God has Shown Me the Church, B. Z.

I was raised and saved in denominations in Hong Kong. Somehow I never asked myself why there were so many different churches and why they emphasized different things. “Church” to me was just the building. I came across the term “the Body of Christ” in the Bible and didn't really know what it meant until I came to the United States.

In the fall of 1985, I started going to college at UC Santa Cruz. I went to visit the pastor of a Baptist church nearby. I got the schedule of their Sunday's Service and I was planning to attend the following Sunday. Then something happened on that Saturday. My roommate and I missed the bus which was ahead of schedule. We felt pretty bummed out since we would have to wait for another hour at the bus stop. Luckily my roommate's friend was driving by and offered us a ride. Her friend, an American, started practicing his Chinese on me in the car. I was very curious and asked him where he learned his Chinese. He told me there were a lot of Chinese in his church. I asked if I could check it out.

It took me awhile to find the meeting hall of that church since it did not look like any church I had ever seen, nor did it have any obvious sign. And the way they conducted the meeting was totally different. There was no pastor and everybody was calling “O Lord Jesus” very sincerely and very loudly. As I got to know the members of that church, I found that they were genuine believers who loved the Lord. I even became roommates with one of the college age sisters who was also from Hong Kong. We were able to fellowship very often. I was totally amazed by how much truth she knew. I got more help from her speaking than I got from the pastor in Hong Kong. I started to read the books of Watchman Nee. That's when I started to realize that the Church is the Body of Christ which is constituted of all the believers. And due to practicality, there are churches in different localities. But there's only one Body of Christ in the universe. Since God is living, His Church is also living.

It is great to be saved. Yet it was such a revelation when I saw that I belonged to the Body of Christ that would become God's ultimate expression. I saw that I was a member of the Body and every member has a function in the Body (just like in our human body). I started attending the training of Witness Lee. I saw eventually that he was just a faithful servant of God like the apostle Paul. And I was much blessed by his ministry.

It's been 15 years since I started meeting with the local churches. There's no other place I'd rather be. Here God's leading and God's words are always fresh and new. Although I was only looking for a church, God showed me something more.