Testimonies of God’s Calling Meeting
A Meeting with Flesh, Blood and Grace
Some camp participants described the Testimonies of God’s Calling Meeting as one with “Flesh, Blood and Grace.” It was one of the instances that touched the hearts of our participants the most. In this meeting, a student and two alumni shared their stories of being called by God and their experiences in seminary study. Owing to limited space, only parts of the three testimonies can be published. Short as the testimonies might be, we can still see clearly the abundance of God’s grace in them.
Student Sin Wai-yeung (1st year, B.A.P.S. program)
This sister, who was formerly a social worker, shared how in March 2007 in a revival meeting she faced the choice of “whether to choose God or not to choose God.” Having been obsessed with the idea of full time ministry, at that time she finally could not help standing up to respond to God’s calling. Later God verified His call to her time and again so that she gradually began to walk down the road of consecration. However, being her family’s breadwinner, how could Wai-yeung surpass her financial obstacle?
God had opened a door for Wai-yeung two months before she decided to consecrate herself to Him. Wai-yeung shares her story: “In January 2007, my family decided to sell our flat, and my mother suddenly said she would give me a hundred thousand dollars. As I used to support the family, I simply could not have sufficient savings to afford four years of seminary study, not to mention that I hoped to continue supporting the family while studying. This was basically impossible. But then mother gave me a hundred thousand dollars, I could not help asking God: “O God, what are you doing to me? Why do you give me money?”
“In the past when I thought about changing my job, mother would worry that if my salary were cut, I would not have enough money to support the family. When I raised the issue of studying in a seminary, at first mother was momentarily stunned without knowing how to react, but then she said, ‘If this is what you want, go ahead and do what you like.’ As for my father, usually he would grumble whenever we talked about the Christian church, but when I plucked up my courage to tell him my wish to study in a seminary, quite contrary to my expectation his response was: ‘Oh, is it? That is fine. Just tell your mother! If she thinks all right, I have no objection.’ This was something which would have been impossible in the past! What is more, knowing that I planned to study in a seminary, my younger sister volunteered to shoulder the financial needs of the family, thus temporarily releasing me from shouldering the burden. These have all been God’s deeds and in this way, He has allowed me to experience His wonderful preparation!”
Alumna Chan Hop-ying (class of 2007)
In the past, Hop-ying faced with setbacks in her life and longed to relieve her pain quietly. Now God carried her out of the valley and led her to walk on the road of consecration. Under God’s guidance, one step at a time, she joined a short-term mission trip to South East Asian countries and began probing God’s will about full time ministry. She furthered her studies in business management in the States but then ran into the impact of September 11. She returned to Hong Kong to work as an executive secretary in the Baptist Convention of Hong Kong and was later married to a minister whom she met in Vietnam. Her husband was then furthering his study in HKBTS.
How could she walk her life road thereafter? Hop-ying shared this with us: “I have had the determination to be equipped in a seminary, but the economic pressure I faced after marriage made me refrain from taking a step forward. One evening in my devotional, I read this verse: ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’ It struck me as God’s way of reminding me that I had been counting on my own strength in the past and that I still wanted to walk the road of full time ministry according to my own will rather than truly trust in God. Now, God once again promised that ‘My grace is sufficient for you,’ which drew me to remember that day when we got married, my husband and I took an oath to consecrate our family to God. That was January 2004. When March came, I joined the Experiencing Seminary Life Camp just like every one of you. On the camp, Dr. Wong Fook Kong sang with his guitar a song with the lyrics ‘How beautiful is God’s grace that nothing can ever replace it.’ The song was familiar to me and had brought me through 18 years of my Christian life from the year I was baptized until 2004. How God’s grace has been sufficient throughout my Christian life!”
“As of today I have graduated from HKBTS. I very much wish to share something important to all of you. The Christian life is a life of adventure. We do not know how God will lead us and yet we know that God has prepared many protective devices. When I respond to God in faith, I will tread on high places, and God will allow His will to fulfill in my life.”
Alumus Lai Chak-lun (class of 2003; ordained pastor in 2006)
Rev. Lai was married in early 2000 and began studying in HKBTS in August the same year. Then he had to live with different kinds of adjustment. Furthermore, since he lived with his family in Sham Tseng midway between Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun, it took him quite some time to commute to school. He felt the first year studying in HKBTS truly painstaking, and found his first year seminary study to be exhausting. However, God through the hardship taught him to manage his time, to discipline his mind to persevere. He had once complained the teachers’ expectation on students being too high. Later when he had his practicum at a local church, he came to understand that there were many requirements in the ministry field and that it was necessary for teachers to help students build a good foundation.
He was grateful to teachers’ being demanding at that time and for teachers’ concern today: “Having graduated for nearly five years, we have had class meetings nearly every month. Every time when we invite our teachers to attend and share with us, however busy they are, they are always pleased to deliver a devotional message and take time to learn from us about our growth. It is true that alma mater does have ‘after sale service’!”
