Testimony of the Week: Louise Koo

Louise is a 4^th year psychobiology major at UCLA. She loves to bake, listen to music, and have one-on-one conversations!

I grew up attending church in Glendale, but my memory of this church is very faint. I remember learning that Jesus loves me through Bible stories and songs, but I did not know what it truly meant to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Since the drive to Glendale was too far, my grandparents decided to look for another church that was closer to home. By God’s faithfulness, my third grade teacher, invited my family to Chinese Baptist Church of Orange County, which is a 20 min drive as opposed to 1 hour plus.

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Testimony of the Week: Ryan Chin

Ryan is a third year Material Science and Engineering student at UCLA. Some of his hobbies include playing basketball and going snowboarding. Ryan enjoys hanging out with people, so don’t be shy to say hi! 

I was born and raised in a Christian family. I went to church weekly because my parents always encouraged me to go. Instead of understanding and questioning why I went to church, I just went and saw this as another activity, not realizing or appreciating the true purpose of church. Although growing up in a Christian family and going to church regularly may seem wonderful, I still struggled with my identity in the world or in God. Throughout my life, I assumed that I was already Christian since I had been attending church regularly. I had the theology and the verses down, but I did so for all the wrong reasons. I became prideful the more theology I knew and my actions outside of church did not reflect how a true Christian should act. Because of my pride, I did not take church seriously by dozing off and being distracted with my phone. My actions outside of church and within church were not godly. School and idols such as video games and friends, and not God, were viewed as priorities in my life. In my heart, I was self-centered in seeking to fill my desires with pride, friends, and school. I focused on the desires that only benefited me. I did not depend on God and a drive for academic success and worldly entertainment controlled my life.

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.

The Genius of Genealogy

written by Ray Fung

When you see the word genealogy, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For some, the only time we ever read it is in Matthew and Luke when we read the genealogy of Christ. For others, genealogies are just the times in our devotions where we zone out. There are even some who simply ignore genealogies completely.

Lately, I have been trying to build up a habit of reading through large portions of Scripture within a month (Torah, History, Poetry, Prophecy, Major/Minor Prophets, New Testament). For the past month, I have been going through the history portions of Scripture (Joshua-Esther) and I just finished 1 Chronicles. I noticed that the first 9 or so chapters are almost completely devoted to genealogy. I wasn’t reading through this hoping to find out how to be a better evangelist (although it did test my sanctification in terms of not being lazy). I am sure that my readers are all exceptionally godly and don’t feel this way, but I do find myself dreading these portions of Scripture and wanting to get to the good stuff.

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.

Testimony of the Week: Chris Gee

I believe that I was born dead in my trespasses and sins. Growing up, though, it really didn’t feel like it.

I grew up in a Christian home. I’ve attended church since I was in the womb, and I went to a Christian school for thirteen years hanging around Christian friends who also grew up in Christian homes. If someone were to tell me when I was a child that I was a desperate, lost sinner, I would have responded in ignorance, “No, I’m not. I’m a Christian.”