Elim's Story

On Easter Sunday, Elim Tai was one of seven individuals from our Cantonese Congregation to publicly display their faith through baptism.

This is the testimony she shared with those on the day:

As I've grown up, I've become more and more aware of the fragility of our world.
The uncertainty and instability of our society and the injustice and pain that comes along with it have sometimes angered and overwhelmed me. However, when it threatened to overwhelm me, God gave, and gives, me hope and strength that provides me certainty in all this chaos.

Jesus is reaching out and speaking to me.
However, I wasn't always able to realise how he was speaking to me.

I learnt through the Bible that God spoke to people through writings on the wall, through dreams, through burning bushes, through angels, through visions. So, I built up an expectation of how God would speak to me, and set a boundary on what I could experience.

It wasn't bad for me to have expectations, but rather than expecting to experience God, I expected HOW and WHEN I would experience him.

So, when he didn't speak to me - when I had time or where I wanted him to, when I couldn't hear him when I was in deep prayer or worshiping in the dark with blasting music - I began to doubt my own faith.

I am still in the process of learning, but God has shown me so deeply that he doesn't only speak to us through those specific ways.
Another way he speaks to us is through others.
Even though we are all sinners and imperfect, he is using us to speak to others. He uses moments with friends and family, whether intentionally or just in a conversation on a random day, to remind me of his love, his conviction and his mercy.

I'm not getting baptised today because I have now learnt all this (I am still learning), but it is because of his unending love and mercy shown through Jesus' death and resurrection who has saved me from my shortcomings, that I am able to do this.