“Once on a Seminary Sunday, a seminary staff set up a book booth to display study program pamphlets and books published by the Seminary. Although she and I did not know each other very well, after the service she took the initiative to ask how I was getting on and even ask whether I have had my daily devotion. I was truly touched. At no time since I studied in the Seminary has anyone ever asked me such a question. Perhaps they think that I am an all-rounded person. But the truth is just the contrary –– studying in the seminary can also leave no time for our daily devotions. Until now during my ministry at church, hardly anyone will ask me whether I have my regular quiet time with God. In fact that lady staff was not checking upon me but was only showing her sisterly concern about me at that time. When I replied, ‘Yes, I do,’ her eyes sparkled with cheerful contentment, prompting me to rejoice with gladness!”
The Question and Answer Session
Right after the students’ sharing, there was a question and answer session conducted by Dr. Andres Tang, the moderator of the session. There were two questions raised with the answers given below.
Question: If a married brother studies full time in a seminary while his wife shoulders the family’s finance alone and takes care of the children, which will be hard work for his spouse and he will inevitably feel guilty. How then should he handle the matter?
Answer 1 (Rev. Lai Chak-lun):
This is a realistic question. In studying in the seminary, one has to consider many of the costs including economic changes in the family. We must trust that the grace of God is sufficient. Take my own example: Being a high school teacher, my wife earns a pretty good salary. Even after I studied in the Seminary, her salary alone could still make ends meet. Besides, I experienced God’s wondrous grace when something unexpected happened a year before I studied in HKBTS. I was suddenly offered a high-paying job and my boss allowed me to work for just one year. That year’s salary was put into my savings for me to use in my seminary study.
While studying in the Seminary, there were ups and downs in my wife’s emotions because the burden she had to bear was more than she had expected. The process was not at all romantic and sometimes there were tears. But as a result our husband-wife relationship was deepened and our passion for ministry consolidated still further. We came to see that on the surface it seems that I was the one who studied in the seminary, but in reality my wife and I were studying together.
As for children’s care, after I became a minister at church, every Sunday when we brought our kids to church, brothers and sisters volunteered to help us take care of them, reducing much of the stress we had been feeling. All in all, we should believe that God’s grace is sufficient!
Answer 2 (Alumna Chan Hop-ying):
The year when my husband and I began studying in HKBTS, we had just got married with almost no savings. When the time came to pay the school fee for the second semester, we counted our savings which were merely enough for one of us to make the payment. I then spoke to my husband, “You take this sum of money to pay the school fee and I terminate my study.” My husband consoled me, telling me not to do so but instead encouraged me to pray with him and seek help from God. Although we prayed to God, I still resorted to the use of human means: I wanted to ask my family to lend us some money. Yet my husband disagreed for that would make my family worry. A day before the deadline for us to pay the school fee, something wonderful happened! I received a check in my mail box in which there was an amount of money which was sufficient for us to cope with our life for a period of time. Then I noticed a piece of paper attached to the check with the words: “Your school fee has been paid.” This was a major lesson of faith for me.
In fact, a HKBTS student can have several channels to earn an income. Means one: Beginning from the second semester, students taking field education will receive from the church “transport allowance.” Means two: Those academically outstanding students can apply for a scholarship and those in immediate financial needs can apply for student grant. Means three: Students can apply to be a “work grant” to work five hours a week in the Seminary (as a library clerk or a research assistant for professors).
Answer Three (Dr. Andres Tang):
To ensure success for either the husband or the wife to take seminary study, the couple from the beginning must have the same heart. Besides, while studying in the seminary, one must not immerse oneself into heaps of books only. One needs to spare some time to be with one’s spouse for this is a basic responsibility of a husband or a wife.
Question: How can I be sure of God’s calling? How will I not misinterpret my own thought as God’s will?
Answer (Dr. Andres Tang):
Generally speaking, God calls a person through the following two ways.
One is calling by God through special experience. God speaks to a person in various ways, for example, through the preacher in a revival meeting who interprets the scripture and then calls upon the audience to enter full time ministry. This can be called a “dramatic experience.” This experience is more commonly accepted as God’s way of making His will known to you through a preacher. But it requires continual verifications on your part to demonstrate what you perceive is not merely your subjective will but God’s will.
The other experience is your daily experience, that is your regular church life. When you commit yourself to Christ and have a passion for the Christian ministry, your life testimony will become a testimony before your church ministers and fellow church members. They can verify that you have certain spiritual gifts and are fit for full time ministry so that they can recommend you to study in the seminary. Furthermore, you should gladly and willingly minister to fellow Christians in the church and not for the sake of compensation. Unlike those who get frustrated or defeated in the marketplace, they would strive to gain a good sense of fulfillment in “serving the Lord diligently.” Those who are called by God will take pleasure to be equipped in the seminary as this will help them get ready for full time ministry because they have a passion for God’s ministry. This type of calling stands the test of time. Take myself as an example. It took me six years to go through the process from receiving God’s calling to actually going to study in the seminary. Throughout those six years, I had not forgotten God’s calling and I kept furthering my studies and serving God at church and elsewhere. When the time was ripe, I went to study in the seminary.
You should also talk with your church pastors and Christian elders, seeking further verifications. It is not only an individual’s business to study in the seminary but also that of the whole church as you are representing the whole church to study in the seminary.