Testimony of the Week: Jacob Tsai

Jacob is a second year student at UCLA studying Chemical Engineering. Some of the things he enjoys doing are playing basketball, trying new foods, and more recently, dancing. Jacob always enjoys meeting new people so hit him up if you ever want to talk. 

I was born into a Christian family, and for as long as I can remember I went to church every week for Friday night fellowship and Sunday morning service, but for all the wrong reasons. I went to church to hang out with friends, not because of any personal convictions that I actually had about Christianity. I realize now that the danger of growing up in a Christian home is making the assumption that you are saved because you go to church, which is exactly what I did. In essence, I adopted my parent’s faith and pretended to be a Christian. I thought of myself as a decently well-behaved boy growing up, and I didn’t see the need for a Savior because I didn’t understand the magnitude of my own sin. At church I would try to make myself look good in front of adults and parents, and at school I would surround myself with non-Christians and hide my faith. This was my life and I saw no problem with it.

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Testimony of the Week: Tim Huang

Tim was a part of GOC during college where he met his wife Jaime. They returned to serve on staff in 2009. He is currently fascinated with historical non-fiction, fountain pens, and Peppa Pig. Tim would love to meet you!

Sophomore year, winter quarter, eighth week, Tuesday night, I was waiting in the Ackerman turnaround to be picked up. A beige Toyota Camry pulled up and I crammed in with four other guys; we drove to Enzo’s pizza in Westwood. Over dinner, conversation shifted in and out of Sunday sermons in Luke 8, 1 John, and Rick’s relationship series. The conversation also rabbit-trailed into school, girls and Bruin basketball. We shared prayer requests and drove back to the apartments.  That was my first GOC small group.

Testimony of the Week: Shannon Armstrong

Shannon is a first-year staffer and attended UCLA GOC for 4 years as a student. She can’t wait to meet everyone and hopes that people aren’t shy and come talk to her about what God is doing in their lives at UCLA, post-college plans, sports, Disneyland, etc.!

Both my parents attended UCLA which is when they started attending Grace Community Church and have been attending ever since. Growing up at Grace, I grew up on strong, biblical teaching. My parents faithfully took me to Sunday school, signed me up for Cubbies/Awana and enrolled me in Christian schools. I had all the Scripture memorization badges, was the first one to raise my hand to answer questions at Sunday school, had good grades, was obedient to those over me and was overall a good kid. And it is at this point in my testimony if you had asked me a while ago that I would have said that I prayed the prayer and accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 5 years old and my small understanding at that point grew and expanded as I grew older. But after re-examining my childhood years and comparing that to what I know now about how a life that is committed to Christ looks like, I don’t believe I had a genuine love and understanding of the Gospel and was saved until my last year in high school.