on the role of the good kid, always striving to get the praise of teachers and family visitors. I lived for that praise. I thought myself morally and intellectually superior to my peers. I looked down on those kids who couldn’t answer the questions, assuming if they ever did win the “best kid in Sunday school today” type awards that some mistake had been made. I was very proud of the way I did things and the things I had been taught. I was also around four years old; even children can illustrate the doctrine of total depravity.

Testimony of the Week: Emily Cheng

Emily Cheng graduated from UCLA in 2012 and currently works as an accountant in Norcal. She attends Lighthouse Bible Church San Jose and in her free time loves adventuring anywhere with good scenery or food, jamming (or just car-aoking), and cheering for her favorite sports teams!

I was raised in a Christian family and attended church regularly ever since my childhood.  The Sunday morning routine became a habit to me early in my youth and as I grew up hearing bible stories every week, I believed in the existence of God and the reality that Jesus lived on this earth as a righteous man. I don’t remember the exact moment I was saved, but sometime in my early teens I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and acknowledged my need for Him to die as a ransom for my sin.

Testimony of the Week: Connie Ma

Connie is a 3rd year studying Biology at UCLA. She enjoys studying in coffee shops, spends too much money on Japanese writing utensils, and collects postcards (please send me one).

I was first exposed to church at a young age, in around first grade. My grandma, who had recently been saved, took my sister and I to church; the rest of my family did not regularly attend church, although they supported my sister and me, hoping that we could learn good morals. From a young age, I believed in the existence of God and trusted that He made me and the universe – however, that was the extent my of understanding. Although I remember hearing phrases like “Jesus loves you,” I did not understand my sin or the gospel at all. I treated God as a genie, and only I went to church for social purposes, rarely paying attention during service. Sometime during 5th grade, I stopped going to church altogether. Church was unfulfilling and in my laziness, I preferred to sleep in on Sundays. Because my family didn’t attend church, nobody pushed me to go back.

Testimony of the Week: Rachel Tu

Rachel is a first-year Design | Media Arts major who loves doodling, chasing sunrises & sunsets, doing morning workouts, journaling, meowing & watching corgi videos, having one-on-one convos, and delighting in God’s grace!

I’m your typical pew baby—I “said the sinner’s prayer” in elementary school at a VBS-sports camp and was baptized in sixth grade. At school I was labelled as the good Christian girl who never swore, partied, or cheated, who couldn’t hang out because she went to church, and who got to miss school to attend retreats. I had fun attending church, serving on music team, and being a staffer for the middle school ministry. I thought that by doing the “right” things, I’d be a good Christian. God blessed me with a functional home life, sheltered neighborhood, and supportive environment. Taking all of these factors into account, I never had a reason to doubt God’s existence or Jesus’ sacrifice for sinners, so I always assumed that I was going to heaven. However, although I went through the motions, I don’t think that I was truly saved. I believed in God, but I also was so numb to the greatness of God’s love. I did not attempt to grasp, for my own soul, the concept of the sufficiency of His grace or the urgency of the Gospel. It wasn’t until my first month of college when I realized that although I had a simple belief, this belief didn’t go much deeper than surface knowledge.

Testimony of the Week: Michael Lin

Michael is a sophomore at UCLA studying biochemistry. He likes playing soccer, blasting k-pop in his room, and pretending to be good at basketball. Michael enjoys rap and beat-boxing but can only do the latter.

My parents used to always tell me how auspicious it was that I was born under the light of the full moon. This was before they came to America, before they were saved. I was born in China, into a typical Chinese family that celebrated luck and superstition. However, God sovereignly drew my parents to the States where they would eventually become Christians. Once I moved to California at the age of five, I found out that my parents, who had already been living in the States for two years, had been going to church. Every Sunday my parents would take me to Church even though I really didn’t want to go. Because I didn’t grow up speaking English, making close friends was difficult. Being an only child back then did not help either. Church was merely a place where nicely dressed adults would read me picture books.

Testimony of the Week: Jeremy Wong

Jeremy is currently a first year at UCLA, studying Business Economics. His hobbies include drinking boba, playing acoustic guitar, and playing basketball. He also enjoys meeting new people and trying new things (like food).

Growing up in a Christian family was both a blessing and a stumbling block for me in my earlier years. The concept of God’s grace was an extremely foreign idea to me, and was something that I took for granted for the majority of my lifetime.

Testimony of the Week: Elkana Chan

Elkana is a sophomore studying applied math and enjoys making good use of her swipes on other people. She also enjoys journaling, studying Cantonese, and observing the world around her in her free time.

I remember hearing the Parable of the Lost Sheep in church for the first time as a young child, and having difficulty understanding it. As it tells of a shepherd leaving his 99 sheep to seek out his single lost sheep, I, considering myself righteous, didn’t understand why it affirmed that there would be “more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7). I believed I had always known God, and didn’t think I had sinned apart from occasionally lying or disobeying parents or adults, so I didn’t understand my need for true repentance because my sin separated me from God.

Testimony of the Week: Minsoo Kim

Minsoo is a third year political science major! He likes basketball, Kobe Bryant, Brian McKnight and Korean stuff. His favorite thing to do is to sing Brian McKnight songs in a Korean accent while playing basketball like Kobe.

O Father, I thank thee that in fullness of grace
thou hast given me to Jesus, to be his sheep,
jewel, portion;
O Jesus, I thank thee that in fullness of grace
thou hast accepted, espoused, bound me;
O Holy Spirit, I thank thee that in fullness of
grace thou hast
exhibited Jesus as my salvation,
implanted faith within me,
subdued my stubborn heart,
made me one with him for ever. (The Valley of Vision, The Trinity)

I was born in Korea to a nonbelieving family. When I was around 4, my brother started going to a nearby church to play basketball with his neighborhood friends, and my family naturally started to accompany him. Shortly afterwards in 2001, my parents decided to immigrate to the United States.